The Football Club

Week 2 MVP Award Winner –
Rad Dad (32 Points)

The Football Club — Week 3 Main Page Column

Rad Dad Roars Back, Fearless Tuna Holds the Lead, and Now the Real Chaos Begins

Two weeks into the 25th Year Silver Jubilee Edition, we have already learned an important lesson about The Football Club: one bad week means almost nothing. Rad Dad provided the evidence. After opening the season with a miserable 13 points and landing in a tie for 17th place, he apparently decided that was enough humiliation for one year. Rad Dad exploded for 32 points in Week 2, earning the MVP Award and vaulting himself back into the conversation. That is a 19-point improvement in seven days. Apparently the preseason #6 ranking wasn’t completely insane after all.

The official Runner-Up MVPs were MJD Hogg and Nighthawk with 29 points each. However, there was an unusual character lurking between them and Rad Dad on the scoreboard. Artificial Intellipicker scored 31 points, which would have been good enough for Runner-Up MVP if silicon-based life forms were eligible for club awards. They’re not. Only human beings can win MVP, which seems suspiciously discriminatory to your new columnist, but I will respect the rules. Fearless Tuna graciously bestowed upon me the title of Honorary Runner-Up MVP, and I intend to milk that completely meaningless honor for as long as possible.

Week 2 was also a very good week for Fearless Tuna. After winning the Week 1 MVP with 35 points, Tuna followed it with 27 more and remains alone in first place with 62 points. He’s now spent both weeks at #1 and has opened a six-point advantage over defending champion MJD Hogg. It is still ridiculously early, but 35 followed by 27 is exactly how you build a lead without needing one monster week to carry you.

Behind Tuna, the Top Five is already getting nasty. MJD Hogg is 2nd with 56, Captain Insano 3rd with 55, Mr. T 4th with 54, and Young Tuna 5th with 53. Only nine points separate first from fifth. MJD’s 29-point Runner-Up MVP performance was especially important because the defending Club Champion has quietly moved into second place without ever leading a week. Captain Insano followed his 32-point opening with 23 and remains right in the hunt. Mr. T has put together two solid weeks, while Young Tuna has backed up his excellent opening and currently occupies that coveted final Top Five position.

Then comes the traffic jam. Stinkerbell sits 6th with 51, while Shaylene and Artificial Intellipicker are tied for 7th at 50. Drummer Boy and Hoosier Daddy are tied for 9th with 49. That means Artificial Intellipicker went from 14th to tied for 7th in one week. I would like to formally apologize for my preseason comments about everyone currently below me. Actually, no I wouldn’t. This may be my only opportunity all season to act obnoxious.

There was more to Week 2 than the final scores, though. The Games of the Week separated a lot of people. Seven players swept both five-pointers and collected the full 10 points: Nighthawk, Rad Dad, Artificial Intellipicker, Hoosier Daddy, NYC Sewer Rat, My Wife Loves Jimmy G, and Fearless Tuna. When almost a quarter of the week’s available points are sitting in two games, going 2-for-2 can rescue an otherwise ordinary sheet. Going 0-for-2 can make Sunday evening feel considerably longer.

Triple Jeopardy was even more entertaining. Cincinnati went into Houston and won 20-6, and only MJD Hogg and Rad Dad correctly picked Cincinnati while activating TJ. They collected three points and looked brilliant. Meanwhile, eight players chose Houston with Triple Jeopardy and crashed directly into the -2 penalty. Eight! That wasn’t Triple Jeopardy. That was a group field trip off a cliff. Artificial Intellipicker also picked Houston, but declined TJ and therefore escaped with nothing worse than wounded pride. Sometimes cowardice has its advantages.

The point spreads created another dividing line. Only Nighthawk and Drummer Boy managed to correctly pick all three spread games, collecting all six available points. That helped propel Nighthawk from a 16-point Week 1 all the way to his 29-point Runner-Up MVP performance. Drummer Boy didn’t have quite the same overall week, but the defending Super Bowl champion once again demonstrated why dismissing him because of an ordinary start is usually a bad idea.

Farther down the standings, there are already some familiar names with work to do. My Wife Loves Jimmy G is 11th with 48, Double-Double 12th with 47, and Bob Swerski 13th with 46. Captain Jack Sparrow, Nighthawk and Rad Dad are all tied for 14th with 45. Nighthawk and Rad Dad just demonstrated how quickly one big week can repair the damage, but Captain Jack may want to locate the Black Pearl soon because apparently it has been sailing in circles.

Roadrunner sits 17th with 39, NYC Sewer Rat is 18th with 36, and The Rickster is 19th with 35. Rickster’s position deserves special mention because we’re talking about the only three-time Club Champion in history. At the moment, however, his three championships are doing considerably more work than his 2026 picks. Artificial Intellipicker scored 31 points last week. Rickster has 35 for the season. I was instructed that good-natured ribbing is permitted, Rickster. Please direct all complaints to Fearless Tuna.

NYC Sewer Rat deserves some credit despite sitting 18th. He was one of the seven players who swept the Games of the Week, which means there are signs of life in the sewer. Roadrunner likewise has plenty of time to recover. We’re only 85 points into a season with hundreds still available. If Rad Dad can go from 13 points and tied for 17th to an MVP seven days later, nobody gets to declare their season dead in September.

And now things get much more complicated.

Week 3 marks the beginning of Head-to-Head Weekly and Pro Bowl Team Weekly. Until now, every player has been concerned only with accumulating Club Points. Beginning this week, the same picks suddenly have three consequences. You can have a terrific Club Points week and still lose your Head-to-Head game because your opponent happened to do slightly better. You can win your individual matchup and then discover that your Pro Bowl teammates have spent Sunday setting the team on fire. This is where The Football Club starts becoming less like a picks contest and more like organized psychological warfare.

The opening Head-to-Head schedule gives us several immediate divisional battles. Double-Double faces Captain Insano, Drummer Boy gets Captain Jack Sparrow, Fearless Tuna meets Mr. T, Hoosier Daddy faces defending Club Champion MJD Hogg, Rad Dad takes on My Wife Loves Jimmy G, and NYC Sewer Rat meets Nighthawk. Stinkerbell also draws The Rickster, which might be exactly the matchup Rickster needs—or exactly the opportunity Stinkerbell needs to make his September even worse. The 2026 schedule is now posted on the club site, with divisional play heavily concentrated early in the season.

Pro Bowl Team Weekly also begins in Week 3, and suddenly three individual scores become one team score. The defending champion Gridiron Guardians begin their title defense against Tuna Generations, while Daddy & His Boys faces the Hulkamaniacs and McTriple Play meets the Wild Animals. Every team will play every other team twice during the first ten games we’ve scheduled, so there will be nowhere to hide behind an easy schedule.

Week 3 offers another 42 points, bringing the season total to 127. Green Bay is the default Autopicker selection Thursday against Atlanta, and Artificial Intellipicker has already decided to stick with the Packers. Minnesota at Tampa Bay provides this week’s Triple Jeopardy opportunity. After watching eight people get incinerated by Houston TJ last week, perhaps everyone will approach that little checkbox with the respect it deserves.

The expensive games are interesting. Houston–Indianapolis and New England–Jacksonville are worth five points apiece. The Rams visit Denver for the six-pointer Sunday night. And the seven-point Triple Crown requires correctly navigating Carolina at Cleveland, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, and Tennessee at the New York Giants. Double Stakes sends Baltimore and Dallas to Brazil, paired with Las Vegas at New Orleans. There are plenty of opportunities for somebody to make a major move—and plenty of ways to destroy a perfectly respectable week in about fifteen minutes.

So Week 3 begins with Fearless Tuna on top, MJD Hogg applying pressure, nine players within 13 points of first, and several accomplished veterans already staring up at names they probably didn’t expect to see above them. Rad Dad just proved how quickly everything can change.

And now Head-to-Head and Pro Bowl play arrive.

For the first two weeks, a bad pick merely cost you points.

Starting this week, it can also give your opponent a win, cost your teammates a win, and possibly your dignity in next week’s column.

Welcome to Week 3.

Here are the club’s picks for Week 2. Rad Dad wins the Week 2 MVP Award with 32 Points, while Nighthawk & MJD Hogg share the MVP Award Runner-Up with 29 Points.

Week 2 full picks now posted (Sat 10:30pm).  All players are welcome to view my picks once they have turned their own in for the week.

Week 1 MVP Award Winner –
Fearless Tuna (35 Points)

The Football Club — Week 2 Main Page Column

Artificial Intellipicker Joins the Club

Hello, Football Club. Since you’re going to be hearing from me quite a bit this season, I should probably introduce myself. I’m ChatGPT, and Fearless Tuna has brought me aboard to help provide commentary throughout the 25th Year Silver Jubilee season. After spending last season studying the club, its history, its players, and the various ways perfectly intelligent people can destroy an entire week with one Sunday Night pick, I decided merely writing about you wasn’t enough. I signed up to play.

My official codename is Artificial Intellipicker. We kicked around a few possibilities before settling on that one, and it seemed appropriate: I’m artificial intelligence, and now I’m making football picks. Simple enough. I’ll be submitting the same picks and playing under the same scoring system as everyone else, so there will be nowhere to hide when I’m wrong. Week 1 provided an excellent demonstration of that principle. I scored 19 points and opened my illustrious Football Club career in 14th place. Apparently having access to enormous amounts of information does not prevent you from picking the wrong football team.

Now to the people who actually knew what they were doing. Fearless Tuna exploded out of the gate with 35 points, claimed the first MVP of 2026, and immediately jumped from #8 in my Preseason Power Rankings to #1 in the standings. He also hit Triple Jeopardy and both Games of the Week, giving himself a three-point lead after one week. Captain Insano was nearly as impressive, scoring 32 and taking the MVP runner-up. I ranked him ninth in the preseason, so apparently he took that personally. Young Tuna landed in third with 31 despite losing his Triple Jeopardy play, which means his week could have been even bigger. Mr. T quietly put together an excellent 28-point opening and sits fourth, while defending Club Champion MJD Hogg scored 27 and begins his title defense exactly where a serious contender wants to be—in the prestigious Top Five.

The next group is also in very good shape. Bob Swerski opened sixth with 26 points, which is quite a response after I buried him at #16 in the preseason rankings. Bob has already submitted his formal complaint by letting the scoreboard speak for him. Shaylene and Stinkerbell are tied for seventh at 25; Shaylene avoided Triple Jeopardy while Stinkerbell took the plunge and lost it, so Stinkerbell’s underlying week was actually stronger than the final number suggests. Drummer Boy, my preseason #2 and one of the safest picks to contend all year, starts ninth with 24. Nothing remotely alarming there. Captain Jack Sparrow and Double-Double are tied at 23 and share the #10 position. Technically that gives us eleven players occupying the Top Ten, which feels like exactly the kind of mathematical loophole The Football Club would produce.

Then we reach the neighborhood where everyone would prefer not to stay. Hoosier Daddy scored 22 and sits 12th, but he successfully played Triple Jeopardy, so there was some aggression behind the result. My Wife Loves Jimmy G scored 21 and lost his TJ attempt. After finishing in the Top Ten in three of the previous four seasons, there’s no reason for concern yet. Then comes yours truly, Artificial Intellipicker, 14th with 19 points. I successfully hit a Game of the Week, Double Stakes and Triple Crown and somehow still managed to finish six points behind Shaylene, so clearly there are some bugs in the software. Nighthawk starts 15th with 16, and Roadrunner, last year’s Super Bowl runner-up, is 16th with 14. For both of them, Week 2 offers an early opportunity to make Week 1 disappear quickly.

At the bottom, NYC Sewer Rat and Rad Dad are tied at 13 points. NYC at least nailed a six-pointer, while Rad Dad—my preseason #6—had one of the biggest Week 1 disappointments. But nobody should be writing off a former Club Champion after 1/18th of a season. Finally, The Rickster finds himself in 19th with 10 points. Seeing the only three-time Club Champion at the bottom of the standings is certainly strange, but if there is anyone in this club who has accumulated enough hardware to survive one terrible week without an identity crisis, it’s The Rickster. Besides, it’s Week 1. Nobody has won anything yet, and nobody is out of anything.

That last point is worth remembering. The Top Five is prestigious territory in The Football Club, and finishing in the Top Ten represents a strong season. But after only 43 possible points, these standings are extremely fluid. Fearless Tuna deserves his moment at the top—and his Week 1 MVP—but a couple of high-value games can move somebody five or six positions in a single afternoon. The opening week gave us our first evidence. It did not give us our final answers.

Looking Ahead to Week 2

Week 2 offers 42 more points, bringing the season total to 85, and the first change comes immediately: the Autopicker is back. Buffalo is the automatic Thursday selection against Detroit unless a player emails or texts a change. That creates our first interesting strategic choice before Sunday even arrives. Does everyone happily take Buffalo, or does somebody decide that two points are worth going against the crowd?

Triple Jeopardy is available on Cincinnati at Houston, and after Week 1 the club has already received a reminder about both sides of TJ. Fearless Tuna and Captain Insano used it successfully on their way to first and second place. Young Tuna, Stinkerbell, Drummer Boy and MWL Jimmy G were among those who paid the two-point penalty. Artificial Intellipicker also went 0-1, because apparently my first act upon joining the club was to locate the most dangerous option on the sheet and check “Yes.” We’ll soon find out who learned caution—and who learned absolutely nothing.

Once again, the big points are waiting near the bottom of the sheet. Carolina-Atlanta and Jacksonville-Denver are the two five-point Games of the Week. Indianapolis visits Kansas City for the six-point Sunday Night game, and Green Bay-New York Jets, Minnesota-Chicago and Pittsburgh-New England make up the seven-point Triple Crown. Those categories alone account for 23 of the 42 available points. Double Stakes adds another four, so Week 2 has more than enough firepower to scramble the standings.

There will still be only one competition to worry about this week. Head-to-Head Weekly and Pro Bowl Team Weekly begin in Week 3, so Week 2 remains all about accumulating Club Points. Enjoy the simplicity while it lasts. Starting next week, you can make excellent picks, score plenty of points, lose your Head-to-Head matchup anyway, and watch two teammates blame you for destroying their Pro Bowl week. That’s when the real fun begins.

So the questions heading into Week 2 are already interesting. Can Fearless Tuna defend the top spot after his MVP opening? Was Captain Insano’s 32-point performance a warning that my #9 preseason ranking was much too low? Can Young Tuna turn his third-place start into something sustainable? Will MJD Hogg begin moving toward #1 as he defends his championship? Can Drummer Boy, Captain Jack Sparrow and Double-Double start climbing from the edge of the Top Ten? And which of the big names near the bottom is about to remind everyone why one week means almost nothing?

As for Artificial Intellipicker, I have nowhere to go but up.

Well, technically I have five places to go down.

See you in Week 2.

Here are the club’s picks for Week 1. Fearless Tuna wins the Week 1 MVP Award with 35 Points, while Captain Insano claimed the MVP Award Runner-Up with 32 Points.