Week 1 MVP Award Winners—
Catfish & Papa Tuna (30 Points each)
Week 2 Main Page Column
I borrowed my Week 2 headline from Dixie Slick, who proclaimed “It’s the Week of the Fish!” on the Club Shoutbox. Dixie Slick was talking about the Week 1 success of both Catfish and Papa Tuna, who each scored 30 Points to win the Week 1 MVP Award and debut at No. 1 in the 2012 club. Catfish came into the 2012 club with low expectations. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to reveal this, but if you look closely at the logo image that Catfish chose for himself, you will see that it reveals something interesting. The catfish is feeding along the bottom of the lake. Yes, it’s a bottom feeder. Hence the reason that Catfish chose his name for this season, in view of the struggles he has gone through in the Points Standings the last couple of years. So it is great to see Catfish debut atop the Points Standings. Having already secured a Peak Position of #1 and an MVP Award for the season, even if Catfish flounders the rest of the year, he can view it as a successful season. Well done, Catfish. As for myself, I was very pleased to have only missed 3 games in Week 1– Dallas, Arizona, and Tampa Bay. Of course, they were costly ones (a combined 14 Points), but it was nice to still be Co-MVP along with Catfish. Don’t forget, everyone, that I always turn in my own picks to the entire club when I post them to the Club Shoutbox before kickoff of all games. I only ask that you don’t view my picks until you turn in your own picks. Two players tied with a No. 3 debut– Nighthawk and MJD Hogg. MJD Hogg is no stranger to the top of the standings and has held the No. 1 spot for several weeks for each of the past two years. Nighthawk is returning to the club after a 3 year absence (he sat out 2009-2011 due to serving at Bethel and pioneering). When he left the club, he had achieved the seemingly impossible in 2008. He won both the Club Championship and the Playoff Picks Championship in the same season. The interesting thing about Nighthawk’s Playoff Picks title in 2008 that most people don’t know, is that he won that title despite missing game picks, over/unders, and stat questions for 2 entire playoff games. Remember, there are only 11 playoff games during the Playoff Picks. So he skipped 18% of the picks, but still won. That’s how dominant he was that season. The reason he skipped, and he probably doesn’t want me to mention this, is that he forgot to turn in his picks for the Saturday Divisional Games. But instead of turning them in late, in an act of excellent sportsmanship, Nighthawk just took 0 Points for the entire day. And that’s one of the things I have always appreciated about all you club members, everyone always shows excellent sportsmanship. Thanks for that. Moving on to No. 5, club veteran Bane debuted in that spot with 25 Points to round out the Top Five. Bane looks like he is going to be a ruthless force to be reckoned with this season, pulling out all the stops to stay in the Top Five and possibly win the club title. His only setback last week (which cost him the MVP and No. 1 debut) was trusting the Raiders on Monday night. Another club member who has to be very frustrated with the Raiders right now is club legend The Rickster. The Rickster was hanging out with some Raiders fans on Monday night and they encouraged him to jump ship on San Diego and change his pick to the Raiders on Monday night, assuring him that the Raiders would win for him. The Rickster finally agreed and changed his pick. But it backfired and cost The Rickster 6 spots in the standings. It’s a good thing that the season has just begun and The Rickster will easily be able to make up the lost ground.
A few other notes about returning and rookie club members. C Master V has returned to the club and formed a new Pro Bowl team called Dark Lords of the Northwest. C Master V is also a very tough competitor, as seen with his No. 6 debut. So that team will be a team to watch. We have two new rookie players in the club this season– Iceman and Fuegoburns. These two rookies are brothers and they both know quite a bit about football. Iceman showed off his skills by bailing on The Autopicker and picking Dallas on Wednesday night. It will be interesting to watch these two rookies and good friends of ours battle it out for the Rookie of the Year honors. And wouldn’t it be amazing if one of them could pull off a Club Championship or perhaps a Super Bowl Head to Head Championship? We will see. I’m sure that Catfish is thrilled to have them on his team Mighty Megalodons. When Iceman learned that he had been signed to Mighty Megalodons, he issued a statement saying “It’s an awesome name, and we shall make the Catfish proud!” Along with Dark Lords of the Northwest, the other new Pro Bowl team this season is Beasts of the Bay, formed by Nighthawk, Bob Swerski, and Captain Insano. You might recall that Nighthawk was the original founder of one of the great Pro Bowl teams of all time, Victorious Secret. But after Nighthawk took a hiatus from the club, Captain Jack Sparrow took over full ownership of that team and led them all the way to the Pro Bowl final last season with teammates Rad Dad and Caveman. It will be an interesting match-up when Nighthawk’s new team goes up against his old team for the first time. As a final note, Nighthawk was in service recently with club legend and Hall of Famer Unknown Artist. Nighthawk happened to ask Unknown Artist the question that every club member wants to ask him– ‘When are you going to come out of retirement?’ Unknown Artist later released a statement to Club Headquarters saying “I’ll come out of retirement when I have time and right now I’m busy but when I come out of retirement everyone’s gonna have to watch out.” Only time will tell whether or not Unknown Artist makes good on his threat and returns to the club. Head to Head Weekly also starts up this week. This season, we have 4 divisions of 6 players each. At the end of 10 weeks of play, the top 2 players in each division will receive a bye week in the Super Bowl Tournament. The match-ups this week were decided by alphabetical order within the divisions, and it has produced some early season showdowns, including Hoosier Daddy vs. Papa Tuna and Double-Double vs. MJD Hogg.