Week 10 MVP Award Winner –
Fearless Tuna (27 Points)
One of the reasons I ended up bringing the club back after a five-year hiatus was being inspired during a family trip to American Samoa last year. During that trip, we would drive by the StarKist Tuna factory nearly every day and I would see a statue out front of Charlie the Tuna. Seeing the statue kept reminding me of the club and fun times that we all had, being that Charlie the Tuna has always been my club logo. Fast forward 11 months later and the club was restarted, but I (like many other club members) struggled a lot to shake off the rust after not making picks for a half decade. After getting MVP Award Runner-Ups in Weeks 4 and 5, I started to make better picks. But my breakthrough finally came this past week when I was able to claim the Week 10 MVP Award with 27 Points. In addition to getting all 3 Point Spread Games and both Games of the Week, I was 1 of only 4 players to correctly pick NYG over SF on Monday night (with the others being Hoosier Daddy, freespirit, and Badwater Nessie). On Club Chat, I had proclaimed before the games started that: “The tuna is swimming upstream this week, planning to pass a few other fish on the way.” And surprisingly, it turned to to be true. The Week 10 MVP Award Runner-Up was freespirit with 26 Points. She would have won the MVP Award had she not decided to bail on the 10-0 Autopicker and switch over to Carolina on Thursday night. But she is to be commended for making such outstanding picks last week. On the flip side in thinking about bad picks, a really bad pick was made last week by 10 club members when they picked NYJ with Triple Jeopardy. All these players took a -2 Points from their final score. In contrast, only 1 brilliant club member picked Buffalo with TJ and that was Bob Swerski. Along with all of this, the big story this week is the changing of the guard at the top. After enjoying 8 consecutive weeks at #1, Stinkerbell has finally been passed up by Double-Double. Double-Double continues to post strong weeks every single week, and last week was no exception. He now has a 1 Point lead in 1st Place, thanks to the Over/Under pick (Double-Double had Over and Stinkerbell had Under). Only 12 Points separate the #1 and #5 players, so suddenly the Club Championship is starting to look wide open. This week, Double-Double will look to solidify and extend his lead in 1st Place, while Stinkerbell will try to reclaim the top spot by returning to form and making some better picks. Stinkerbell proclaimed on Club Chat: “Congrats to Double. Great picks!! But don’t get use to my spot. I’m coming back!” 3rd Place player Captain Insano continues to pick very steadily. In fact, he was 1 of only 2 players in the club to correctly pick Tennessee over NE last week. Granted, the pick didn’t help him, but it just shows the kind of brilliant picks he is coming up with. Captain Insano realizes that you can’t just pick conservatively every single time. You have to take a risk every once in a while and hope that it pays off. This week we have a new member of the Top Five for this season, and that is #4 player Hoosier Daddy. Hoosier Daddy has been quiet but steady when it comes to making picks. And now he finds himself just 11 Points away from taking over 1st Place. That’s amazing after remembering that he debuted the season in 18th Place back in Week 1. In 5th Place we have The Rickster, who also is picking very consistently and is a real threat to become Club Champion once again.
Over in Head to Head Weekly, we have reached the final week of the regular season. All four division championships are on the line this week because nobody was able to clinch early. In Division One, we have a fierce showdown coming up between Hoosier Daddy and Fearless Tuna for the division title. Should these two players end up with a tie score and Rad Dad wins his match over Slick Chick, Rad Dad would claim the title. Also, Captain Jack Sparrow has one last opportunity to avoid a history-making winless season, but he needs to win his match (which is likely a preview match for the following week). In Division Two, it’s only appropriate that we have Double-Double and Stinkerbell squaring off for the division title. What a great match-up between the club’s top two players. You never know, these two players may end up battling it out somewhere in the Super Bowl Tournament as well, which will be getting started next week. In Division Three, The Rickster and freespirit will square off for the division title. freespirit is 1 of only 3 players in the club who hasn’t lost a match in their own division (with the others being Rad Dad and Stinkerbell). In Division Four, Captain Insano and Nighthawk will meet to decide the division title. Captain Insano and The Rickster both currently have 7-2 records, which is leading the league in Head to Head standings. After all the dust settles this week, the two players in each conference with the lowest records will meet in the First Round of the Super Bowl Tournament in Week 12. Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, the most interesting match was Daddy & His Boys def. Wild Animals 55-50. So, Wild Animals finally lost their second game. And Daddy & His Boys improved to 5-4 and are starting to play better together as a team. Let’s hope they can keep this up.