“Viking Blood conquers the Week 13 MVP Award!”

Week 13 MVP Award Winner –
Viking Blood (29 Points)

Viking Blood has once again conquered the entire club and carried off the Week 13 MVP Award as her spoil.  The key to her success on the (battle)field was being 1 of only 2 club members (along with My Wife Loves Jimmy G) to claim the difficult Triple Crown of Arz-Hou-Det.  In addition to getting those 7 Points, she also got both Games of the Week correct and the Double Stakes.  The end result is that Viking Blood is holding her sword up high as she has returned to the Top Five.  She is now a mere 16 Points away from 1st Place, which is not much considering there are still 5 weeks left of play.  In Week 13 alone, she got 12 Points closer to 1st Place.  Being that Viking Blood has won 2 the last 4 MVP Awards, she should be considered very dangerous and a genuine threat to win the club title and bring the trophy home to Hard Rock Stadium.  The Week 13 MVP Award Runner-Up was shared by Captain Jack Sparrow & Double-Double, who both scored 22 Points.  Everyone else in the club was actually under 20 Points last week.  The interesting thing about Captain Jack Sparrow & Double-Double is that last week they were tied in 6th Place.  And now they are still tied in 6th Place.  They were not able to move up into the Top Five because Viking Blood rowed past them from 9th Place to 5th Place.  Both Captain Jack Sparrow & Double-Double are huge SF 49ers fans and they were no doubt celebrating the huge win over the Eagles last week.  The current Top Five consists of #1 Drummer Boy (3 Weeks at #1), #2 Young Tuna (4 Points back), #3 Rad Dad (11 Points back), #4 Roadrunner (12 Points back), and new #5 Viking Blood (16 Points back).  The top four players remain unchanged from last week.  In fact, there was no movement in positions 1-4 and 10-18 in the Current Standings.  It’s no secret that I would like to see a brand new Club Champion every season including this one.  Out of the current eight highest ranked players in the club, four of them have won club titles before.  That list includes Drummer Boy, Rad Dad, Double-Double & Captain Jack Sparrow.  The four players who have not won are Young Tuna (rookie player), Roadrunner, Viking Blood, and Shaylene.  So it will be interesting to see who takes control down the stretch, as this is still a very wide-open race.  If a previous champion manages to repeat, then all credit to them for managing to repeat an extremely difficult feat.  If you look at the Current Standings, the eight highest ranked players are all kind of bunched together.  Then there is a gap, after which players ranked 9th-13th are all bunched together.  This is proving to be a very interesting race for #1, the Top Five, and the Top Ten.

The Super Bowl Tournament got started last week with two First Round matches.  In those matches, (8) Captain Jack Sparrow def. (9) Hoosier Daddy 22-10 and (9) Shaylene def. (8) The Rickster 16-10.  As you can see, both losing players only managed to put up a touchdown and field goal, which was not enough to advance.  I don’t like seeing Hoosier Daddy & The Rickster sent packing from the tournament so early, but there is some solace because both players have won it in the past.  Hoosier Daddy was our 2019 Super Bowl Champ and The Rickster was our 2020, 2010, 2006 & 2005 Super Bowl Champ.  This week, we have the exciting Wild Card Round, which features 8 great matches.  In Conference One, these include (8) Captain Jack Sparrow (4-6-1) at (1) Drummer Boy (8-2).  Drummer Boy is looking to avoid a major upset at the hands of Captain Jack Sparrow, who has momentum now after surviving the First Round and winning the MVP Award Runner-Up.  Next up, we have (7) Mr. T (3-6-1) at (2) MJD Hogg (6-4).  MJD Hogg wants to build upon his success after winning Division Two, while Mr. T is looking to rebound after struggling for most of this season.  The third match features (6) Bob Swerski (4-6) at (3) Double-Double (7-2-1).  Double-Double has won 6 straight Head to Head matches and is the hottest player in the club right now in that category.  Will he make it 7 straight or will Bob Swerski pull off a shocker and call in the health department to close Double-Double down?  The fourth match is (5) Fearless Tuna (4-5-1) at (4) Captain Insano (4-4-2).  Personally, I would love nothing more to survive into the Divisional Round, but Captain Insano is going to make that a very tough task.  Especially with his newfound ability to correctly pick Triple Jeopardy matches.  Moving on to Conference Two, the first match is (9) Shaylene (4-5-2) at (1) Rad Dad (7-3).  Rad Dad shouldn’t be fooled by Shaylene’s below .500 Head to Head record, as she is a Top Ten player in the standings.  I’m going to put this match on upset alert as Rad Dad begins his 2022 Super Bowl Champ title defense.  The second match is a battle of the girls with (7) Stinkerbell (4-5-1) at (2) Viking Blood (7-3).  Viking Blood is a heavy favorite in this match, having won Division Four, while Stinkerbell finished in 4th Place in that same division.  But you never know what will happen on game day.  Perhaps her recent visit to Nighthawk in New York will give Stinkerbell some inspiration.  The third match is (6) Roadrunner (4-5-1) at (3) My Wife Loves Jimmy G (5-4-1).  This match feels like a complete toss-up with two evenly-matched players.  I cannot give the edge to either player.  Finally, we have (5) Young Tuna (4-5-1) at (4) New York City Sewer Rat (5-5).  The edge should go to Young Tuna on the road.  However, NYC Sewer Rat has an unorthodox picking style which can wreak havoc.  For instance, last week he was the only player in the entire club to correctly pick GB on Sunday night and Jax on Monday night.  So if there are upsets in key games, Young Tuna better watch out.  Also be sure to check out Pro Bowl Team Weekly, as this the final week of that competition and there are two bye weeks on the line for the upcoming Pro Bowl Tournament.  The two featured match-ups include The Hulkamaniacs vs. Wild Animals (for #1 seed and guaranteed bye week) and Daddy & His Boys vs. Gridiron Guardians (for likely bye week unless first match ends in a tie).