Week 15 MVP Award Winners –
Stinkerbell & Young Tuna (32 Points)
Stinkerbell and Young Tuna both scored 32 Points last week to share the Week 15 MVP Award. For Stinkerbell, winning the MVP has been a season highlight that has been a long time coming. Last season, she played outstanding (as usual) by holding 1 Week at #1 and finishing in 6th Place, a mere 6 Points away from the Top Five. This season, after peaking at #7 back in Week 4, she has struggled a bit. But there is nothing like finishing strong, and taking home an MVP Award is a great way to do just that. After returning from New York where she visited Nighthawk, baby Hazel, and baby Clay, perhaps Nighthawk gave her a coaching pep talk to help her get back to making great picks once again. For Young Tuna, this MVP came when it was needed the most. During 4 of the last 5 weeks, he had scored a mere 15 Points or less. That included weeks when he only got 10, 14, 15, and 12 Points. He was still swimming near the top of the standings thanks to his huge reserve of Points which were canned earlier in the season, but eventually those waters get fished out and there aren’t enough Points left to stay afloat. Young Tuna padded his great week when he made a rare last second switch to Under on Monday night. Usually I don’t ever recommend last second switches, as they almost always backfire on players (including myself). But this one paid off and helped Young Tuna reel in a share of the MVP Award. The Week 15 MVP Award Runner-Up is Viking Blood, who scored 31 Points. She is making absolutely dominant picks right now and playing lights out. It was just 2 weeks ago when she took home the Week 13 MVP Award. And now she has an MVP Award Runner-Up and stands only 1 Point outside of the Top Five and 17 Points away from 1st Place. With 3 weeks left in the season, she remains a genuine threat to win the club title. The current Top Five consists of #1 Drummer Boy (5 Weeks at #1), back at #2 Young Tuna (8 Points back), #3 Captain Jack Sparrow (12 Points back), #4 Double-Double (15 Points back), and #5 Rad Dad (16 Points back). As you can see, top player Drummer Boy continues to hold on strong. Last week, he posted a solid showing of 27 Points. He’s not leaving a lot of room for challengers down the standings to catch up. That being said, I still feel like any players from 2nd through 8th have a legitimate shot to pass him and win it all before the end of the season. But it is going to take a couple weeks of outstanding picks on their part and for Drummer Boy to fall off beat just a little bit and lose his timing.
The Divisional Round of the Super Bowl Tournament took place last week and we had some interesting results. In the first match, (8) Captain Jack Sparrow def. (3) Double-Double 27-18. Captain Jack thus made Double-Double walk the plank as Jack ended his 7 game winning streak. In the second match, (5) Fearless Tuna def. (7) Mr. T 30-29. This was a match that was settled by the Over/Under on Monday night. Both players were tied going into the game and both had Philadelphia. But Tuna prevailed over his neighbor when Seattle and Philly combined for only 37 Points resulting in Under. In the third match, (2) Viking Blood def. (9) Shaylene 31-16. Viking Blood thus continues her run and is the highest ranked player left in the tournament. And in the fourth and final match, (3) My Wife Loves Jimmy G def. (4) New York City Sewer Rat 28-11. This match wasn’t even close, as My Wife Loves defeated Sewer Rat by 2 TDs and 1 field goal to advance. And that leaves us with our final four players battling it out in the Conference Round this week. Let’s get to a preview of the two matches. The Conference One final is (8) Captain Jack Sparrow (6-6-1) at (5) Fearless Tuna (6-5-1). Captain Jack Sparrow currently has huge momentum as we look back on what he has accomplished over the last three weeks. First, he survived playing in the dreaded First Round and won his match by 12 Points. Then he moved on to the Wild Card Round and knocked off #1 seed Drummer Boy in a shocking upset. And finally, he ended the longest Head to Head winning streak in the league with a decisive victory over fellow 49ers fan Double-Double. Fearless Tuna, on the other hand, survived a couple of close matches that could have gone either way. Weighing all the factors, I would have to establish Captain Jack Sparrow as a 2 Point favorite in this match, particularly because he has the experience and has won the tournament before. However, back in Week 7 they met and Fearless Tuna def. Captain Jack Sparrow 11-6 in a defensive struggle. The Conference Two final is (3) My Wife Loves Jimmy G (7-4-1) at (2) Viking Blood (8-3-1). Both of these two players are deserving of being in this spot. In fact, whoever wins it will be strongly favored to win it all in the Super Bowl match in Week 16. In this match, I would establish Viking Blood as a 1 Point favorite. Only because she is our last remaining division champion. Over the past couple of weeks, Viking Blood has knocked out the other 2 girl players in the club. And now it is time to face the one of the boys. It will be exciting to see who survives this clash of the #2 and #3 seeds and makes it to the Super Bowl.
The First Round of the Pro Bowl Tournament took place last week. In the first match, (6) The Volcanoes def. (3) The Hulkamaniacs 81-54. As you can see, this match wasn’t even close as The Volcanoes exploded and won by 27 Points. The Volcanoes were actually named for the volcanoes of Iceland in behalf of team captain Viking Blood. So it is interesting that on the same day that a new volcano actually erupted in Iceland, teammate Stinkerbell erupted with 32 Points and team captain Viking Blood erupted with 31 Points to lead their team to victory. In the second match, (4) Tuna Generations def. (5) Daddy & His Boys 78-71. This has to be very disappointing no doubt for Daddy & His Boys as their stated objective at the beginning of the season was to do well in the Pro Bowl Tournament. But instead of enjoying success, they were knocked out by the same team who beat them in the Pro Bowl Final last season. The result of this match will likely deepen the rivalry between Young Tuna of Tuna Generations and Drummer Boy of Daddy & His Boys as they battle for the top of the standings. At least in this competition, Young Tuna ended up getting the better of Drummer Boy. But that could give Drummer Boy even stronger motivation to win the club title and surpass Young Tuna there. And that brings us to the Final Four matches of the tournament. In the first match, we have (6) The Volcanoes (4-9) at (1) Wild Animals (7-4-1). At first glance, it wouldn’t appear that The Volcanoes have much of a chance. However, they have two things going for them. First, just two weeks ago The Volcanoes def. Wild Animals 53-50. Second, the volcano is still erupting in Iceland. If it continues to erupt, that might provide inspiration for The Volcanoes to erupt with another huge amount of Points. But Wild Animals are very dangerous. They are one of longest tenured teams in Pro Bowl team play and they are the #1 seed this season (as they often are in the tournament). Just two years ago in 2021 they won their unmatched fourth team championship. With that in mind, I would have to establish Wild Animals as 7 Point favorites in this one. In the second match, we have (4) Tuna Generations (7-6) at (2) Gridiron Guardians (7-5). This is a match pitting our 2022 and 2020 Pro Bowl championship teams against one another. The edge has to go to Gridiron Guardians and I will establish them as 3 Point favorites. This is because Gridiron Guardians currently have a league leading four game winning streak going and they are the #2 seed this season. An interesting aspect to this match is that Fearless Tuna of Tuna Generations and Captain Jack Sparrow of Gridiron Guardians are also battling in the Super Bowl Tournament at the same time that their two teams are battling in the Pro Bowl Tournament. Something’s got to give and someone (along with someone’s team) has to walk the plank. Will the Gridiron Guardians sail off into the sunset of getting to the Pro Bowl final with a victory? Or will Tuna Generations swamp Guardian’s ship the Black Pearl and sink it to the bottom of the tournament? We will soon find out.