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Week 14 full picks now posted (Sun 9:00am).  All players are welcome to view my picks once they have turned their own in for the week.

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).

Here are the club’s picks for Week 13. Viking Blood wins the Week 13 MVP Award with 29 Points, while Captain Jack Sparrow & Double-Double share the MVP Award Runner-Up with 22 Points.

Week 13 full picks now posted (Sat 8:30pm).  All players are welcome to view my picks once they have turned their own in for the week.

Week 12 MVP Award Winner –
Rad Dad (29 Points)

Rad Dad has entered title contention once again by scoring 29 Points to win the Week 12 MVP Award.  As our defending 2022 Club Champion, Rad Dad started off the season much as he did last year, with a bit of struggle.  Last season, Rad Dad found himself in 13th Place at the end of Week 3.  This season, he was in 13th Place at the end of Week 4.  So things were not looking good early in the season.  But Rad Dad has shown that he picks up momentum as the season goes along and is a much better second-half player, which is when it really counts.  Keep in mind that nobody has ever repeated as Club Champion and won the title in back-to-back seasons.  Drummer Boy’s incredible run during 2021 and the first half of 2022 was the closest we have ever seen anyone come to repeating.  But with the pressure of 17 other players chasing you down, all past champions have crumbled and failed to repeat.  Rad Dad is trying to reverse that trend and change history, but we still have a long ways to go with 6 full weeks left in the season.  The Week 12 MVP Award Runner-Up was shared by Stinkerbell and Young Tuna, who both scored 28 Points.  For Stinkerbell, she is currently on a trip to New York.  And when she turned in her picks, she mentioned that this was the fastest she has ever completed them.  That goes to show that sometimes you can overthink your picks.  I think retired club legend The Cat was someone who did that.  The Cat once told me that he spent more time on his picks than studying his WT (which is something I strongly do not advise doing).  Young Tuna is someone who never overthinks his picks.  He usually fills them out and submits them to me in an average of 5 minutes.  In fact, as I’m writing this column he just handed me his completed Week 13 picks.  For Young Tuna, he really needed this huge week to get himself reestablished as a serious contender.  I have much more anxiety about his picks instead of my own.  In fact, I find myself to be more happy when he gets his games right rather than me getting mine.  A lot of times we do not agree on key games and he is usually the one who gets them right.  The November Player of the Month Award winner is none other than Drummer Boy.  His 2 MVP Awards and rise to the top of the charts showed that he clearly deserved the honor.  Well done on your success, Drummer Boy!  You made some outstanding picks in November that really paid off.  The Current Top Five consists of #1 Drummer Boy (2 Weeks at #1), #2 Young Tuna (1 Point back), #3 Rad Dad (8 Points back), #4 Roadrunner (13 Points back), and #5 Shaylene (22 Points back).  Also, there are currently only 9 Points separating the 10th Place player from the 5th Place player.  So a secondary battle is taking place between players trying their hardest to get into (and stay) in the prestigious Top Five.  In another development, Triple Jeopardy legend Captain Insano made his return to picking TJ last week for the first time this season and was successful.  I’m still waiting for Mr. T to make another attempt this season at picking TJ so he can remove his winless 0-6 record.  Will he attempt it this week and pick against my NY Jets?

Head to Head Weekly wrapped up last week and we now have our four Division Champions.  They are: Drummer Boy (8-2) (Division One Champion), MJD Hogg (6-4) (Division Two Champion), Rad Dad (7-3) (Division Three Champion), and Viking Blood (7-3) (Division Four Champion).  Congratulations to these four outstanding Head to Head players who had great success and showed their skill over the past 10 games.  But now, the real competition begins.  The 2023 Super Bowl Tournament begins this week with the dreaded First Round.  Our two First Round matches will be (9) Hoosier Daddy (2-8) at (8) Captain Jack Sparrow (3-6-1) and (9) Shaylene (3-5-2) at (8) The Rickster (4-6).  Two of these four players will be eliminated and not survive to play in the Wild Card Round which starts in Week 14.  Nobody ever wants to be sent packing in the First Round, so I’m sure all four players will bring their A-game this week.