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“Fearless Tuna Swims Into 3rd Place!”

Week 14 MVP Award Winner –
Fearless Tuna (27 Points)

In an e-mail to club #1 player Stinkerbell last week, I told her: “I’m only 19 Points behind you now! Although that is like a whole week’s worth of points I’m not giving up.”  Usually, being 19 Points behind somebody is nothing to be happy about, but I’ve been picking well lately.  Two weeks ago, I managed to correctly pick LA Chargers over Pittsburgh.  And last week, I correctly picked Cleveland over Carolina and was 1 of 5 players to claim both Games of the Week.  That helped me to score 27 Points and take home the Week 14 MVP Award.  The MVP week propelled me into a tie for 3rd Place with Rad Dad, with both of us now being 11 Points out of 1st Place.  This is Year Seventeen of The Football Club and I have yet to win a Club Championship.  And that’s actually fine, because I’m not sure how I would feel about winning my own competition.  I did have one idea about what I would do if that happened, but that still seems highly unlikely at this point.  Even so, I’m going to keep trying my best over these final three weeks.  The Week 14 MVP Award Runner-Up was a tie between Nighthawk and Slick Chick, who both scored 25 Points.  Slick Chick seemed to be a little down over her frustrating season when she stated over on Club chat: “ Happy sails and trails to all as Slick Chick fades into the sunset“.  But interim coach Captain Jack Sparrow responded with a friendly pep talk: “There is no crying or failing in our club. We are all winners in the end as we always have each other. It's been my honor do battle with you all as we make it fun and keep our integrity.”  After getting the coaching encouragement, Slick Chick responded by having an outstanding week.  Similarly, Nighthawk has been struggling quite a bit this season, at least in the Points Standings.  He also stepped up and had a great week as well.  Well done, Slick Chick and Nighthawk.  In looking at the current Top Five, #1 player Stinkerbell continues to maintain her lead, but it has now shrunk down to 5 Points.  In her e-mail to turn in her picks this week, Stinkerbell said: “Bob Swerski and I are lounging around in Cancun.  Even if I don’t have a good week. I won’t care.”  While she was enjoying her margaritas and seafood, she did do well enough to score 19 Points on the week.  However, if she wants to secure the club title (which is well-deserved after logging 12 Weeks at #1 so far), she is going to need to step up and deliver some outstanding picks and have a monster week soon.  She really needs to win another MVP Award if she can.  #2 player Double-Double was able to get 2 Points closer to overtaking Stinkerbell last week.  I guess great minds think alike because those two had mostly the same picks last week, with the exception of two of the Point Spread Games and one player selecting Triple Jeopardy.  However, now Stinkerbell and Double-Double are not only battling each other, but they have to worry about co-#3 players Fearless Tuna and Rad Dad.  Also, The Cat is sitting comfortably at #5, ready to pounce at the first opportunity.  He is now only 14 Points away from 1st Place himself.  Any of these five players, or even perhaps the 6th Place player Captain Jack Sparrow and the co-#7 players Captain Insano and The Rickster, have the potential to win it all.

Moving on to the Super Bowl Tournament, we had four Divisional Round matches last week.  One match was close, while three of the matches were all won easily by a touchdown.  Let’s run through the matches one-by-one.  In the closest match, (3) Bob Swerski def. (9) Captain Jack Sparrow 21-19.  And with that, Captain Jack Sparrow’s dream run through the tournament came to an abrupt end.  Bob Swerski previously won the Super Bowl title in 2009, so he knows how to make big picks at just the right time to beat his opponents.  In this case, the match really came down to a critical mistake that Captain Jack made when he picked Wash with TJ.  That fumble proved to be too difficult to recover from and Bob Swerski was able to advance.  In the other Conference One match, (5) Rad Dad def. (7) MJD Hogg 20-13.  The main difference in this match was Rad Dad getting one Game of the Week with Detroit, while MJD threw an interception by missing both Games of the Week.  Even so, MJD Hogg had a nice run to the Divisional Round.  Moving over to Conference Two, (1) The Rickster def. (7) Drummer Boy 21-14 in the first match.  The Rickster is the highest seed left in this tournament and he is a 3-time Super Bowl champion as he raised the trophy in 2005,  2006, and 2010.  That makes him the clear favorite to win this tournament.  The Rickster was leading Drummer Boy 15-14 going into Monday night, but Drummer Boy happened to have picked Minnesota.  (Keep in mind that no players have access to view another player’s picks, so Drummer Boy had already picked Minnesota when he first turned in his picks.)  But Minnesota lost the game and thus The Rickster cruised to victory.  In the final match, (3) Nighthawk def. (5) The Cat 25-18.  This match was decided mainly by the Detroit-Arizona Game of the Week.  The Cat had Arizona, while Nighthawk had Detroit.  The Lions victory helped Nighthawk win the match and advance to the next round.  While Nighthawk did win a Club Championship in 2008, he has never won a Super Bowl Championship.  So you’d better believe he will do everything he can to win this tournament.  And thus, our Conference Round matches are set with four players left.  We have (5) Rad Dad (6-3-3) at (3) Bob Swerski (8-4) and (3) Nighthawk (8-3-1) at (1) The Rickster (10-2).  These are going to be two absolutely fierce battles.  Which two players will win and advance next week to the Super Bowl Final?  Will it be an all-Glen Ellen final with Rad Dad vs. The Rickster?  Or could it be an all-family final with Bob Swerksi vs. his son Nighthawk?  We will find out next week.

The Pro Bowl Tournament got under way last week and we had two very closely contested First Round matches.  In the first match, (3) Transformers def. (6) The Mega Powers 71-67.  I was sad to see my own team get eliminated in a 4 point loss, but congratulations to Transformers on advancing to yet another Final Four.  They are such a good team.  In the other match, (4) McTriple Play def. (5) The Black Pearl 65-62 by a field goal.  The Black Pearl put up a valiant fight, but they just didn’t have enough firepower this season to avoid getting sunk in the First Round.  And with that, the Final Four of the Pro Bowl Tournament is now set with all four top seeds advancing and doing battle next week.  These are going to be two really good matches to watch.

 

“Badwater Nessie Surfaces Again! (Wk 14)

Week 13 MVP Award Winner –
Badwater Nessie (31 Points)

Badwater Nessie surfaced again during Week 13 by posting 31 Points and winning the Week 13 MVP Award.  This was the second highest score of the year during a season in which high scores have been hard to come by.  Badwater Nessie accomplished this by picking TB with TJ, correctly picking the difficult Double Stakes of NYG-Hou, getting both Games of the Week correct with Balt and Den, and picking LAC on Sunday night.  That’s quite a resume for Week 13, especially when so many club members struggled.  12 out of 18 club members picked Carolina with TJ and had to take -2 Points from their final scores.  This had disastrous consequences for some players, especially within the Super Bowl Tournament.  The Autopicker was finally wrong on the Thursday night game and dropped to 11-1 with the incorrect pick of New Orleans.  The only player to switch over to Dallas and claim the 2 Points was MJD Hogg.  That was a great pick by MJD, who was also the only other player besides Badwater Nessie to win the challenging Double Stakes with the NYG upset of Chicago.  Along with Badwater Nessie, three other players correctly picked LAC over Pit on Sunday Night: Fearless Tuna, Bob Swerski, and The Cat.  Speaking of Bob Swerksi, he scored 30 Points to win the Week 13 MVP Award Runner-Up.  Had he not selected TJ with his pick of Carolina, he would have been the MVP.  The worst TJ pickers in the club this season are The Cat (3-7), Captain Insano (0-4), and freespirit (0-3).  These players are to be commended for taking a risk, but unfortunately it has not paid off for them.  The best TJ picker this season has been Badwater Nessie (8-3).  He has gained 10 bonus Points by being correct 5 more times than he was wrong.  The race for #1 and Club Champion is heating up as we reach the final stretch of the season.  Current #1 player Stinkerbell is enjoying a 7 Point lead, but she is going to face intense pressure like she has never experienced during these next four weeks.  All players within the Top Five are 19 Points or less behind her, and all are within striking distance to raise the season-ending trophy.  #2 player Double-Double maintained his standing right behind Stinkerbell.  #3 Rad Dad and #4 The Cat are only separated by a single Point between them.  And tied for #5 are Captain Jack Sparrow and Fearless Tuna, our two 2018 cancer survivors.

The Super Bowl Tournament‘s Wild Card Round last week was truly wild, with upsets taking place all across the board.  In Conference One, three of the top four seeds were knocked out in major upsets.  In Conference Two, two of the top four seeds were also eliminated.  Let me share a brief recap of the matches.  (9) Captain Jack Sparrow def. (1) Hoosier Daddy 24-14 in a monumental upset.  Despite going winless during the Head to Head regular season at 0-9-1, Captain Jack is absolutely on fire and has won two straight matches.  Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to face him right now.  (7) MJD Hogg def. (2) Stinkerbell 24-21 in a huge shocker as the Last Place player (as of Week 13) in the club defeated the 1st Place player.  MJD Hogg took an early lead when he won the Dallas game and got 2 Points.  Stinkerbell then scored what we might call an own-goal when she picked TJ for the first time this entire season and lost 2 Points from her final score, thus helping to secure the win for MJD.  (3) Bob Swerski def. (6) Fearless Tuna 30-25 in a match that showed how unfair the Super Bowl Tournament can be.  These two players had the two highest scores of anyone playing in the tournament, yet Fearless Tuna lost because he was playing against the only opponent who could have beaten him.  (5) Rad Dad def. (4) Double-Double 22-20 in the only match which came down to the Monday night game.  Rad Dad had Under and Double-Double had Over.  Whoever got it right was going to win and that’s how Rad Dad advanced.  (1) The Rickster def. (9) Slick Chick 16-14 in a defensive struggle.  These two players actually had the exact same picks by pure coincidence (nobody is allowed to view each other’s picks).  The only difference was that The Rickster did not select TJ with Carolina, but Slick Chick did.  That being the case, The Rickster only won and advanced because his own pick of Carolina was wrong.  If he had been right and Carolina had won, Slick Chick would have claimed the 2 bonus Points and beaten him.  Tough break for Slick Chick.  (7) Drummer Boy def. (2) Captain Insano 22-12 in another upset.  Drummer Boy won this by 10 Points when his two Games of the Week picks of Balt and Den were right.  Captain Insano had the opposite picks of Atl and Cin and that’s what sunk him in this match.  (3) Nighthawk def. (6) Kip Possible 18-13 in a closely contested match.  The difference was Nighthawk’s ability to claim the Triple Crown with Mia-Ten-Sea, while Kip missed it.  Nighthawk is a very dangerous floater that could easily win this tournament.  (5) The Cat def. (4) freespirit 24-22 with some help from the LA Chargers.  Although he didn’t know it at the time, The Cat was down by 4 Points heading into the Sunday night game.  freespirit had picked Pit like most of the club, while The Cat had taken the risky pick of the Chargers.  When the Chargers pulled off the upset and won the game, so did The Cat.

The Pro Bowl Tournament also starts up this week with two great First Round matches.  Be sure to check out the Pro Bowl Tournament Page for more information on that.