The Football Club

Week 12 MVP Award Winner –
MJD Hogg (30 Points)

For the second time this season, MJD Hogg once again went hog wild with great picks and scored 30 Points to win the MVP Award.  He thus became the third player this season to claim multiple MVP Awards.  MJD Hogg did this by making a couple of key brilliant upset picks.  First, he was 1 of only 3 players to correctly pick the Double Stakes of LA Chargers & Las Vegas (along with Young Tuna & NYC Sewer Rat).  Second, he was 1 of only 4 players to correctly pick the Monday night game winner of Pittsburgh (along with The Sad Salmon, Bob Swerski & NYC Sewer Rat).  As a result, he is driving his white 1970 Cadillac DeVille back up the standings and now stands only 16 Points away from getting back into the Top Ten.  The MVP Award Runner-Up was Young Tuna for the second time in the last three weeks as he scored 27 Points.  Young Tuna was 1 of only 2 players to correctly pick both Games of the Week with Cincinnati & Carolina (along with Roadrunner).  Young Tuna was disappointed when yet again he lost out on the MVP Award when there was an upset in the Monday night game.  However, he was happy once he found out he was named the November Player of the Month Award winner.  Those of you club members who are on social media may have seen my post congratulating the club’s new #1 player Roadrunner.  My post said: “Congrats to my dad Roadrunner on moving into 1st Place in The Football Club for the first time ever after playing off and on for 20 years.”  Last week, Roadrunner scored 4 more Points than current #2 player Hoosier Daddy, thus allowing him to use NOS to speed ahead of him by a slim 2 Point margin.  Rounding out the Top Five, we have the two biggest rivals in the club battling it out again as Double-Double and Stinkerbell are tied for 3rd Place (both 8 Points back).  Which player is going to blink first and have an off week?  And currently tied for 5th Place are My Wife Loves Jimmy G and Mr. T (both 9 Points back).  My Wife Loves Jimmy G did indeed take notice of the photo of The Sad Salmon & Viking Blood at a recent football game (see last week’s column post for the photo).  In the photo, Viking Blood is holding up a sign that she made for her husband that said: “My Husband is Hotter Than Jimmy Garoppolo“.  In response to the sign, My Wife Loves Jimmy G stated that it was “all good.  My wife might love Jimmy G, but she knows he’ll always be my backup.”

The Super Bowl Tournament gets underway this week with five First Round matches.  Be sure to check out the newly added Super Bowl Tournament Page for more details.  There you will notice that the top 11 seeds all received bye weeks and automatic entry into the Wild Card Round.  The five matches this week include (21) Young Tuna at (12) Shaylene, (20) Slick Chick at (13) Viking Blood, (19) Captain Jack Sparrow at (14) Fearless Tuna, (18) Captain Insano at (15) Bob Swerski, and (17) MJD Hogg at (16) New York City Sewer Rat.  The Pro Bowl Tournament wrapped up last week.  Be sure to check out the Pro Bowl Tournament Page for all the details.  Below, I will copy and paste the information from that page about the final result of the Pro Bowl championship game.

Rookie Pro Bowl Team Champs – Third-seeded Tuna Generations have defeated seventh-seeded (but more highly regarded) Daddy & His Boys to win their first team title during their first year of playing together.  This is an absolutely stunning result that nobody in the club could see coming.  With a final score that was very similar to the Pro Bowl final result from one year ago, Daddy & His Boys once again lost by one touchdown.  Last season, they lost to Wild Animals 61-54 and this season they lost to Tuna Generations 64-57.  That must be a frustrating result for Daddy & His Boys, but making it to the final is still a very respectable result.  Five other teams wish they could have made it that far.  So how did Tuna Generations pull off the impossible and suddenly become our 2022 Pro Bowl Team Champions?  Let’s take a brief look back at how both teams performed during the championship game.  As the match got started with the three Thursday games, Daddy & His Boys took a commanding 15-7 lead at the end of the 1st Quarter.  That was because all three members of Daddy & His Boys picked perfectly on the Thursday games and they had all selected TJ as well.  That was quite an impressive start.  But things looked even better when the week ended with a win for Pittsburgh, helping MJD Hogg to claim the Week 12 MVP Award with 30 Points.  Now that’s how you step up and try your best to carry your team to victory.  Of course, with a team competition, you usually can’t win the match all by yourself.  You need help from your other teammates.  And Hoosier Daddy (14 Points) and Drummer Boy (13 Points) combined to contribute less Points than MJD Hogg had posted all by himself.  Even so, 57 total Points is a fairly strong showing, and it would take an average score of 19.4 Points by the members of Tuna Generations in order to beat them.  Taking over as quarterback, Young Tuna, the youngest player in Football Club history, stepped up and delivered a performance worthy of a seasoned veteran.  Young Tuna posted 27 Points to claim the Week 12 MVP Award Runner-Up.  Fearless Tuna added 19 Points and new club #1 Roadrunner added 18 Points in order to bring their team total to 64 Points.  And that was enough to win the thrilling final by a touchdown and earn a permanent spot in the Hall of Fame as the 2022 team champs.  At a press conference after the match, Fearless Tuna reflected back on the past three weeks.  He said: “When I decided to put the team together of myself, Roadrunner & Young Tuna, my biggest concern was that we would likely lose in the First Round.  I wasn’t sure if we were good enough to survive it.  I thought if we could make it to the Final Four that would be a big accomplishment.  But I also thought that it was more important to play together as a family than to worry about the end result of how well we would play and how far we could make it.  So, in keeping it real, I am in total shock that our team actually won this tournament.  As the weak link on our team, I’d like to thank Roadrunner & Young Tuna for carrying us to victory.  And I’d like to thank Daddy & His Boys for making it a memorable final.”

Here is a copy of the Week 12 Current Standings for those who are having trouble viewing it on their screens (usually due to viewing site on cell phone or tablet). Remember that there is much more detailed information that can be read on the actual Current Standings Page (but using a computer is necessary due to the tables).

Here are the club’s picks for Week 12. MJD Hogg wins the MVP Award with 30 Points. And Young Tuna wins the MVP Award Runner-Up with 27 Points.

Week 12 full picks now posted (Sun 8:30am).  Thursday picks were posted before kickoff on Club Chat.  All players are welcome to view my picks once they have turned their own in for the week.

Week 11 MVP Award Winner –
The Sad Salmon (35 Points)

After debuting in 1st Place with the Week 1 MVP Award this season, The Sad Salmon tumbled down the standings as he got snagged in a net of bad picks.  This can be attributed to him moving from Sonoma County back to Miami and trying to get settled in there.  But now that he has done that and is able to attend Dolphins home games in person once again (along with Viking Blood), The Sad Salmon has broken free and entered a fast current moving in the direction of the top of the standings.  Back in Week 7, he was in 14th Place treading water being 34 Points out of 1st Place.  But now four weeks later, after snagging the Week 11 MVP Award with 35 Points (which is the highest score of the year), he has swam into 7th Place and is only 14 Points out of 1st Place.  So in a span of only four weeks, he made up 20 Points on the top players.  Based on his past history of having a huge late season surge one year ago, this does not bode well for the rest of the club.  The Sad Salmon is currently only 5 Points out of 3rd Place and looks to be a heavy favorite to enter the Top Five next week.  Be sure to check out the picture at the bottom of the post to see The Sad Salmon & Viking Blood at a 49ers game.  I wonder what My Wife Loves Jimmy G thinks of the sign that Viking Blood made for her husband The Sad Salmon?  Perhaps this is the start of new rivalry?  The Week 11 MVP Award Runner-Up went to Roadrunner, who scored 34 Points and only missed out on winning back-to-back MVPs because he picked the Over/Under wrong on Monday night.  Roadrunner & The Sad Salmon were 2 of only 4 players to correctly pick the Triple Crown of Det-Wash-Cin last week (along with Viking Blood & Mr. T).  Roadrunner’s second huge week in a row propelled him all the way into 2nd Place, only 2 Points behind current leader Hoosier Daddy.  3rd Place in the Current Standings has become a logjam between Double-Double, his main rival Stinkerbell, and My Wife Loves Jimmy G.  As far as the statistical leader board, we currently have Hoosier Daddy & My Wife Loves Jimmy G leading in Games of the Week (with 15), Stinkerbell & Captain Jack Sparrow in Double Stakes (with 6), Roadrunner, Double-Double, The Rickster & New York City Sewer Rat in Triple Crowns ( with 3), Stinkerbell, Rad Dad & Shaylene in 6 Point SNF/MNF games (with 9), and Young Tuna in Triple Jeopardy (with 8 correct and only 1 wrong).  The following paragraph is copy and pasted over from the Pro Bowl Tournament Page as this week is the Pro Bowl team championship match featuring (7) Daddy & His Boys at (3) Tuna Generations.

The 2022 Pro Bowl Team Championship match is going to be an epic showdown between two teams battling it out to make history.  Being that there was no Pro Bowl Weekly team competition this season, team play didn’t get started until Week 9 when there was qualifying for tournament seeding.  Surprisingly, 3-time Pro Bowl team champs (2000, 2007 & 2010) Daddy & His Boys struggled mightily during qualifying, scoring the lowest total with 51 Points and thus getting the lowest seed at #7.  On the other hand, brand new team Tuna Generations punched their ticket to the #3 seed by scoring 69 Points.  Daddy & His Boys consists of (current ranking) #1 team captain Hoosier Daddy, #8 Drummer Boy, and #18 MJD Hogg.  Tuna Generations consists of (current ranking) #2 Roadrunner, #13 team captain Fearless Tuna, and #21 rookie Young Tuna.  That’s an average player ranking in the standings of 9th Place for Daddy & His Boys and 12th Place for Tuna Generations.  So the teams are kind of even with the two best players in the club, two middle-ranked players, and two lower-ranked players.  And when you look into the two tournament matches each team has played so far, it reveals a similar story.  For Daddy & His Boys, it reveals a team on a mission.  When Daddy & His Boys lost the Pro Bowl championship match one year ago to Wild Animals 61-54, it cost them a shot at making history.  Up until that point, each team had won three championships and the big question was which team would win their fourth?  Wild Animals did so and thus left Daddy & His Boys in the dust.  But here we are one year later, and Daddy & His Boys now have a chance to equal Wild Animals and even things out at four championships each.  So to say that Daddy & His Boys are going to be highly motivated to win this match would be an understatement.  Tuna Generations, on the other hand, want to make their own history by winning this championship.  Fearless Tuna put this team together to allow three generations of the Tuna family to play together.  We have Young Tuna, his dad Fearless Tuna, and his grandpa Roadrunner all together swimming on the same team.  That’s quite special just to have them playing together but Tuna Generations would love nothing more than to escape the cannery and swim off into the ocean as team champions.  So who has the edge?  Daddy & His Boys have won both of their tournament matches by 20 Points.  That’s clear team strength that appears to be unstoppable.  Tuna Generations won their first match by 12 Points and their second match by 29 Points.  So while Daddy & His Boys won their first two matches by a combined 40 Points, Tuna Generations did so by 41 Points.  Once again, that shows that we appear to have very evenly-matched teams.  But with Daddy & His Boys being a long-time veteran championship team, they will be going into this match as heavy 12 Point favorites over rookie upstarts Tuna Generations.  My prediction is that Tuna Generations’ dream run through the tournament ends in bitter disappointment, being snagged in fishing nets, and sent off to the cannery.  But in this unpredictable football season, you just never know what might happen.