The Football Club

Week 12 MVP Award Winners –
Bob Swerski & Hoosier Daddy (24 Points)

Bob Swerski and Hoosier Daddy both scored 24 Points last week to share the Week 12 MVP Award.  For Bob Swerski, this means he has won back-to-back MVP Awards, a very rare feat in the club these days when you are competing against 17 very skilled other players.  In a span of only 2 weeks, Bob has jumped up the standings from 13th to 11th to 9th Place.  And he now sits only 12 Points from reaching the Top Five.  For Hoosier Daddy, securing his second MVP Award in the past 4 weeks helped propel him up into 4th Place, which is a new peak position for him this season.  Hoosier Daddy is a mere 8 Points out of 1st Place and he currently has the momentum of a freight train barreling down the tracks.  Both players took similar paths to securing their MVPs, starting out with scoring all 5 possible Points for the Regular Games by picking Wash with TJ and getting the other 2 correct.  The only other player in the club to do this was Slick Chick.  Meanwhile, 9 club members picked Dallas with TJ and started their weeks off on a very bad note.  Being that both Bob Swerski & Hoosier Daddy took home 2 MVP Awards during the month of November, they were named co-winners of the November Player of the Month Award.  Both Games of the Week defied the experts predictions and that resulted in some very low scores this week.  Only 2 club members correctly picked NE over Arz — Badwater Nessie & The Cat.  And only 5 correctly picked Ten over Indy — Drummer Boy, Hoosier Daddy, freespirit, Bob Swerski & The Sad Salmon.  Also, The Cat was the only player to get the Triple Crown of Min-Atl-Buf and the 7 Points that goes along with that.  The Top Five currently consists of #1 Stinkerbell, #2 Slick Chick (6 Points back), #3 Mr. T: SDFW (7 Points back), #4 Hoosier Daddy (8 Points back), and #5 Nighthawk (9 Points back).  In looking down the rest of the standings, I would say that any player currently in the top eleven spots still has a legitimate shot at winning the club title.  Beyond that, the rest of us can just hope to reach the Top Five at best.  Before we move on, the club would like to extend its well wishes to freespirit, who is currently battling COVID.  freespirit, we all hope you get well soon and we are sorry to hear that this terrible illness has struck you.  Hang in there and don’t let COVID cloud your ability to make great picks.

The Super Bowl Tournament got underway last week with two First Round matches.  In the first match, (8) Double-Double def. (9) Badwater Nessie by a score of 18-7 to advance.  In the second match, (9) Stinkerbell def. (8) Rad Dad by a final of 19-17 in a very close contest to eliminate the Rad one.  That means that Double-Double & Stinkerbell both move on to the Wild Card Round.  But it doesn’t get any easier for them, as they will each have to face the top seeds in their respective conferences.  In the Wild Card Round this week, there are some great showdowns happening.

In Conference One, (8) Double-Double (4-7) at (1) freespirit (7-3) pits the Division Two winner against the player who finished at the bottom of the division.  (7) The Cat (4-6) at (2) Captain Insano (5-3-2) will force Captain Insano to deal with The Cat’s consistent use of his secret picking strategy which has been employed many times this season.  (6) Hoosier Daddy (4-6) at (3) Halibut J-Bird (6-4) will be an instant classic as these two great friends and former Novato neighbors go Head to Head while Hoosier begins his title defense.  (5) Drummer Boy (4-4-2) at (4) Bob Swerski (5-5) will be a very closely contested battle as Drummer Boy looks to make another run to the Super Bowl final as he did last season.

In Conference Two, (9) Stinkerbell (4-7) at (1) The Rickster (8-2) appears to be a mismatch due to The Rickster’s best-in-the-league record, past Super Bowl wins, and top seeding in the conference.  But Stinkerbell is the #1 player in the club and that almost evens this match out to a pick-em.  (7) MJD Hogg (4-5-1) at (2) Low Fat Tuna (6-4) is a rematch of last season’s Wild Card round match when (7) MJD Hogg def. (2) Fearless Tuna 24-19.  Same seedings, same round, same match… but will it be the same result?  (6) The Sad Salmon (5-5) at (3) Slick Chick (6-4) forces these two teammates on For the Win to go Head to Head against each other for the second time this season.  Back in their Week 11 match, Slick Chick def. The Sad Salmon 16-6.  What will happen this time when elimination is on the line?  (5) Nighthawk (5-5) at (4) Mr. T: SDFW (5-4-1) is also going to be a rematch.  Back in Week 2, Mr. T: SDFW def. Nighthawk 36-34.  This match will likely be just as close.

Pro Bowl Team Weekly concludes this week with three matches.  Next week, the Pro Bowl Tournament will begin.  In a rematch of last season’s Pro Bowl Final, The Supernovas and Daddy & His Boys will be battling it out this week for the #2 seed and a bye week in the tournament.  Which team will emerge victorious and gain the week of rest along with locked-in #1 seed McTriple Play?

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.

Here is what everyone in The Football Club picked for Week 12 with all games scored and totaled at the bottom. Please everyone always double check your scores to make sure there were no mistakes on my end when adding up your Points for the week.

Week 12 picks now posted.  (Sat night 11:10 pm).

Week 11 MVP Award Winner –
Bob Swerski (26 Points)

Bob Swerski stepped up from a large table covered with plates of chicken wings (as seen in the SNL skit) in order to score 26 Points and claim the Week 11 MVP Award.  Bob thus became the 11th different player through the first 11 weeks to win the MVP.  Along with correctly picking Washington with TJ and all three Point Spread games, Bob’s most brilliant pick was LA Rams on Monday night.  He was 1 of only 2 players (with the other being Badwater Nessie) to pick LA Rams and get the 6 Point prize.  This helped Bob advance up the standings from 13th to 11th Place.  The Week 11 MVP Award Runner-Up was Hoosier Daddy, who scored 22 Points.  Hoosier’s most outstanding pick was claiming the extremely difficult Triple Crown of Ten-Cle-Hou to become the only player in the club to get that 7 Points.  This helped Hoosier to leap back up the standings into 5th Place.  These two players also happened to be playing against each other in Head to Head last week, which resulted in Bob Swerski claiming a 26-22 victory over Hoosier Daddy.  Taking a look at the Top Five, we started to see a little bit of separation this week for the first time this season.  Stinkerbell held onto 1st Place for her 2nd week at #1.  Following behind her are #2 Slick Chick (6 Points back), #3 Mr. T: SDFW (9 Points back), #4 Papa Nighthawk (11 Points back), and #5 Hoosier Daddy (13 Points back).  Players who are outside of the Top Five (and especially those who are outside of the Top Ten) really need to step up this week and deliver some good picks to stay with the pack.  Up above, you may have noticed I slightly altered Nighthawk’s name to read Papa Nighthawk.  Some male club members in the past have altered their usual names to signify that they became new parents.  Some examples of this have been Papa Rickster, Papa J-Bird, and Papa Tuna.  In keeping with this, Papa Nighthawk does indeed have some amazing news as he and his wife had a brand new baby girl last weekend.  Speaking for the entire club, we all congratulate Papa Nighthawk and Mrs. Nighthawk, along with Bob Swerski and Stinkerbell on this happy news in welcoming Baby Hazel!  On a similar note, many of you know Hall of Fame club member Brother Prince (a.k.a. my brother Lowell Hall).  He and his wife had a baby boy yesterday named Leon.  Baby Leon was delivered quite early at 24 weeks and 1 day due to complications, and thus there are some serious health risks that have us in the family very worried and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Getting back to football matters, let’s take a look at the results from the final week of play in Head to Head Weekly.  There were some epic showdowns and when the dust finally settled, the final seedings for the 2020 Super Bowl Tournament were locked in.  The four division winners were Captain Insano (5-3-2), freespirit (7-3), Low Fat Tuna (6-4), and The Rickster (8-2).  The two #1 seeds in the tournament thus will be (1) freespirit and (1) The Rickster.  Unfortunately, four players will have to battle it out this week in the dreaded First Round, while all of the other players get a bye week from Head to Head competition (but not from turning in their picks).  The two First Round showdowns this week will be (9) Badwater Nessie (3-7) at (8) Double-Double (3-7) and (9) Stinkerbell (3-7) at (8) Rad Dad (4-6).  In looking at these matches, I couldn’t help but laugh at what an anomaly the Head to Head competition is in comparison to the Points Standings.  The best Points player in the league Stinkerbell also happens to be tied as the worst Head to Head player.  That makes absolutely no sense logically, but it proves to be true year after year for different players.  You can be great in one competition, but terrible in the other.  But that’s also nice for those of us who are starting to fall way behind in the Points standings.  We all still have a shot to win the Head to Head Super Bowl title.  One club member who is far down the Points standings e-mailed last week and called this the “lost season” for him.  But not in Head to Head.  He has a great record and legitimate shot at winning this competition.  So best wishes everyone on a great Super Bowl Tournament and we will all be watching to see if Hoosier Daddy can successfully defend his title from last season.  Be sure to check out the Head to Head Weekly Final Standings Page and 2020 Super Bowl Tournament Page (just posted today).