The Football Club

Week 3 MVP Award Winner –
Kip Possible (28 Points)

Kip Possible had a dominating showing last week, scoring 7 Points more than the next closest competitors.  This resulted in him taking a huge jump in the standings from 13th Place all the way to 4th Place.  Kip’s massive 27 Point week included getting the challenging Double Stakes of Wash-Car correct (the only other two players to get that correct were Stinkerbell and freespirit).  Kip also was the only player in the entire club to get the Triple Crown of Phil-NYG-Ten.    Then, he added one Game of the Week with Seattle and the Monday Night game of Pittsburgh.  Well done, Kip.  And in case anyone was wondering, he designed his own official club logo as seen above.  The Runner-Up MVP was a tie between three outstanding players: Bob Swerski, Double-Double, and Stinkerbell, who all scored 21 Points.  Bob Swerski now finds himself in 6th Place, Double-Double in 8th Place, and Stinkerbell remains in 1st Place.  After 3 weeks played, Stinkerbell has a commanding 11 Point lead over 2nd Place players Captain Insano and Nighthawk.  But one bad week can change everything, so Stinkerbell is hoping to find a way to continue making remarkable picks.  I’m not sure how she is doing it, but it’s been quite impressive to behold.  Stinkerbell has gotten all of the possible Games of the Week correct this season, picking 5 out of 6 correct (the only one she missed was the tie game which nobody got).  As a side note, Double-Double was dismayed last week to see the news that Raising Cane’s has been named California’s top fast food restaurant instead of In-N-Out.  Perhaps the slight will inspire Double-Double to make great picks once again this week.  Hopefully those of us who are currently bottom feeders (including myself) will have a better week this week, but we’ll see.

In Head to Head Weekly this past week, Hoosier Daddy tied Rad Dad 14-14 in a battle of great Head to Head players.  Another tie match happened when Club #1 player Stinkerbell tied Double-Double 21-21.  After two weeks, the remaining undefeated Head to Head players include Hoosier Daddy, Rad Dad, Bob Swerski, Stinkerbell, freespirit, The Rickster, Captain Insano, and Nighthawk.  That’s 2 players from each division for a total of 8 players.  In Pro Bowl Team Weekly, McTriple Play and Wild Animals both continued their hot starts and moved to 2-0.  Meanwhile, Daddy & His Boys and The Mega Powers are both struggling, starting out 0-2.

The Autopicker improved to 3-0 with the Cleveland Browns victory on the Thursday Night game.  Three club members, including myself, had switched over to NY Jets and ended up getting the game wrong.  Here are my Week 3 picks:

NYJ, Atl TJ, Mia, Chi, Min, KC, LAC, NE und, GB, Car, Balt, Sea, TB, Phil, Hou, Jax.

Week 2 MVP Award Winner –
Stinkerbell (22 Points)

Having not made football picks for the past five years, nearly all veteran club members have really struggled during the first two weeks of the season.  Going into the Monday night game last week, 14 out of 18 club members had single-digit scores.  I’m not really sure what has caused making picks once again to be so difficult, but many players have a total score in the Current Standings that is well below their past averages.  As one example of the struggles club members have been going through, last week 10 club members picked NY Jets with Triple Jeopardy.  Meanwhile, zero club members picked Miami with TJ.  Thus, 10 players ended up taking -2 Points from their final scores when Miami won the game.  As a second example, many club members continue to bail on the Autopicker when it comes to the Thursday night game.  The Autopicker is now 2-0 at picking games, but 8 club members switched over to Baltimore and started the week off on a very bad note by not getting the gimme 2 Points.  One club member who has been immune from the plague of bad picks is new rookie sensation Stinkerbell, who followed up a strong debut in Week 1 with another outstanding week in Week 2.  Stinkerbell did this by avoiding TJ, getting 2 out of 3 Point Spread games correct, correctly picking the Monday night game and Over/Under, getting 1 Game of the Week, and picking the Sunday night game correctly.  All of this resulted in her scoring 22 Points and winning the Week 2 MVP Award.  It also catapulted her into 1st Place in the standings with a huge 6 Point early season lead over current #2 player The Cat.  Stinkerbell’s success is quite impressive when you think about how she joined the club just a couple of weeks ago and was thrown into the mix with a large group of veteran players who have been making successful football picks for 10-15 years.  Many of these players are Club Champions.  Obviously the long layoff between Football Club seasons has not affected her negatively since she is new to our friendly competition.  Well done, Stinkerbell.  Now it is time to see how she will deal with the immense pressure of holding onto 1st Place.  Will she manage to stay in 1st Place for another week or will she fold under the pressure?  The Week 2 MVP Award Runner-Up was Captain Insano with 16 Points.  On most weeks, 16 Points would be considered a somewhat poor showing.  But on a challenging week with upsets everywhere, the good Captain had a strong showing.  Captain Insano is one of the few players who has not shown much rust when it comes to making picks.  Along with Stinkerbell being our new #1 player, The Cat staying strong at #2, and Captain Insano being tied for 3rd Place, the Top Five also includes Rad Dad (tied for 3rd) and Nighthawk sitting in 5th Place.

Head to Head Weekly got off to a good start last week with a few interesting results.  In Division One, Hoosier Daddy and Rad Dad picked up wins and started out 1-0.  In Division Two, Bob Swerski and Stinkerbell won and also began 1-0.  In Division Three, The Rickster won to start out 1-0.  And in a defensive struggle, freespirit managed to beat Drummer Boy by a final score of 4-3.  I don’t think we’ve ever seen a result that crazy with such low scores by both players.  In Division Four, Captain Insano and Nighthawk both picked up wins and began 1-0.  In the only cross-conference match, Captain Jack Sparrow tied Slick Chick 6-6.  These two friendly rivals are both active posters on Club Chat, with both of them making very entertaining posts on a regular basis.

Pro Bowl Team Weekly also started off last week with three team matches.  In the first match, The Black Pearl def. Daddy & His Boys 30-23.  Captain Jack had proclaimed that “It appears the Black Pearl has been grounded on a slick reef. Shiver me timbers I hope I can do better next week. Must
wait for high tide.”  However, even though the ship’s captain was indeed grounded with a tie, his ship’s cannons had enough firepower to still win their team match.  In the second match, McTriple Play def. The Mega Powers 43-36.  McTriple Play features three family members playing all together, led by 2008 Club Champion Nighthawk.  And in the third match, which was a rematch of the last Pro Bowl Final in 2012, Wild Animals got revenge for their championship loss by beating Transformers 35-19.  These two teams are the biggest rivals the club has ever seen and every time they play each other, it is a true grudge match.

I was 1 of the 8 club members who lost the Thursday night pick by switching over to Baltimore.  The Autopicker is now 2-0 this season at making picks.  Here are the rest of my picks for Week Two.

Rad Dad – no checking out my picks until yours are turned in for our H2H showdown.

NYJ TJ, Pit, Jax, LAC, Cle, Arz, Sea ov, Wash, Den, Hou, Min, Dal, Atl, Phil, SF.

Week 1 MVP Award Winner –
The Cat (29 Points)

With great excitement, The Football Club resumed operation last weekend after a long 6-year hiatus.  It was great to be back making picks once again and seeing how everything played out on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday.  While several long-time club veterans struggled to shake off the rust and make successful picks, one player who returned triumphantly was The Cat.  Looking back, The Cat had an amazing 2012 season, which was the previous final season of The Football Club.  During that season in Week 11, he scored a Perfect Week, which had only been accomplished one time before in 16 seasons (by The Rickster in 2004).  The Cat scored 41 out of 39 Points with 14/14 games picked correctly during his Perfect Week.  He ended up with 41 Points instead of 39 since he also selected Triple Jeopardy.  The Cat was also our 2000 Club Champion, all the more impressive when you consider that we had a record 49 club members playing that season.  As Week 1 of the brand new 2018 season arrived, The Cat turned in his picks from Ecuador, where he is currently serving as a Regular Pioneer along with his lovely wife Judy.  And The Cat delivered some outstanding picks, getting both Games of the Week correct with his picks of Mia and Wash.  The Cat also got both Monday Night games correct by selecting NYJ and LAR.  Thus, The Cat has debuted at #1 with 29 Points scored in Week 1.  Congratulations to The Cat on winning the Week 1 MVP Award.  Captain Jack Sparrow gave a “21 cannon salute to the Cat.”  And Slick Chick said: “Congrats to Cat!.”  Our MVP Award Runner-Up was club legend and 2008 Club Champion Nighthawk, who had not participated since the 2009 season.  Despite not making picks for 8 long seasons, Nighthawk picked up where he left off by scoring 28 Points.  That’s an outstanding job.  Rounding out the Top Five were Captain Jack Sparrow (27 Points), Rad Dad (26 Points), and rookie sensation Stinkerbell (25 Points).  Welcome to the club, Stinkerbell.  And welcome to the Top Five.

Be sure to check out the Current Standings page (best viewed on a computer screen) to see where you finished after Week 1 was completed.  By the way, pay no attention to Hoosier Daddy being in 18th Place.  As Hoosier himself said on Club Chat: “Careful players... I've got no place to go but up! This week I start my march towards 1st place.”   Don’t forget that Hoosier Daddy is our defending Club Champion.  And one thing you may not realize about his 2012 Club Championship was that during the early part of the season, he was in 16th Place.  So he’s a slow starter, but that doesn’t mean much.  The Rickster, as well, went on a tear during the second half of the 2012 season.  2010 Club Champion Slick Chick also warned everyone on Club Chat: “Watch out for Slick Chick next week, everybody!”  And 2011 Club Champion Captain Jack Sparrow warned The Cat that he was in danger, stating on Club Chat: “Congrats to the Cat. Fatten yourself up I feel a tasty cat meal coming next week.”  Please, everyone, if you can, drop into Club Chat once in a while and say hi to your fellow club members.  Club Chat now has its own separate page accessed from the menu bar at the top.  Don’t forget to input your name before sending your message so we will know who you are.

This week marks the return of Head to Head Weekly and Pro Bowl Team Weekly.  (Once again, these pages are best viewed on a computer screen.)  Be sure to check out your Head to Head and Pro Bowl Team matches for this week.  As for the Week 2 Picks Sheet, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  First, The Autopicker has selected Cincinnati over Baltimore for Thursday night.  However, I am expecting half of the club to pick Cincinnati and half to pick Baltimore.  But you only need to turn in your pick if you are switching to Baltimore (which is what I am doing, just for the record).  Even on the most closely contested games, as this one is expected to be, The Autopicker saves half the people the trouble of e-mailing their pick in.  Second, this week marks the return of Triple Jeopardy.  Triple Jeopardy is the Regular Game with the TJ option listed next to it.  Remember if you select Triple Jeopardy and you miss the game, you will receive a -2 Points deduction from your score for the week.  I hope everyone has a great week and I hope I’m able to do better this week myself.