The Football Club

Week 16 MVP Award Winner–
freespirit (28 Points)

One of the strongest players in the club this season has been freespirit, who has consistently turned in good picks week after week.  Back in Week 6, she even won her first career MVP Award which propelled her into 1st Place for one week.  And it’s always a good feeling to be able to look at the Current Standings and see that your Peak Position has been #1 for the season.  freespirit has also always made very wise choices when it comes to selecting Triple Jeopardy on games, maintaining a perfect mark at 6-0 and avoiding the riskiest of picks.  Along with all these notable achievements, freespirit flew back into the spotlight again this past week by scoring 28 Points to win the Week 16 MVP Award, which was 4 Points higher than the next best group of players.  The key to freespirit’s success was picking both Games of the Week right with Cin & NO, picking Sea on Sunday night, and picking 3 of the 4 Point Spread games correct.  Now she sits just 4 Points out of finishing up the season with a bang by getting back into the Top Five.  The only other player in the club who correctly picked both Games of the Week with Cin & NO last week was Drummer Boy.  Two players got the Triple Crown correct with Indy-St.L-Min– Dixie Slick and The Beav.  10 players were wise enough to pick Seattle and the 12th Man on Sunday night– Papa Tuna, The Rickster, The Cat, TK-421, Iceman, C Master V, Jacuzzi Splot, The Beav, freespirit, and Captain Jack Sparrow.  It is always interesting to see a player like Captain Jack Sparrow pick against his favorite team.  In this case, it scored him 6 Points.  Speaking of Iceman, the club would like to send their congratulations along to him as he has been accepted to serve at Bethel for 3 months just as this season winds down.

We have arrived at the final week of the regular season.  We are soon going to find out who will win the categories of Most Games of the Week, Most Triple Crowns, Most Double Stakes, and Most 6 Point Games picked correctly.  We will also see who will end with the Most MVP Awards (but suffice to say that Dixie Slick’s all-time record will be safe).  As always in Week 17, we have a few extra Points available to help you finish things off.  The big addition is the upgrade from Triple Jeopardy to Quadruple Jeopardy.  QJ is worth 4 Points if you get it right, but -3 Points if you get it wrong.  It will be interesting to see how many players select the QJ option on this final week.  One player whom I will be watching very closely to see what she does is Dixie Slick.  With her risky but brilliant pick of SD TJ last week, she improved her TJ record to an incredible 10-0.  My feeling is that if a player can select TJ on at least 10 games and hold a perfect mark, that player is worthy of a new spot in The Hall of Fame.  I’m sure all of you would agree.  TJ games are notoriously difficult, sometimes even harder to pick than Games of the Week.  So holding a 10-0 mark is something that has never been done before and we will probably never see again.  However, 10-1 is not the same and probably not worthy of a spot in the Hall, so Dixie Slick may decide to hold off this week and preserve her perfect record.  It’s up to her if she wants to take a huge risk and jeopardize her opportunity to gain a spot in the Hall.  Other Hall of Fame records which will be added at the beginning of next week include The Cat’s Perfect Week, Wild Animals record-setting Highest Team Score in a Week, and Daddy & His Boys record-setting best regular season Pro Bowl Weekly record.  And, of course, we will be adding the new Club Champion, Super Bowl Champion, and Pro Bowl Team Champions.  Be sure and visit the final results and write-ups regarding the Super Bowl Tournament and Pro Bowl Tournament by visiting those pages.  And a huge congratulations to the winners– Bane and Transformers!  I’m not allowed to play favorites in the club, but I certainly do appreciate seeing new first-time winners.  At his press conference after winning his first Pro Bowl title, Transformers team member Jacuzzi Splot said: “I honestly can’t believe this is happening.”  And Bane said: “This makes my whole season.  I still can’t believe that I won it.  Finally a real achievement after being in the club for so many years.”  And that sums things up nicely.  Even if you struggle in the club and haven’t won anything yet, keep sticking with it and you never know how things will play out and what you might be able to accomplish.  Finally, all signs seem to point to Hoosier Daddy winning his second career Club Championship.  Hoosier Daddy only needs 12 Points to surpass his winning total of 377 Points from 2009.  In order for someone in the Top Five to overtake him, they are going to need to select QJ and have a near-perfect week.  And they are going to have to hope that Hoosier Daddy either does not risk QJ or that he selects it with the wrong team and drops 3 Points.  We will soon find out how this final week and the Final Standings will turn out.

Week 15 MVP Award Winner–
Bane (32 Points)

When Bane announced at the beginning of the season that he was returning to the club after a 6 year absence, the club was very happy to have him back.  Although he did show some early season rust when it came to making picks, he showed no rust as he terrified one Head to Head opponent after another by beating nearly everyone who stood in his way.  And now, on a week when he needed to make his best picks, Bane did just that by scoring 32 Points and narrowly edging MJD Hogg out to become the Week 15 MVP Award winner.  Bane’s picks were well rounded this past week.  He wisely skipped over picking Triple Jeopardy with his failed pick of the Rams, he picked all 3 Point Spread games correct, and he got 1 Game of the Week, the Double, the Triple, and the Monday Night game.  Now that is a good week of picking.  With yet another excellent week, Bane has jumped up to 6th Place and is looking to finish off this season in the Top Five.  It shouldn’t be too difficult for him in view of the way he has been picking lately.  In fact, maybe he can take over Papa Tuna’s spot, as the former #2 player continues to struggle and tumble down the standings.  The new #2 player this week is Rad Dad, who continues to make great picks one week after another.  Rad Dad currently stands 22 Points behind 1st Place player Hoosier Daddy.  In order to catch up to him, Rad Dad is going to need to score 11 more Points than him in each of the final two weeks.  That’s nearly impossible.  It would require a complete collapse by Hoosier Daddy with a couple of 10 Point weeks.  It’s beginning to feel like 2009 all over again, with Hoosier Daddy heading for the club title and MJD Hogg rising up the standings attempting to become the Club Champion Runner-Up.  MJD Hogg had a 31 Point week to win the Week 15 MVP Award Runner-Up and move into 3rd Place.  MJD is next looking to pass up Rad Dad during this upcoming week.  I should also take a moment to make special mention of all those who picked Minnesota TJ last week– Mr. T, Dixie Slick (now 9-0), C Master V, MJD Hogg, TK-421 & freespirit (now 6-0).  That’s about it for this week.  My Super Bowl Tournament and Pro Bowl Tournament write-ups for this week can be found on the club pages for each of those.  Be sure and check them out, because there are some very interesting matches and I have written up and shared some background information on what we can expect to see with Double-Double vs. Bane and Wild Animals vs. Transformers.

Week 14 MVP Award Winner–
The Rickster (30 Points)

One of the strongest players in the club during the second half of the season has been club legend and Hall of Fame player The Rickster.  In Week 10, he really started building momentum as he won the MVP Award Runner-Up.  This week, he topped it off by winning the Week 14 MVP Award with 30 Points.  The Rickster has really caught fire as of late and now finds himself in 7th Place, a mere 7 Points out of getting back into the Top Five where he usually makes his home.  Keep in mind that although The Rickster has not won a Club Championship since 2006, he has finished in the Top Five in 3 of the 5 years since then.  And it looks like he has plans to make it 4 out of 6, the way he has been playing so strong lately.  When I noticed that The Rickster had the highest score this week, one thing immediately struck me.  And that is that he has a knack for playing his best and delivering in behalf of his team Wild Animals when they need it the most.  Before this week, The Rickster’s last MVP Award was in Week 16 of last season.  Why is that significant?  Because that week, Wild Animals was playing in the Pro Bowl final and The Rickster’s 35 Points carried his team to the championship.  Fast forward to this week and Wild Animals were once again in a bind.  They were playing as heavy underdogs against the higher seeded team Dark Lords of the Northwest.  But once again, The Rickster stepped up and produced some huge picks and carried his team to victory.  The Rickster’s key to success last week was to pick all of the important games correct– NYJ TJ, St. L, Wash, and NE.  That totals a quick 19 Points right there just on those four games alone.  Could The Rickster even threaten for the club title this season?  Sadly, it’s not likely as Hoosier Daddy is steaming ahead seemingly unstoppable.  He now has a 20 Point lead over the 2nd Place player.  One thing I have noted in the past is that when a 1st Place player can build a lead of 20 Points or more, that person can be difficult to overtake.  Especially now with only 3 weeks left in the season.  Just look at how many Points the rest of the Top 5 will need to average each week more than Hoosier Daddy in order to overtake him and steal the club title– Papa Tuna (6.7 Points per week more than Hoosier Daddy), Captain Insano (7.3 Points more per week), Rad Dad (8.7 Points more per week), and Captain Jack Sparrow (10 Points per week).  Also, Week 14 MVP The Rickster would need to score 12.3 Points more per week.  In view of this, it is reasonable to conclude that Hoosier Daddy is now a heavy favorite to win the club title and it will take a miracle to overtake him.  One thing that makes it hard is that those of us who are chasing him are not allowed to know his picks before we turn in our own.  (Although he always turns in his picks on Tuesday, I never look to see what he has picked until my own picks are posted on the Club Shoutbox).  So more than likely, there will only be a few differences between picks, and the player who is behind will need to get nearly all of those differences correct.  The only small advantage that players behind the leader have comes on the final week of the season, when there are always three Games of the Week and also Quadruple Jeopardy for the only time in the season.  I thought I should also send a shout out to Dixie Slick, who was brave enough to pick NY Jets with TJ to increase her TJ record to 8-0 on the season.  Can she reach 10-0 by correctly choosing it two more times?  That would be impressive.

The Super Bowl Tournament’s Divisional Round took place last week with four matches that were not really that close.  In Conference One, (4)Double-Double easily defeated (2)Papa Tuna by a landslide score of 24-13.  The match was closer than it sounds, though, because it came down to the Monday night game.  Double-Double was up by 5 Points, but Papa Tuna had picked Houston on Monday night while Double-Double had picked New England.  Thus, if Houston had shown up and delivered a win, Double-Double would have been sent packing.  But they didn’t, and he wasn’t.  Double-Double won his only Super Bowl Head to Head title four years ago, so he is looking to add another trophy to his case.  In another match, (6)Captain Jack Sparrow pummeled top seeded (1)Mr. T 29-12.  That match wasn’t even close, as seen by the 17 Point victory posted by the Captain.  It seems that Captain Jack Sparrow is sailing a wave of momentum right now and there might be no way to stop him.  We will see how he fares against his Conference Round opponent Double-Double.  Captain Jack seemed to be overlooking Double-Double as evidenced on the Club Shoutbox where he talked about meeting up with Dixie Slick in the Super Bowl final.  Double-Double replied with a warning message in his own press conference, stating that Captain Jack “may be surprised when his ship sinks.”  This match sounds like it is going to be an all out battle.  Only one of these two great players can survive and make it into the Super Bowl final.  In Conference Two, (6)Dixie Slick declawed (7)The Cat by a final score of 19-15.  The interesting thing was that both players had picked 5 1/2 point underdog Houston on Monday night.  Both players missed that game and the final score revealed a defensive struggle between the two.  Hopefully, this will be the start of a great rivalry between these two friends for years to come.  In the final match, (4)Bane continued flying under the radar as he knocked off rookie player (8)Iceman 26-16.  I must say that it looks like everyone in the club is overlooking Bane and not giving him much of a shot to win it all.  But that’s probably just how he likes it.  I have noted in past columns that Bane is playing awesome in Head to Head this season.  He now stands just two victories away from walking away with the Super Bowl trophy and stunning the entire club.  What can we expect in the Conference Round final between Dixie Slick and Bane?  Back in Week 3, Dixie Slick def. Bane 18-9.  But things have changed since then.  In the Current Standings, these two amazing players are only separated by 3 Points.  Dixie Slick has 289 Points on the season, while Bane has 286 Points.  So it is impossible to project a winner.  The only thing I can say is that I think whoever wins will end up winning the match by 2 Points or less.  This is a very, very important match for Dixie Slick.  Not to put pressure on her, but she has made it to 3 of the last 4 Conference Round finals and she has lost all 3.  And this makes it 4 of the last 5 Conference finals by making it again this season.  I think just about anyone, myself included, would be extremely happy to have had such success.  But now Dixie Slick needs to take the next step and deliver outstanding picks when she needs them the most.  Can she deliver?  Or will Bane give her the same treatment that he gave to Batman in the Dark Knight Rises by making back-breaking picks?  We will find out soon.

The Pro Bowl Tournament had the strangest First Round that I have ever seen in the club.  I almost wish we could just start it over.  What happened was that ALL FOUR top seeded teams lost and got dismissed from the tournament.  That has never happened before.  And that leaves teams ranked 5th-8th still in the tournament with one of those teams guaranteed to be the 2012 Pro Bowl champs.  No team is more frustrated and angry about this than (1)Daddy & His Boys, who just got done posting a club Hall of Fame record 10-1-1 regular season, only to get bounced in the first round by a team who arguably didn’t deserve to be there.  Certainly both (1)Daddy & His Boys and (2)Team Baby Tuna can make the argument that they deserved bye weeks to be safeguarded from monumental upsets in the First Round.  But it was very clear from the start this season that there were no bye weeks in the tournament.  We had an even number of 8 teams.  I’m still not sure how a 1-10-1 team beats a 10-1-1 team, but it happened, and (8)Beasts of the Bay are still in the running for the title.  And so are (5)Transformers, defending champs (6)Wild Animals, and (7)The Black Pearl.  One of these underdogs will emerge and become our unexpected team champs.

Week 13 MVP Award Winner–
Captain Jack Sparrow (25 Points)

“Bin made th’ neccessary repairs on th’ Black Pearl.  th’ sails be repaired ‘n th’ cannons be loaded.  Why I feel a strong breeze a coming and I be heading for a showdown at the top.  It’s time to RELEASE THE KRACKEN !!  Says I.”  This was Captain Jack Sparrow’s proclamation on the Club Shoutbox prior to kickoff of the Week 13 games.  After reading this, it was apparent that he was carrying a lot of confidence into his Week 13 picks and match-up against defending champion Rad Dad in the Super Bowl Tournament.  And sure enough, Captain Jack delivered big time by scoring 25 Points on a difficult week to claim the Week 13 MVP Award.  The key to Captain Jack’s success was his brilliant pick of Wash over NYG on Monday night.  And now Captain Jack is tied with two of his main rivals in the club– Dixie Slick & freespirit– in 8th Place in the Current Standings.  Another solid week should put him back into the Top Five as he looks to surpass his Peak Position of #3 by the end of the season.  Only 8 out of 28 players correctly picked Wash over NYG to score the 6 Point prize on Monday night– Captain Jack Sparrow, Mockytop, steveluvsal, MJD Hogg, The Cat, Double-Double, Bane & TK-421.  That was a very difficult pick to make.  And this week’s Monday night game should be just as difficult.  Only 4 players last week got both Games of the Week correct with Indy & Cin– Hoosier Daddy, Staubach, C Master V & Dixie Slick.  Hoosier Daddy was actually on his way to winning the Week 13 MVP Award until the NYG lost on Monday night.  He was ahead of everyone up until that point.  Even so, he padded his lead in 1st Place by another field goal and now he is up by 13 Points over the #2 player.  If Hoosier Daddy can extend his lead to 20 Points, it would be nearly impossible for anybody to catch up to him.  But there are still 4 weeks of play left, so anything can happen.  For example, if Rad Dad posts two back-to-back MVP caliber weeks, he could easily jump into 1st Place and shock the club.  Dixie Slick, freespirit & Annie-mal continued to maintain their perfection at picking Triple Jeopardy.  But while Dixie Slick & Annie-mal picked NYJ with no TJ, freespirit took the risk by selecting TJ and improving her record to 5-0.

The Wild Card Round of the Super Bowl Tournament took place last week with some stunning results.  Keep in mind that while 3 of the 8 matches were decided on Monday night, no players were given access to view or know their opponent’s picks.  So they had to completely make their own picks and hope for the best, since switching picks was eliminated a few seasons back to eliminate the potential for excessive competitiveness.  Top seeded player (1) Mr. T advanced by beating (10) Annie-mal by a comfortable margin of 19-14.  In our friendly Glen Ellen rivalry match, (6) Captain Jack Sparrow knocked off defending champ (3) Rad Dad by more than doubling his score 25-12.  Next up, (1) Mr. T and (6) Captain Jack meet up in the Divisional Round with a lot at stake.  While Mr. T will be the heavy favorite in this match, Captain Jack has been firing his cannons at full capacity lately, so there could be an upset in the making.  Second seeded player (2) Papa Tuna narrowly escaped an upset bid by (8) C Master V when Tuna pulled out a tie 19-19.  Papa Tuna was very fortunate that he had happened to pick Over on Sunday night, while C Master V had picked Under.  That allowed him to pick up the 1 Point that he needed to escape with a tie.  And in a battle of club titans, (4) Double-Double knocked the #1 player in the Points Standings (5) Hoosier Daddy out of the tournament by beating him 24-22.  This was a match that was worthy of being a Super Bowl final.  But in a year of struggles, Double-Double made a brilliant pick of Wash on Monday night which turned the tide in his favor and allowed him to advance.  Thus, the stage is set for another huge showdown, this time between (2) Papa Tuna and (4) Double-Double.  Keep in mind that the last three years straight, Double-Double has been eliminated each time in the Wild Card Round by MJD Hogg.  So he is happy that he has finally advanced to the Divisional Round, where he faces his old nemesis.  Back in 2005, Papa Tuna def. Double-Double 26-17 in the Conference Round to knock him out of the tournament.  The next year, in 2006, Double-Double returned the favor by beating Papa Tuna 24-18 in the Divisional Round.  So another chapter is about to be written.  Over in Conference Two, top seeded player (1) Catfish entered into this year’s Super Bowl Tournament with high hopes.  But he wasn’t too thrilled with how the draw played out, which pitted him against one of his own Mighty Meg’s teammates.  It was a close match, but (8) Iceman squeaked by (1) Catfish by a field goal 17-14 to advance and pull off the shocking upset.  That’s a tremendous result for a rookie player to beat a strong veteran.  Another one of the matches decided on Monday night was between (7) The Cat and (2) Captain Insano.  The Cat was in the lead going into Monday night but he had the more riskier pick (according to oddsmakers) of Wash, while Captain Insano had picked NYG.  Sitting at Club Headquarters looking over the picks sheets, I figured that Captain Insano had the edge and would advance.  But I was very wrong.  Wash delivered big time for The Cat and propelled him into the Divisional Round with a dominating 23-14 victory over Captain Insano.  The upset bug also bit (3) Drummer Boy who was stunned by (6) Dixie Slick 19-14.  I get the sense that Dixie Slick is really making a strong run at becoming the 2012 Super Bowl Head to Head Champion.  She’s playing with such strong determination that I would almost place her as the favorite out of the remaining four players from Conference Two.  In the final match last week, (4) Bane was battling it out with great champion (5) The Rickster.  Despite the fact that The Rickster only had 7 Points so far going into the Monday night game, he was still alive in this match.  Bane had a 5 Point lead with 12 Points, but he had selected Wash, while Rickster had selected NYG.  When Wash ended up winning, Bane’s margin of victory increased to 18-7.  The Rickster might be frustrated over this loss, but all he has to do is look up on his shelf and see his row of past Super Bowl trophies to bring a smile back to his face.  This week, rookie player (8) Iceman goes for another upset as he squares off against (4) Bane.  Even though Iceman is the lowest seeded player remaining in the draw, he has the picking experience of a veteran.  So this will be a very close match, perhaps decided by whether or not these players select TJ and which team they pick in that game.  The other match is another true rivalry– (7) The Cat meets up with (6) Dixie Slick.  Back in Week 4, Dixie Slick embarrassed The Cat by beating him 21-9.  But that was long before The Cat posted his history making Perfect Week.  Anybody can win this one and find themselves in the Conference Round next week.

The Pro Bowl Tournament finally gets started this week.  We have 8 teams entered, but only 1 will emerge as the Pro Bowl Team Champions.  Believe it or not, but Daddy & His Boys just posted the best record in Pro Bowl Weekly regular season history.  No team has ever lost less than 2 games.  And Daddy & His Boys absolutely dominated everyone they played, finishing with a mark of 10-1-1.  That is extremely impressive and worthy of a new record being added to The Hall of Fame in their honor, which will be done shortly.  But with this new record and incredible 10 win regular season, a caution is also in order.  With no bye weeks this season, Daddy & His Boys face a major trap game against one of the worst teams in club history, 1-10-1 Beasts of the Bay.  In the tune-up game last week, Daddy & His Boys crushed Beasts of the Bay 58-33.  That was a 25 Point margin of victory.  Despite their horrible record, Beasts of the Bay actually have very good players on their team.  They have a Club Champion (Nighthawk), Super Bowl Champion (Bob Swerski) & the current #3 player in the Points Standings (Captain Insano).  So what I’m getting at is Daddy & His Boys need to be careful that they don’t start looking ahead to next week thinking this will be a cakewalk.  Another team to pay attention to in the First Round of the Pro Bowl Tournament is defending champs Wild Animals.  Wild Animals have not played well this season, but now they have a chance to change all of that and win back-to-back team trophies.

Week 12 MVP Award Winner–
Hoosier Daddy (31 Points)

Back in 2009, Hoosier Daddy carried out his first hostile takeover of the Club Points Standings.  Back then, he started out the season with 2 Weeks at #1.  After a short four week break, he jumped back on top with another 7 Weeks at #1.  He then lost the top spot for a single week before finishing off the season with another 3 Weeks at #1 to win the 2009 Club Championship.  Here we are three years later and Hoosier has once again seized control of the club with a commanding 10 Point 1st Place lead with a mere five weeks left.  When it gets this late in the season and a player can take control of the top spot by a double-digit margin, the rest of the club has reason to worry.  Hoosier Daddy took over the top spot the old fashioned way– he won the Week 12 MVP Award with 31 Points.  I think what propelled Hoosier Daddy into making such great picks last week was seeing himself stuck in the First Round of the Super Bowl Tournament.  He did not want to get sent home from that competition right off the bat, so he thought over his picks and willed himself to victory.  Hoosier’s great picks included 1 Game of the Week, the Triple Crown, Double Stakes, and Sunday Night game.  Congrats on taking over 1st Place in dominant fashion, Hoosier, and best wishes on keeping the top spot over the final five weeks.  Hoosier’s success was aided by the embarrassing failures of both Papa Tuna and Captain Insano.  They both needed to deliver great picks at crunch time but instead stumbled and bumbled with only 19 Points and 18 Points.  That won’t get it done.  So those two players better step it up and turn things around quickly.  In contrast, two players who are stepping it up and delivering huge correct picks at just the right time are Rad Dad (29 Points last week) and Iceman (26 Points last week).  You can see why those two players currently round out our Top Five.  The Week 12 MVP Award Runner-Up was Dixie Slick with 30 Points.  As she herself noted on the Shoutbox, if she had only gotten either the Monday Night game pick or Over/Under pick right, she would have been the MVP.  But still, she has bounced back big time and is now just 10 Points away from jumping into the Top Five for the first time this season.  Let’s hope that she can do it!  Dixie Slick is one of three players that show brilliant wisdom when picking Triple Jeopardy.  Dixie Slick is 7-0, freespirit is 4-0, and Annie-mal is 4-0.  All three of our girls have perfect records at picking TJ this season.  And all three avoided the TJ trap pick last week of Wash@Dal.  Keep in mind that when I select the TJ game each week it is designed to fool all of us and set up the potential to lose 2 Points.  But the girls seem to know how to handle it just fine.  Maybe we can learn something from them in that regard.

The Super Bowl Tournament started up this week with the dreaded First Round.  It’s lousy to get stuck playing in the First Round before the fun begins and have the potential to have your Head to Head season end so quick.  As I looked down the results of the First Round of play, the one thing that struck me was that pretty much all of the favorites one.  In Conference One, 3 of the 4 higher ranked seeds one.  In Conference Two, all 4 of the higher ranked seeds won.  That’s 7 out of 8, with the one exception being 10th ranked Annie-mal’s mild upset of 7th ranked Nighthawk by a score of 17-14.  The end result is that we have some titanic showdowns coming up this week in the Wild Card Round.  The biggest one that jumped out at me was the battle between (5)Hoosier Daddy and (4)Double-Double.  These two great players have been close friends for over 20 years and neither one is interested in going home.  So let’s see what happens when they do battle.  Another match pits (10)Annie-mal against (1)Mr. T.  Seems like a mismatch, doesn’t it?  Think again.  Mr. T has struggled mightily the last three weeks, ever since he started out 8-0 and the pressure got to him.  Last week, he only delivered 11 Points.  That won’t be enough to advance to the Divisional Round.  So Mr. T better do a little bit extra research this week if he wants to avoid suffering the upset of the year.  The two matches pitting (6)Captain Jack Sparrow vs. (3)Rad Dad and (8)C Master V vs. (2)Papa Tuna are also battles between long-time friends.  Who will survive?  If Captain Jack wants to survive, he is going to have to score a little more (or maybe a lot) than his 13 Points from last week, because that won’t cut it against the likes of Rad Dad.  Over in Conference Two, all four matches will be interesting.  We will have (8)Iceman taking on his teammate (1)Catfish.  Catfish certainly doesn’t want to be sent packing as the top seed.  So he will be bringing his A-game with the picks this week.  Then we have (7)The Cat taking on (2)Captain Insano.  The Cat narrowly survived an upset bid by (10)Fuegoburns last week, when The Cat tied him 14-14 and advanced as the higher seed.  The Cat proved that he has nine lives, but he used eight of them up when he pulled off the tie last week with such a low score.  So he better get back on track.  (6)Dixie Slick is meeting (3)Drummer Boy.  This is a match that I simply cannot predict.  It should be the most closely contested battle in the tournament this week.  They haven’t played each other yet this season.  The final match will see resurgent player (5)The Rickster taking on (4)Bane.  Bane has excelled at Head to Head this season and nearly won his division.  The Rickster is a 3-time Super Bowl Champion.  But he won his last title back in 2010.  So he’s hungry again.  Translation– this is a very dangerous match for Bane.

Pro Bowl Weekly has reached its final week of play.  Daddy & His Boys have secured the #1 seed and already know their First Round opponent during Week 14.  They will be playing against cellar dwellers Beasts of the Bay, who continue to misfire on all cylinders.  This week, the two teams meet in a tune-up match.  But the real match doesn’t happen for another week.  The rest of the team matches this week will decide the final seedings for the tournament.  Keep in mind that no teams receive bye weeks this season.