The Football Club

Things returned to normal in The Football Club for many members this week, as we had many people with high scores upon the conclusion of the Sunday games.  Leading the way was Iceman, Mr. T, and Catfish, all with 29 Points heading into the Monday night game.  8 players correctly picked both Games of the Week with Pit & Sea– Iceman, Mr. T, Catfish, Fuegoburns, Rad Dad, freespirit, The Beav, and Staubach.  20 players nailed the Triple Crown with Atl-Balt-Min, too many to list out individually.  But I’m sure they are all glad that they were able to take home the 7 Point prize.  This week, we had two brilliant and fearless minds in the club– The Beav and The Cat.  These two players both picked Miami with TJ and scored 3 huge Points that nobody else did.  In contrast, 16 players flopped miserably and took a devastating -2 Points from their final score by picking Cin TJ.  I won’t list them all, but you know who you are.  All of you (including me) better be more careful with the Triple Jeopardy option next time.  Bad news for Papa Tuna.  His efforts to match Unknown Artist’s 17 Weeks at #1 have come to an end.  Iceman picked up 5 Points on him when Sea def. Car, thus ending Papa Tuna’s control of the top spot.  Since they have the same picks for Monday night (Hou und), it is a mathematical certainty that Iceman will become our new #1 player with a 1 Point lead over Papa Tuna.  Nice job, Iceman.

Club member Bane was the only player bold enough to switch from The Autopicker’s pick of Arizona to St. Louis on Thursday night.  If you’ll recall, in my weekly e-mail I predicted that quite a few club members would jump ship and switch to the Rams, being that the Rams were at home, had just beaten Seattle, and were only 1 1/2 point underdogs.  Yet, the only person who showed enough courage to abandon the unreliable Autopicker was Bane… and now he has himself 2 extra Points that nobody else got.  Well done, Bane!  That’s a great start to this week.

Week 4 MVP Award Winner–
Annie-mal (30 Points)

Last season, Annie-mal finished with an outstanding Top Five ranking in 4th Place at the end of the season.  The question was– was this an anomaly or had she truly become a power player?  Annie-mal stepped up and answered that question in a big way this week as she dominated the competition to score 30 Points and become our Week 4 MVP Award winner.  Annie-mal’s 30 Points was a huge 5 Points more than the MVP Award Runner-Up, which was shared by rookie sensation Iceman, Rad Dad, and Dixie Slick.  Thus, Annie-mal was only the fourth player this season to score 30 Points in a week.  With this great showing, she has charged up the standings from 22nd Place to 10th Place.  Her next plan– to jump into the Top Five where she belongs.  We will see what this week holds.  Speaking of the Top Five, we had a bit of shuffling take place there this week.  Papa Tuna managed to hold on for a 4th Week at #1, but his plans to match Unknown Artist’s 17 Weeks at #1 appear to be doomed to failure.  The competition has gotten a lot stiffer and the rest of the club has closed the gap with him after he posted a low scoring 17 Point week this past week.  And now, Iceman is sitting in the No. 2 position, only 4 Points behind him.  The way Iceman has been picking these past two weeks, I would have to say that he is actually the favorite to take over the club’s top spot after this coming week.  The only thing that might hold him back is the seemingly lack of competitive games on the picks sheet this week, which means that many players will be picking the same for many of the games.  Currently tied for 3rd Place are the two good captains– Captain Insano and Captain Jack Sparrow, both with 84 Points.  They now stand a mere 8 Points out of 1st Place.  With Captain Jack Sparrow as our defending champion, you can be sure that he is firing the cannons to take back control of his rightful position.  Just making the Top Five this week is The Beav with 82 Points, as he snuck by freespirit and Nighthawk by a single digit.  Looking a little further down the standings, I have to send out an alert to the club to watch out for Rad Dad and Dixie Slick.  They are coming on strong and may find themselves in the Top Five by next weekend.

In Head to Head Weekly, Papa Tuna got embarrassed by Rad Dad 25-17.  As a result, there is now a 3-way tie for 1st Place in Division One between Papa Tuna, Rad Dad, and Captain Jack Sparrow.  Division Two featured a battle of the titans in which Mr. T prevailed over Double-Double 18-16.  Costing Double-Double the match was his mistake of switching from Chicago to Dallas just before kickoff on Monday night.  Knowing that this brought on a Head to Head loss will no doubt sting Double-Double and perhaps haunt him the rest of this season.  With that, Mr. T is now the only remaining perfect player in Head to Head with a 3-0 mark.  Mr. T stands 7 wins away from reaching the elusive perfect 10-0 Head to Head regular season. That’s a tall order, but if anyone can do it, it would be Mr. T.  Division Three actually features two undefeated players, but they both have their records slightly marred by ties.  The Rickster is 2-0-1 and Catfish is 1-0-2.  Even so, if these two great players can stay undefeated it will be an amazing feat.  Finally, in Division Four, Captain Insano and Dixie Slick are currently on top of the division with matching 2-1 records.  Dixie Slick is celebrating after she declawed The Cat last week with ease 21-9.  Moving over to Pro Bowl Team Weekly, we had two absolute shockers last week.  The biggest surprise was when Team Baby Tuna shocked Wild Animals and utterly dominated them 70-41.  That ended Wild Animals’ 5 game winning streak dating back to last season in dramatic fashion.  The other was C Master V’s Dark Lords of the NW knocking off Daddy & His Boys 51-44 and handing them their first loss of the season.  Daddy & His Boys’ team captain Hoosier Daddy has to be frustrated with his bad week last week, but I am sure he will step up and contribute in a big way to his team this coming week.  The other two team matches this week featured narrow 2 Point victories.  And that just goes to show that every Point counts when it comes to helping your team.

I should probably start my Sunday mini-column by talking about my NY Jets.  Yes, they tanked pretty badly today against the SF 49ers, but I actually was expecting it.  Captain Jack expressed surprise on the Club Shoutbox when he found out that I had picked against my Jets, but being that I have Sunday Ticket and have watched all of their games, I knew this was coming.  Anyway, congrats to Niners fans!  Well done.  Getting to club related issues, our Week 4 MVP Award race is going down to the wire on Monday night.  If Dallas wins, Iceman will go back-to-back and be our MVP once again.  But if Chicago wins, Annie-mal will take home the MVP Award.  Should be a great match-up with a lot on the line.  Only 2 players got the incredibly difficult Triple Crown of Atl-St.L-Wash to score 7 Points– Staubach and Iceman.  And only 7 players picked Philadelphia on Sunday night and scored the biggest single game prize with 6 Points– steveluvsal, Bane, Jacuzzi Splot, Annie-mal, Rad Dad, MJD Hogg, and Drummer Boy.  All those players needed a little bit of life injected into their seasons, so great job picking that one right.  Meanwhile, Papa Tuna secured a 4th Week at #1, but the battle for 1st Place has tightened up quite a bit.  He might not be able to hang on to the top spot much longer, with Captain Insano, Iceman, and Captain Jack Sparrow all threatening to take over.  More to come after Monday night’s game…

Week 3 MVP Award Winner–
Iceman (27 Points)

Week 3 came to a dramatic and controversial conclusion on Monday night when Seattle was awarded a TD on the final play of the game that gave them and 8 club members the victory and 3 Points.  While several club members were outraged over the bad calls of the replacement referees, the result stands and Seattle gets credit for the win.  As a result, the replacement referees are now having an impact on The Football Club.  With the assistance of the big Seattle victory, rookie sensation Iceman won the Week 3 MVP Award with 27 Points.  Going into Monday night, Iceman trailed Drummer Boy by 3 Points.  But by coincidence, Iceman had the opposite picks of Drummer Boy with Seattle and Under.  When the game was over, Iceman had picked up 4 Points and moved ahead of Drummer Boy, thus claiming the MVP.  The key to Iceman’s big week in the club was picking both Games of the Week correctly with Atl & Hou.  And not only is Iceman our Week 3 MVP, but he is also our new #3 player in the club.  That’s an excellent showing for a rookie player.  While Drummer Boy is no doubt distraught over the decision of the replacement refs to award a TD to Seattle, he is still happy that he scored 26 Points to become the Week 3 MVP Award Runner-Up and move into the Top Five in 5th Place.  That should be the goal of everyone in the club, to at least reach the Top Five once during the season.  It’s something that is very tough to do, especially with 28 club members playing this season (which is our most since the 2000 season).  Papa Tuna maintained his quest to tie Unknown Artist’s legendary 17 Weeks at #1 record by scoring his 3rd Week at #1 this past week.  Obviously there is a long way to go and there are a lot of tough competitors challenging for the top spot, but the replacement refs helped Papa Tuna pad his 1st Place lead with the Seattle victory.  Although it was only a 3 Point game, there was actually a 6 Point swing between #1 and #2 on Monday night.  If Green Bay had won, Papa Tuna’s lead would have only been 3 Points.  But with the Seattle victory, Papa Tuna’s lead is now 9 Points.  That’s because Papa Tuna had picked Seattle, while club No. 2 player Captain Insano had picked Green Bay.  3rd Place is currently a tie between Iceman and fast-charging player freespirit.  They both have 63 Points and stand 12 Points out of the top spot.  Rounding out the Top Five we have the aforementioned Drummer Boy and Captain Jack Sparrow, both with 62 Points.  Captain Jack Sparrow is starting to pick really well as he threatens to release the Kracken and make his charge for 1st Place.

Moving over to Head to Head Weekly, a few players have remained undefeated and taken control of their divisions.  We have Papa Tuna (2-0) leading Division One, Mr. T and Double-Double (both 2-0) leading Division Two, Drummer Boy (2-0) leading Division Three, and Captain Insano (2-0) leading Division Four.  The Rickster is also undefeated at 1-0-1 and Catfish is undefeated as well at 0-0-2.  In a battle of titans this past week, Hoosier Daddy made Captain Jack Sparrow walk the plank 25-21.  Mr. T sent notice to the club that he means business by beating the struggling Bob Swerski 23-19.  Catfish continued his streak of ties by tying his main rival The Rickster 17-17.  And The Cat squeaked by The Beav 19-17 in a very closely contested match.  In Pro Bowl Weekly, the two hottest teams are Daddy & His Boys and Wild Animals (both 2-0).  Big surprise, huh?  Not really.  These two teams long record of winning club titles speaks for itself and they are both off to a fast start.  Especially Wild Animals, who won the 2011 Pro Bowl Team title and have now won 5 straight matches.  Meanwhile, The Black Pearl and Mighty Megalodons both picked up much-needed wins last week.  I fully expect these two teams to be in full contention for the title.  On the other end of the spectrum, Dark Lords of the NW, Beasts of the Bay, and Team Baby Tuna continue to struggle as they look for their first win.  Two of those teams are matched up against Daddy & His Boys and Wild Animals this week, so they might have to put their hopes on hold for another week unless they can pull off a miracle victory.

On another note, my apologies for the woes of the Autopicker last week.  I was trying to do what was in the best interests of the club when I had the Autopicker switch from NY Giants to Carolina last week.  The Autopicker always chooses the favored team.  When last week started, NY Giants was favored by 3 points.  But then it was announced that 4 of their main starters were not playing, so the Las Vegas line shifted to Carolina and made them 3 point favorites.  That’s why the Autopicker changed over.  I know a few of you were frustrated with the Autopicker.  But keep in mind you can always ignore the Autopicker and send in your own pick for Thursday night.  The Autopicker just exists to save time for both me and all of you so that we usually only have to turn in picks once per week.  And finally, Baby Tuna is ready to meet everyone, now that he has been kept safely at home for a full month.  We will be bringing him to our own meeting at Glen Ellen for the first time on this Wed night.  And we hope to visit Terra Linda for their weeknight meeting next week to see steveluvsal and Dixie Slick.