The Football Club

Week 11 MVP Award Winner–
The Cat (41 Points)

Another Perfect Week was something that I never thought I would see again in The Football Club.  There is just too much parity in the league and it seems impossible to correctly pick an entire week’s worth of games, including 2 Point Spread games and 1 Over/Under.  The odds must be astronomical.  Club legend The Rickster, arguably the best Football Club player of all-time (no matter what Unknown Artist says), had been the only player in club history to achieve the Perfect Week.  The Rickster did it back in Week 6 of the 2004 season, when he correctly picked all 14 games along with the Over/Under to score 39/39 Points.  That was an incredible feat that many of us remember from 8 long years ago. The Cat was able to repeat the feat by picking the same number of games correct last week– 14 in total.  He also selected Triple Jeopardy, which means that The Cat scored 41/39 Points last week (the extra 2 Points are considered Bonus Points).  The interesting thing about The Cat achieving this last week was that he made his picks while he was in the middle of doing hurricane relief work in New Jersey.  At the place where he was staying, there was no TV and no way for him to watch games that were going on.  Besides, he was way too busy helping out the brothers and sisters who had lost their homes.  So, The Cat made his picks and turned them in, not realizing that he was about to post only the second Perfect Week in club history.  In addition to having a Perfect Week, it’s also notable that The Cat posted a 40+ Point week.  That has also only happened a few times over the years.  In fact, the club record for the Most Points Scored in a Week is held by Captain Jack Sparrow, who scored 42 Points back in Week 15 of the 2006 season.  If you are wondering how it is possible to score so many Points and yet not have a Perfect Week, keep in mind that there are more Points available early and later in the season where there are no bye weeks.  Following closely behind The Cat this week were an astounding 8 players who had 30+ Point weeks– Double-Double (36), The Rickster (35), Captain Insano (33), Papa Tuna (33), Catfish (32), Rad Dad (31), Mockytop (31) & Hoosier Daddy (30).  Notice that the Top 4 players are included in that group.  Really, that’s bad news for the rest of the club, who needs to make up ground with only 6 weeks remaining.  But it seemed to be a week where there were very few upsets and many of the favored teams won.  That doesn’t happen too often, as you probably have noticed.

Head to Head Weekly wrapped up this past week with some stunning results.  We have the four division title winners– Papa Tuna (6-2-2), Mr. T (8-2), Catfish (6-2-2) & Captain Insano (7-3).  In Division One, Papa Tuna def. Hoosier Daddy 33-30 in another match for the ages.  That narrow victory gave Papa Tuna his first division title in 6 years.  It also stunned Hoosier Daddy, as it cost him a bye week.  Hoosier Daddy & Rad Dad both ended up with matching records of 6-4, but Rad Dad def. Hoosier 31-27 back in Week 5 to own the tiebreaker.  As our defending 2011 Super Bowl Head to Head champion, Rad Dad was no doubt very pleased to snag the final bye week from Division One.  Moving over to Division Two, alarm bells are starting to go off for Mr. T.  We all remember how he started out the season at a record of 8-0 on his hopeful march toward perfection.  Well not only did he not finish 10-0, but he didn’t even finish 9-1.  Double-Double def. Mr. T 36-29 to send him to a second consecutive loss.  Thus, Mr. T finished with a record of 8-2.  It was still the best record in the league, but Mr. T has to be the most nervous No. 1 seed we have ever seen.  It’s probably a good thing that he has a bye week in Head to Head play this week.  In Division Three, Catfish didn’t like his chances going into his division title showdown with Drummer Boy.  Upon beating him by a score of 32-26 to claim the division crown, Catfish said afterwards at the press conference: “I didn’t expect that at all.  He’s been on fire lately.”  Finally, in Division Four, Captain Insano knocked off Bane 33-26 to claim the division title.  Even so, Bane still was able to claim the final bye week for that division, which should please him greatly.  And so the First Round of the Super Bowl Tournament is all set.  The Super Bowl Tournament Page is now posted if you would like to check out who you are playing against this week.  Only the top two players in each division received a bye week, so all other players are battling it out in the dreaded First Round.  Nobody wants to be sent packing in an early exit from the tournament, so post your best picks this week.  And that could be hard, because I have never seen so many hard picks to make in a single week.

In Pro Bowl Weekly, we had a Hall of Fame record setting week.  As expected, Daddy & His Boys, the class of the league, won once again to reach 8-1-1.  But did anyone take note of the match between Wild Animals and their main rivals Transformers?  The final score was Wild Animals 112 Transformers 49.  It’s not so much the 63 Point victory which stands out, but the amount of Points that Wild Animals scored in the match.  A quick visit to the All-Time Records section of The Hall of Fame reveals that the club record for Highest Team Score in a Week has been held by Mystery Men since 2007 when they scored 110 combined Points.  Well, that record is no more.  Wild Animals have earned another spot in The Hall of Fame, this time by posting the new Highest Team Score in a Week ever with 112 Points.  The Hall of Fame will be updated later this week with this new record by Wild Animals, as well as The Cat’s Perfect Week.  Congrats to Wild Animals for doing so well, with The Cat (41), Double-Double (36) & The Rickster (35) showing that they know how to work together to accomplish something incredible.

As I mentioned on the Club Shoutbox, The Cat had perfect picks going into the Sunday night game.  He got the Thursday night game right and all 11 Sunday games.  And that brings us to Sunday night where he picked… The Ravens.  Well done, Cat!  The Cat is now 13/13 on his picks this week with only 1 game and the Over/Under left.  Will The Cat make history and match The Rickster’s career highlight and the club’s greatest achievement ever by recording another Perfect Week?  We will find out on Monday night.  In case any of you want to cheer him on, The Cat has picked SF Over for Monday night.  That’s probably not going to sit well with Dixie Slick, as she and 4 other players have picked Chicago on Monday night.  It should be a very close game.

The picks today were quite interesting.  The scores going into the Monday night game range from a low of 3 Points to a high of 37 Points.  In fact, 5 players have 30+ Points heading into Monday– Papa Tuna, Captain Insano, Double-Double, The Rickster & The Cat.  21 out of 28 players correctly picked the Triple Crown of GB-Atl-NO.  Only 3 players got both Games of the Week correct with NYJ & TB– The Cat, TK-421 & freespirit.  I must say that I feel ashamed that I picked against my Jets in an important Game of the Week that they ended up dominating.  Bring on the Monday night game!

Week 10 MVP Award Winner–
Drummer Boy (27 Points)

With three great players tied for 1st Place going into last week, all eyes were on these players as everyone wondered how they would do and which player would emerge as the leader of the pack.  But stepping up and shaking up the whole competition last week was Drummer Boy, who ended up owning the spotlight by posting a tremendous 27 Point week on a week when there were a lot of upsets.  That was an excellent score that brought him the Week 10 MVP Award, and suddenly Drummer Boy has shown up out of nowhere to move into 4th Place.  He now stands only 14 Points out of 1st Place.  With things tightening up so much, Drummer Boy is within reasonable grasp of becoming our new top player in a span of only 1-2 weeks.  But how will he handle the pressure?  Other players have reached this high, only to crumble under the pressure and fall back into the pack.  With Drummer Boy’s many years of veteran picking experience, odds are that he will remain in the Top Five at the minimum.  When the dust had settled from the Week 10 games, not much had changed between the top three players.  Hoosier Daddy ended up taking a 1 Point lead, which was enough to make him happy as he was able to claim a 2nd Week at #1.  Papa Tuna is right behind him.  And Captain Insano dropped back to 3rd Place, but he’s not worried since he is only 4 Points back from the top spot.  All three of the top three players made some brilliant picks last week.  Hoosier Daddy & Papa Tuna both picked Houston over Chicago, while Captain Insano picked New Orleans over Atlanta.  Not to be forgotten in all of this is our new No. 5 player– Rad Dad.  Rad Dad was our MVP last week and he followed that performance up with a 20 Point week to get himself back into the Top Five.  Of course, only 5 Points separates Rad Dad from the 10th Place player, so he is going to need to continue to make great picks or he will be sent packing.  Last week, only 2 players got the Triple Crown of TB-Ten-Balt and scored 7 Points– Bane & Fuegoburns.  And only 7 players correctly picked Hou over Chi on Sunday Night to score 6 Points– Hoosier Daddy, Papa Tuna, The Rickster, Jacuzzi Splot, steveluvsal, Iceman & TK-421.  Only 3 players picked both Games of the Week right with Min & Dal– Drummer Boy, C Master V & TK-421.  Our Week 10 Co-MVP Award Runner-Ups were The Rickster and Fuegoburns, who both scored 24 Points.  The Rickster has left over 10 Points on the table this season due to Raiders fans tricking him into switching his picks to the Raiders at the last second.  If it wasn’t for that, The Rickster would be close to the Top Five and threatening for the club title.  He can still win it this season, but The Rickster is going to need to stop trusting Raiders fans to give him good advice about his picks.

We have now arrived at the final week of Head to Head Weekly competition.  Next week, the Super Bowl Tournament will get started.  But before that can happen, we need to figure out the seedings.  In Conference One, the #1 seed and first bye week has been taken by Mr. T, who suffered his first loss last week by a field goal 18-15, thus ruining his perfect season.  Even so, Mr. T can hold his head up high as he can still claim a spot in the Hall of Fame by winning this week and tying for the all-time best 9-1 which is shared by three players.  In Division One, we had four players tied for 1st Place last week.  Those players played against each other in two different matches last week, and the two winners will meet this week to decide the division title.  And surprise… surprise… we have a rematch between Hoosier Daddy and Papa Tuna.  This will be a very interesting match because there is so much at stake– the division title, a guaranteed bye week, and 1st Place in the Points Standings.  This should be a match for the ages.  Over in Division Two, Double-Double has claimed the second bye week.  While C Master V is only one game behind him, there is no way that he can catch up because Double-Double would win all tie-breakers.  But Double-Double can’t afford to rest easy this week.  He needs to go out and try to win his match since the #3 seed is still up for grabs.  In Conference Two, two bye weeks have been claimed but both division titles are still up for grabs.  Drummer Boy has secured a bye week since he is too far ahead for the 3rd Place player to overtake him.  The same goes for Bane.  He has been dominant all season in Head to Head play and has been guaranteed a week off from the tournament, which will be a huge advantage.  I noticed something as I looked over the Head to Head Weekly Current Standings– there are 3 players with 5 game winning streaks.  These players are Hoosier Daddy, Drummer Boy, and Bane.  Add to their names Mr. T, who up until last week had an 8 game winning streak, and you have a list of the four favorites to win the Super Bowl Tournament this year.   But don’t count anyone else out, because really, any player can win the tournament.  It’s just a bit harder to do if you don’t claim a bye week because you have to win one more match when you get stuck playing in the dreaded First Round.  In Pro Bowl Weekly, the big match last week was the showdown between the top two teams in the league– Daddy & His Boys and Mighty Megalodons.  If you’ll recall, in my column last week I spoke about how Daddy & His Boys have been so dominant that they had outscored the entire league for 4 weeks straight.  Well, guess what?  They did it again.  For the fifth consecutive week, Daddy & His Boys claimed the highest team score.  Yet, they did not get a win.  In a shocking turn of events, Mighty Megalodons tied Daddy & His Boys 62-62.  And with that, Mighty Megalodons proved that they are indeed the second best team in the league and worthy of their 6-2-1 record.  Being only one game back with three games left in the regular season, Mighty Megs are now a serious threat to claim the #1 seed in the Pro Bowl Tournament.

Week 9 MVP Award Winner–
Rad Dad (30 Points)

Having reached the halfway point in the football season, it is evident that Rad Dad has already had a fairly good year.  He peaked at #3 in the Current Standings, is tied for the league lead with 12 Games of the Week picked correctly, and finds himself tied for 1st Place in Division One, which is a great follow-up to winning the Super Bowl Head to Head competition last season.  After Week 9, Rad Dad can add one more accomplishment to that list– he is the Week 9 MVP Award winner.  Rad Dad accomplished this by scoring 30 Points last week.  Now he seems to have his sights set on getting back in the Top Five (currently 3 Points out) and perhaps even on becoming the #1 player in the club (currently 17 Points back).  With half a season left, anything is possible.  Speaking of the #1 position in the club, we have something very rare this week in the club, something that has not happened for a long time this late in the season.  Three players are currently tied for the top spot– Papa Tuna, Hoosier Daddy, and Captain Insano (all with 205 Points).  This logjam at the top was made possible by Papa Tuna’s continued struggles, Captain Insano’s consistency, and Hoosier Daddy’s Week 9 Co-MVP Award Runner-Up score of 28 Points.  These three players will probably be battling it out for weeks to come, but the edge has to go to Hoosier Daddy, who has risen up the standings from 16th Place to 1st Place in a matter of four weeks.  Basically, he is on fire right now, and Papa Tuna and Captain Insano could be in real trouble come next week.  We have now had 6 different players reach the #1 spot in the club this season, which helps to keep the friendly competition interesting.  Flying under the radar (except for in Head to Head), Mr. T has suddenly injected himself into the Club Championship discussion by reaching #4 and the Top Five for the first time this season.  Along with freespirit, they both are now only 14 Points out of 1st Place.  Looking down the rest of the Current Standings, we have also seen great play lately from MJD Hogg, Catfish, Dixie Slick (who was Week 9 Co-MVP Award Runner-Up), Bane, C Master V, Bob Swerski, and Jacuzzi Splot.  Look for these players to keep moving up the standings in the next few weeks.  Taking a look at players who have had success or failures with Triple Jeopardy this season, here are the standout players– Dixie Slick (5-0), Annie-mal (3-0), freespirit (3-0), Mr. T (6-1), MJD Hogg (5-1) & Mockytop (5-1).  That’s a lot of Bonus Points that these players have racked up.  Great job!  On the other side of things, Catfish, Bob Swerski & Caveman all have losing records with TJ, so they might want to think about checking “No” next time when presented with the TJ option.

Over in Head to Head, the discussion once again starts with Mr. T, who was facing a dangerous match against The Beav last week.  Mr. T took a 5 Point lead in the match after the Sunday games, yet his perfect record remained at risk because Mr. T had picked New Orleans on Monday night, while The Beav had picked Philadelphia.  Since the Monday game was worth 6 Points last week, The Beav was poised to make a last second upset and claim the victory.  But the Saints pulled through with a big win in behalf of Mr. T, sending Mr. T to a 26-15 victory and increasing his perfect record to an astounding 8-0.  We have never before seen that in the club.  The pressure is mounting with only 2 games left for Mr. T to finish this and claim a 10-0 record along with a spot in the Hall of Fame.  The good news for Mr. T is that he has already won something.  With the victory last week and his new 8-0 record, Mr. T has clinched the Division Two title, a Super Bowl Tournament bye week, and the #1 seed in Conference One during the tournament.  Well done, Mr. T!  Looking at the division leaders, which is critical during this final 2-game stretch, Division One has four players tied for the top spot– Rad Dad, Hoosier Daddy, Papa Tuna & Captain Jack Sparrow.  Only two of those four players will end up getting a bye week.  In Division Two, Double-Double is sitting in the driver’s seat for the remaining bye week at 4-4.  But with so many players right behind him, Double-Double may very well have to win out to secure his place with a week off.  In Division Three, the top three players all won their matches– Catfish, The Rickster & Drummer Boy.  Only 2 of these 3 players will manage to claim a bye week.  And in Divsion Four, the top three players also won– Bane, Dixie Slick & Captain Insano.  Which two will step up to claim a bye week?  We will soon find out.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, there are no bye weeks in this season’s tournament, since there are an even number of 8 teams.  However, it is still important to secure the #1 and #2 seeds to ensure a spot playing against a weaker team in the First Round.  With four weeks remaining in the Pro Bowl regular season, Daddy & His Boys continue to dominate.  For the 4th consecutive week, Daddy & His Boys scored the most Points out of any team in the league.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Daddy & His Boys are playing so well right now, that they could have and would have beaten any team they had been matched up against during the last four weeks.  How long can they keep this high level of dominance up?

Week 8 MVP Award Winners–
Hoosier Daddy & The Beav (26 Points)

Every week in the club, between 1-5 players go against The Autopicker and change their pick for Thursday night.  In a majority of cases (so far), it has paid off and rewarded those courageous players with 2 Points that nobody else gets.  While 2 Points is not a huge amount, it provides a huge boost of momentum heading into the weekend games.  This past week, Hoosier Daddy was the only player in the entire club to switch over from Minnesota to Tampa Bay.  Doing so gave him the 2 extra Points and propelled him to major weekend success.  Hoosier Daddy & The Beav were co-winners of the Week 8 MVP Award with 26 Points each.  With that, Hoosier Daddy has jumped from 16th Place to 3rd Place in a matter of only 3 weeks.  That shows why it is important to never give up.  Because if you can put a few consecutive weeks worth of good picks together, you can suddenly find yourself in the Top Five or beyond.  Like Hoosier Daddy, The Beav has been a powerful force this season.  It’s worth noting that last season, The Beav finished dead last in the club in 19th Place.  He even apologized on the Club Shoutbox to everyone for making such bad picks week after week.  This season, he has turned it all around and is one of the star players in the club.  The Beav is 1 of only 3 players in the club this season to win 2 MVP Awards so far.  And now, The Beav sits at 166 Points, only a single Point out of getting back into the Top Five.  Things are actually so tight right now among the top twelve players that I would not be surprised if either Dixie Slick, Bane, or Rad Dad jumped all the way from 12th Place to 5th Place in a single week.  I also am not sure how much longer Papa Tuna can hold onto 1st Place.  He has already had a career season with 6 Weeks at #1 and with this being essentially an all-star cast of legendary club members, it will be hard to remain in the top spot.  Look for either Captain Insano, Hoosier Daddy, or Captain Jack Sparrow to move into 1st Place after this coming week.

Over in Head to Head Weekly, we had some interesting developments.  We start, as has become the custom, with Mr. T.  He did it again!  Mr. T won another match to reach 7-0.  This time Mr. T’s victim was 2008 Club Champion Nighthawk, who was defeated by Mr. T by a score of 23-8.  Mr. T now stands a mere 3 Head to Head matches away from recording the first perfect regular season in club history.  Next up, Mr. T faces the biggest threat yet to his perfect season.  He will be going up against No. 6 player The Beav.  A quick check back reveals that for the past three weeks straight, The Beav would have either beaten or tied Mr. T, thus ruining his dreams of a perfect season.  The interesting thing about these two players, as the Current Standings reveal, is that only 1 Point separates them in the club.  The Beav is in 6th Place with 166 Points and Mr. T is in 7th Place with 165 Points.  What will happen when these two powerful players collide?  We will find out at the end of Week 9.  Last week, we also had a changing of the guard in two divisions.  In Division One, Papa Tuna suffered a heartbreaking loss to Hall of Fame player Drummer Boy 21-20.  As a result, he fell out of 1st Place.  Taking advantage of the opportunity, Captain Jack Sparrow plugged all the leaks that The Black Pearl got in Hawaii and sailed to his third consecutive Head to Head victory to move into 1st Place at 5-2.  In Division Four, Bane has shocked Dixie Slick and Captain Insano by taking control of the division that they have been on top of for a long time.  Bane is now 4-2-1 and looking to keep on winning.  Keep in mind that there are only 3 weeks left of Head to Head Weekly.  In order to earn a bye for the Super Bowl Tournament, you will need to finish in either 1st or 2nd Place in your division.  Everyone else will be stuck battling it out in the dreaded First Round.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, we have Daddy & His Boys dominating.  Hoosier Daddy proclaimed on the Club Shoutbox: “We are unstoppable!”  I would have to agree.  Last week, Team Baby Tuna had the second highest team score with 59 Points.  But guess what that got them?  A blow-out loss to Daddy & His Boys 72-59.  Tied with Daddy & His Boys in the standings at 6-1 is Mighty Megalodons, but as strong as they have played, they feel like they are in 2nd Place, even if they are tied for 1st.  I say that because if you look back at Mighty Megalodons schedule, their only loss came to Daddy & His Boys back in Week 2 by a score of 48-36.  Mighty Megalodons have not lost since that first week of team play, reeling off 6 straight victories.  But until they can beat Daddy & His Boys in a rematch, they cannot be considered the team to beat.  That being said, their tremendous improvement this season is very admirable.  Well done, Mighty Megs.