Metro Football Pool

So not to quote myself… but 2nd sentence of the 2nd point in the inaugural 2018 post: “why would I set the week 3 wager game as the Monday night game (Steelers @ Bucs). Basically any other game that week would be a better one.” So yea… I went ahead and set the wager game to that one… and I’m actually not really sure it’s going to be a good game for Steelers fans (Tomsley?).  Bizarre times in the Wizardly word of Ryan McGregor.

I’m so pumped to have Sandie’s help… what you’ll probably notice is that when she participates in the blogs, they’ll be much better, more thorough, and also offer statistical insight.

So two lessons for this week…

1. Go Big or Go Home

Go Big – The big catch – Keelan Cole’s absurd and crazy one-handed fingertip catch is being called the best catch in the NFL since O’Dell Beckham’s in 2014. And he finished the drive by catching the touchdown pass, tossing the ball to the crowd, and running into the player tunnel.  Jacksonville beat New England 31 – 20. Speaking of gaining… Cassie & Gary were our league BIG GAINERS this week moving up 14 spots… they did ok, but mostly just benefited from a lot of folks having garbage picks in part thanks to the garbage Giants.

Go Home – Vontae Davis – The Bills are so bad that dudes are just starting to retire at halftime… like “hey, it’s not going to get any better the second half of this game or the second half of this season… so why not?”  The Bills are down 28-6 at halftime so he walked into the locker room, said “I’m done,” changed his clothes and went HOME! Silver lining… a spot opened up for Dylan.

Bill Hytree, the lesson is – don’t be a quitter! Yes, you were the loser this week sliding down the ladder 17 positions and posting the low score right behind Huey (Ryan to be specific)… but hey you’re not in last place, sorry Zach.

There’s still hope for you guys just like Browns fans hope for a new kicker. They weren’t the only ones though, I read there was 19 missed kicks this weekend! Did they move the goal posts and not tell them?

2. We all just Have to Stay Humble

FitzMAGIC was back again this weekend! The second best quarterback in the NFL throwing 402 yards and 4 touchdowns! A handful of brave souls picked the Bucs for a point or two… a few daredevils rolled the dice with a 4 pointer. Hmm well they pulled it off…27-21 win over the reigning Eagles! Fitzy also wins the best photo in the NFL this week! Superstars dress like this, not back-ups!

The best lesson and best dressed of the week goes to our league leader Dylan – Grow out the beard, dress cool, borrow some chains, but always remember to stay humble and drink the chocolate milk! He’s off hunting now, but said that he’ll be submitting this week’s picks via an owl that he’s training in the forest… he’s going to stain his selections on elk skin parchment.

Good luck and you never know what will happen next week!

Week 1 is in the books… highlights:

• The reappearing act of Fitz-Magic (aka the David Copperfield of the NFL)
• The Packers didn’t trade the guy who wanted a big contract… a good decision for them… a not so good one for the Raiders.
• Le’Veon Bell is sad and makes people around him sad. Tomsley.
• What would it take for Nathan Peterman to convince the Bills that he’s simply not good at football? If he turned in a resignation letter, would they accept it?

Meghan tops the leader board with a mack-ed out week 1 performance (also, everyone is a winner in a tie). A la Rodgers, she’s looking to get paid this season, which I completely respect and appreciate. She’s already inquired if her proceeds can be given in amazon dollars… the future of all currency. However, it’s no surprise she’s found a way to juggle accurate predictions with the 100 other things that she has in the air at any given moment. Some of them try to rhyme but they can’t rhyme like this… nicely done!

Apparent closet Gruden fanboys, Z & John took huge gambles against one of the best teams in the league. They both generally make good/calculated bets… this one not so much. As Jon Gruden once said: “All it takes is one coach that believes in you.” I still believe in you guys. Believe in yourselves and good luck this week.

As a reminder… when you email me your picks on Thursday, please submit your guesses for which AFC team and NFC team will meet up in the Super Bowl. I’ve added a section to the bottom of the Week 2 pick sheet to make this easy for both of us… wah-wah-wee-wah wowwee-wow! This will be your first and only opportunity to submit guesses for the big bonus points! Also… please send $$ if you still owe.

The long await is over and the greatest time of year is upon us!! While the Metro Football Pool has never quite had the same rules as “Fight Club”… it looks like this year, we could be in store for a huge jump in participation… translation: more money! We’re also making a couple changes…

1. I’m going to have a little much needed help in keeping the blog squeaky fresh… goal being weekly updates. Thank you Sandie!
2. Regular season wager games are going to vary some… dealer picks between prime time Sunday Night and Monday Night (basically whichever game appears to be the tougher one on paper). For example, why would I set the week 3 wager game as the Monday night game (Steelers @ Bucs). Basically any other game that week would be a better one.
3. Going to revisit playoff points when that time of year rolls around… want to keep things fair but also potentially more interesting.

Week 1 Pick sheet has been posted and is due prior to kickoff on Thursday 9/6. We look forward to having everyone back along with some new frenemies. Good luck this season!!

The playoffs were chaos. However, like the flight of Foles, Lee Worley soared like a condor in the final weeks of the football pool. He easily ousted me from 2nd, came within striking distance of 1st… and then went Rocky style for the final upset. Zach had been cruising in 1st for the better half of the season and then in an all too familiar fashion to last year… the Patriots struck again. If you recall, Zach gambled on the other birds in the Super Bowl last season which left him finishing in 3rd (vs. 1st). You need to get this s#@^ right already. Congrats to both of them for top honors and big paydays (yea… we’re only doing candy bars this year).

Theee Huey rounded out 3rd. He becomes the only participant with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Hot Tub victories. We call this the quadruple crown. It’s the most superior achievement and representative of a true badass. In the pool bylaws, the winner of a quadruple crown receives all the money for that particular season. Kidding 🙂

Chris May ended up in 4th… he’s probably just as surprised as we all are!! I guess he only needed to pass Ed McD which is about as difficult as turning off that commercial with Eli Manning holding up ODB in that sweet Dirty Dancing embrace. McD will receive a poster of that Eli/ODB image as a consolation prize to replace the life size Ole Miss Eli which currently resides over his bed. Congrats to both of you guys!

Faulkner crushed the Hot Tub this season. He had already taken everyone’s money before Super Bowl kickoff. Nicely done!

Thanks again to everyone for making it another great season and playing till the end!! And now… sadness for a while as we grasp to fill our Sundays.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!! The Bills made the playoffs, so yea, that’s a pretty weird way to start the year. My first gift of 2018 is this way overdue recap. If you don’t want to get caught up to speed… don’t forget that we play all the way through the Super Bowl. The best weeks are forthcoming with the most opportunity to gain significant ground in that all games are now wager games! Picks are due before the first game kicks off (Saturday).

The biggest takeaways…

• Kyle ping ponged around the Hot Tub until he had enough. He was dangerously close to ousting Hytree for the low score in Week 16 as well. RIP KZ.
• Bautista likely forgot that the pool runs into the post season. That’s the only explanation that I can come up with for whatever he’s been doing the past couple weeks.
• Meghan posted a perfect 152 in week 15 which is more rare than an encounter with a jaguar shark. Dusty couldn’t even muster up 47% of that number on the same week.
• Zach continues to make it difficult to close the gap to 1st and Lee W is apparently no longer content playing the role of Cal Naughton Jr.

Good luck this week! Shake and Bake!!

Standings have been updated for the main pool & hot tub… as well as payouts. Speaking of money… still missing dinero from Ed McD, Gary, and Coulter. Ed… this isn’t one of those bets where you see if you win something and then request to take the entry fee out of those proceeds. Shady.

This season is shaping up to be tighter than my pants this week… I may have to switch to another material other than leather. Good luck and get your picks in on time! As Borat Jagshemash would say… chenqui!

Thanks to ATL’s victory, we have a new leader (albeit for the very short term). More to come, but this week starts the Hot Tub!! I know many participants are pumped for a fresh start, so just remember to include somewhere in your email that you want to chill in there for the rest of the season. The water is a nice temperature… for now.

For the handful of delinquent payment offenders still remaining… time to pay up. I know folks were waiting for Christmas bonuses a la Clark Griswold, but don’t worry… they’ll still come. Make sure there’s an “x” by your name on the standings sheet… if not, I have not received your dinero yet.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and don’t drink too much too early and forget about football picks!! Good luck this week!

… but not so much my effort in the Pool. That’s been more along the lines of complete domination!! Everyone else deserves their moment in the spotlight and what better way to highlight our heroes then in a little table format…

Sorry Ray, your Week 8 to Week 9 story was too good and I didn’t want to pick on Olga (again) over 1 point :). The bright side is that no participant in our pool has performed in a more embarrassing manner than the Bucs this season… it’s a close race between them, Cleveland, and Los Gigantes for worst team (and the Giants at least have a few excuses… like dealing with Ed McD as a super fan). Week 12 starts the Hot Tub so start dialing in now for those in search of a second chance for greatness. Good luck this week!

The crown quickly got too heavy after about a week… I couldn’t believe it and as Yoda would say… that is why I failed.  Jason has soundly moved into 1st place after posting the top score in week 3 and following up with a strong showing in week4.  The force is strong with him this season… not so much the Patriots’ defense.

In week 3, Faulkner bet big against the Cowboys and basically every other team that won… missing the majority of the games is essentially the only way that one can put up 27 points.  Bill and Olga’s week 4 lows weren’t nearly as bad, but they also weren’t very good.  I was just bragging about Olga and now she really opened the door to let Bob catch up!

The high scores for week 4 went to Dusty and the Nelson’s… that sounds like a cool band name. Let the Nelson roller coaster ride begin!!

I still need money from about 6 folks… don’t be that guy! Good luck this week!

More to come, but week 1 scores and week 2 pick sheets have been uploaded. It makes perfect sense who sit-ith on the throne after our first week of action. As a reminder… when you submit your picks for this week, please also provide your NFC & AFC team predictions for the Super Bowl! The Bengals blow.

…Continued…

Week 1 really set the stage for this season… and the results were fairly unsurprising. The Nelson’s wanted to give everyone a fighting chance and started the year on a low note… while last year’s Hot Tub winner put the pool on notice…

BOOM!

Week 2 really separated the men (or women) from the boys (or girls… gotta be PC in this era). In typical NY mode (that’s French for fashion), the G-Men are not looking very manly. The good news is that their #1 fan, Ed McD bet against them and posted this week’s high… and this is a guy that paid up big time for Eli’s game worn Super Bowl XLVI jock strap. Dedication. On the flip side, I can’t remember the last time that I had to write about Rob on the low end of the spectrum (2008-ish?). The early assessment on this underwhelming performance is too much advice solicitation from Faulkner.

Good luck this week… that super genius in 1st is really building momentum!