Congratulations to Ted Davies who wins Week 17 with a score of 118.
“After three years of futility, I was finally able to pull out my first ”W”. I understand my victory may need an asterisk because Johnny Jackson beat me by a point but was docked a couple of points for submitting his picks an hour late. I’m sure most of you are disappointed that Johnny didn’t win because his pictures are much better than mine. Hopefully, Jordan will still post a couple of pictures of the league mascot.
I was on vacation last week and had to stop in the hotel’s business center to quickly make my picks - it cost me $10 to make the picks so I still ended up negative for the season. After I got the email from Jordan telling me I had won, I sent Rawley Nielsen a text and he told me he won the whole league by a point. Overall, it was a great week for the San Francisco based league members. Also, I told Rawley that I took a helicopter ride to the wettest spot in the world on my vacation. He attributed my trip there as the motivation for my victory and said every guy dreams of visiting such a place.
Finally I wanted to thank Jordan for organizing the league. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize Ryan Andrus and his whispering eye. This victory coupled with the Cowboy’s collapse gives me a great feeling heading into 2009.”
Awesome work Ted. As a steady performer in this league for years, this was a long time coming. So, Ted was right, Johnny did have the highest score, but I have to maintain the integrity of the pool (don’t roll your eyes) and make sure our winners are getting their picks in on time. As many of you know, I am very flexible with people getting their picks in late, just not our winners. The moral of the story, be late with good picks, just not too good.
After Johnny, our top scores for the week were Rawley Nielsen (more on him later) and Mike Rich, both with 116 points. Then it was Austin Archibald with 113 (more on him coming up as well). Our low score for the week, by a long shot, was Brigg Bunker with 50. Way to finish on a high note Brigg. Just carry that momentum into next year. We also had a whole bunch of guys take the week off which was disappointing. Whatever happened to sprinting through the finish line?
Alright, I know the suspense is killing you so I will just get to it. We had the most unbelievable finish in the history of the pool as Rawley Nielsen edged out Austin Archibald by one point to win the title! Unbelievable. Seventeen weeks, 1500 points, and it comes down to one point. We almost had the two heavyweights battling to a draw, kind of like this fight:
I felt really bad for Austin who had basically been in the lead most of the season. I actually added up the scores right next to Austin so he got to see the carnage first hand. He took it a lot better than I did. He may have been a little more reserved about it because I don’t think he even realized it was football games he was picking, so I don’t know how into it he was. Regardless, a big congrats to Rawley Nielsen, a tremendous tale of fight and determination.
The other huge story for the week, and season, was the battle for third place. It came down to three formidable competitors: Tony Hull, Dave Bryan and Ryan Baughman. And the winner is (drum roll please)…Tony Hull! Fittingly, all three of these guys had scores in the last week one point from each other. Tony ended up winning by three points over Ryan, who had the dubious distinction of finishing in the worst spot in the pool, 4th place (to the delight of many). In fact, if we took a poll of who people preferred to end up there, Ryan would win in a landslide. No doubt about it. Either way, Happy Birthday to you Ryan (it was actually yesterday). Wish I had a better present for you, but this is all I got.
Other noteworthy accomplishments:
- In the “Rumble for Ruth’s Chris”, Lance beat Clarke going away.
- In the “Fight at Foulger-Pratt”, Adam Davis handily beat Justin Alanis. Justin did give it a valiant effort by changing his picks hourly in the last couple of weeks, but to no avail.
- Yours truly crept into the top 10. I know it’s not really noteworthy, but I wanted to throw it in there.
Anyway, I plan on sending out the Year-End Awards in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that (yes that means you will be getting at least one more e-mail from me. Sorry.)
Speaking of which, there is still a handful of guys who haven’t paid their entrance fee yet. Please don’t make me hunt you down; it’s a pain in the neck for you and me. If you have paid recently or plan on paying shortly, please send me a note to let me know. Thank you.
Anyway, hope everyone had a good time this year. Here are the final standings.
Were there any Cougar fans NOT cheering for the Utes last night? Has any team from the Beehive State had a more impressive win?
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