In This Issue:

• FBH Takes A Wife - FBH-Y: FBH + YAHOO! = A Perfect Marriage?
• 2009 Final Standings - Yes, We Had A Winner!
• Extra Points - Fastest Three Minutes In Football Happenings

To Make Picks: Go To YAHOO PICK'EM

FBH Takes A Wife
FBH-Y: FBH + YAHOO! = A Perfect Marriage?

  Welcome to FootballHappenings for our silver anniversary, 25th season!  (Cue trumpets!)

 "It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill..."

 Ralph, our esteemed AssCommish, and I decided to move the picking/standings/comments parts of our league to the Yahoo platform to give everyone a few more features to tinker with and to give Ralphie more time to spend creating content by removing the demands of compiling picks into standings.  The world-famous www.footballhappenings.com web site will still be up and running to provide that special experience you grew up with.  (The old blog page, however, is kaput.)

 We're still picking against the point spreads.  It looks like the final lines will be set by Yahoo on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (we'll see as we go).  I'm not sure if we're going to have ties (Will) but it doesn't appear so (as the standings are won-loss only).

 Nicknames have always been part of the rich FBH tradition so feel free to be creative with your entry name (just don't take "Juggernaut", "Tom Jones Schwade", or "Mrs. Cap'n anything" unless you are licensed to do so).  For those who are unfamiliar, you can edit the name you use for your picks and your fantasy profile (two distinct places) where you can even post an image or create an avatar.

 Yahoo has some cool features like expert and group pick data, historic performance, and the ability to see who picked which teams (after the games have begun).  Will it help you do better than last year?  Of course not.

 One important change for this season - league management won't have the ability to assign default picks if you forget to pick.  In that case, you lose the games you didn't pick.  However, you can set your picks for the entire season right now and change them later.  So, if you want to set up home team defaults, go make all the picks now just to be safe.  You can also set your account to have Yahoo send you reminder e-mails when games are coming up (since they have games when they shouldn't have games nowadays).

 We have tried to invite all the old FBH'ers but please feel free to reach out to those we might have missed.  Members of your family are welcome to join as well (give them the league ID 30543 and the password: yinyang) but, frankly, dastardly language and adult situations and lyrics to bawdy sea shanties do sometimes crop up so be advised.  (I was going to seek a Motion Picture Association of America rating but Jame talked me out of it.)  For example, this one time, our bongo playing friend Boobie was streaking on the ice during a hockey game...

 Drop Ralphie or me an e-mail or just make a post if you have any questions or suggestions.

 Good luck and best wishes for a successful and fun season.  Until next time -- from the love-beaded FBH headquarters (and the northern satellite substation of RalphWorld) it's little kisses, little kisses and ciao ciao!

2009 Final Standings
Yes, We Had A Winner!

 If you're asking yourself why do we need to switch to a site like Yahoo! to maintain the ever-changing standings and weekly picks, then you obviously have NOT been part of this league for very long. We generally start strong, fade around October, and completely vanish when it comes time to declare a winner and post final standings. Well, that won't be the case this season, as Yahoo! will be compiling and posting our standings in an extremely timely manner from Week 1 thru Week 17. Yippeee!! (Um, I mean, Yahoooo!)

 And what of this page? It's not leaving, no way. It's been a labor of love since 1997 keeping this page as THE place to go for our humble little community and I have every desire to keep up that tradition for years to come. As Roy mentioned above, the switch to Yahoo! for our picking and standings needs frees up at least 2-3 hours per week of MY time; time that has always been devoted to FBH but spent compiling, formatting, and posting weekly standings. Instead, that time can be now spent writing about the standings and the NFL and whatever else I can find an opinion on each week. Maybe even a Halloween issue again (no promises).

 Meanwhile, we have some unfinished business from last season. What should come as no surprise to anyone who participated last year is that DANNY "Terrible Towel" ANDREN took home the proverbial FBH Championship Trophy for 2009. The man simply lead the league from pole to pole. After Week 1, he was tied with eventual 2nd Place runner-up, Roy "The Comish" Bunting and was in first place every single week thru the rest of the season. Never before have we had someone assume first place after one week and stay there for the remaining 16 weeks following. Way to go Danny, very impressive.

 Taking home the fictional European Cup was none other than the great Wouter van Zutphen who narrowly beat out his fiance Leontine Honcoop and friend Mark van Miltenburg, all of whom finished in the Top 8 overall. What is it these Dutchies know that we Americans don't know? Maybe following "football" in it's less popular form all these years has been the answer all along?

 Rounding out the Top 5 is the lawfirm of Shupp, Shupp & Shupp. While Danny made history by leading from start to finish, not since the early days of FBH when everyone in the league was named either Bunting or Vanek have we seen 3 people with the same last name finishing in the Top 5. Ellen "Mellenhead/Queen Vic" Shupp finished tied for Third Place with Wouter, while brothers Boobie and Ralphie finished tied with each other for Fifth Place along with the aforementioned MvM. That's the best combined finish for the Brothers Shupp in FBH history.

FBH 2009 Final Standings (Top 10)

 To see the entire Final Standings for 2009 and see where YOU placed, click the Current Standings icon at the top of this page. The weekly standings for 2010 will of course be found on our Yahoo! site.

 Good luck to everyone in 2010!

Extra Points
The Fastest Three Minutes in Football Happenings

 As if there was any question to the loyalty of N.Y. Jets fan Wouter van Wouten, these recent photos should dispell those who wonder... this is his house in The Netherlands with decorative garage door... nice job, Wouter!

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