Down
to the wire... that's the way we like it here at FBH. The
season came down to not only the final weekend, but the final
Sunday and Monday Night games. Tom Jones Schwade
had Philadelphia over Tampa on Sunday while the other two had
Tampa. Late in the 4th quarter of a meaningless game for both
teams, it looked like Tampa was going to cover and Tom would
be out of luck for 1st place. But when the smoke cleared on
Sunday Night, Philly came back to cover and Tom had tied
Pete, both one game
behind Kenny. All three of the top guys, Kenny D.,
Tom Jones, and
Pete had originally taken
Baltimore over Minnesota (+10) on Monday. Given the option to
switch their picks, Tom passed and stuck with Baltimore,
giving up the chance to tie for 1st, instead hoping to finish
2nd. Pete, however, showed some kahunas and went for the tie.
With about 2 minutes to play in the MNF game, it looked like
Minnesota would lose by only 9 and thus force a tie-breaker
for 1st place. But a lucky fumble led to a meaningless TD for
Baltimore and Pete found himself in 3rd place. Nice try, Pete.
And so, FBH Champion
for 2001 is KEN DAVIS !!!!
Congratulations
Ken! A hard earned, and well
deserved, victory. Ken finished the 1st quarter in a tie for
20th place, but slowly made his way to the top. Scoring 10
wins in weeks #10, #14 & #15 certainly helped, but mostly he
just kept putting up good numbers and never had a terrible
week thru the season. Tom had only two 10-win weeks (weeks #13
& #15) but he posted a nice 12-3 in week #17 to secure 2nd
place. While Pete had only one 10+ win week (11 wins in week
#10), he was in first place at the end of the 3rd quarter, but
a late season swoon was his demise. Even still, these three
deserve recognition, since they did manage to beat all the
rest of us.
Tommy "Close, but no cigar" Shiflett,
the 2000 Champion, closed strong with an 11-4 final week to
almost crack the money-board, but fell just short with a 4th
place finish. And rounding out the top 5 are Alex
"Father Commish" Bunting and
John "Mr. Freeze" Kardel.
Mr. Kardel deserves special recognition as this year's
"comeback kid". John was in dead last, 45th place, at the
close of the first quarter. He was tied at 23rd at the mid-way
point, and found himself in 8th after 3 quarters. He won his
division twice (QTR2 & QTR3) and is currently tied for first
in it for QTR4. Way to go, Veteran!
Closing out the Top 10: Ron "Juggernaut" Hade
declared several weeks ago that the "Juggernaut" was on his
way up. He lived up to that nickname by going from 33rd, to
23rd, to 17th at the close of QTR1, 2 & 3, to eventually
finish up in a tie for 7th overall. Joining him in 7th place
is one of two impressive newcomers to the FBH family,
Tom "not Schwade" LeDuc. Tom
started fast, then faltered, but finished strong to make the
top 10. He was T5 (QTR1), 13 (QTR2) and 20 (QTR3) and even
spent a couple weeks in first place overall early on.
Finishing 9th is another FBH Cadet, Jim "Bob's first roommate
other than Ralph" Dodaro, who
apparently was so afraid of losing to his wife that he didn't
let her participate with him in his rookie FBH season. Maybe
next year, Jim.
Taking 10th place is a man who's not afraid to allow his wife the chance
to beat him, Will "Football Guru" Wong.
While Will was able to hold off the challenge from wife
Beth, he was also able to rule
as "Mark Roth" in our Yahoo Fantasy side project. In that
league, Will basically kicked ass all season riding on the
back of Marshall Faulk. His closest competitor (Ralph)
was able to put up a good fight in their only regular season
meeting (Will beat me by 0.1 point), but Will kicked my ass in
the Championship Game, so he deserves full credit for his
accomplishments this season.
In the other money winning positions...
Mikey
"Re-" Joyce takes
home the hardest award to get, the soon to be renamed,
Joe Nieuwendyk Award for finishing in
25th Place. As is usually the case, this award requires a
tie-breaker, which is simply, alphabetical order. We take the
people who are tied for 25th place and sort their names
alphabetically. At that point, the person who's name is in the
25th position takes the cash. It's not an award anyone can
make an effort for, as this year's winner finished with a
115-121 record. And if any one of the three people
Mikey tied with (Ralph,
Rob T., Audrey)
had won just 1 more game, they would have tied with the people
in 24th (116-120), making it a tie for 25th with those people,
and won the money by finishing 25th alphabetically. But if
Mikey had done that, he would have lost the money. It's a game
of inches. (See chart below)
And last, and maybe least, The Dane: Congratulations go out to
the new king of the basement, Cap'n Dom!
In an amazing turn-around, the Cap'n went from First to Worst
in the span of one season. Let's not mention that he almost
won it all in 2000, finishing a very close 2nd. But let's
mention that he was actually tied for First Place at the end
of Week #3 in 2001! [In that same week, Mr. Kardel was in last
place.] The Cap'n tried valiantly to claw his way out of the
cellar, but Dyalan "No one remembers who came in next
to last" Beamon held him down
and will become that someone no one will remember. Sorry, man.
[
Suggested nickname for 2002: Cap'n Dane
??
[
A lesson in taking every pick seriously: Week #17, it's Sunday
morning, I have really nothing to play for in FBH, so I'm
making my picks in typical slip-shod fashion. For some reason
I click on New Orleans over San Francisco. Immediately, I
sense this is a silly pick and tell myself to go back and
change it. I then shrug it off and hit the Submit button.
Later that day, I see SF is winning by about 35 points and I
tell Roy about how I meant to change that pick, but blew it
off. Well, I finished the week with an amazing (for me) 12-3
record, my only other losses being Washington losing by 1/2 a
point and Tampa Bay choking in the final 2 minutes on Sunday
night. Still, I should be happy with my 12-3, right? Wrong.
That one game cost me winning my division quarter (instead I'm
in OT) and also finishing in a tie for 25th, and winning that
money. That one pick cost me $50. Ouch.
[
We cannot close out the FBH 2001 Season without mentioning the
passing of one of our own. The FBH Family lost Rich
Brown this season. To Roy, he
was Uncle Rich, and the main reason Roy grew up a Jets fan
instead of a Giants fan like his Dad, Alex. When Uncle Rich
passed away a few months ago, Roy asked me not to mention it
here as he had hoped to write a proper obituary. I'm sure
we'll get a tribute from Roy in time, but I didn't want our
season to end without a mention here. I know Uncle Rich will
be missed by FBH.
[
Here's a thought about changing the name of the 25th Place
award. It really doesn't have a name, anyway. We sort of named
it after Joe Nieuwendyk (he wears #25) when we came up with
the idea, and so that's what I called it earlier in this
issue. But since the last place award is named for someone who
frequents the basement, why not honor someone who frequented
the middle of the pack for over 13 years of FBH picking... the
Uncle Rich Award.
[
We want to thank everyone for another great season of
competitive football picking! It was a bit of an off year for
this website, but it was certainly a good year for
competition. We'll be right back at this league next season,
and everyone who participated this year is assumed to be
involved next year as well. When Week #1 of the 2002 NFL
season comes around, just make picks and you're in. If you
know of others who would like to participate, whether you want
them to or not, let us know and I'll add them to the list.
