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Vol.
8 No. 11 - Nov. 14, 2003
Football Happenings
(
or... can a newsletter take a bye week?) |
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Current Standings at a glance
as of 11-11-2003
|
Name |
W |
L |
T |
Pct |
GB |
1 |
Mrs.
Cap'n Dom |
82 |
54 |
8 |
.603 |
- |
| 2 |
John
Kardel |
79 |
57 |
8 |
.581 |
3 |
3 |
Dick
Vanek |
77 |
59 |
8 |
.566 |
5 |
4 |
Michelle
Brown |
76 |
60 |
8 |
.559 |
6 |
5 |
Andy
Halstead |
74 |
62 |
8 |
.544 |
8 |
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In
This Issue:
Current Standings
The
King is Dead, Long Live the Queen!
Ties, Byes and Defaults. Like Death and Taxes, there are two
things that are certain in this life. Ties and Byes. We've had
some complaints about Ties, and some have made suggestions on
how we could eliminate ties, or at least how to deal with them.
While the concept of Ties is an ugly one when it comes to picking
NFL games, it is, in fact, a reality of the game. Ties happen.
For some a Tie saves you from yet another loss, for others a
Tie takes away another win. Either way, they count the same
for all of us, so what's the big deal? It looks ugly in the
standings, sure. Oh well.
Byes.
Week #10 saw the the last of the Bye weeks for the 2003 NFL
season. I suppose the Bye week is not such a bad idea. When
the league had 31 teams, they had no choice but to include a
Bye week since every week one team wouldn't have a playmate.
But the league has 32 teams now and don't need Byes. Alas, the
NFL discovered that a 16 game schedule spread out over 17 weeks
is a good money maker. 17 weeks of TV money. 17 weeks of Nationally
televised games on Sunday/Monday nights. How long until they
realize that 18 weeks of TV games means even more money? How
about 19? More Byes? Yuck. There's still 14 games being played
over the weekend. That's plenty. Who would really notice if
we cut that number to 12 or 10? Double Yuck! It's the future
tho, folks. Remember you heard it here first. Teams will soon
have 2 Bye weeks each season.
Defaults.
This topic has been beaten to death here, and I'm not about
to re-open that can of worms. I just thought it might be worth
mentioning here, in coincidence with an odd number of Ties this
past week, our most popular Default, Home Teams, finally scored
big this year for those who rely on it. Thanks, in part, to
the three Ties in Week #10, plus the Byes, 9 wins for the Home
Teams meant a very nice 9-2-3 record. Riding the Home Team wave
thru an entire season is often not such a good idea. But picking
the right week to use those Defaults might be as impressive
as picking winners outright. While the King of FBH (JPK)
fell off his throne and handed over his scepter to the Queen
(Mrs. Cap'n Dom), who is our new leader, Dick
"Head of the Family" Vanek picked the best
time to fall back on those Defaults and rode the 9-2-3 record
into 3rd place over Michelle. For the most
part, the rest of us did pretty darn awful last week. Special
mention, however, has to go out to Hope "I don't
need no stinkin' Defaults" Vanek who was the only
9-2-3 person to actually make picks last week.
Question:
When does FBH get a Bye week?
Answer: Umm, maybe it's this week? :-)
P
on the PP
How far will Dallas go?
Last week's PPP question had to do with the surprise
team of the NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys. At the time, they
were 6-2 and are now 7-2. We asked you how far do you think
the Cowboys will go this year. Here's the responses:
Playoffs,
but lose in their first round: 18 votes
One (1) Playoff victory: 8 votes
Won't even make the Playoffs: 4 votes
Super Bowl!: 3 votes
Total Votes: 33
When
the season started, I didn't think they'd win more than 5 or
6 games all season. Parcells is one of the best Head Coaches
the game has ever seen, but I figured it would take at least
a year or two for this team to show any real improvement. Shows
how much I know. He has taken a team with limited talent on
paper, and made them winners on the field. Amazing. My prediction?
They will make the playoffs this year, and might win that first
game, but they won't go much further. Next year, tho... Look
Out!
Halloween
Contest
A Word from the Winner
Thank you for all of your votes. Not many of you have seen
me naked, (Thankfully) which I'm sure helped me gain votes. Now that
I've been naked on FBH it'll be tough for Ralphie to come up with
something new to beat out the Schwade boys next year.
Thanks to
Ralph for the annual entertainment. Keep your chin-up buddy! The reason
you had fewer votes this year is that everyone loved it so much, they
forgot they had to vote. Either that, or they had such a hard time
deciding amongst such great costumes that they developed migraines
and went to bed without voting. -- Bob
NFL
Happenings
The week in pictures (and words)
So
maybe it wasn't an AFC Divisional Playoff Game,
winning in Oakland is still pretty sweet for this Jets fan |
Why do I love the facemask pictures so much? |
Flutie rumbles over the Vikings |
Titans swamp the Dolphins |
Geez, I’m
in a huge picking slump. Lately, Niewy has been happier napping
than helping me make the weekly picks. Sadly, she’s the brains
of the organization. I thought Zsa Zsa was going to sit in last
week, but she split as soon as the petting ended.
But just maybe the real issue is not with me. I think I’m
making some real legitimate selections that aren’t panning
out. If Minnesota cannot beat a QB who is older than me, is that
my fault? If 7-1 Indy loses to 1-7 Jacksonville, am I to blame?
I feel like trotting out the old coach’s bromide: I just call
the plays; the players have to execute them.
Did you realize the Oakland Raiders have not won with the spread
yet this season? They’re 0-8-1 versus the line. Talk about
the “black hole.”
Those
of us lucky enough to stay awake on Monday nights have been treated
to a batch of great finishes on MNF this season, this past week's
Eagles comeback included. Even tho I live in a time zone where games
begin at 8pm, I wish they'd go back to starting these games earlier
so that my East Coast brethren could enjoy the endings of these
games as well.
Happy Birthday wishes to my sweet wife Miss Kimba
who notches another year on Saturday the 15th. You are marvelous,
my darling.
Congratulations and best of luck to Bob the Drummer
for making the big move of taking a position with another color
lab. Look for him prowling the Turnpike.
Oklahoma
Univ. is a 52.5 point favorite over Baylor Univ. on Saturday. The
two will be playing Football, not Basketball.
Perhaps the Colts’ loss last week was because they were looking
ahead to this weekend’s game versus the Jets. Er, mmm, no.
Look for the Beatles “Let It Be... Naked” in stores
next Tuesday. It is the Let It Be album re-produced, stripped of
all the Phil (Ex)Spector-ation. Sir Paul finally gets his wish.
At first glance, it may
look like I didn’t write a column for this week’s FBH.
Actually, I wrote four pages worth on Monday, but it needs to be
distilled into something usable. With the weekend to ponder, it
should be whipped into shape by next issue. Without giving away
too much, at least you’ll see this year’s FBH dada theme
explained.
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