Not much change from last week. The law firm of Andren, Honcoop, and Bunting still hold strong at the very top and Roy has his faithful companion Emma The Cat along for the ride. Still in 5th is Mike Hogg and cracking the Top 5 this week is Tom Schwade. Feels like it's been a long time since I saw Tom's name anywhere near the top of the standings. Shows what 15 years of not having an NFL team in Los Angeles can do to people who live there. Although rumors abound of a possible Los Angeles Jaguars move.
Overall, we're doing very well. It must be an easy season so far. Last week, 23 people who made picks had double-digit wins. The best record was turned in by none other than Ralph Shupp. [Hey that's me!] Not able to brag about myself very often, my 14-2 is the best record so far this year. I got the Pittsburgh loss to Cincinnati wrong, but so did 30 of the rest of you. So really I should be 15-1. It's only fair.
Joining Dave in the FBH dungeon now is Mikey Joyce who turned in an embarrassing 3-13 last week. Ouch! Mikey was the only person without Default picks to have double-digit losses last week.
Last week's picking trends: We got 38 sets of picks. 31 people correctly took the Giants -6.5 over Tampa Bay, while only 8 people correctly took Cincinnati +6.5 over Pittsburgh.
Good luck to everyone next week!
And now, this week's Mellenhead post-game celebration photo:
PPP
Universal Jets Health Super Care Bowl?
The name of this league is Football Happenings. This page is dedicated to the league and football in general. It's not called Politics Happenings, so I will NOT be going on a long diatribe about the pluses and minuses of the concept of Universal Health Care in America. Just a quick little story about the current state of our health care system.
Recently my lovely wife Sonya (who's birthday is today and I should be helping her celebrate instead of writing an article for FBH) recently signed up for Vision Insurance thru her employer. Vision insurance? Cool, she needs an eye exam in the worst way, as a part-time glasses wearer. Insurance company says, "go get an eye exam at one of our doctors, and it's on us!" Sounds great. We go see the optician, pay our $30 co-pay and she gets a very standard eye exam for new glasses. Three months later, we get a bill from the insurance company telling us that of the $150 eye exam she had, they are going to pay out a total of $19.94. What?! Twenty dollars toward an eye exam?! Maybe in 1970 one could get an eye exam for $20 but not in 2009. Not even close. So the big question is, why even bother having insurance? The $20 they put out toward her eye exam won't even cover the cost of our premium for a month. So let's see if I have this right; I give you 10% of my paycheck, you give me next to nothing if I dare to make use of the services you claim to provide. That seems fair.
OK, this is a drop-in-the-bucket, not even a blip on the radar of the bullsh*t that we in America call Health insurance. This system is broken, so very very broken. I don't care which side of the political fence you sit on, you can't tell me with a straight face that we do NOT need a major overhaul of our healthcare system. NOW!
I will step off my soapbox now (but carefully, because if I hurt myself, my insurance company will probably charge me for the right to feel pain).
When asked with tongue-in-cheek which will happen first, Universal Health Care in the USA or a Jets Super Bowl victory, you responded...
23 people said a Jets Championship would happen first
8 people said Universal Health Care would happen first
Personally, I don't see either one happening in my lifetime, but I'm a pessimistic Jets fan. When it comes to health care, I'm a realist.
Comments:
Mike Hogg (Scotland) (voted Jets SB): What is all this guff about Death Panels anyway? The British National Health Service is the only thing the British Government has done that has significantly affected every member of the populace since we gave up the Empire!!! (rant over!)
Eric Honcoop (The Netherlands) (voted Jets SB): For Universal Health Care you come to the Netherlands, for victory you go JETS JETS JETS!
Doug Manuel (voted Jets SB): Neither will be in my lifetime. [Editor: Doug and I are of the same age, and apparently the same mind set.]
Jack Akin (voted Health Care): Only because I think Healthcare reform will happen this century.....
Dyalan Beamon (voted Jets SB): It won't be long though. A new generation is rising as the old guard fades. Common sense.
Jeff Vanek (voted Jets SB): Jet fans never die, Obama fans are dying by the second.
Dave Schwade (voted Jets SB): I voted Jets, but truly I can't wait until we get universal health insurance, then universal auto insurance, then universal housing, then universal vacation allotments from the government. What a wonderful utopia when we don't have to choose what we want any more. [Editor: Oh David, such a Republican. We love you anyway!]
Wouter van Zutphen (voted Jets SB): Jets are only 17 games away ;-)
Bob Shupp (in response to me poking fun at him for going off-topic with his comment last week): Oh, am I supposed to direct my comments to the question? I didn't realize. Is this new?
No, Boobie. That's never been the stated purpose of the comment box. I was just taking the opportunity to take a shot at my older/wiser brother. We encourage any and all comments made here. Your comment doesn't need to be in response to the PPP question. It's just that last week every comment made DID have to do with the PPP question, except yours. Next week I will smash the Billy Blast-off you bought on eBay to replace the one I smashed when we were aged 7 and 3.
Rex Ryan has all us Jets fans in a frenzy. New head coach, new rookie QB, new Defense, new attitude, new optimism. Along with the fresh trash talk, Gang Green is off to a 3-0 start and we are just giddy about it. With any luck, the fun will last and the Jets will have a bright future. Personally I'm going to try to keep it in my pants until at least December, the traditional month for a Jets swoon into watching the post-season on TV. One day the Jets will break from tradition and have a late-season surge. Is that day upon us? Stay tuned...
[ To end the game last week against the Jets, Titans Quarterback Kerry Collins had 13 straight incomplete passes while his team was only a TD behind. Clutch! But all credit must go to the Jets Defense, who for the second week in a row, eschewed the traditional "Prevent defense" as their opponent was attempting a last minute drive to win the game. Instead of a 2-man pass rush and Zone backfield in which any skilled QB (or even Dave) can drive his team for the winning score, the Jets blitzed the crap out of Collins who had no choice but to throw the ball to the first receiver he saw off the snap of the ball. This same strategy worked against Tom Brady and the Patriots. The rest of the league needs to wake up and take notice and finally realize that THIS is the way to go in the final two minutes of a close game.
[ The Seattle Seahawks have now proven that their uniform designer is, indeed, color-blind. First we had the Monochrome uni's for the past few years, and on Sunday they added Neon Green to the monochrome color scheme. Makes one long for the days of Black & White television sets.
[ Last week here we talked about the opening of the new Cowboys stadium and the amount of fans turned away at the door even tho they paid for Standing Room Only tickets. Some clarification has since come forth... these "Party Passes" as Jerry Jones calls them, apparently DO NOT guarantee entrance into the stadium. Huh? In other words, last week Jerry charged 10,000 loyal Cowboy fans $29 each to MAYBE get inside, only to refuse admission at the door. Now THAT is a brilliant money-making scheme. Or is it a money-making scam? Scheme, scam, potato, potatoe. It's all in which side you're on.
