The Strike is Over - I'm Back!

After a five-week work stoppage in which my pay was held from me we pulled an all- night negotiating session, the money and vacation issue was resolved so I am back at work writing for you.  The NFLPOOLONLINE company were being cheap pricks but I stood my ground and they caved to my demands. Lucky you! 

Since we last spoke, December 5, 2010 many things have happened.... a quick summary...

Week 13 "Fresh" won with a 13-3 record.

Week 14 "Atgel" won with a 13-3 record.  Week 14 also brought us the biggest backdoor cover we have seen in a long-long time.  The Thursday night game, Indy (-2.5) up 30-21 with 4-seconds left, Tenn has the ball on the Indy 3 yard line, it is 4th down ... and Tenn gets the TD as time expires making the game 30-27, Tenn trots out the special teams unit to tack on the meaningless extra point giving Indy (-2.5) a 30-28 win.  In the end it really wasn't a big deal in the pool, only 9 players had Tenn but if you were betting this game and had Indy .. yikes!. 

Week 15 "Scoop" took home the prize with a 12-4 record.

Week 16 "ChadchadChad" the player with three-names (because just "chad" isn't enough) won with a 12-4 record

Week 17 "EdO" won with a 12-4 record. This week also saw the 1/2 point screw job again with two teams losing (or winning) depending on what side you were on by a 1/2 point. Min +6.5 losses by 7 and the Giants -3.5 winning by 3.











Overall "Ghastly" leads the season standings with 151 wins, five ahead of the next closest player.  I mentioned in one of the first newsletters this season that all you needed to do with be in the 8.5 win per week range and that would be good enough to land you in a money spot and "Ghastly" has averaged 8.8 wins a week, the current 15th player and final money spot "Drew" has 139 wins for a 8.1 weekly average hence 8.5 would land you a few schillings.  With just 11 games in the NFL season "Ghastly" has already clinched a money spot, he is assured of  a top 15th finish.  "tabacey" has also all but clinched last place which is even more amazing, he /she is 11 games behind the second to last player with 11 games left.  "tabacey" has been in last place for 9 straight weeks.  Congrats on being a real big loser. With his 154 losses had he took the exact opposite teams this season and bet money on every game he would have tuned a profit.

10 of the 17 weeks this season had the full slate of 16 games, the other 7 weeks featured less games because of bye weeks.  Focusing on those 10 weeks of 16 games the overall weekly win totals of the winner broke down this way:

14-2 Once
13-3 Four-times
12-4 Five-times

The top 15 win money this season up from the top 12 last season.  As the standing are today if you are not in the top 26 you are pretty much SOL to finish in the money.  The 15th spot has 139 wins, in fact there are 6 players with 139 wins, two sit in the 14th and 15th spots while the other four fall behind them because of a weaker tiebreaker score.  Spot 20 has 138 wins and spots 21-26 each have 137 wins. Ge the picture? If you are in spots 27 or lower with 136 wins or less the chances of making up that many games to get into the top 15 with just 11 left to play is slim - very slim.  There are just too many players to jump over at this point? I'd be shocked if the end of season top 15 are not made up of these 26 players:

As of 1/7/2011

1 Ghastly 151 Wins
2 EdO 146 Wins
3 The Highlanders 146 Wins
4 The Dirty712 145 Wins
5 Clay Davis 144 Wins
6 Bob W 143 Wins
7 WVU PETE 143 Wins
8 Gravy Train 143 Wins
9 Mike S 142 Wins
10 Emmado 142 Wins
11 Darby 141 Wins
12 Bolt Fever 140 Wins
13 dflogue 140 Wins
14 Lone Wolf 139 Wins
15 Drew 139 Wins
16 gigi 139 Wins
17 rhonda b 139 Wins
18 Muffin Tops 139 Wins
19 Deano Mite 139 Wins
20 Roy 138 Wins
21 Diamond Jim 137 Wins
22 Asianmommy 137 Wins
23 WATERBOY 137 Wins
24 ENZO 137 Wins
24 G.O. 137 Wins
26 LIZ 137 Wins


Over in the Survivor pool only two remain, "Angry Mike" and "joe e". Heading in week 16 we still had 11 players alive but all 11 lost and for 8 of them it was off with their heads, in week 17 another poor soul left us and now we are left with two.  With 12 teams in the playoffs both players needed to and did hold on to a few playoff teams, "Angry Mike" still has NE, Bal and GB left to pick while "joe e" has NYJ, Chi and Phi left to pick. Chances are this thing could end this weekend and it will end if they both make their picks in the GB-Phi game. If for some reason both are still around next weekend you have to like "Angry Mike" to win it all, he will have NE to pick from and NE has not lost a home game this season.  But my prediction is this thing ends by Sunday night.

So there you have it, The longest newsletter ever, that is what you get when I start getting paid more ...  actually as you probably know there was no strike and no negotiating. I don't get paid shit to do this.  Truth is I ran out of Nomar facts so I had to take a break ... but really, with grad school, a ill dog and the holidays I simply ran out of free time.  But even though I sucked in the pool this season I did not suck in the classroom, Fall semester, three class  A, A, B+ .... and that B+ was only because the professor didn't like me - really! 

Onto the playoffs, see you all next week ..... maybe!

PS
If you were looking to read a column about a writer coming out of the closet, you came to the wrong place. I'm neither gay nor a writer.  


Nomar Fact of the week
Nomar won back to back batting titles in 1999-2000, the last right-handed hitter to win back-to-back batting titles was Joe DiMaggio, in 1939 and 1940.