2001 Football Pool Weekly Update

Week Seven

"NO!" --Cook

"(That's New Orleans.)"

It made more sense the first way.

"Good to see a steady drop-off in players. I'm looking for the one catastrophe that catapults me to my rightful place atop your group of the best and brightest handicapping minds this side of Salinas." --Jenks

The catastrophe came. Oh did it come. And it took Jenks and his Saints pick with it. All over the Ducey pool, the prophets were out in full force, but the predictions all suffered from a lack of accuracy...

"At least 55 people will lose this week. NEW ORLEANS" --Paulsen
"Cleveland Browns? More like Charlie Browns if you ask me. BALTIMORE" --Manoux~Alf (RIP)
"This week it is all too clear that REVENGE will motivate the Colts to pummel the Patriots. INDIANAPOLIS" --Zopff

Even when the hand of fate intervened, it worked the devil's magic...

"I've changed my mind. I'm a woman. It's my prerogative. 86 the Titans. Plug-in the slightly-less-scary Saints. Thank you." --Huber

86. With Huber's defection to the New Orleans Saints, she made it an even 86 players. And they were all 86ed. But they were not alone. Indy, Baltimore, Carolina, TampaBay, Detroit, Denver, and the Giants all took a loss. The numbers were staggering. 160 wrong picks. Nearly 88% of people in this pool could not pick a team that would win on Sunday.

That's bad. But is it the worst ever? In the regular season, yes. Last year in Week 17, 26 out of 40 people picked incorrectly as the Bears stunned the no-longer-playoff-bound Lions, but that was only 65%. Two years ago, however, there was an equally dark day. 1999 Football Pool, Week Five. 118 losses out of 134 picks. Have you done the math? 88% as well.

The only other week worse than this one percentage-wise: Superbowl 2000. Seven remaining contestants. Seven people took a loss. Only one could afford to take a loss and not be eliminated. That made him the lone champion. Mr. Weene.

"Weene 'The Swami' says... WEEK 7: NEW ORLEANS" --Weene (2 losses)

A lot can change in a year.

So who escaped?

Picking StLouis on the road on grass was risky but paid off. Picking winless Washington was crazy but also paid off. And the one sure-thing, the perennial good guys? The Dickshot Girls pointed out what we have known for over two years now...

"Tennesseein' is Tennebelievin'" --McKinney, 9/21/99

With only 22 people NOT taking a loss, we had a big shake-up on the leader board.

The standings...
00 LOSS -- 11 Mint Condition
01 LOSS -- 72 Slightly Flawed
02 LOSS -- 70 In Need of Repair
03 LOSS -- 48 Totaled

Nearly one-fourth of the pool has fled. Most of them were this week. Say a quick ta-ta. That's all we have time for. Actually just one "ta" each:

"Ta" to Abrams, Beck, Bekiaris, Cattoggio~Sr, Comerford, Corboy, Forte~W, Kramer, Lord~W, Manoux~Alf, McCabe~E, The Michalaks, Miller~M, 1999 Co-Champion Mollen~K, Namihira, O'Connor, Rice~M, Rudofsky~G, Rudofsky~Jas, Schwartz, Schwing, Shamos, Sitzman~D, Smith, Stein~T, Tabata, Winer~Jas, and Zisk~C.

"No, it's not as fun to run a pool that you're no longer in." --John Ducey

Oh yeah, and I'm out too. But don't worry, this thing will continue on to its natural conclusion. (Now I wish we had donated ALL of the money to charity.)

Do's and don'ts short version:

Don't pick the Thursday game. Don't repeat picks. Don't miss the deadline.

This past week, all three of those warnings were ignored by at least one person. Three people did not put their pick in on time and took an automatic loss before the carnage even began. There's a lot of money at stake here. If you don't want to play any more, let me know. I need back in!!

May the best person win (now that I can't).

ducey

Pool birthdays this week
10/27 LaRose (RIP)
10/30 Smith (RIP)
10/30 Kennedy

NewOrleans	NewOrleans	NewOrleans	Indianapolis	Baltimore	Tennessee	Carolina
Beck Bekiaris Comerfd Corboy Kramer Lord~W Michlks O'Connr Schwrtz Schwing Zisk~C Barley Benedict Berg Bishop Allan Brown~D Brown~S Cattoggio~Jr Cook DeRosa Dever Dickshot~J Doyno Dresden Ducey~E Durham Eckholm Fenton	Forte~R Geyer Glickman Gubbins Haynes Hochman Huber Jacobson~R Jenks Jensen~S Keen~W Kelly Kennedy Kessler~C Laskawy Lee Levy Lord~P Lozano Lund~M Mabrey Manoux~An Manoux~P McAteer McKenzie~C McKenzie~R Meister Meyers Miller~D	Mollen~T Oberheu Ocko Olson~K Olson~R Ortiz Paulsen Purtell Ramsden Rice~G Rice~R Roberts Saiet Schoenstein Silverstein~A Silverstein~J Silverstein~Mar Sitzman~L Uliana Vaughan Walsh Weene White Winer~A Winer~Jay Young~F Zelman~A Zelman~D 86	Duce~Jo Namihir Rice~M Shamos Sitzm~D Andrew Baker Clark Corwin Crudo DeSantis Holzmacher Jeser Joe Johnson Keller Manoux~T Racculia Rich Schaffer~G Schaffer~J Sitzman~R Sommers Stein~J Stendardi Sulatycke Sullivan~E Taylor Young~P Zopff 30	Forte~W Mano~Al McCbe~E Miller~M Mollen~K Rudof~Js Winer~Js Bartolucci Brightbill Graham~K Lazarus Mandel Price~R Ramsey Rashkin Rattner Rosenthal Sheron Stein~J&S Sylwesters 20 StLouis Turney~K Silverstn~Mt Rudofsk~Ju 3 Washington Sullivan~J 1	Stein~T Carey DickshotGirls Dillman Drier Gomez Jacobson~J Lieber Lund~C Lund~K Manoux~C McCabe~B Mednick Patterson Speichers Sullivan~N Vega Zisk~R 18 GreenBay Abrams Keen~A Ducey~Ji 3 Detroit Jaffe 1 Denver Blake 1	Cattog~Sr Rudof~G Manoux~J Rudofsk~Jam Spina Victory 6 TampaBay Crowley Gensler Goldstein Price~E 4 KansasCity Smith Tabata Jensen~C VanZandt 4 NYGiants McNenn Herschenfeld 2 NoPick Nyholm Rivas Ruehl 3

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