Week 18 & Playoffs 2021

Dear FTPL members,

Welcome to our PLAYOFF website! A full explanation of how the playoff pool works can be found when you click on the “MY PICKS” tab.

Before we jump in, Mark and I would like to give a big shout-out to all of those who felt it necessary to return some of their winnings back to us in the form of a gratuity aka tip. It’s truly appreciated, and it makes all our hard work and hours spent worth it in the end.

Sadly the last week of the season wasn’t a great one for the league and our plus .500 streak of seven weeks has come to an end. The final total for good versus bad weeks is 11-6-1 with the 1 representing the one week we were at directly 50%. That’s pretty damn good I must say. Overall, we finished at 51% for the season, a full 2 percentage points better than last season. And since I started keeping track in 2015, the grand total is right at 50% for the last 120 weeks, which I guess makes sense mathematically…

1659 wins total out of 3435 games = 48% (216 people times 16 games, minus 21 no-picks on Saturday)

36 people had 10+ wins (which quite different from last week’s total of 98 people)

121 were 9-7, 8-8 or 7-9

59 had 6 or less

Congrats to FAJR for his 13-3 record and his Week 18 win. Going into the final game on Sunday night, three people had 12 wins and the two scenarios came down to who covered (obviously). If LAC covered the -2.5 spread, BIGNUTZ would win. If LV covered, we would have a tie between BPGRAZ7 and FAJR, and that’s exactly what happened. And if you don’t how that game ended, then you’re not a fan of the NFL or dramatic finishes! As far as the total score tiebreaker is concerned, that was exciting as well. BP guessed 48 and FAJR had 51, meaning it was a classic over/under situation… anything 49 or below was a win for BP and anything over 50 was a win for FAJR. Halfway through the 4th quarter, LV hit a FG making it 29-14 (for a total of 43). Another TD would put it over and sadly for BP, one long 17-play drive later, the Chargers made it 22-29. After quickly stopping the Raiders with a 3-and-out, they got the ball back and tied the game on the very last play of regulation, sending the game to an insane OT. Do yourself a favor and watch the highlights!

For this week’s “getting to know your fellow members” section of this email, I don’t know this guy, but he’s a buddy of Mark’s, so enjoy…

FAJR is a little man, one of the smallest, but not technically considered a midget. However, his size doesn’t reflect on how much of a great guy he is. In addition to being a great guy, he’s a big drinker who loves to drink but he doesn’t actually have a go-to drink. It’s like he spins a wheel in his head and has whatever it lands on, he orders, and then spins again. Could be what the guy next to him at the bar orders, or it could be the beer commercial on TV. There’s just no rhyme or reason with him. He also has been known to “spin” so much, he loses his car keys. And sometimes even takes other people’s key by mistake. One-time years ago, a group of people were forced to go to his Mom’s house at 1am, and wake her up since he was passed out and not answering the phone or door (she was not pleased) to find his pants and go through his pockets, looking for a set of keys that weren’t his. He never even knew they were there. He is also known for stealing people’s food when placed close to him on the bar. One-time FAJR was lucky he was around friends as they saved him from getting dragged outside for an ass whooping over the theft of a dinner. The almost-beatdown took place at the fantastic Angelo’s in Brockton, and the bartender was able to cool it all down with an offer for free meals for all involved. He’s also been known to miss flights home by being passed out in a hotel room and ignoring the phone and his friends pounding on the door. Lastly, FARJ has learned his lesson about losing his keys and/or taking others. Instead of bringing them into the bar, he’s now leaves them in the car. But that “fix” didn’t last too long… after eating Chinese food one night, he came outside, and his car was gone. Guess that’s what happens when you leave your car unlocked in Boogie Down Brockton!  

FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS

After being in first place for since mid-November (Week 10), BAGGYPANTS had his second-worst week of the year, opening the door for JGILLESPIE478, who had his second-best week of the season, to slide right in and take over last place, ANDDDD it all came down to the LAC/LV game as described above. Poor fella that BAGGYPANTS…

MOST CORRECT “KEY PICKS” OVERALL

(This is last season’s write-up verbatim): DSTREET29 put on a clinic this year going 14-3 on “Key Picks” and beating everyone else in the league by two full games. No one could touch him. Job well done!

This year, he went 16-2. Unreal this kid. He wins $500 plus another plus $50 of left-over money for a grand total of $550! Imagine the money this guy could win if he were to put $1000 on every “Key”

(left over money is from the one week after the second “Key Pick” Elimination Pool ended in week 17. $250 x 1 = $250 divided by 5 = $50, with the other four being Most Correct “Keys” in-a-Row, “Key Pick” Elimination Pool #1 and #2, and the Bonus “Key Pick” Pool)

TOTAL SCORE GOLF

KMANCHINI, who has been in the top 10 in Golf for most of the year, was able to squeak out a victory with help from her perfect score last week, beating out EZ-$$$ by the smallest of margins 180 to 180.5! Unreal finish and I’m so glad this new prize turned out to be so fun. Poor DIGGITYDOGG, who had a final score of 181 is gonna kick himself for not adding two more points to his guess of 54 on Sunday night. That tiny difference cost him the win. Lastly, the final average “stroke count” for the league ended up at a 226.15

AFC CHAMPION

KENNEYPOWERS won this category and a free entry into next season with 85 correct, 4 more than last season’s winner (extra week)! Sadly, WEEZENUTS also had 85 correct, but lost in the NFC tiebreaker 62-56. Ouch!

NFC CHAMPION

SEANB4848 won this category and a free entry into next season with 89 correct, only 1 more than JGILLESPIE478 in 2^nd place, and 15(!) more than last season’s winner (extra week)!

BEST OF 1PM

BAGGYPANTS won this category and a free entry into next season with 90 correct, 3 more than the three people in 2^nd place, and 12(!) more than last season’s winner (extra week)!

BEST OF 4PM

EZ-$$$ won this category and a free entry into next season with 46 correct, 2 more than the two people in 2^nd place, and the same amount as last season’s winner, even with the extra week…

AND FINALLY… THE RACES THAT CONTINUE THROUGH THE PLAYOFFS

In the fifth week of the $500 Bonus Elimination Pool, 20 of the 36 people left (55%) were able to hit their “Key Pick” correctly. Here’s the official tiebreaker procedure as seen in the Rules and Regulations (Section 7, Subsection 2) is as follows: 

So, if your name is listed directly below, you’re still in it, and there’s $550 on the line (500 from Bonus Pool + 50 from left-over money)

• BOBBY CAL
• CHEF PAT
• DSTREET29
• DWORDEN76
• GONNA BADLER THESE PICKS
• GUY MARCELL
• HE MAN WOMAN HATERS
• JGREMILA
• JOHNNY MACDADDY
• JORDYSNEAKS
• JPASTOR
• MADELINE HAYES
• MAJAHUITAS
• MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE
• MH34
• RICKYTHETONIA123
• SCOTTGILBERT
• SHUTCH05
• T-BONE
• WIZ 49!

ROOKIE RACE: CHEF PAT leads with 156 wins,

COMBO RACE: Horse J.HODGE and jockey CHEF PAT lead with a combined 301

VETERAN’S POOL: JGILLESPIE478 leads with his 167 wins

I hope everyone is following along with all these extremely close races!! Keep in mind, the 34 available points in the playoffs could drastically change the leaderboards!

Anything can and will happen!! Good luck in the playoffs everybody!!

Dan