Helloooooo and welcome to my last update for the season. Ugh… I already miss football and it’s only been a few days… Boo hoo!
Payments have begun to be made and we want to give a big THANK YOU to those who laced the league with a little bit of gratuity! It’s Muy apreciado!
So there’s not much I can add to everything that’s already been written about this year’s Super Bowl, other than boy did it go fast, and wow what a surprise! As a Mahomes hater, I was thrilled!
The who-took-who breakdown from the Top 10 Overall going into the Super Bowl was quite interesting. CWD37, who’s been in first place since Week 10, didn’t bother to choose a team, which at first kinda bothered me, but the gangster move grew on me. It was all wrapped up, so making a pick was unnecessary for him. And he already set the all-time high for most points in a season! A real-life kneel-down for the win! Good for you CWD! The next 5 out of 6 picks all went with KC, which was the opposite of how the league picked, with almost 2/3rds taking PHI. The bottom half (spots 6 and 8-10) all went PHI allowing some of them to catapult into better paying positions, including MGOCONNOR and CMCDONALD who jumped from #6 and #8 all the way up to #3 and #4 respectively! Sadly for BRUCE WILLIS his KC pick for 5-points knocked him out of the Top 10 altogether moving down from #7 to #15. Ouch!
Normally I say something like “clearly if the Chiefs had managed to somehow win (and cover), all the payouts below would look a hell of a lot different to say the least!” – but that was so far from what went down, and I kept it in just because it made me laugh. I mean, 34-0 towards the end of the 3rd quarter? Unreal!
Moving on… this year’s big winner is the previously mentioned Made-Man CWD37, and gawd damnnnnn did he clean up! In only his second season, this dude got hot and stayed hot, until he went 1-3 during Divisional weekend getting only 3-points, which in turn lessened his lead to only 5-points. But he bounced back during the Conference Championships getting 9 big points and ending the season on top.
And as far his titles go, I’m gonna just list it out for all to see…
• 1st Place Overall: $3,500
• 1st Place Regular Season: $2,000
• No-Perfect-Week Bonus: $400 (Overall)
• No-Perfect-Week Bonus: $400 (Reg Season)
• Best of 1PM: $250
• Best of NFC: Free Entry into next season
That’s a grand total of $6,800 !!! WOW!
Funny enough, this isn’t CWD’s first time winning money. In his rookie campaign last season, he opened the year with a Week 1 win! This is what his Jockey SLEEZY TREES said at the time:
Craig basically runs all of the marketing for Monster Energy in the south. On any given weekend you can find him 12 cocktails deep hanging with four Monster Girls on a yacht, at the center of the UFC Octagon taking photos with Jon Jones, backstage at literally every and all music festivals on the east coast, hanging out in a luxury suite in Tuscaloosa for Texas / Alabama, sitting court side with Ice Cube at Big 3, gallivanting with Kurt Busch at the Palms Casino in Vegas, or simply one-wheeling through the streets of Atlanta to his house (which I assume is luxurious) in Piedmont Park. To say Craig is leading a charmed life is an understatement. He enters the FTPL pool as an outsider on a whim and beats out 234 others in Week 1 effortlessly. This is truly just another day in the life of Craig. He knows everyone and goes everywhere. He is often referred to as “The Mayor” and affectionately as “Mr. Worldwide”. He’s the type of guy that goes out for pizza and runs into Dave Portnoy. He will take an Uber to F1 in Miami and leave in Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. How does he do it? More importantly, how can I learn to do it? Mark my words, Craig is not done winning this season.
(that last sentence was slightly off on the timing, but certainly prophetic!)
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
These five members all took home over $2k each:
• NLIQ33 ($3,750)
• SHESABADBLITZ ($2,700)
• JAKERUNEY ($2,700)
• MGOCONNOR ($2,500)
• CMCDONALD ($2,250)
All told, 66 people won something. That works out to be an average of just under $815 per winner and 26% of the league got money. Please see the accompanying Excel chart showing the full breakdown.
Here’s how CWD37’s final total of 188-points stacked up to previous campaigns (even though we have had an extra 16 games and two extra Wildcard games to pick the last few seasons):
2009 – 162 scored by “SHADEBALL” CRUMB
2010 – 183 scored by COMMISH JMAC
(His regular season stats were soooo impressive and actually landed him in the Top 10 of the ENTIRE website – which means he did better than 1000s of people, maybe even tens of 1000s)
2011 – 159 scored by FRODIDLEY
2012 – 163 scored by BLUEBYEU
2013 – 158 scored by RKNRLL
2014 – 163 scored by DAVEG4867
2015 – 159 scored by PEYTONISAMO
2016 – 172 scored by J&T0228
2017 – 166 scored by TOMMYK11
2018 – 171 scored by THEKINGNBEEJ
2019 – 170 scored by WILLY33
2020 – 171 scored by DESPERADO26
——————————————————
2021 – 183 scored by T-BONE and BAGGYPANTS
2022 – 177 scored by SHUTCH05
2023 – 185 scored by CRUSHEDBYHEELS
2024 – 188 scored by CWD37 (NEW RECORD HIGH!!)
OVERALL
1st – CWD37 ($3,500)
2nd – NLIQ33 ($3,000)
3rd – MGOCONNOR ($2,500)
4th – CMCDONALD ($2,000)
5th – ROMANA EMPIRE ($1,500)
(free entry next season)
6th – WAYNE66
7th – MMCCULLIN
8th – JLIMA18!
9th – JORDYSNEAKS
10th – JFMC0526
REGULAR SEASON
1st – CWD37 ($2,000)
2nd – TORI-21 ($1,750)
3rd – JORDYSNEAKS ($1,500)
4th – SNAKE MYRER ($1,250)
5th – BRUCE WILLIS ($1,000)
(free entry next season)
6th – NO FIREWORKS
7th – KEVINZAGRODNY
8th – JGREMILA
9th – NLIQ33
10th– WAYNE66
PLAYOFFS
1st – JOHNNY CABLE ($1,500)
2nd – KMANCHINI ($1,250)
3rd – TOMSIBS ($1,000)
4th TIE – RALPH 1 of the STERN (750 + 500 = 1250 divided by 2 = $625 each)
4th TIE – THEKINGBJ ($625)
(free entry next season)
6th – CHEF PAT
7th – CMCDONALD
8th – PICKFTPL96
9th – ROMANA EMPIRE
10th TIE – SHANE COLEMAN
ROOKIE RACE (free entry next season)
Horse – WAYNE66
Jockey – BIG DAN (CO-MANAGER)
Both Wayne and runner-up DOSIE70 took PHI, so this race was over before the game started. Nice job my man!
COMBO RACE (free entry next season)
Horse – WAYNE66
Jockey – BIG DAN (CO-MANAGER)
Yeah boy!
VETERANS POOL
5-YEAR: NLIQ33 ($500)
10-YEAR: THE BALD FURITO ($500)
BEST OF NOTHING (free entry next season)
DOSIE70 – Finished in 13th Place, but won no money
LAST PLACE OVERALL (free entry next season)
NIKKI LAINAS – Finished in 231st Place, but made every single pick
SQUARES (free entry next season)
Set #1, 1st Quarter – NEVILLE666
Set #1, 2nd Quarter – KMONROE
Set #1, 3rd Quarter – YIGGITY
Set #1, 4th Quarter – NLIQ33
Set #2, 1st Quarter – THE_SHIVA
Set #2, 2nd Quarter – CLARKENADO
Set #2, 3rd Quarter – BKELLY17
Set #2, 4th Quarter – FITZY19
Set #3, 1st Quarter – DB
Set #3, 2nd Quarter – GWILLFORD7
Set #3, 3rd Quarter – MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE
Set #3, 4th Quarter – $100HARDFOUR
Set #4, 1st Quarter – BIGREDMACHINE84
Set #4, 2nd Quarter – KRAZ
Set #4, 3rd Quarter – PATCRYAN
Set #4, 4th Quarter – BPGRAZ7
Set #5, 1st Quarter – DJMRI51
Set #5, 2nd Quarter – PIASON033
Set #5, 3rd Quarter – SOCCUBARTSR
Set #5, 4th Quarter – WILLY33
Anddddd finally… THIRD ANNUAL REC LEAGUE POOL (thanks YIGGITY for the idea!)
ROCK VEGAS, which includes 3 of the 4 members who finished in the Top-4 Overall (NLIQ33 2nd, MGOCONNOR 3rd, and CMCDONALD 4th) along with MIKED147 (#52) and MATTANZALONE (#98) dominated all other teams, setting a new league record with 862 points. Last season, MALAKAS OF BROCKTON finished with 817 and in the inaugural season, the BORA BORA BOYS had 778. That’s 45 and 84-points more respectively! This prize is worth $1765 ($353 per player) for ROCK VEGAS (aka Rockland, MA), while the runner-up NO NAME TEAM will get their entry fee back. Fun fact – the NO NAME TEAM is made up of strangers who came together to make a team that was led by NEVILLE666 who finished #21 Overall.
Good luck to everyone and I hope all 250 members will join us again next season, but I know that won’t be happening. Every year we seem to lose 25-35 people, but that’s good news for anyone that is looking to get someone new into the league. There’s already a waiting list, so start telling your friends and family NOW about the best pick ‘em pool you’ve ever been involved with!
Enjoy the off season!
Dan & Mark