$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Cha-CHING!
Money rings in Holiday Season with 2nd Weekly Win
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
It must be the holidays: Christmas trees are up, rain is coming down, and 
Money's ringing up his register once again.  It wasn't perfect like his Week 
9, but it was prettier in a way: Instead of picking all favorites like 3 
weeks ago, Money picked two underdogs (Bears for 3, and Jets for 1).  And 
while his Flawless Week gained a mere point on Godfather Emerton, Money 
gained 16 points on Mr. Emerton this week, and 11 points on 2nd place Eric.  
The Emertons still have a firm grip on the pool, but Money -- now trailing 
by only 36 points -- has officially turned this into a three-horse race for 
the Slate.
    In other money news, Eric Emerton finished 5th and cut into his father's 
overall lead by about 20%.  Dylan Oliver and Tully Wyatt continued their 
assault on the playoff line by finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively, almost 
assuring themselves postseason action.  And Jen Retsek and Robert Hassanali 
also finished in the money.
    SchussDaddy and Chris Sabbe finished in the basement again, but more 
notable is the third-to-last position, where Jason Sullivan finished.  
Sullivan continues his freefall in the overall standings, finding himself 
now closer to the playoff line than the top spot.  Jason Lee is the only 
poolster to surrender his playoff spot (falling to 13th), but in addition to 
Sullivan's collapse, Kurt Schwartz also took a dive, losing 20 points to Mr. 
Emerton and falling from 7th to 12th in the standings.
    In actual NFL news, Money's Bears outdefended Godsey's Bucs in a great 
game, Eric's Panthers beat Diane's Bills in a great game, and Wyatt's 
Dolphins took down Raider Nation.


If Only....
--------------
- If the Giants could kick a field goal, DOliver would've won his 2nd 
straight week, and his third of the year.  He also would've won the week 
with a victory by the Steelers or Browns.

- If the Redskins could kick a field goal, Eric Emerton would've won the 
week and snapped his winless streak of how many weeks is it now?  Five and a 
half years.  Oh, or if Dallas would have won.  (Overtime.  Sorry.)

- If the Patriots would've won, Jen Retsek would've stolen the week from her 
hubby.

- If Wyatt had put his 10-spot on the Dolphins instead of the Raiders, he 
would've won the week by 5.


Random Stats!
--------------------
- Money's weekly win is the 12th he's had in 9 years in the pool, tying 
Sullivan for 4th on the
all-time list.  It is the 48th time he has finished in the money, placing 
him 6th on the all-time list, but officially putting him atop the all-time 
list of "money finishes per season" with 5.33.

- It is the 10th time that SchussDaddy has finished in last place, and his 
second straight week in the basement.  This puts him 5th on the all-time 
list, even though he's only been in the pool for 8 years.  With the 
exception of Eric Franzen, nobody has "earned" ten last-place finishes
in so 
few years.  Money has still never finished in last.

- Money, DOliver, and Tully went 3-1 in "swing games" this week, and 
finished 1-2-3.  Nobody went 4-0.  The only other poolster to go 3-1 was 
Franzen, who finished 19th.

- It has now been 94 weeks since Eric Emerton, winner of 3 Slates, has won 
the week.

- Jason Sullivan is 11-0 in Bears games.  He picked them to beat the Bucs 
with his 10-pick (310 dots!).
- Ken Vis and Jen Retsek are the only two to be 11-0 with the Bengals.

- DOliver finally missed with the Jets (Jets 1).

- Chris Sabbe is 7-26 games involving the Broncos, Jaguars, and Redskins.  
He went 0-3 this week, and we're now suspecting he's trying to miss those 
games.

- The pool in general has a winning record with every team except Minnesota, 
Tampa Bay, and Green Bay.  We are, however, getting over half our points 
back with Green Bay (51%), and less than half our points back with Miami 
(48%)
- Nobody has yet to win a single point by picking San Francisco to win.
- Robert Emerton has a winning record with every team except Dallas (5-6).
- Of all the points our pool has won on Denver games, Kathy has 10% of them.
- Wego is 4-16 on games involiving Dallas or St. Louis.

- Robert Emerton is 2-10 with his 1-pick.
- Diane Emerton is 2-10 with her 1-pick.
- Chris Sabbe both has a losing record with his 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 8-, 
and 9-picks.
- Mike Schussel, in last place by 50 points, is 9-3 with his 3-pick.
- Kevin Sabbe is 31-5 with his 9-11 picks, while 30-14 with his higher 
picks.

Stat of the Week:
- Both Mr. Emerton and Eric Emerton have had just three weeks this season 
that are worse than Schussel's best week.


Picks of the Week
-------------------------
There is no POW this week, and there is no COW this week.  This is because 
while some of us spend 3 hours on a Weekly Recap even while they're in 15th 
place (not naming any names), only 4 other people could spend 30 seconds on 
good old-fashioned American vote.  Kevin Sabbe's comments are worth a read, 
though.


Just Saying!
----------------
Cal Poly football team won their first round game in the Div I-AA playoffs.  
Onto the quarterfinals for the Mustangs.  No need for backflips or anything. 
  But just saying.


Second Trimester Review!
------------------------------------
Some people call it "boring"; some people call it "lame"; some
people call 
it "how it should be."  No matter what you call it, it's definitely been
a 
year with very few surprises.  As expected (many of us are 11-0), the Colts 
are unbeatable.  There have been very few (any?) major upsets, and there are 
no teams that are surprisingly good (except for the Bears, who are not 
really that good).  Fittingly, the most drastic event in our pool this year 
-- Money's Perfect Week -- occurred when Money picked all the favorites.
     As a result, Steady Eddie is slaying this pool.  The five most 
conservative poolsters in FMNFLP are all in the Top 6.  With the exception 
of Sullivan, the "wildest" five poolsters are all in the bottom third 
of the 
pool.  In fact, if you take the half of the pool that deviates the most from 
the norm, only two of them (DOliver and Sullivan) are due to make the 
playoffs -- and barely.  The half of the pool that conforms the most -- all 
but two are playoff-bound.  As Eric Emerton said in mid-October: "Middle of
the road, following the spreads, etc, gets it down at the FunkyDome. Simple 
facts."  If you look at the "Most dots per week" chart below, you
can see 
that with the exception of Sullivan (4th craziest, in 9th overall) and Wyatt 
(2nd most conservative, in 8th overall), conformity clearly corresponds with 
success, individuality with suckiness.



MOST DOTS per week (overall standings in parenthesis)
--------------------------------------
2091 SchussDaddy (24)
(averaging about 6.4 points from the average pick for each game)



1896 Sabbe (23)


1804 Kevin Sabbe (18)

1718 Jason Sullivan (9)
1698 Wego (20)
1672 Eric Franzen (19)
1667 Mike Godsey (15)


1578 D Oliver (10)
1553 Scott Farnsworth (22)

1497 Adam Jennings (16)
1470 Ken Vis (21)

1421 Kathy Wathy (14)

1371 Bill Ellis (7)
1330 Kurt Schwartz (12)
1302 Scott Wyatt (11)
1297 Patrick Godsey (17)
1290 Diane Emerton (5)
1277 Robert Hassanali (4)
1254 Jason Lee (13)
1226 Jen Retsek (6)
1222 E Emerton (2)
1217 Money (3)



1083 Tully Wyatt (8)

1020 Mr. Emerton (1)
(averaging about 71 dots a game, or 3.1 points from the average pick)


Corresponding with the success of the conservative conformity is the general 
abandonment of team loyalty.  Emerton said that "blatent team pride can only
bring you harm" and the pool has generally agreed.  Putting "excessive"
points on a favorite team has been avoided and ridiculed far more than it 
has been enjoyed and celebrated.  With the exception of Sabbe (already 
buried in the basement) and Kathy (who always boats the Broncos anyways), 
there has been absolutely no engaging rivalries for FMNFLP spectators to get 
excited about.  Mike Godsey's efforts to ignite some NFL rivalries was 
decried as "baiting" and summarily dismissed; team pride was correlated
with 
"blind stupidity" and generally derided.
     Likewise, there has been a growing sense of individual apathy in the 
second trimester.  After Godsey subsequently "rested in peace," the word
count in the "Smack Talk" forum has plummetted.  In addition to being 
much 
shorter in length, the total number of postings in November is 43% the 
number of October postings.  Only half of the poolsters voted on the 
greatest event in FunkyPool history (and 75% of them voted for marks of 
consistency over individual feats).  Barely 20% of the pool voted for the 
last POW.

"Smack Talk" postings, chronologically
----------------------------------
62, Mid-September
29, Late September
52, Early October
57, Mid October
40, Late October
34, Early November
7,   Mid November
24, Late November


But, what's really been going on during the second trimester?  I mean, like, 
in the standings?  Well, here is where we wanted to publish the number of 
points won in Weeks 7-12, but we just realized the overall standings in Week 
6 are unavailable.  And we're not going to add them all up by hand.  So 
let's do this:  Let's look at the change in the standings over the past 6 
weeks.


Number of Places in the Standings Gained in Weeks 7-12 (overall in 
parenthesis)
----------------------------------------------------
10 Robert Hassanali (4)

6 D Oliver (10)
5 Tully Wyatt (8)

3 Money (3)
3 Bill Ellis (7)
3 Kevin Sabbe (18)
2 Jen Retsek (6)
2 Scott Farnsworth (22)

1 Eric Emerton (2)
0 Mr. Emerton (1)
0 Patrick Godsey (17)
-1 Diane Emerton (5)
-1 JLee (13)
-1 Adam Jennings (16)
-1 Eric Franzen (19)
-1 Wego (20)
-1 KenDoggie (21)
-1 Sabbe (23)
-1 SchussDaddy (24)

-2 Scott Wyatt (11)
-3 Kathy Walser (14)

-6 Kurt Schwartz (12)
-7 Jason Sullivan (9)

-10 Mike Godsey (15)


     It looks like, once again, the conservative running game are dominating 
the dynamic passing attacks.  This makes sense since the NFL's midseason 
will always be steadier than the first six weeks, and this year's midseason 
in particular has been relatively "as it should be."  Moderate conservative
Robert Hassanali is the big winner, moving from 14th place to 4th during the 
second trimester.  DOliver and neo-con Tully Wyatt have also made great 
strides and have completely hurdled the playoff line in the process.  Loose 
cannons Jason Sullivan and Mike Godsey have gotten destroyed during the 
midseason, and both ex-champions are in danger of missing the playoffs.
   But here's the crazy thing:  Even Hassanali has lost ground on Mr. 
Emerton.  He's gained 10 places in the standings, but lost two points to Mr. 
Emerton.  Wyatt has gained 5 places, but he's fallen 11 points off the pace 
in the process.  DOliver has gained 6 places, but dropped 3 points to the 
leader.  Sullivan and Godsey, meanwhile, have slipped 65 and 76 points 
respectively.  Let's see what Money's done.  Hold on.  After a trimester 
that included two weekly wins and a perfect week, Money has slipped 5 points 
off the lead.  Thus, it's pretty safe to say that ultra-conservative Mr. 
Emerton has been the greatest FMNFLP poolster in both the first and second 
trimester.



Next Week!
----------------
The third trimester begins, and the race for the seedings begins.  
Desperation rushes are now officially in vogue, but we'll also see some 
people anxiously clinging to what they already have.

If anybody cares,
Diane's Bills are at Wyatt's Dolphins
Bill's Packers are at Money's Bears
Raider Nation marches to Patrick's house

See ya then....