The dollar retains value in steady Week 17

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In what is annually a wacky week in the FMNFLP, things stayed abnormally normal in 2008, and Money Retsek won his 16th career week in calm, mature, almost statesmanlike fashion.  The win secures him a trip to the playoffs, with a longshot chance at the Slate.

    The only drama was in determining the "odd man out" of the playoffs.  Usually, there's a huge mob at the playoff line, and there's a mad scramble for a limited number of tickets.  This year, there was a spot for every one of the six contenders except one.  That "drama" was settled rather clearly when Zack's Jets bailed out of their own playoffs, and in yet another case of a true fan following the path of his own team, Zack crashed and burned like Brett Favre and Coach Mangini.

        The only truly wacky thing that happened was Banker Bill's finish in the basement.  After winning two straight Slates, he finished in last place for the first time in about 110 weeks.  Last week, Franzen won the week for the first time since 2003, after about twelve last place finishes; this week, Bill finishes in last for the first time since 2002, after seven weekly wins.  He also earned the COW for the first time in 111 weeks (see below).

        On a positive, team/family pride note, Mike Godsey drove seven hours round-trip to be with his brother, father, and nephew Jackson and watch the Chargers win their third straight division title.  He drove almost four hours to get there by kickoff, watched the game, and then left at the end of the game.  And it was worth it.



Other stats and observations:

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- Dylan Retsek's win puts him 2nd place on the all-time list.

- Mike Godsey ironically went 16-0 with the Lions this year (and is stupefied on how he's the only one).

- Now that Franzen has won a week (last week), the pink streak is ironically all JLee's -- it's been 83 weeks since he's won the week.  It's been 82 weeks for Jen Retsek.

- Chris Sabbe was in 6th place as recently as Week 13.  He finishes the year in 14th, out of the playoffs.

- Sabbe went 3-14 with his 2-pick.

- Despite Mike's first-place regular season finish, the Brethren Cup goes to the Wyatts this year.  Patrick finished in dead last, 284 points behind his brother, and both Sabbes just sucked in regular, undramatic fashion.  Congrats, Wyatts -- good year for the fam.





POW/COW

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In what might be the last week of COW/POW (the voting has dribbled to almost nothing), Bill Ellis earned the floppy shoes for the first time since President Bush's approval rating started falling.  He was nominated for two different picks, one of which was 15 on Denver, even though Kathy herself could only manage a 6.

        Zack Schwartz wins a third of a POW for going down with his team -- he wasn't going to win the Slate anyway; at least he threw a Hail Mary with his Jets instead of punting.  Scott (Bengals 9) and Scott (Raiders 4) also got a slice of that.





Playoff Preview:

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An extensive playoff preview/review can be found in the webpage's archives: Check out 2005 "playoff preview."  It's a pretty cool history lesson that took us a lot of time to write.



In short, barring a miracle, the only players truly in the race are Godsey, the Emertons, and Scott Wyatt.  History has proven that the rest of the pack has a mathematical chance (almost 80 points have been gained in a single week), but the chances are slim.  The fortunate news for everyone is that it seems this playoff season is rife with possibility.  Four road favorites seems to open things up for a wacky week in the FunkyWorld.  We just noticed that none of the four games have a spread much more than a single field goal.  That's nasty.



As far as the "Big Five" go, things seem especially up in the air.  League leaders have won the Slate for seven straight years, but Godsey is notoriously inconsistent, and is likely picking his underdog Chargers right out of the gate.  The last guy to blow a playoff lead?  Godsey -- and he blew it bad.  Of course, he regained it, but the same thing happened in the two years prior to that as well.  Scott Wyatt blew his lead, and JG blew his (both finishing in 3rd place overall).  And the Big Four behind Godsey are a formidable bunch.  Scott has been on fire all year, Eric Emerton is historically the most dangerous playoff contender (the only one with consistent come-from-behind victories), Mr. Emerton is the most consistent poolster in the world, and Diane has shown the prowess and creativity to make a big-time move.



Remember there is a second-chance pool for everyone who's not in the Top 12.









Next week!

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Godsey's Chargers against the rest of the pool?

No significant rivalries.

Four sweet games.

Four poolsters kicked out of the house.





See ya then...