OAKLEY, Calif. (Jan. 11, 2000) -- The sign on the base of the tiny golden statuette said it all: "Oakley or bust."OAKLEY, Calif. (Jan. 11, 2000) -- The sign on the base of the tiny golden statuette said it all: "Oakley or bust."
It was true. The Gehlke Bros. Football Picks championship trophy that had spent the better part of a year in Oakley, in the possession of senior Bro. Glenn, was ready to pack up and ship off for Hayward and its new custodian, junior Bro. Sean. The sign, placed there as a joke by its former owner, was also a semi-serious pledge to win back the coveted prize in the 2000 NFL season.
But kidding aside, this drizzly Tuesday morning was serious business for the junior Bro., who had just concluded a hard-fought victory over his brother through 17 grueling weeks of the often unpredictable 1999 NFL season. Sean had prognosticated his way to a 5-game edge in the annual competition between the two brothers and had thus earned the right to retun the trophy to his mantle.
The chorus from the Traveling Wilburys' "Congratulations" played on a continuous loop while Sean basked in the glow of the media spotlight -- in reality, the flash of a 35mm camera wielded by Glenn -- and held up his trophy triumphantly.
"We're number one! We're number one!" he grunted with gusto, using a phrase seldom heard this year in the locker rooms of teams like the San Francisco 49ers. It was a moment all fans of the junior Gehlke Bro. could savor.
When asked his opinion of his uncle reclaiming the trophy, Gehlke Bros. picks partner-in-training Benji Gehlke summed it up as only a die-hard five-year-old sports enthusiast could: "In your face!"
Glenn -----> 
<----- Sean
Down four games going into Week 17 and with the Gehlke Bros. Football season on the line, Glenn did the only thing left to do -- he lost. But before that, he made a gallant last-ditch effort to stay alive on the final week of the 1999 NFL regular season, coming up with five splits against the junior Bro. Despite the oppressive 1-to-32 odds, for a while it appeared that the football gods just might be smiling this warm January Sunday. Glenn took the two early games as Buffalo plastered Indianapolis 31-6 and Philadelphia upset NFC-leading St. Louis 38-31.
But the senior Bro's improbable comeback bid ended when Dallas topped the New York Giants 26-18 to earn a trip to the playoffs. Washington's 21-10 win over Miami and Tennessee's 47-36 triumph over Pittsburg sealed Glenn's fate and gave Sean a five-game victory in the Gehlke Bros. season competition.
For Sean, nail-biting time is over and now comes time for celebration as preparations are made to exchange the perpetual trophy.
Sean may have won the war, but it was Benji who won the final week's battle, going 10-5. Sean finished at 9-6 and Glenn ended at 8-7 -- hey, that's still four wins better than the 49ers! We all correctly predicted the wins by Green Bay, Jacksonville, Minnesota, the New York Jets and Atlanta. We all failed to foresee the losses by Baltimore, Kansas City and the guys in the blue and orange jerseys formerly known as the two-time world champion Denver Broncos.
For the 248-game season, Sean registered a 152-96 record for a 61.3 percent accuracy ratio. That is slightly shy of Glenn's 65.0 percent finish in 1998 and more a result of this season's unpredictability than anything else. Glenn finished 147-101 for second place at 59.3 percent. Benji, in his second season as a guest prognosticator, finished at 135-113 or 54.4 percent, a dramatic improvement over last year's 49.6 percent. Benji was only 17 games behind his uncle (less than half the deficit of last year's finish) and 12 games behind his dad. Look out in 2000! There were a total of 67 splits, with Sean winning 36 and Glenn winning 31.
