Week 17. Time to pop the cork on a new year and stick a fork in another football season. For Sean, it was time to pop the cork on another Gehlke Bros. Football championship. For Glenn and Ben, it was time to stick a fork in any hopes they might have entertained of snatching the title away in the final weekend.
The Junior Bro entered the week with a 5-game lead — the largest of the season — over second place, and seven games up on Ben in third. When Bros Junior and Senior managed just three splits, it meant that Sean mathematically clinched the Surfy Trophy before the weekend's action even started. Ben tried to make things interesting by creating seven splits with Sean, but he needed to win all of them if he was to tie for a shot at the title, and he managed just three.
So, it will be another round of "We Are The Champions" for the Junior Bro come February. But Glenn saved a little face in taking two of the final three split games when Houston beat Cleveland 14-6, and San Francisco doused Denver's playoff hopes in OT, 26-23. Sean got the last laugh, however, when the Packers upset the playoff-bound Bears 26-7 in the final regular season game of the year.
Glenn won the week with a 10-6 mark, Sean went 9-7, and Ben finished third at 8-8. We all popped the cork on our mutual correct predictions of Baltimore, Kansas City, Indianapolis, the N.Y. Jets and Pittsburgh. The NawFuL gods stuck a fork in us when we missed out on winners Detroit and Seattle.
Now for the year-end statistical goodies...
The 2006 season wasn't very kind to us amateur professional prognosticators. Neither of the Bros improved in the accuracy department, with Sean going 158-98 (61.7 percent) vs. 167-89 (65.2%) for 2005. Glenn finished at 154-102 (60.2%) this year vs. 157-99 (61.3%) in 2005. Only Ben managed to improve, going 150-106 (58.6%) vs. last year's mark of 145-111 (56.6%). There were 54 splits this year (down from 56 last season), of which Sean won 29. That was 21.1% of all games, or nearly one split for every five.
If you go strictly by who tallied the best weekly predictions over the course of the season, Sean may have won the trophy but he only won two weeks and tied for the best record six times. Glenn fared just slightly better at 3 wins, 5 ties. Ben won 5 weeks and tied in 4 others, but the weeks he lost did major damage to his position in the standings. Sean's best week was 14-2 in Week 2; his worst a 6-8 in Week 3. Glenn posted his best week at 12-2 in Week 5; his worst, 6-8, twice (Weeks 8 and 9). Ben racked up a 13-3 mark in Week 1, only to post a season worst 6-10 the following week.
Of the 54 splits, there was at least one split every week. Our most agreeable week was a lone split in Week 7, The biggest split week in the history of Gehlke Bros. Football was Week 16, when we had nine games on the line. We split an even number of games in 11 weeks, an odd number in six.
That wraps up a NawFuL 2006. Join us Stupor Bore weekend for the Surfy Trophy presentation and we'll see you again in September.
Total splits: 3
