Season 12-First-Time Champion Looms As 12th BFL Season Concludes

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First-Time Champion Looms As 12th BFL Season Concludes This Weekend

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (December 30, 2007) – Final pick sheets have been filed, the New England Patriots have already made history and a first-time champion may also go into the record books at the conclusion of the 17th and final weekend of play of the 2007 BFL season, the premier football pool in the motorsports world and beyond.

Veteran league players Double T (Tom Tharp) and Da Man (Dennis Tardich) are each having career seasons and one of them is likely to emerge as the 11th different champion in the 12 years the mighty BFL has been in operation. Only long-departed Kim Parker (1998 & ‘99) managed to take the hard-to-win BFL crown twice and it doesn’t look like her record will be broken this year.

Double T and Da Man are essentially locked in a two-horse race, separated by just eight points (1459 - 1451) with current league leader Double a comfortable 25 points ahead of third-place challenger ATOM (Adam Saal), the 2001 BFL Champion, who has tallied 1434 points so far this year.

Double T took the lead for the second time this season just last week with a runner-up finish in Week 16. He has been a front-of-the-pack contender all year – he also led the championship after Week 2 – and joins only House of Cain (Merrill Cain) as a three-time Weekly Winner in 2007. Double’s consistency has also been unmatched and his wins have been part of a league-leading total of six top-three weekly finishes with the victories coming in Weeks 2, 12 and 13. Double came to the BFL in the last century through former player and daughter Barbie Doll (Barb Tharp) and is part of a dedicated Motown contingent of players that also includes 2007 top-three challenger dd king (Dann Griffiths) and Diablo (Jerry Dunlap).

Da Man has put together a strong season with a win in Week 3 and a total of four top-three showings. He led the standings this year longer than anyone – 11 times in total including 10 consecutive weeks from Week 5 through Week 15 – and is not out of it despite losing the top spot to Double last week.

ATOM has put in his strongest season in years and has carried the torch for former league champs after both House and BFL icon Freddie T (Fred Tenorio) both incredibly missed a Weekly deadline this year. It is nearly impossible to win the BFL crown if you miss a Week of play (House actually missed two!) but Cain’s three wins and Freddie’s victory last week provided some consolation. Still, they both played well enough to challenge for the championship this year and would have if not for the mental lapses. Whoever wins the BFL title should at least buy them a beer or, even better, a cheap 2008 calendar.

As for ATOM, he put in a perfect 16-0 record to take Week 14, the first time a player has swept a full 16-game weekly slate in BFL history. Last year, several players went perfect in Week 5’s 14-game schedule but no one has ever done the Sweet 16 until this year. ATOM has a narrow shot at the title but his final weekend collapses the last few seasons have become the stuff of legend. Just keeping the third and final money spot will be enough of an achievement for ATOM and it will not be easy.

Top BFL winners ready to pounce include ddking and The Gamer (Chris Esslinger) who complete the list of players with scores in the 1400 range. The King is currently fourth in the standings with 1416 points, he won Week 1 and Week 4 this season, led the championship after both weekly victories and also posted the third-highest score in Week 15. Second-highest score that week went to Gamer who has played consistently well this year even though that was his first top-three of the year. Esslinger has weekly wins in the BFL under different team names in the past and both he and the King have what it take to crack the final top-three this weekend. The Gamer rounds out the top-five in the standings with 1400 points.

Reigning BFL Champ Marcus Blade (Marc Matlen) has won twice this year, including a record Week 5 triumph that saw him post a tie with rookie BernieKosar4HOF (Matt Mullen) when they finished in a dead heat with identical scores, wins and tiebreakers. They split the pot, but that unprecedented and closest finish by far in BFL history saw Commish ATOM create a new rule that will now take into account season win totals deep in the tiebreaker scenario in case this ever happens again.

Hey, speaking of rules, with no Monday night game this week, the tiebreaker will apply to Sunday night’s game. I am sure most of you figured that would be the case, but at least you now have it in writing… better late than never.

Back to Blade, he also won in Week 8 and is sixth in standings with 1386 points. Although it will be tough for him to crack the top-three in the final tally, anything can happen and he has the proven BFL skills to make that kind of move.

The rest of the Top-10 includes BFL leading lady backmarker (Rena Shanaman) with 1370 points, Diablo with 1364, JulieMac (Julie MacTavish) at 1359 and the incredible Freddie T who has 1339 points despite the missed week. Did I mention Fred would probably be challenging for the title if he hadn’t missed a week? I think I did. In addition to Freddie’s win last week, the only other top-three showing from this group was third place in Week 1 by JulieMac who joins The Gamer as one of two Californians in the top-10.

The year’s only other winners (so far!) were returning player JRR11 (Jim Reickel) who did a nice job to take Weeks 6 and 9, along with three more top-three showings. Good to have you back JRR. Indianapolis Mayor bobby g (Bob Gallant) took Week 11 but was still kicking himself for missing the call two weeks earlier which dropped him from title contention. The G Man said he had technical computer issues but I heard he and Freddie were at an All-Night Thursday Bingo Tournament and lost all track of time before that fateful Week 9. That’s what I heard anyway.

That’s a wrap for this 2007 season-wrap up and thanks to all who played. A special nod to Karen (AKA KIP) Tardich and Blade for keeping track of the bucks and the web site, respectively, and we couldn’t do it without them. I will send an update on the final outcome and thanks again to all of you for keeping the BFL going.

Happy New Year!