Before we lament the passing of another season and look forward to plopping down our money on Super Bowl squares, there are a few opportunities to get involved in playoff football pools. Some (like the one I host) are of the bracket-picking variety and some (like NFL.com is hosting) are salary cap fantasy player games.
The NFL.com site is hosting a contest of their own. It’s basically a salary cap game where the entry is free and the grand prize is a 2009 Super Bowl package. It’s a little quirky due to player availability limitations as noted below. But if you make it out there, I will be playing as team entry Eagle_Maniac.
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There are four (4) NFL playoff rounds: Wildcard, Divisional, Conference and Super Bowl. Prior to each of the first two rounds of the NFL playoffs (the Wild Card and Divisional Playoff rounds), you will choose a starting lineup of eight (8) NFL players. You will have 300 units to “spend” assembling your team. Prior to the Conference Championship round, you will only be allowed to change 4 players from the previous week’s lineup, with the other 4 players carrying over. You will be allowed to change only 2 players prior to the Super Bowl, with 6 players carrying over from the previous week. Your challenge is to select players who will advance deep into the playoffs.
Suprise Starts
Bummer Benches
It’s kind of like picking pre-season games at this point but here goes… (For the record I have gone 10-6, 9-7, 9-7 the last 3 weeks. Don’t know where that has been all year but you know it feels good to be ending on a good streak.)
The final week of the 17 game regular season is upon us. Although many survivor leagues wrapped up weeks ago, there are still a few leagues that are going strong. It has gotten very difficult as we enter the lame duck week of the season. There are only a few teams with something to play for like Tennessee, Washington, Cleveland, Minnesota and New Orleans. There are a couple of teams (PIT and SD) that are trying to avoid playing JAX in the first round too. And there are a few teams playing hard for pride like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. Given that you have taken most of the top tier teams to survive this long, you may need to take a chance on a lesser team. To this point I would pick San Diego, Philadelphia, Washington, Cleveland and Chicago.
I struggled for 14 weeks to understand the 2007 betting line patterns and I think I finally learned the favorites were the ones to take this year. I’ve gone 10-6 and 9-7 the last 2 weeks. That kind of prowess over a year would have earned me significant pool money. Alas, we have entered the Bermuda Triangle of the betting season. Well, actually it’s kind of like the preseason where you never know how much the stars will play and how well the back-ups will perform. 
Picks
Team 2 lost after a good fight to a hotter team. If I had remained the #1 seed by winning just one of my final 3 regular season games I would have made the finals. However I didn’t so I’m in the hunt for third place money and I am already doomed thanks to the Willie Parker leg break. It is very hard to believe that I could lead this league all year and am looking at the real possibility of not making any money.
I’m taking the Rams tonight in a high scoring affair to cover the 8.5 points. Play all of your Steelers and Rams including the PIT Defense. 
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