PH4H Team of Destiny

The Seahawks are in the playoffs with a 7-9 record. The Onion is on the story:

Seattle Coach Pete Carroll: Seahawks Only Need 3 Losses To Reach Super Bowl

The president vs. the Super Bowl

This is awesome. As reported in the New Yorker.

He should have bet an empanada

I thought about offering to sing "Hail to the Redskins" backwards if the Redskins had beaten the Saints on Sunday. As noted by the Washington Post, a New Orleans man let his Facebook friends bring over their guns and take out his flat-screen—because the Saints won.

The Second Annual PH4H Empanada Bowl

Sign up here to play. For historical reference, see here and here.

The annual Ricky Williams update

Clearly we've been ignoring Ricky Williams, the original PH4H poster-boy, for too long. To get our attention, he's gone ahead and negotiated his own contract extension.

Javon Walker

I would like to move that this year's PH4H football league be named after Florida State alum and recent mugging victim Javon Walker.

Even though he's only been a fair-to-middling PH4H-league player, being found unconscious on a Las Vegas Street after a night of partying is just about as PH4H-worthy as you can get -- without getting arrested.

Empanada Bowl Results

Congratulations, Debby. You kicked all of our butts in the First Annual PH4H Empanada Bowl.

It wasn't even close:

(names partially redacted to protect the mostly-innocent)

For those who like trivia, but weren't keeping up with the message board, here are some weird facts:

• Three of us picked the final score to be 28-24;
• Only one of those three picked Ohio State to win;
• Four of us picked the winning team's score to be 28;
• Five of us picked the losing team's score to be 24; and
• The losing team did, indeed, score 24 points.

The First Annual PH4H Empanada Bowl

Since so many of our teams are playing in bowl games this year, how about some College Bowl Pick 'Em -- hereinafter known as "the First Annual PH4H Empanada Bowl."

This is easy -- pretty much all you have to do is pick who you think the winner of the bowl game is. It doesn't require extensive or exhaustive college football knowledge.

If you want to play, click here.

The first game is on December 20th, so you should probably make your picks by then.

Dear Kansas

We take it back! You won! Since evidently losing to Missouri and not playing in the Big 12 Championship was the ticket to a better bowl at a better time against a better team. (Yes, I know you have one loss and we have two. When you beat Oklahoma, a team you didn't play this season, in the Big 12 Bonus Championship Showdown—we'll call it "BCS" for short—by all means, make that argument.)

There are other options, too. The Big 12 could cancel its championship game and have Missouri lose to a team with 7 losses, since that gets you to a better bowl too.

Or Missouri could switch to a weak conference, play a weak nonconference schedule and go undefeated. Another effective method.

The Cotton Bowl? A non-BCS bowl at 11:30 New Year's morning against a team barely in the top 25? As one who takes pride in my sportsmanship, let me say this: I hope Missouri wins by 70.

We're No. 1!

Just sayin'.

More on the rivalry

The Wall Street Journal reports (on the front page, no less) that the Missouri-Kansas border war has roots in a Missouri-Kansas border war.

In other news, Aaron is going to buy me a crab cake if Missouri beats Maryland in basketball this evening. If Maryland beats Mizzou, I owe him an order of toasted ravioli.

I would just like to point out

No. 3 (or No. 4*) Missouri has a legitimate shot (40 percent chance, according to a Post article this morning) at playing for the national championship. First they have to get by their arch-rival, No. 2 Kansas (where at least they can prove they know the alphabet), Saturday evening in prime time. (Funny: the top link from the MU Alumni Association's site, on sportsmanship. Yeah, thanks for the reminder. I'm sure everyone at the game will keep a copy handy.)

This game is huge. Which is quite a shock for fans who are used to the rivalry being hot only in basketball.

* Some polls, including the BCS standings, put West Virginia ahead of the Tigers. Thus I am suddenly also a huge Connecticut fan; they play West Virginia on Saturday.

The Original Empanada

For those who don't know, the original empanada wager was between Tom and me over a Cardinals-Brewers series in May 2005. I won the wager.

I never received this empanada. A few weeks ago, Tom and I decided to go double or nothing on the Wisconsin-Illinois football game. I won. Tom owed me two empanadas.

This week I faced Tom in fantasy football, and we wagered a bowl of pho and iced coffee if I won, and he didn't owe me the two empanadas if I lost.

I lost.

So the original empanada bet has finally reached its conclusion, with me never receiving the empanada.

PH4H Fantasy Football is Back!

Come one, come all to the 3rd year of the PH4H Fantasy Football League, "Who Let the Vicks Out?" Sign up here. League ID is 486081, password is "dogfighting". As usual, it's a "reverse" league- you get points for negative things happening (INTs, fumbles, etc.) and lose points for positive things (TDs, shutouts, etc.).

You can also join the more standard fantasy format here. League ID is 487040, password is "suspended".

Drafting for Need

From today's Norm Chad column in the Post, a fan asks, "Since NFL teams are always drafting for their biggest needs, why didn't the Bengals select a criminal law attorney?"

Good News for the PH4H Football League....

Brett Favre is returning for yet another year.

Fantasy Meets Reality

ESPN reports that real football players are playing fantasy football. I wonder if any are in reverse leagues?

Damon Huard

The Baltimore Sun's Roch Kubatko posted in his sports blog today:

"At least the Chiefs have Damon Huard to take his place, so no worries.
Damon Huard? Anyone have this guy on their fantasy team?"

I responded by saying yes, he's starting in PH4H.

I'm hoping for a future column mention.

Empanada Bet: Ravens vs. Rams

Justin and I have placed an empanada bet based on the Ravens and Rams final records. If the Ravens finish better than the Rams, I win an empanada. If the Rams finish better than the Ravens, Justin wins an empanada. If both finish with the same record, whoever goes farther in the playoffs wins the empanada. If both go the same distance or miss the playoffs, whoever picks lower in the 2007 NFL draft pick wins the empanada.