Week 1 of the Murray Holiday Invitational

.... had a little bit of everything: Mocking, complaining, whining, more mocking, a near tie, and Jeff watching from afar wishing he was part of it. What an event. When the dust cleared, the following cappers were through to this weekend's quarterfinals:

* "Darts At a Board"

* "+ Units"

* "Bennie Silman"

* "Milton Bradley"

* "Mr. Salmon"

* "Angelo Dundee"

* "The Player"

Here are some notes from Round 1:

* "Darts At a Board" is the youngest person in the field, the least experienced gambler, the only female, and the only person who doesn't live in Las Vegas and either currently work at a sports book or formerly worked at one. She also finished with the highest Week 1 score out of a group of 14, going 5-2.

* 4 of the 14 people in the field finished winless. That means that with the option of picking up to 7 NFL sides at stale numbers, 29% of us were unable to pick a single winner.

* The award for the worst performance in the field goes to "Fernando" aka "The Blog" aka me. My excuse? The pressures of hosting the event was too much for me to handle. The truth? I don't have any idea what I'm doing.

* I will say that if I was going to lose in Round 1, I'm glad it was to Matt. No one embraced the MHI more enthusiastically than Matt did, which came as a very pleasant surprise to me. I have to admit that I thought "The Big Guy" would consider himself to be above such an event but in fact it has been the exact opposite. For the purposes of the MHI, Metcalf is very much the anti-Sherman.

I still wish my little sister hadn't picked 5 more winners than me, though.

Congrats to all who advanced.


By now most of you are aware that two of our competitors dropped out, forcing me to condense the field to 14 at the last minute. That means that we need one more capper to round out the Elite Eight.

I will be putting up a poll to determine who claims that 8th and final spot. The poll will only be open for 24 hours so don't hesitate to put your vote in. And please only vote once. I know the Eds of the world probably have several computers in their estates but I have to insist that everyone only vote one time.

The winner of the poll will be matched up against my little sister (The #1 seed) in this weekend's quarterfinal round.

Here are your choices:

* Mike Overend - Losing to a superstar like "+ Units" is nothing to be ashamed of. I also consider "NBA League Pass" to be the funniest handle in the field.

* Ed Salmons - Hands down the biggest NFL fan in the MHI. I know how much he'd love another opportunity to pick 7 sides in this ridiculously bad league that he loves so much.

* Chris Bennett - "One week is a small sample size. One week is a small sample size. One week is a small sample size. Don't look at me like that. It's called variance, dick."

* Mike Miller - Like Metcalf, Miller seemed to embrace the MHI. I'd be happy to see him have another chance to claim the crown.

* Andrew Ross - Nobody was rooting for him to lose to Austin. Nobody. If he gets back into the field, maybe he'll get another chance at AB later in the tourney.

* Jorgen Johnson - He's probably the biggest star of the blog and let's face it - his presence would be good for ratings.

* Amanda (Johnson) - She was too important to participate in Round 1. I'm putting her back in the poll and hoping she changes her mind if the people vote her in.

* Jeff Sherman - "Big Red" was too big of a deal to participate in the first round. What if we just skip him ahead to the quarterfinals? A match up between Jeff and my little sister might be the Game of the Century.

* Charlie Ludlow - Charlie arranged the Superbook's college bowl challenge and knows his college ball but could he handle the NFL sharps in the Murray Holiday Invitational? Only one way to find out.

* John Murray - I'd really prefer to not be chosen. And this isn't one of those things where I am just saying that as a reverse psychology thing to get in. I really, really don't want to. I know that I know nothing about the NFL. I don't need to get beat by my sister in a capping contest to reinforce it.

Okay, well that should sow up Ed's vote for me. The rest of you take your time but make sure you get out and vote for your favorite candidate before it's too late.


And some more notes just for the hell of it:

* I wasn't mad at Jeff when he mocked me for betting the Cavs to win it all at 20-1. I wasn't mad at him when he told me he thought my blog was stupid. I wasn't even mad at him when he refused to be in the Murray Holiday Invitational. But when he called me tonight to tell me he was making his line for the Redskins-49ers game and wanted to know if the Skins were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, I lost it. He could have just looked that up online. It would have been really easy actually.

If Jeff had been in the room, I think the scene would have been comparable to George Brett going after the ump when his home run against the Yankees was changed to an out.

* I'm at a point now with Ed that I honestly believe if I came to work with a ticket on the Celtics to win their division at 100-1, he'd ask me what I'd make the price if Garnett, Allen, Pierce, and Rondo were all injured in a car accident and the C's had to go on without them. Let's just all agree that a future bet isn't good if Ed and Matt didn't bet it first.

* Speaking of future betting, my football bets did really well this season. Pretty much every live future I had either clinched or is now in position to win following Sunday's games. Next year I may put all my futures in and then go into hiding until the regular season is over so I can't blow all my profits betting week to week.

* Austin and I have created a fantasy juggernaut that simply cannot be stopped. Points from our quarterback? We don't need no stinkin' points from our QB. Still in first place with 2 weeks left....

* I will be writing previews of several college bowl games this season. I should note that I will be doing so under a friend's name and that I will be attempting to be "Funny" on his behalf, which will most likely render the previews unreadable. The first one will be a breakdown of Saturday's Eagle Bank Bowl. If that doesn't get you excited, you aren't human.

* I don't care what anyone says: Mike Tomlin's decision to have Big Ben spike the ball on first down was stupid. There was 50 seconds left. There's no need for gay panic, let alone Sherman-on-a-Tuesday-afternoon-while-CC-is-at-lunch panic. Take your time, run your play. Why give away a down when you only have 3 to get it into the end zone? The Steelers won any way so no one will ever remember that play but it was still stupid.

* The Eagles-Browns game was an abomination and just another nationally televised testament to how impossibly crappy Ed's league is. After the Eagles cruised down the field for an easy touchdown without any resistance whatsoever from the Browns "Defense," I decided I'd seen and heard enough and switched the TV to an old ep of Family Guy. Best decision I made all night.

* Eagles fans are amazing. They support an absolute rat of a franchise that hasn't won shit in more than 40 years. They have no loyalty whatsoever, even to players and coaches that have done well for them for years. They boo anyone and everything for no reason. They pick fights with women and children in the stands in an effort to make themselves appear to be tough but back down the second someone bigger than them says anything. And they walk around with their chests puffed out as if their team is some powerhouse that the whole league respects. I'll give you guys this - Philly is the best 8-5-1 team I've ever seen but it's still a 3rd place team in one of 8 divisions in an unbelievably terrible league. I am able to get through bad Redskins seasons like this one knowing that every Eagles fan on earth will die without ever seeing them win a Super Bowl.


That's it. I'm done.