The Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback season is quickly coming to a close. After about five months of hand wringing competition, it’s hard to remember that the season that started a few weeks late almost never took place. However, here we are in the end of January with one big game remaining in the season, and following the Conference Championship games we can officially declare a winner.
Dan Jones, who retired from the Watervliet Fire Department during our season of competition, has a 2-game lead with one game left to ponder, so the 2020-2021 AQB Championship hat can proudly be worn by Dan this coming off season. Dan took over the lead back in late September, and except for a one week drop to 3rd place in early December Dan has had a great year and hung onto the lead to the bitter end.
None of our pigskin pickers correctly picked both Conference Champions this past week. Tampa Bay with their 43-year-old grey bearded quarterback Tom Brady set down the Green Bay Packers 31-26. They will be facing the Kansas City Chiefs and their 24 years young quarterback Patrick Mahomes who knocked off an up and coming Buffalo team, 38-24. Brady will be looking to extend his all-time record of six Super Bowl titles to seven. Mahomes will be looking to become the youngest quarterback to lead his team to two Super Bowl wins, and do it in back to back seasons.
RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht, who was in second place, was the only ‘back who picked both losers. But she had to take a shot at an upset, picking the Bills and Packers, to have any hope in catching Dan. The rest of our panel came out of the week at .500, with each member picking one of the winners. Because of this RoxAnn now drops to third place, a game behind Rodney. She will only have the Super Bowl to try and tie him, and possibly overtake him with the tiebreaker.
The TCR, AQB competition is held weekly from the beginning of the football season in late summer until it finishes with the playing of the Super Bowl in February. We have six Tri-City area football fans competing against each other to predict the winners of a group of pre-selected games from the high school, collegiate, and professional ranks. Following the conclusion of the Super Bowl, one winner is crowned champion and will have the honor of wearing the Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback Championship hat.
In the event that two or more ‘backs have the same record for the week, or the yearly total, their place in the standings will be determined by a weekly tiebreaker game. In addition to trying to correctly pick the winners of each week’s games, they try and predict the score from a specially selected game. The AQB who comes the closest to the total number of points scored by both teams will get the higher spot in the standings.
Greg Krell in 4th place, Tim Hildebrand in 5th place, and our newbie Taylor Prestidge in 6th, all are locked into their finishes. Each is at least two games behind their nearest competitor.
Rodney was our weekly winner, at 1-1, as he picked the tiebreaking number right on the head; 57 being the total number of points scored in the Bucs and Packers game. Dan comes in second and Greg and Tim each get a share of third place because they both picked 51 points in the tiebreaker. Taylor gets 5th place for the week and RoxAnn is last going 0-2, but she did what she needed to do to have a chance to win it all.
So we move onto the Super Bowl where Tom Brady and the Bucs will be the first team ever to host and participate in the big game on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021. We will have the picks from our panel of pigskin prognosticators next week, which will give them another week to absorb all the silliness that the additional week the NFL gives us has to offer. Be sure and check back next week to see who our panel will be favoring in the big game, the much hyped old G.O.A.T or the young whippersnapper.
Super Bowl LV
Kansas City Chiefs vs.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers