Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): If Vince Lombardi were alive today, and if Vince Lombardi were a die-hard fan of the Bookie Challenge competition from its onset, and if Vince Lombardi were to witness the first-six weeks of this year's competition, and if Vince Lombardi were able to see the present front-runners who occupy the top-four seeds of the Challenge point standings after this past weekend, week #6, he would be yelling at the top of his lungs his iconic line--"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON OUT HERE!?"

And those aforementioned words shouted out by Lombardi would be the right ones.

With the exception of DawgPound, to risk looking at the other participants who presently occupy the top seeds in the Challenge point standings, would be risking one's eyesight to be exchanged for that of Hellen Keller's eyesight. Or worse, to look at today's current top seeds in the standings would be tantamount to staring at Medusa's head and being turned into stone. Now granted, every Bookie Challenge competition is different, no seasons are ever the same because of unforeseen handicapping performances from the unlikeliest of handicappers that take place from one year to the next, of which the annual handicapping surprises can flip a Challenge competition on its head. For the latest example, just think of Driveline and his recent emergence over the span of the last-four years in the Bookie Challenge competition, how he has changed the old script from being a perennial loser for years and years early on in his Challenge career into a new script in which he has morphed into one of the league's top handicappers, into one who has finally been able to bask in the glory of Bookie Challenge stardom. With that being pointed out, the inchoate storylines for this year's competition are no different than the ones from past competitions, meaning that this year's storylines are just as improbable and chaotic as the ones in previous competitions. Already this year's storylines are bordering on the fantastical, are over-the-top to say the least, and are storylines being inundated with handicapping performances that are bristling with the bizarre.

Let us start off with this year's most improbable storyline, that of catman's. Here we have a handicapper, who in his first-three seasons handicapping the Bookie Challenge, built an ignominious reputation for being a recidivist quitter, but he unbelievably opened up this year's first week with a co-share of the overall lead in the standings. More remarkable is that in the ensuing five weeks of this year's competition, he has been the outright leader in the point standings and can now possibly become the first handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to go wire-to-wire into a divisional seeding with at least a share or the outright lead in the first-eight weeks of a competition. Nobody has ever pulled off that highly commendable feat! But by the same token, after this past weekend, his consecutive streak atop the Challenge point standings has turned into a precarious one-point lead, and over a handicapper--Theopholis--who is at the heart of this year's second and unforeseen storyline. In Theo, we have a handicapper who, apart from his incredible sophomore season (Challenge yr #5), in which he won his first and so far his only divisional title, was a quintessential bottom feeder in the competition for six out of his first-seven years in the Bookie Challenge, of which for those six aforementioned seasons he qualified for the Challenge postseasons as a lowly at-large participant, or with the worst playoff qualification that a handicapper can take into a Challenge playoffs. But all of the sudden, over the last two competitions, Theopholis has somewhat righted his ship and has qualified for the last-two postseasons as a divisional wild card after finishing in second place in his last-two regular-season divisional races. But what was totally incomprehensible about his wild-card qualification from two years ago, he finished in second place of that year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race without hitting a single 6-point parlay winner for that year's entire regular season. This past weekend, however, Theo hammered out his second 6-point parlay hit of this season, and as a result, he made his second foray into the top seeds this season. But this time around, he concluded this past weekend with his highest slot in this year's point standings, which is second place overall, and more importantly he is presently just one point removed from tying catman in total points for the overall lead of the competition. However, if a tie in total points between catman and Theopholis for the overall lead does come to fruition, it's highly possible that the league's second tiebreaker, most parlay wins within one's combined parlay combinations on the season, will be the deciding tiebreaker, and one that could turn out to be bad news for Theo. At the present time, catman not only leads the league with 12 overall wins within his combined parlay combos, but he also has four more parlay wins within his combined parlay combinations than Theo presently has (12 wins vs 8 wins).

Speaking of tiebreaker scenarios that could come into play at this year's all-important divisional seeding, of which right now there stands a high probability that tiebreakers will dramatically affect a participant's final seeding into one of this year's divisions, Theopholis became the most recent handicapper who was unceremoniously denied a crucial week-won tiebreaker, all thanks to 7mick7, who this past weekend matched Theopholis' 7-point outing with one of his own. The 6-point parlay winner by the Irish Hustler was just his first of this season, but it was a big-time parlay hit that has come in the nick of time for 7mick7, and mainly because it enabled 7mick7 to be the latest participant to vacate the lower tier of the point standings. Significantly, in light of his clutch parlay winner, the Irish Hustler rose five slots in the standings and capped off this past weekend by finishing in seventh place overall in the standings. Equally important, with 11 points accrued this season, 7mick7 is a 6-point parlay hit or a PERFECTA outing away for seriously contending for the number-one overall seed at this year's divisional seeding, but he doesn't have the luxury of time to let loose with such handicapping heroics, for there only remains TWO weekends left to handicap before the arrival of this year's divisional seeding. With that being said, it's not out of the realm of possibility for "Mick Balls" to register another 6-point parlay hit. Not including 7mick7's 2-year hiatus from the competition (Challenge yrs' #9 & #10), he has produced a 6-year run, to include this year, in which he has at least registered one regular-season 6-point parlay hit, not to forget that he nailed down three 6-point parlay winners just last season and a career-high four 6-point parlay hits in Challenge year #7, the season he won his only divisional title and the same year that a botched set of his weekly picks in the Super-Bowl round kept him from winning that year's overall Bookie Challenge championship. There's also another statistic that needs to be pointed out that concerns 7mick7's parlay-hitting history, and it's a stat that has flown under the radar for the most part. Specifically, 7mick7 is one of the few handicappers who has only missed hitting a 6-point parlay winner in just one year of his Challenge career (Challenge yr #5). Therefore, when given 7mick7's track record for knocking down parlay hits, it's not all that inconceivable that he can bang out one more before this year's divisional seeding.

This past weekend ended with catman amassing his 19th point of the season and still hanging on to the overall top seed. As already mentioned, Theo, with 18 points garnered on the season, is currently in second place in the standings and owns the second overall top seed. And just one point behind Theopholis, there exists a tie for the third overall top seed between DawgPound and DIRTYBIRDS, both of whom concluded their respective outings with 17 overall points apiece. However, after implementing the league's first regular-season tiebreaker, most best-bet wins, DawgPound ended this past weekend as the technical owner of the third top seed, and accordingly, DIRTYBIRDs ended his outing as the occupant of the fourth and final top seed in the standings. Looking ahead, this upcoming weekend will be the penultimate weekend before this year's divisional seeding and it's a no-brainer that it will be a highly pivotal outing that will certainly have almost every participant in the competition on edge. At this point of this year's competition there has never been a tighter race for a competition's four top seeds, as is quite evident when considering that only three points separates the first top seed from the fourth top seed. Additionally, there are plenty of other participants in the point standings who have viable shots to supplant the four present front-runners in the upcoming two weekends that will lead up to this year's divisional seeding. Essentially, over the upcoming two weeks, there's an eye-popping probability that the point standings could coalesce even further and create an unprecedented situation in which tiebreakers will determine the top four seeds at this year's divisional seeding.

• COMPETITION'S ONLY ACTIVE HANDICAPPERS WITH MULTIPLE BOOKIE CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIPS--THE NIHILIST AND DRIVELINE--STILL LOOKING TO GET RESPECTIVE HANDICAPPING CAMPAIGNS IN GEAR: Two of the league's longest-tenured participants, the Biased Nihilist (13 yrs) and Driveline (11 yrs), are each struggling to get their respective handicapping seasons in this year's competition out of the starting blocks in earnest and into full gear. Now that Tony Soprano is no longer an active participant in the Bookie Challenge competition, the Nihilist and Driveline are the only active participants that have won multiple Bookie Challenge championships, with the Nihilist having won three overall titles and Driveline two. As a matter of record, apart from the Nihilist, Driveline, and a now defunct Tony Soprano, no other participants in the history of the competition have ever won multiple Bookie Challenge championships. The Nihilist, in particular, is the only handicapper who has ever won back-to-back Bookie Challenge championships. Many previous overall champions have tried to match the stupendous feat, but none have succeeded. Of interest this season, as this year's defending Bookie Challenge champion, Driveline is in the enviable position to match the Nihilist's extraordinary back-to-back feat, but as already mentioned, he's yet to find his footing in this year's competition. For that matter, and to be brutally frank, neither has the Nihilist. Disgracefully, after this past weekend, both handicappers are mired in the last-two slots of the point standings, with Driveline in second-to-last place with just five points accrued for the season and with the Nihilist in dead-last place with just a meager four points tallied this year. Comparatively speaking, inasmuch as the Nihilist is historically the more decorated participant between the two, and owns a slew of all-time records to boot, some of which may never broken, such as the three consecutive seasons he won the first-prize of the Latinum jackpots, it's been a long time since the Nihilist has won a Bookie Challenge championship. Incredibly, out of the competition's first-six seasons, the Nihilist won three overall BC championships. But he hasn't won an overall title over the span of the last-six competitions. Contrarily, Driveline has won two of the last-four overall championships, and in his own right, has set his own slew of all-time records as of late. Just last season, as an example, Driveline registered one of the most awesome seasons ever registered in the history of the competition. Specifically, he won last year's overall championship in a runaway fashion, and in the process, became the first handicapper to accrue an amazing 100 combined points for a regular season and postseason. And yet, so far this season, both handicappers have been hard pressed to find their respective handicapping mojo, or their respective handicapping A-games. And with just two weeks left to handicap before this year's divisional seeding, the urgency at hand for both handicappers is to not finish in the cellar of the point standings, otherwise either handicapper, if indeed one of them winds up as the last seeded handicapper at this year's divisional seeding, will end up being seeded in the division with the number-one overall top seed, of which means that one of them will start off this year's divisional races with the largest deficit of total points to a divisional leader. On the whole, and it should be needless to say, neither handicapper wants to be in such a daunting position.


• FOR YEARS TCU HAS BEEN THE COMPETITION'S MOST PROLIFIC OVER/UNDER HANDICAPPER, BUT ROOKIE VIKINGS17 IS BOLSTERING HIS OWN OVER/UNDER STREET CRED TO CHALLENGE TCU'S OVER/UNDER REPUTATION: For the most part, not many handicappers from the Challenge field consistently dabble in over/under picks, with the main exceptions being dbucc, DawgPound, 7mick7, and sometimes moemonie, but they generally don't go overboard when it comes to handicapping NFL totals. However, ever since TCU joined the Bookie Challenge competition back in Challenge year #7, he quickly displayed an unabated love for selecting over/under picks, and he's been pretty good at handicapping those NFL totals. What's more, over his 7-year tenure in the Challenge competition, to include this year, Too Tall Tommy is by far the one handicapper who selects more over/under picks than anyone else in the competition, and does as much on nearly a weekly basis. This season, however, rookie entrant Vikings17 is showing a flair for selecting over/under selections just as much as TCU. Overall this season, the Challenge field has selected a combined 43 over/under selections throughout the first-six weeks of this year's competition and have a combined over/under record of 21-22-0 for a .488 win percentage. But worth noting is that TCU and Vikings17 have accounted for slightly over half of the overall 43 over/under picks that have been handicapped so far this season. Specifically, the pair has handicapped a combined 22 over/under selections, with each handicapper havng handicapped exactly 11 over/under picks apiece. So after six weeks, who has the better record between the two? Too Tall Tommy so far has a convincing edge over the rookie on the strength of his 7-4-0 over/under record (.636 win%) versus Vikings17's over/under tally of 5-6-0 (.455 win%). The big difference that has in large part separated the two over/under handicappers occurred back in week #2, when Too Tall Tommy knocked down two over/under winners within his parlay combo that was a big factor in him hitting a 6-point parlay on that weekend. What's awe-inspiring is that over the last two weeks, to include this past weekend, TCU went all out and selected three over/under picks in each of his respective parlay combos, and he damn near hit both parlay combos. Two weeks ago, in week #5, his only loser in his combo occurred when the game between the Eagles and Rams stayed under the total of 51 points. This past weekend, the game between Detroit and Tampa Bay also stayed under the total, this time around it stayed under 43 pts, and it also cost TCU another 6-point parlay hit.

  In contrast, although both TCU and Vikings17 have handicapped the same number of over/under picks after this past weekend (11 each), Vikings17 has never assembled a parlay combo this year that has only consisted of over/under selections. But that's not to say that the rookie Vikings17 didn't suffer an excruciating loss of a 6-pt parlay hit because of an over/under selection within his parlay combination, as happened to Too Tall Tommy over the last two weeks. For instance, two weekends ago, in week #5, Vikings17's parlay consisted of the Dolphins (-11) over the Giants, the Chiefs/Vikings to go over 53 points, and the Raiders (+1) over Green Bay in that week's Monday night game. Because the Chiefs and Vikings played on Sunday afternoon of week #5, and as a result, after the game's total stayed under 53, Vikings17's 6-pt parlay combination was already lost before his last and final parlay pick played out on Monday night, so the loss of his overall parlay combination turned out to be anticlimactic. Still, though, regardless of the chronological order in which the rookie handicapper lost that weekend's parlay combination, in the grand scheme of things, he still barely missed knocking down his first-ever 6-point parlay hit because of one game, because the combined scoring in the game between the Chiefs and Vikings stayed under 53 points. Not for nothing, but the enormous consequences of that one over/under loss can not be shrugged away. That one over/under selection, if Vikings17 would have pulled it out, could have served as the springboard that would have jump-started his rookie season in earnest. His beloved Vikings were right there twice, in Chiefs' territory, once around midway through the 4th quarter and another time in the waning moments of the game. With KC leading 27-20 in the late stages of the game, a game-tying TD by the Vikings would have made the game's total go over 53 points, of which the game going over the total would have subsequently resulted in a season-changing 6-point parlay winner by Vikings17. The parlay hit would have transformed his rookie season from a listless mediocrity into something very special. In retrospect, when looking back at all of the parlay combinations that Vikings17 has submitted in his first-six weeks of his rookie season, the parlay combo from two weeks ago that included the game between Kansas City and Minnesota was the best chance this season that Vikings17 had to connect on a parlay hit. Unfortunately, an inexplicable mismanagement of the play clock by the Vikings in the closing minute of the game, not to mention that they failed to score in their previous possession after driving deep into Chiefs' territory, as in getting to the Chiefs' 19 yard line, turned a golden opportunity for Vikings17 to end his weekend with his first-ever parlay hit into a nightmarish missed opportunity that for the time being has cramped Vikings17's hopes of turning around his lackluster start to his greenhorn season. If anything, however, until the rookie can straighten out his parlay game, at least he's vying to overtake TCU to possibly become the best over/under handicapper in the league. It's not much, but at least it's something he can pursue until he works out the more pressing kinks of his handicapping game. And hey, at the very least, the over/under skirmish between TCU and Vikings17, whether real or imagined, promises to be an ongoing handicapping sideshow that will surely entertain the rest of the Challenge field.



• WEEKLY TICKER.......It may not come as a total surprise that three of the present holders of the top-four seeds in the point standings--catman23 (#1 seed), Theopholis (#2 seed), and DIRTYBIRDS (#4 seed)--are the only participants who have not registered scoreless outings this season......The back-and-forth skirmish for this year's Swami award between TCU and Blitzkrieg kept its seesaw modus operandi. This time around, after TCU goose egged his outing, and after Blitzkrieg split even with his best bets, Blitzkrieg presently holds this year's top best-bet record, but by the slightest of margins. After this past weekend, Blitzkrieg's 8-3-1 best-bet record and its .727 win percentage barely betters TCU's 8-4-0 best-bet marks and its .667 win percentage......This past weekend, rookie HOF City Kid came awfully close to landing the first 3-point parlay combo in a regular season since ibbill accomplished the feat back in week #8 of Challenge year #7. Only the Jets' upset victory over the Eagles prevented the City Kid from hitting his 3-point parlay attempt.......