PHRASE: Kansas City Shuffle

DEFINITION: A "Kansas City Shuffle" refers to a deceptive tactic, often used in a con game, where someone deliberately misleads their target by making them focus on one thing while the real action happens elsewhere, essentially a complex bait-and-switch maneuver that relies on misdirection and playing on the victim's assumptions; it's a phrase that implies everyone looks one way while the actual action happens in the opposite direction.

Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): Yes, the "Kansas City Shuffle" has somehow and someway, in one form or another, has had an effect on five of the last six participants who have won overall Bookie Challenge championships. The first time a "Kansas City Shuffle" bamboozled an overall Bookie Challenge championship was back in Challenge year #9, when Driveline had his breakthrough season and shockingly won that year's overall Bookie Challenge championship. But nobody saw him coming. Incredibly, it took an amazingly and otherworldly and record-setting Super-Bowl round for Driveline to pull off the handicapping miracle, of which he set an all-time scoring record for the most points scored in a Super Bowl round (27 pts!). In fact, in that year's postseason, the "Fisher of Winners" back then stole the show by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but he would win a second overall Bookie Challenge championship in Challenge year #12, of which he set a new all-time scoring record for the most points scored in a postseason (54 pts). Incredibly, in that year's regular season, Driveline tallied 46 total points, of which the regular-season scoring total led him to register a new all-time scoring record of 100 total points for a combined postseason and regular season (the 54 pointseason points and the combined scoring total and the 100 total points scored for the ENTIRE season--still stand today as all-time records). Driveline's "Kansas City Shuffle" in which he duped rookie carldaddy to miraculously win the overall Bookie Challenge championship from Challenge year #9 was not the first time a "Kansas City Shuffle" came into play for an eventual BC Champion, as the first "shuffle" happened in Challenge year #7 when jcvike28 stunned 7mick7. But if the truth be told, the "Kansas City Shuffle" that transpired in Driveline's last-minute, last-round upset was the most emphatic Kansas City Shuffle of the four KC Shuffles that directly affected the Bookie Challenge competition--BAR NONE!

4) The Kansas City Shuffle was set up. With 1:25 left to play, and with KC already allotting to some of the competition's handicappers 10 bonus points for winning the Super Bowl straight up, everybody was looking at how carldaddy was on the verge of Bookie Challenge history. But there arose a big problem, the Kansas City shuffle still had to make its mark in the game, and carldaddy wasn't going to like it. After the Chiefs ran the ball from their own 42 yard line, they faced a 2nd-and-6 at the Frisco's 38 yard line. SF called a timeout to stop the clock. But on the next play from scrimmage, KC's running back, Damien Williams, again got the call and this time around he didn't run the ball up the middle, but rather he executed an end run to the left, then he weaved his way through a couple of San Francisco tacklers and before anyone knew it, Williams sprinted the last 20-plus yards down the left sideline for a meaningless Chiefs' touchdown! Meaningless to the Super Bowl outcome but not meaningless to the Bookie Challenge competition.

The Kansas City Shuffle that took Driveline to the overall Bookie Challenge championship in the final round of Challenge year #9 was classic: "Please don't look over here because there's nothing to see, so just keep moving along...that's it...keep moving." But for those who don't remember what happened back then, or for those who hadn't yet joined the Bookie Challenge competition, it would take a Monday morning email from the Biased Nihilist to Driveline so the Nihilist could congratulate him and also find out where to send the $450 to the "Fisher of Winners" for winning that year's Bookie Challenge championship. How Driveline pulled off the handicapping miracle of handicapping miracles was astonishing, that he didn't know he had won it until Monday morning was even more astonishing! When Damien Williams scored that "meaningless" touchdown at the end of the game, Driveline won yet another prop pick for the final round, as in he was "closest to the total of the game" (3pts won), as in he predicted the scoring total of the Super Bowl exactly right (KC won 31-20--Driveline had predicted 51 pts to be scored so he also won a one-point bonus). When it was all said and done, Driveline won the overall Bookie Challenge championship over carldaddy by the four-point deferrential of 38 points versus 34 points, or he won it by the 4-point total that was provided by Damien William's 38-yard TD run at the end of that year's Super Bowl round.

In retrospect, the Super Bowl games in which Kansas City won outright to benefit the respective overall Bookie Challenge championship numbered four Super Bowls in all: Challenge year #7, of which was the year jcvike28 and 7mick7 kicked off an intense three-year battle between the two for the rights to win three separate overall Bookie Challenge championships. Jcvike28 won the first battle in Challenge year #7 after an emotionally distraught 7mick7 had attended a memorial service for his father earlier on that Super Bowl Sunday. The second Super Bowl that featured the back-and-forth handicapping duel between jcvike28 and 7mick7 occurred back in Challenge year #13. But the second time around in which the two popular handicappers fought for a second Bookie Challenge title, it 7mick7 that was bouyed by another Kansas City straight-up Super Bowl victory and it was jcvike28 who didn't beat the posting deadline for that year's Super Bowl finale. The recent rubberr match took place in this year's final round, but the trophy was not for an overall Bookie Challenge champion, instead the two went to loggerheads for the second-place prize of this year's Latinum jackpoy ($120) , of which jcvike prevailed over 7mick7 (more coverage of the second-place finish will be given later in this weekly review). Of course, already discussed in this week's weekly review was Driveline's first overall Bookie Challenge championship in which he had won in stunning fashion back in Challenge year #9 that was tremendously aided by 10-bonus points because of a straight-up Super-Bowl victory by the Kansas City Chiefs, and by extension--a Kansas City shuffle. Then there was the second time Driveline won a Super Bowl thanks to another grand finale victory by the Chiefs again. In other words, Driveline was blessed by a second Kansas City shuffle, but the second one ended in a laugher as Driveline defeated DawgPound by a final of 54 points versus 38 points, of which the 16-point margin of victory is an all-time Bookie Challenge record until this very day. So dominant was Driveline in the postseason of Challenge year #12, that he also set a new all-time record for the most points ever scored in a combined postseason and regular season of a Bookie Challenge competition (100 pts!). Lastly, the last Super Bowl that was affected by a straight-up win by the Kansas city Chiefs occurred back in Challenge year #11, when dbucc, aka the Joker, was the only one laughing after riding the coattails of a straigth-up win in that year's Super Bowl by the Kansas City Chiefs. In fact, that year's overall run for a Bookie Challenge championship was spearheaded by a breakthrough season in which dbucc emotionally invoke his wife Diane on several occasions throughout the season. Diane had passed away earlier that summer but she played a miraculous role in dbucc's only Bookie Challenge championship.

And now it's time to recognize this year's overall Bookie Challenge champion--Vikings17.

There are some handicappers who have taken their respective rookie seasons of the Bookie Challenge competitions by storm. "By storm", it is meant that no newcomers beside the Biased Nihlist have won any overall Bookie Challenge championships in their respective greenhorn seasons, but a handful have had some truly remarkable handicapping performances at the start of their Bookie Challenge careers. Sadly, almost every handicapper has regressed to a less than stellar means, even the Nihilist had his catastrophic season (Challenge year #2 if one can believe it!). However, the Biased Nihilist, proved he was special, especially after he won his first Bookie Challenge championship in the very first Bookie Challenge competition that was ever held, or the Challenge's inaugural season. Unfortunately for many top contenders, the Nihilist's opening Bookie Challenge championship in the competition's first season was something that has not been duplicated by any newcomers ever since, meaning that nobody else who joined the competition ever won an overall Bookie Challenge championship in their respective first Bookie Challenge seasons. With that being pointed out, there is one handicapper whose Bookie Challenge career started out with a banner rookie performance, and who became the first rookie beside the Nihilist to ever win a regular-season championship in his first season of handicapping the competition, then seized an overall Bookie Challenge championship in his sophomore season of handicapping the Challenge competition. That handicapper hails by his Bookie Challenge username of Vikings17, and is also known by his Bookie Challenge moniker as the "Purple People Eater". And for the record, of which is something that speaks to Vikings17's handicapping prowess, no other handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge, notwithstanding the Nihilist, has ever won a Bookie Challenge championship faster than has the "Purple People Eater". Frankly, Vikings17 has come on to the Bookie Challenge scene unlike any other handicapper before him, and that includes the likes of the Biased Nihilist (3 championships won), Tony Soprano (3 championships won but no longer an active participant), and Driveline (2 championships won). There are also a handful of other highly successful Bookie Challenge handicappers, but Vikings17 is now head and shoulders above them, for he is super special in his own right. In other words, by winning this year's overall Bookie Challenge championship--Vikings17 has accomplish a few handicapping feats that a few other handicappers in the league, or rather a good many handicappers in the league, could only dream about doing.

Right off the bat, in his first Bookie Challenge season that he handicapped as a rookie last year, Vikings17 snapped out of his early handicapping doldrums and went on to capture last year's regular-season championship. But unfortunately for Vikings17, despite possessing the scoring advantages of a regular-season champion for the first-two rounds of last year's postseason, there wasn't a Kansas City shuffle that helped him hoodwink the competition, and after jcvike28 failed to meet last year's posting deadline for the Super Bowl, it was the Kansas City shuffle that elevated 7mick over the Biased Nihilist to win his first-ever Bookie Challenge championship. The Mick would by and large win the overall Bookie Challenge because of the 10-point bonus the Chiefs provided him for winning last year's Super Bowl over the 49ers. To be fair, heading into the last round of last year's playoffs, Vikings17, having no preseason Super Bowl selections still in play, thus he was a long shot to win the final round and by extension an overall Bookie Challenge championship. Fast forward to this season, and a struggling Vikings17 had lost his parlay-hitting mojo for almost the entire regular season. But he still proved to be uncannily resilient after substituting three separate 5-point exact-score hits for the few parlay winners he had knocked down in his rookie season of last year's regular season. More amazingly, the Purple People Eater, after sustaining his regular season with not only 5-point exact score hits but also a league leading 23 propositional points scored, finally gave his divisional leader, Blitzkrieg, a heave-ho from the top of the Hail Mary divisional race in the 16th week of the regular season after he connected for his first and only 6-point parlay hit this regular season. Oh, and that parlay winner resulted in Vikings17's first PERFECTA outing of his two-year Bookie Challenge start. Regardless, the week #16 change of the divisional lead, that of Blitzkrieg yielding to Vikings17 would last for the rest of the regular season.

As it concerned the final round of this year's postseason, again the Purple People Eater was a contender heading into the round. This time, though, and unlike his rookie season from the year before, Vikings17 was a TOP contender to win his first Bookie Challenge championship. Let's not get wrong, the Kansas City Chiefs did not win this year's Super Bowl but Vikings17 still got a Kansas City shuffle. He just got it in the previous round, the NFL championship round, when he astutely selected the Kansas City Chiefs to go to the "Four Falls of Buffalo" and beat a red-hot Bills' football team. Some of the top contenders who fell for a Kansas City shuffle in third round of this year's postseason and chose the Buffalo Bills were jcvike28, Driveline, dbucc, the Biased Nihilist. But Vikings17 tallied 15 overall points in the third round of this year's playoffs to win the week outright. Additionally, he displayed the fervor of a true Bookie Challenge champion to be, after he entered this year's final round with the largest lead ever taken into a grand finale, of which was a big-time total of 12 overall points. In the end, when the sun set on the 14th annual Bookie Challenge competition, a new type of handicapper was born, a handicapping superstar was born one could dare say, but for now we'll call him the Lenny Dykstra of the Bookie Challenge competition--and he's named as such because when it came to to the Bookie Challenge competition Vikings17 was "tough as nails". To say the least, he approached the Bookie Challenge with high spirit and mythic intensity. What the Purple People Eater is working on after his first-two Bookie Challenge seasons will forever echo in eternity, that is, if he keeps it up, keeps handicapping on a level that makes his Bookie Challenge peers envious, there's no telling what heights he'll reach in future Bookie Challenge competitions.

• JCVIKE28 AND 7MICK7 CONTINUE THEIR PLAYOFF FEUD, WITH JCVIKE WINNING THIS YEAR'S RUBBER MATCH IN THIS YEAR'S SUPER BOWL ROUND, SORT OF: This year's final round of the Bookie Challenge's postseason had a familiar twist to it, one that was started in Challenge year #7, then continued on into Challenge year #13, and finally came to a rubber-match ending of sorts in this year's Super Bowl round. To make a long story short, each handicapper won Bookie Challenge championships over each other. As has been well documented in past reviews, in their first playoff bout of Challenge year #7, jcvike28 defeated 7mick7 for the overall Bookie Challenge championship but only because 7mick7 failed to meet the final round's posting deadline. It was a heartache ending for 7mick7, as he failed to meet the posting deadline on the very Sunday a memorial service was held for his deceased father. It would take six long seasons before the two handicappers locked horns in another final round, this time around it took place in the Super Bowl round of Challenge year #13. And what happened was straight out of pamphlet entitled: "I TOLD YOU SO, WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND!" In other words, in the last round of Challenge year #13, and ironically, it was jcvike who failed to meet that year's posting deadline in the final round of that year's postseason. All in all, it was 7mick7 who got some payback and beat out jcvike28 for that year's overall Bookie Challenge championship. Flash forward to the final round of this year's postseason of Challenge year #14, and the two heavyweight handicappers were at it again. However, in this year's final round, nobody came close to bumping off the odds-on favorite who won this year's overall Bookie Challenge championship--Vikings17. The major difference in this year's final round is that jcvike and 7mick would be reduced to settling for the 2nd-place prize of the Latinum jackpot ($120). At first, by the end of this year's Super Bowl game, it appeared that 7mick7 was going to edge out jcvike in the rubber match, even though the rubber match would not include a Bookie Challenge championship. But by God, the deciding factor that settled this year's rubber match duel between jcvike and 7mick7 was every bit as exciting as was their first-two final-round postseason encounters, of which was that this year's showdown bristled with such suspense and high drama that the duel had no choice but to get rekindled once again in this year's final round of the playoffs. As it turned out, jcvike28 would end up in 2nd place in this year's final playoff point standings, and his final deficit to Vikings17 was a substantial 12 point defeat. However, as already mentioned, jcvike won the 2nd-place prize over 7mick7 (33 pts vs 30 pts). But it took a handicapping miracle for jcvike to pull off the stunning win over 7mick7. Specifically, with just a little over eight minutes to play in the game, Philly's place kicker, Jake Elliot attempted a 45-yard field goal to keep embarrasing the Chiefs. BUT THE EAGLES WERE FLAGGED FOR AN ILLEGAL PROCEDURE! That meant a rekick from 50 yards out, which just so happened to be the exact yardage and by the exact team that jcvike had predicted as his longest field goal for the game. After receiving his regular three points and the one-point bonus for having exactly selected the 50-yard FG by Philadelphia, the overall four points jcvike won for the late FG was the difference that led jcvike28 to his three-point victory over 7mick7.