• CHALLENGE FIELD CLOSES IN ON AN EGREGIOUS ALL-TIME POSTSEASON RECORD: The Challenge field had a stellar best-bet record for this year's regular season, and from all indications, the field is going to end the entire season (combined regular season and postseason) with a winning best-bet tally regardless of what happens in the Super Bowl round. But with that being pointed out, this year's Challenge field has a chance to end this year's competition on a sour note, a very sour note. As it concerns the field's combined best-bet tallies, it has never had a postseason in which it registered a losing best-bet record for each of the four playoff rounds. This postseason, however, can become the first time in the history of the Bookie Challenge's playoffs that a Challenge field reels off four-straight losing best-bet records for each round of a postseason. Heading into this year's final round, the Challenge field has already notched three-consecutive weekends in which it has posted losing best-bet records and only needs to register a losing best-bet tally in the upcoming Super Bowl round to set the most pitiful record for handicapping a Challenge postseason. The current losing streak encompasses the first-three rounds of these playoffs: Round #1, 23-38-0 (.377 Win%); round #2, 28-32-5 (.467); and round #3, 8-18-0 (.308).

It was odd to see the Kansas City Chiefs provide a major spark to Vikings17's NFL Championship round of handicapping, of which the Chiefs came through on one of his two winning best-bets (Buff/KC--over47½) and also came through twice within his 3-point parlay combination (Phil-6, KC-2, Buff/KC-Over48. The aforementioned best-bet winners and the winning 3-point parlay hit accounted for nine of the 15 total points the Purple People Eater garnered nearly two weeks ago for his handicapping of the NFL Championship round (Rd #3). That the Chiefs did most of the heavy lifting for Vikings17 in the first game in round #3 of the Challenge playoffs was not a case of one of his favorite teams coming to the rescue. But let's quickly cut through the chase: Vikings17 is a die-hard Minnesota Vikings fan, and as such--he's not a lover of the Kansas City Chiefs. Granted, last season the Chiefs won the Super Bowl and paid big dividends (as in a 10-point bonus) for 7mick7 to win his first Bookie Challenge championship, but the Chiefs' victory in last year's grand finale was the major reason Vikings17 did not come close to winning last year's Bookie Challenge championship after entering last year's postseason as the league's regular-season champion. So yeah, the Chiefs--along with the Eagles--propelled Vikings17 to a hefty 12-point lead over jcvike and an 11-point lead over 7mick7 as all three handicappers enter the final round of this year's Bookie Challenge competition. Of course, nobody within the Challenge field was more thankful and appreciative for the Chiefs' solid victory over the Buffalo Bills than was Vikings17. But in regards to Vikings17, he had better have a short-term memory and drop his newfound admiration for the Chiefs, because it's time to access his long-term memory and see the Chiefs for what they presently are: Trouble, big trouble for the Purple People Eater, if the Chiefs win this year's Super Bowl straight up. Hell, not for nothing, but the Chiefs not only screwed Vikings17 in last year's Super Bowl round but also bamboozled him 55 Super Bowls ago--in Super Bowl IV to be exact, although he didn't know it at the time.

In Super Bowl IV, the Kansas City Chiefs returned to the Super Bowl game for a second time after they had lost the first Super Bowl that was ever played to the Green Bay Packers. In their second go round in the grand finale the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Minnesota Vikings. The Chief were heavy underdogs despite the Jets breaking through in Super Bowl III and becoming the first AFC team to capture a Super Bowl (beat the Colts 16-7). The Vikings, if one can believe it, were installed as 13½-point favorites over the Chiefs. Back then, Vikings17 was only around four years old and so he wasn't a Vikings' fan just yet (became one around 7 yrs old). Still, though, as Vikings17 got older, he realized that his FAVORITE team had never won a Super Bowl, with the losing streak starting at Super Bowl IV (23-7 loss to the Chiefs0. And thank the good Lord that Vikings17 was oblivious of the Vikings for their first Super Bowl because it wasn't a pretty thing to watch. The Chiefs' defense absolutely stuffed the Vikings' offense in the first half, building a 16-0 halftime lead and only allowing Minnesota just 24 rushing yards while not giving up a third-down conversion (stopped them 5 times). The Vikings would finally wake up when they converted a drive with little over four minutes left to play in the 3rd quarter, of which the drive consisted 10 plays for 69 total yards to slice the Chiefs lead to 16-7. Unfortunately for the Viking faithful, the Chiefs would answer the Vikings' TD drive on the very next possession after the Vikes' score. The play, as it is explained in the picture being displayed on the right, that broke the game wide open was called by Jack Buck, who was one of the greatest sportscasters not only in the history of football but also in the history of baseball. In Jack Bucks play-by-play call of Otis Taylor's TD run after he caught a quick pass in the right flat from Len Dawson, Taylor was able to quickly break a tackle by the starting cornerback for the Vikings, Earsell Mackbee (#46). It would Mackbee's last play of Super Bowl IV. Earlier in the game, Mackbee had suffered a pinch nerve but continued to play with the injury. Subsequently, after knocking his head into the hip of Otis Taylor in his attempted tackle of Otis Taylor, Mackbee aggravated his injury and would not return after his missed tackle on Taylor. For sure, Vikings17 received a big assist from the Chiefs in this year's Championship round of nearly two weeks ago, but he knows the real deal, of what the Chiefs are capable of.

The only other time a handicapper of the Bookie Challenge competition should not want to make an appearance in this weekly segment of the weekly review, otherwise known as the WHO'S-NOT-HOT-HANDICAPPER of the week, is to not make that appearance on the last weekend of a Bookie Challenge's postseason. Simply put, do not show up in this segment of the weekly review when it's the Super Bowl round. All other rounds might be okay, but the Super Bowl round is not one of them. But just to be on the safe side, it might be a great idea to avoid going scoreless for this round also (Championship Rd--Rd #3), or at least try to avoid a goose-egg outing for the second-to-last round of a Bookie challenge playoffs. Unfortunately for DawgPound, who might be this year's most snake-bitten handicapper of the Bookie Challenge competition, showing up in this segment, in the second-to-last round of a yearly competition, is tantamount to losing it all--losing everything that there is to lose in a Bookie Challenge contest. For one thing, gracing this segment with one's presence makes a handicapper of a Bookie Challenge competition almost guaranteed that he has goose egged the round and that his contention for an overall Bookie Challenge championship has evaporated into a pipe dream. And, man, just for the damn record, it's not easy to goose egg the NFL Championship round of a Challenge postseason. A handicapper would have to absolutely suck to go scoreless in the Championship round, and God forbid a handicapper plops a goose-egg outing in the final round of a Challenge playoffs, of which means his season is not only officially over--but that he also ended his season in the most embarrassing way possible. So, how does it happen? How does a handicapper, after having to make three prop picks for EACH of the NFL Championship finals, lose everything, every pick, and go scoreless for the round? In DawgPound's case it's easy to explain. For starters, he waited until the one-minute-warning for this past Sunday's posting deadline to be posted before he submitted his main selections of two best-bets and 3-team parlay combination (parlay worth just 3 pts this past weekend), of which he missed all of those aforementioned selections (4 different picks in all). And because he waited until the last minute to post all of his selections, the Dawg-Day-Afternoon Handicapper was not able to register his three propositional selections for EACH of the two NFL Championship games. In fact, he only managed to post the combined scoring totals for both games and also the longest FGs for both games. However, he didn'have the time to submit the longest scoring plays for both games. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered, anyway, because he posted his two totals and two longest FGs after the posting deadline had passed. The kicker is that he would not have goose egged the Championship round if he had only posted his propositional picks before Sunday's posting deadline went into effect, in which case--if he had done so--he would have nailed one of his field goal predictions for three total points (Buffalo 48-yd-FG).