Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The second weekend of the 14th annual Bookie Challenge came but it did not bring anything special to the competition. In other words, it was DOA...DEAD...ON...ARRIVAL. Only three handicappers out of the competition's 16 handicappers managed to salvage their respective weekends with two-point outings and each subsequently each shared being the league's top scorers for the weekend. Two of the three handicappers--jcvike28 and the Hall-of-Fame City Kid won their respective two points the old-fashion way--by connecting on both of their respective best bets. How ever, in the case of mormonie, the third handicapper who scored two points over the past weekend, won his two points by connecting on one of his best bets than adding another point to his scoring after he knocked down a one-point exact-score hit on this past Monday night (moemone predicted Philly to score 21 points and they did so despite losing the game 22-21.

As to the rest of the league's 13 handicappers, seven of them each eked out one point for their respective weekends, while the six remaining participants registered completely scoreless outings apiece. Heading into this past weekend, week #2, both Vikings17 and Blitzkrieg, two gritty handicappers who had separated themselves in the early point standings of week #1 had been the opening weekend's top scorers, with Vikings17 holding the top-seeded slot in the standings with seven total points. In the meantime, Blitzkrieg kept pace abd only trailed Vikings17, last year's Rookie-of-the-Year, by just one point after he had accrued six total points in this year's opening weekend after he had unleashed this year's first 6-point parlay winner. But in a year when this season's overall number-one top-seeded handicapper in the point standings after week #8's divisional seeding takes place will receive this season's 4th-place cash prize of $50, neither Vikings17 nor Blitzkrieg capitalized on their respective leads in the point standings this past weekend after both bombed their respective second outings of the year. In week #2, Vikings17 only hit one of his three parlay picks and ended his weekend with a goose-egg outing after he also missed both of his best bets. In the case of Blitzkrieg, he did even worse after he missed both of his best bets and all three selections in his three-team parlay combo to end his weekend with a golden-goose-egg disaster. To say the least, both handicappers were highly fortunate to have not lost their respective positioning in the top-two slots of this year's early point standings, with Vikings17 in first place (7 pts) and Blitzkrieg in second place (6 pts).

Interestingly, this past weekend's handicapping action could have turned into a monumental humiliation for the veterans of the Bookie Challenge competition after four out of five rookies in this year's competition almost hit their respective 6-point parlay combinations. Pointspread parlay losses by Houston destroyed the 6-point parlay winners of realtalkrob and Kr@tos, Kansas City's poinstspread loss derailed Jets69 hopes to hit his first parlay hit of his Bookie Challenge career, and Indianapolis' straight-up loss to Green Bay as 3-point favorites spoiled CAP_ATTACK's bid for his first-ever parlay winner. There was one rookie from the crop of this year's newcomers, Nelbarada, who did not come close to hitting a damn thing and had to settle for a goose egg, or a scoreless outing. God forbid that Houston, Kansas City, and Indianapolis all three didn't cover their respective pointspreads, otherwise the Sunday would have had to be memorialized as "ROOKIE DAY". On the flip side, only two veteran handicappers managed to almost hit their respective parlays after they too hit two out of three teams on their respective 6-point parlay combinations. Tennessee's straight-up loss to the NY Jets cost moemonie a 6-point parlay winner, and importantly--an overall lead in this year's point standings. Too Tall tommy (aka TCU) had selected the total pf the the Knsas City matchup versus Cincinnate to sat under the pointspread total of 49 points. KC won the game by a 26-25 final (51 total pts) and screwed up TCU's 6-point parlay hit and a shot at first place.

• BEWARE OF THE SNOWMAN AND THE FALCON: Don't anybody in the competition dare to ignore Blitkrieg's strange start to this season, or they'll be sorry. True, Blitzkrieg presently owns the worst best-bet record of the league, 0-4-0 (win % .000), but he has also knocked down this year's first and only 6-point parlay hit of the competition, which the parlay winner has him firmly entrenched in second place of the current point standings. Keep an eye Blitzkrieg, whose built the reputation of always being in contention for a Bookie Challenge championship. Here's some food for thought, Blitzrieg is the only seasoned veteran in the competition with nine or more seasons who has at least registered one 6-point parlay hit and at least one PERFECTA outing in each of the nine years he has handicapped the Bookie Challenge. All he needs for the rest of this year is a PERFECTA outing and he'll extend his incredible streak to 10 seasons in a row!


• WEEKLY TICKER ...............Last year's "other" rookie entrant faded away toward the end of last year's regular season after he lost the Red Zone divisional race by 10 points to 7mick7, or this year's defending champion. Last tear, the Hall-of-Fame City Kid recorded the worst-ever start to a competition by a rookie before rebounding to a decent showing. But this year, the HOF City Kid is off to a much better start (5th place so far with a 3-1-0 best-bet record worth 3 pts)...............the up-and-down weekends by the handicappers in week #2 of the Bookie Challenge competition resulted in a shake up of the point standings, in which only four overall handicappers did not see a change to their respective positions of this year's point standings (Vikings17/1st place, Blitzkrieg/2nd place, Jets69/7th place, and CAP_ATTACK/16th place--or last place).................Already there are a few handicappers who are down right incorrigible and have failed to predict any exact-scores for Thursday Night games, which includes seasoned veterans moemonie and jcvike28. So far, when including this past Thursday Night's game between the Jets and Patriots, a total of 10 ponts have been won through exact-score predictions..............