With the first pick in the 2007 WBC draft ...	Sports boardgames live at WBC ...

The tournament got underway Wednesday afternoon with 33 coaches in the AFC heat vying for a spot in the Super Bowl using last season's charts. Notable upsets were both Houston teams (Doug Porterfield & Barry Shoults) winning over the favored Jets and Ravens, Jeff Finkledey's Bengals winning in OT, and newcomers Daniel Long, Jacob Hebner, and Mark Love all advancing. Round 2 ended with all three still alive, along with five other coaches. The bubble burst in Round 3, with Bill O'Neal hanging on with his Dolphins, 30-27 over Jacob's Broncos, Chad Gormly's Chargers spanking Daniel's Dolphins 37-11, and the Flawd duo advancing, Harry 27-18 with his Patriots over Mark's Colts, and defending champ Devin with his Chargers, 22-14 over Finkledey's Bengals. Since Harry bid the highest with his Patriots, he played Chad's Chargers in one quarter final while Devin played Bill O'Neal in the other. Devin took care of business 42-33, and Harry hung on with a couple of late turnovers to defeat Chad 24-14. The AFC Championship game was all it was supposed to be, with the Chargers jumping out to a 14-0 lead via an 85 yard run by Tomlinson. But as the Chargers were driving for yet another score, the Patriots woke up and got a turnover, converted it to a TD, and added a late FG, narrowing the halttime gap to 14-10. The Chargers scored first in the 3rd to push their lead to 21-10, but the Patriots closed the gap to 21-17 with a little over seven minutes left. The Chargers were just too tough with Tomlinson, using up valuable clock time and kicking a FG to end both the Patriots and Harry's hopes, 24-17.

The NFC round was moved to Friday afternoon from our normal Saturday timeslot, which brought some new faces into the tournament, but did cause some regulars to miss it this year. We will review that for next year. There were 26 players in the NFC heat, and notable first round games saw Harry Flawd and his Bears be dismissed by Alex Bove's Lions, 37-24; Daniel Long, Jacob Hebner, and Mark Love picking up where they left off in the AFC, with each winning their first round games, and a thrilling 31-28 win by John Welage with his Eagles. Round 2 saw John Shaheen, Mike Destro, Alex Bove, Scott Nerney, Jordan Flawd, and Welage advance. Destro eliminated Welage, 27-20 and Jordan defeated Alex Bove's Falcons, in what may have been Michael Vick's last game, 24-7 to set the Championship game up between Destro's Cardinals vs Jordan Flawd's Falcons. Mike got off to a hot start, 14-0, but Jordan pecked away and closed the gap. But a kickoff return TD early in the 2nd half relieved the pressure and Mike coasted 37-23, setting up a rematch of last year's Super Bowl with Devin.

The Super Bowl was a heartbreaking affair. Taking the huge 24 point spread to begin the game, he tacked on ten more points to push out to a seemingly insurmountable 34-14 halftime lead. But I guess that is why coaches always say there are 60 minutes in a game, and it's not over until tits over. The Chargers returned a kickoff for a TD to cut the lead to 34-21, then picked off Matt Leinart and LT scored to make it 34-28. Could it possibly happen? The Chargers got a turnover, and drove to score another TD in the 3rd quarter, and took the lead 35-34. The 4th quarter saw three or four chances for Destro's Cardinals, but the stingy Charger D held on for an improbable 35-34 victory, and Devin's third straight Paydirt title, and fourth overall