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And the pigskin parade is on! |
Round 1 fills the room with gridders. |
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Joe Yaure vs Greg Courter |
Jordan Flawd vs Chris Palermo
and Bruce Reiff vs Dan Dolan Jr |
Ladies Day ...
The 2013 Paydirt tournament saw an influx of new players,
offsetting the inevitable loss of a few regulars! In the past
few years, youngsters have joined the gridiron fun fueled by
the NFL's burgeoning popularity, and this year it was the ladies
turn to steal a little thunder, as the no longer green Samantha
Berk made a nice run with her Cleveland Browns, topping two vet
coaches, Barry Shoults and Dan long before succumbing to Steve
Vance and his Steelers, 24-20. Even more impressive was new player
Jessica Finkeldey, setting tongues a waggin' with a 15-14 upset
of defending champion Mike James. Steve Vance also had the dubious
honor of knocking her out in the second round with those mean
Steelers, earning him the title of "Lady Killer".
There were many more conventional first round close games
shoved to the back of the headlines by the ladies exploits, including
Robert Rund's Broncos topping Jordan Flawd's Bengals 38-35 with
a bomb to set up the game winning FG in OT, Doug Porterfield's
Chiefs returning a punt 99 yards for a score to beat Caley Roark's
Jaguars 26-22, Joe Yaure's Jets surviving four turnovers to defeat
the other Chiefs team of Danny Lewis 34-22, and a shootout for
the ages as Chris Palermo's Bills swamped Terry Coleman's Broncos
53-45!
Round
2 saw Jeff Finkeldey's Bills advance 31-14 over chart designer
Ron Pisarz, while Palermo's Bills team could not repeat their
high flying offense against Chad Gormly's Steelers in a 34-23
loss.
The AFC field narrowed to two teams as perennial champ Harry
Flawd ended Tim Dolan's run 30-22 while Jeff's Bills topped Chad's
Steelers 17-16 to set the AFC title game. The latter proved to
be a real back and forth affair, with Buffalo enjoying a huge
point spread to start the game (18 points), but Houston narrowing
that to a 5-point halftime deficit, 21-16. Buffalo scored the
only points of the third quarter and led 28-16 with 11 minutes
left. With things looking bleak for Harry, Houston picked off
a Bills pass and scored to make it 28-23. Houston regained possession
with four minutes remained and drove the length of the field
for a go-ahead TD. They went for 2 successfully to make it 31-28
with 45 seconds left. Decision time for Harry .... Buffalo has
two TD on kickoff returns, along with an automatic TD if they
roll on their defense chart ..... so Harry decides to play the
percentages, and uses an onside kick to delete the chance of
a return. Jeff recovers, tosses two medium passes, and is on
the cusp of FG range with 15 seconds left ..... last play of
the game. The roll .... False Start against Buffalo! Normally
that would have ended the game.... offensive penalty would have
run time off the clock ... and a win for Houston.....but in a
great game like this ... Harry says no way....you can kick it
again from 5 yards back .... Jeff nails it to send it into OT!
Buffalo gets the ball first, short drive and is forced to punt....Harry
gets a 47-yard punt return to put him in FG range ... and trots
out his kicker..... and it's GOOD! Houston wins in OT 34-31.
The NFC heat drew 26 players and generated some more great
games, including another OT game between Tim Dolan's Seahawks
and Dan Long's Bears in which Tim repeatedly shunned a FG to
go for the TD with no timeouts and trailing by 3! He did end
up tying the score with a FG in regulation and winning in OT!
Sean McCulloch's Bucs had two good wins, beating Josh Coyle's
Falcons 30-28 and Samantha Berk 34-28 in OT on a 95 yard TD pass!
Tom Knapp, Jacob Hebner, Ron Pisarz and Harry Flawd also won
twice. In Round 3, Sean won another OT contest over the Panthers
30-27 when Ron missed two FG's that would have won it in regulation.
Tim Dolan ended Tom's run 30-27, as Harry and Jacob also advanced.
Jacob's Packers topped Sean 38-28 to advance to the NFC title
game, while Tim's Seahawks took out Harry's Bears 20-17. The
NFC title game was tied 7-7 for a quarter before Jacob began
to pull away and led 20-7 at the half. The second half was more
of the same and Jacob had advanced 25-17 to his third straight
title game.
The Super Bowl was set between two former champions; seven
former titles vs one. Nevertheless, the young Packers began with
a 2-point edge via the spread, and quickly tacked on a FG to
make it 5-0 at the quarter. GB scored again to take a 12-point
lead, but Harry stormed back with two second quarter TDs to take
a 14-12 lead at the half. The third quarter was littered with
missed Texan opportunities, as sacks were overturned by penalty
or QB scrambles, and the Pack posted the only score of the quarter
to lead 19-14. Houston had its chances, but an interception and
two punts spelled doom as the second punt was returned for a
TD to seal a 28-21 GB victory.
We are looking forward to a new set of charts from Ron next
year for more Paydirt thrills in 2014!
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This game is so realistic we even
have players on Injured Reserve! Dan Long hobbled in on crutches
to play another ex-linebacker, Tim Dolan. |
GM & seven-time champ Harry Flawd
is denied his eighth title as Jacob Hebner claims his second
PDT title with his third straight Super Bowl appearance. |
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