Wednesday Taunt VII

A quick one this week, lots to do in advance of weekend festivities.

The Reaper took a fine week off this week, relaxing on his couch as few participants were slain. A smattering of Bills, Chargers, and Steelers losses, but nothing to write home about. Perhaps the Hooded One is prepping for a Halloween weekend of participant horror --- beware your picks for the Sunday known as All Saints Day.

That is all.

The Root of the Week VII

The masses are moving on this fine Sunday morning ... and they are moving in many different mysterious ways. Various teams on the selection platter? Vikings, Falcons, Patriots, Rams, Cardinals, Colts, Beloveds, Panthers, Chargers, Packers, Steelers, Bills, etc.

Needless to say, there will be some carnage this week. The Reaper remains on standby, as he has all season long.

Only one clan member remains as the Swami brood pins its hopes on the darkside of the force. Darth Bennett will join many other rowdy friends on Monday night and pin his hopes on the Desert Birds of Arizona.

That is all.

Friday Taunt VI

Bless the Beloveds, they have returned. I will dedicate this first paragraph to renewed hope in the strong Tight End hands of Dan Campbell. Color me impressed. Color me hopeful that there may yet be time to salvage what was once thought to be salvageable, and for a time now the Beloveds are in the exciting position of being intriguing.

Much like this year's pool, in which intrigues abound. More losses at the hands of the birds; Hitchcock would be so proud. We roll into Lady Luck's week with 81 surviving souls and only seven undefeateds.

Week Six Statistics
189 participants
7 players at 6-0
74 with one loss

17 week six losers

108 deceased

Onward we merrily roll. With most of the pool having used the Packers and Patriots at this point, good luck to us all. The Beloveds are open for business.

That is all.

Friday Taunt V of the Root of the Week VI

We dangle precariously and each week, it seems, brings more of the same. More devastation, more chaos. Week Three was but a blip, an aberration. Forty-five more of our finest lay down this past weekend -- and this is a later Taunt than normal, apologies apologies, as I am traveling at the moment and coming to you live from the great state of Wisconsin.

For those of you in Los Angeles, this is actually being posted tomorrow. Time changes, and all that. But I digress.

We are hanging from the small branch, ready to break at any moment. Only eight of us remain unscathed, eight majestic souls -- including the above-referenced Darth Bennett. The Spawn has fallen from the unbeaten ranks, but lives to play another day.

Once more the masses move in different directions. Week the Sixth is, in the words of Ze German, who knows his brutality, a "brutal brutal week."

And so let us remember David of the 23rd Psalm, he who walked through a shadowed valley without fear, as we walk once more toward the weekend, and the reckoning it is likely to bring. Regardless the outcome, we are strong together. We will not fear.

That is all.

PS - Or is it. Given my travels, and knowing no one knows when the arrival will actually occur on the morrow, I will put forth in this space the Spawn and Darth picks for the Sixth Week ... which are the same pick, and the best pick available this brutal week. Let it be known now how the 12th Man and his birds of the sea will rise up to slay the mighty undefeated (really?) Bagheera's of Carolina.

So it is written, so it shall be done.

The Root of the Week V

The Swami is dead, long live the Swami . . . and yet for the second consecutive year the heirs of the Swami survive long past their patriarch --- and so it is that Darth Bennett and the Spawn take up the family mantle and seek to extend their run of undefeatedness into the Sixth Week.

The Root will henceforth feature only their picks as Swami himself has no picks to give, plus as usual the picks of the masses. It seems this week is a heavy trifecta and a hodgepodge of other smaller selections. The Packers, Falcons, and Chiefs are the heavy plays, with the Patriots, Giants, Ravens, and Bengals following behind.

As for the heirs, they like a pair of favorites as well. Darth Bennett will ride the Arrow as it seeks to slay the Bear, while the Spawn will hope the Dirty Birds devour the Politically Incorrect Native American Tribesmen.

Good luck in this Week Five, which has been an ugly week in previous seasons. Here's hoping the Reaper sleeps until the evening.

That is all.

Tuesday Taunt IV

He has come for me ... and so I must go. The Swami has fallen, long live the Swami. The birds were shot down mid-flight, taking the Swami and 26 others with them. After the devastation of the Week That Shall Not Be Named, there is no hiding place.

The Reaper hovers over the Pool, unrelenting, unshakable.

Week Four Statistics
189 participants
13 players at 4-0
128 with one loss

27 week three losers

48 deceased

I'm off to the Happiest Place on the morrow for birthday celebrations, and perhaps to salve the wounds of this short season, the shortest season of all in personal Swami history. Fittingly my end came about in Week Four, when the darkness took me.

To quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

That is all.

The Root of the Week IV

And just like that, we are back to bunches of different teams. It seems there is no consensus this week: Cardinals are popular, Colts are popular, Broncos are popular, and many have disregarded the Rules once more and selected the Chargers prior to Week Seven. These, among many others. This, my friends, is a dangerous proposition.

And so there are three choices before the Swami and his immortal clan, three options and none of them look appetizing. Behind Door #01? The Colts, likely Luckless. Behind Door #02? The Broncos at home at Mile High. Behind Door #03? The Cardinals, Infinity-0 when Carson Palmer plays. 

And yet you know how the Swami does not travel once-traveled by ways, the path he chooses is his own, and the true one. And so the Swami and his brood will take not One, not Two, not Three, but indeed all three doors as we root collectively for bird and horse in Week Four: Colts, Broncos, and Cardinals.

That is all.

Thursday Taunt III

Three weeks, three weeks, fourteen more onward. All from the valley of Death rode the hundred six seven. Forward, our participant parade. Arise, Swami said; into the Third Week rode the hundred six seven.

Forward, our participant parade. Was there a man dismayed? Not though we all knew most of us had blundered. Ours not to look behind, ours not to excuses find, ours to resolve our mind; into the Third Week rode the hundred six seven.

Touchdown to the right of them, safety to the left of them, the Reaper right in front of them, to tear us asunder. Battered with scythe and shell, boldly we ride and well, into another week, into prognoses bleak, rode the hundred six seven.

When will our glory fade? Not soon, after such a charge we made. Despite the doubts that lingered under. Honor the charge we made, honor our participant parade, noble hundred six seven.

And so it is and shall be told in the annals of Swami lore, the tale of the one hundred sixty seven brave souls who responded to the devastation of the Week That Shall Not Be Named and return from the edge, from the brink, from the chasm to stand firmly, resolutely, and together, arms linked, for at least another week. Onward we roll as one into Week Four.

So it is written, so it was done.

That is all.