Super Bowl picks

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from other members of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. In the regular season, we each posted our three strongest plays. Here are the standings to this point, including Championship Sunday:

RICK MORRIS: 29-32 overall, 1-1 last round (also 9-8 on my 1,000-Star, Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for each week of the regular season)
STEVE CIRVELLO: 29-32 overall, 0-2 last round
RYAN ISLEY: 28-32-1 overall, 2-0 last round
DAVE ADAMS: 28-33 overall, 1-1 last round
SEAN TRENCH: 22-36-2 overall, 1-1 last round

We are picking every playoff game, culminating in the Super Bowl this weekend. Each of our picks will be listed, in addition to the FDH "consensus" pick based on who has the most votes in each game (the FDH consensus picks were 1-1 last week and 3-5 in the playoffs) – and we are also listing our pick for the final score and the MVP:

Indianapolis -4 vs. New Orleans
RICK: Indianapolis 34-28 – Peyton Manning
STEVE: Indianapolis 34-27 – Peyton Manning
RYAN: Indianapolis 34-27 – Peyton Manning
DAVE: Indianapolis 45-35 – Peyton Manning
SEAN: New Orleans 35-31 – Drew Brees
FDH CONSENSUS: Indianapolis, 4-1

So the season-long competition for first place comes down to the tiebreaker (final score in the Super Bowl). Because Sean is the only one picking New Orleans, the only variable between Steve and I is total points. A combined score of 61 points or less hands the contest to Steve; 62 or more gives it to me. Regular-season champ Dave has had a tough playoff run, while Ryan has surged with a 7-3 postseason mark and could have taken the entire contest had he been a bit closer heading into January. I will note also that FDH Senior Editor Jason Jones has gone on the record with a 42-40 Saints prediction.

While none of the Dignitaries have distinguished themselves over the course of the entire season in this contest, it should come as no surprise that Steve and I are in a tie at this point, since we also tied on their college football bowl picks vs. the spread at 17-15. That mark gave me a “stellar” record of 56-55-1 for the season. Whoopie!