CanadianChris

This week's scores: New Orleans 5-7 Chicago Tampa Bay 5-6 Atlanta Pittsburgh 6-5 Baltimore Denver 7-6 Carolina Tennessee 7-4 Houston Detroit 7-6 Indianapolis Green Bay 8-8 Jacksonville (Jax wins by tiebreak) San Diego 7-8 Kansas City San Francisco 6-4 Miami Buffalo 6-5 N.Y. Jets Seattle 5-5 St. Louis (Sea wins by tiebreak) Minnesota 7-8 Arizona New England 7-8 Oakland N.Y. Giants 9-6 Dallas Cleveland 8-10 Philadelphia Shame of the week: Washington 3-4 Cincinnati

Titans lose both Haynesworth AND Vanden Bosch until the playoffs. So much for home field throughout.

Happy reading.

Both of those are perfectly fine.

Quiet, you.

What are the stars for?

Also I, I tweaked the base scoring so that people can't load up on a bunch of "world's oldest ______"s.

Yeah, I'm kind of hoping the elimination of the uniqueness bonus will put an end to most of the bitching. I don't like vetoing names on people's lists because it takes a lot of the fun out of it for them.

Must-win game for Denver this week, because I don't think they beat the Chargers in San Diego next week if it comes down to that. Hopefully the Bills can be as cooperative as they've been for everyone else the past 2 months.

Richard Jeni

Average salary per team would be a more accurate indicator. Not to state the obvious, but the NBA can afford to have salaries that much higher with only 12 players per roster. The average NFL team pays out twice as much in player salaries as the average NBA team. Baseball salaries are about 50% higher.

Must be some honeymoon so far! Seriously, though, congrats. We're poor, we're not going on the honeymoon until March because we need to save some cash. Oh, that kinda sucks. From what I saw, Peterson got no TDs because the Vikings only got into the red zone three times, and the Cardinals were stacking up to stop the run down there. Both red zone TDs were on third down passes. The other scores were on long pass plays and a punt return. He was running fine in the middle of the field for the most part.

Weddings aren't that fun when you're a man. Weddings are for brides. Grooms are basically spectators to the whole process.

Must be some honeymoon so far! Seriously, though, congrats.

It's mid-December, which can only mean it's time for the fifth annual TSM Death Pool. And, more than likely, my third consecutive shutout. Here are the rules: Pick any 20 celebrities who you think will die between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. I will be the sole arbiter on who is a celebrity and who isn't. The main rule -- if a major news organization reports on someone's death, that person is generally considered a celebrity, although there may be exceptions. Last year, there were a number of complaints over whether people were or were not celebrities, so I may be a lot more likely to question you on someone. Keep in mind, though, that just because you don't recognize someone does't mean they're not famous enough. Eligibility rules: Anyone picked must be at least 18 years of age as of December 31, 2008. Anyone executed by the state will receive zero points. Scoring Each dead celebrity is worth a base of 10 points. Additional points will be allocated as follows, according to age at the time of death: 18-34: 90 points 35-49: 50 points 50-59: 40 points 60-69: 20 points 70-79: 10 points 80-99: 0 points 100+: -5 points Bonus points 25 points will be awarded for any of the following: - If a person on your list dies during the month of December. - If a person on your list dies of unnatural causes (suicide, murder or accident), other than through a state execution. Note: There are no bonus points this year for having someone on your list but no one else's. We frown upon originality! The BEST BET You may select any TWO of your celebrities as a BEST BET. If your BEST BET dies during the year, ALL points for that person are DOUBLED. Whoever has the most points at the end of the year will be the winner. In case of a tie, whoever had the most people on their list die will win. In case of a further tie, whoever has the lowest total age of all dead people on their list will win. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2008. No exceptions. Once you post your list, it is final, except if someone on your list dies before January 1, 2009, in which case you may post a replacement no later than 11:59 pm on December 31, 2008. One more change: Anyone found guilty of murdering someone on their list will win the pool automatically. If there is more than one case of this, whoever is convicted first will be the winner. Good luck to everyone!

No, four of them. And they'll have to ditch Rafalski in order to keep either Zetterberg or Hossa. They'll probably lose Franzen no matter what. That's three players gone. Great thing for the rest of the league. I think they'll stick with Zetterberg. Franzen might stay if he takes less money and he seems like he would. I will be shocked if Hossa stays, especially if they get rid of Zetterberg to do it. Rafalski leaving would be ideal but I don't see that happening. Keeping Hossa over Zetterberg would be mind-bogglingly stupid, and Ken Holland has shown over the years that he's not that.

Listening to everyone comment on the shows afterward, there's some confusion as to what the rule actually means. A supervisor is on record as saying the ref interpreted the rule wrong. Someone posted the rule in another forum, and it looks like the ref's interpretation was correct, though. EDIT: Here is the rule:

Manu isn't either.

Sorry, I thought I was at the bottom for whatever reason. I even PMed Spiff telling him he was up. I'll remember next time, I swear.

That call's being upheld. I have it freeze framed on my screen now, Romo's back foot is clearly behind the stick.

Losses by Harley and Bored mean I can clinch a bye with one more win as well.

The crossing the plane rule apparently does not apply when a receiver has possession with both feet down in the end zone. There, the rule says that a receiver with possession in the end zone has scored a touchdown. Good call by the referee.

That should be a touchdown.

9-5, Giants and Eagles covers give me the division.

Alex P. Keaton Benson DuBois