Associated Web Press
NASHVEGAS —With only three games to go in the NFFA regular season, this weekend is heavy with playoff implications.
In the Jorge division, all four teams are mathematically still in the championship playoff hunt, although at 4-7, the 12th Avenue Bakers' hopes are on life support.
Despite a two-game slide, the 8-3 West Nashville Beelzebubbas are still in the driver's seat to win the Jorge division title and unseat the East Nashville Black Dogs (5-6), who have been division champs for the past five seasons. While still mathematically in the mix for the division title, the Black Dogs do not control their own destiny. They do control their own destiny when it comes to one of the two wild-card spots. The Bakers have to win out and pray for a Qmonic Convergance.
The real threat to the Beelzebubbas is the awesome awesomeness of the 6-5 Cambridge Animals, and the division's top two teams square off this weekend. (In the early round of games on Thanksgiving Day, newly acquired Cambridge QB Tom Brady went for 58 against a reeling 'Bubbas defense, as the Animals opened up an 80-point lead. As Brady piled up the points, Cambridge owner Dave the Animal, or DTA as he's been dubbed by the Boston media, sent a text to the commissioner declaring himself "a Penius.")
The picture is clearer in the Linardo division, where either the Atlanta Smack Daddies (9-2) or the Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs (8-3) will wear the division crown. The Daddies, who have clinched at least a wild-card berth, host the Hogs this weekend in Atlanta in the most significant game of the season thus far. If Atlanta prevails, they will open up a two-game lead on Fidalgo Island with only two games to go. If the Sea Hogs win the heavyweight throwdown, they will be tied in record with the Smack Daddies and have the first tiebreaker — head-to-head competition, having defeated the Daddies at home earlier in the season.
The two other Linardo division teams — the Alamo Scouts and the Midtown Mojo — have identical 2-9 records and have already been eliminated from the playoffs. The Scouts and Mojo square off this weekend in Alamo, and the loser of the game will likely secure the first pick in the 2011 NFFA draft, a pick that has become even more lucrative with the recent decision to return all players to the draft pool for the 2011 draft.
The Cherry Bomb Cafe-based Music City Bookmakers™released their playoff odds on Wednesday.
Odds to win the Jorge division titleThey hate us ...
Beezlebubbas 5-2
Animals 5-1
Black Dogs 25-1
Odds to win the Linardo division title
Smack Daddies 3-2
Sea Hogs 3-1
Odds to make the playoffs
Fidalgo Island 3-2
West Nashville 3-2
Animals 3-1
Black Dogs 10-1
Bakers 50-1
Beelzebubbas executive Rod "He Hate Me" Smart doesn't like "the taste of Haterade."
Beelzelbubbas executive Rod "He Hate Me" Smart has been outspoken on the subject of who's drinking the Haterade, and singled out the Bakers on the league smack board. "I heard they were gonna ditch Grey Goose and give their stadium naming rights to Haterade," Smart joked two nights ago at Club Gitmo.
But according to Smart, the Bakes aren't the only franchise spreading the hate, that the Mojo and the Animals are, too. "For the Mojo, hatred isn't a strategy, it's a lifestyle," He Hate Me said. "Now in the case of the Animals, they mix their Haterade with Methlon vitamins."
There has always been friction between the Bakers, 'Bubbas, and Mojo over their overlapping turf, but it has taken a nasty turn this season. Smart said the hate wasn't coming from the 'Bubbas.
"The Beezlebubbas have always been about the love — in fact, several members of the team emigrated from the planet Lovetron," He Hate Me continued. "We don't hate, we congratulate — and we don't like the taste of Haterade. But we also know sometimes you have to use violence against the haters.
"We win, so they hate us."
