Hunter Norris wins local ESPN College Football Pick 'Em contest

After 15 weeks, our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest came to an end this past Saturday, and Hunter Norris captured top honors by finishing No. 1 in the local standings when the final game came to an end on Saturday.

Norris finished the contest with 621 total points after having correctly picked the outcomes of 98 percent of the games in the contest this season. Jeremy Matheny finished a close second with 618 total points, having correctly picked the winner in 97.5 percent of the games this year. Aaron Albritton finished in third place with 601 total points.

Mike Dailey and I finished tied for fourth place. Sharon Peacock and Steve Stacey finished tied for sixth place. Terry Peacock finished in eighth place, and Chris Garner finished in ninth place. Joey Matheny rounded out the Top 10 by finishing in tenth place.

This year’s contest marked the 11th year that we’ve had a local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest, and now we can look forward to next year’s contest. If things don’t change, it’s likely that someone else will take top honors next year because it seems like someone new wins it every year. In other words, if you didn’t do so hot this year, don’t sweat it. There’s always next year.

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Week 15 of the NFL regular season schedule kicks off today (Thursday) with a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. That game will kick off at 7:25 p.m. at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Fourteen games will follow on Sunday, and the Monday night game will feature the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions.

Tonight (Thursday), I like Denver over San Diego. On Sunday, I like Atlanta over Washington, San Francisco over Tampa Bay, Arizona over Tennessee, New Orleans over St. Louis, Seattle over the New York Giants, Cleveland over Chicago, Indianapolis over Houston, Buffalo over Jacksonville, New England over Miami, Philadelphia over Minnesota, Carolina over the New York Jets, Kansas City over Oakland, Dallas over Green Bay and Cincinnati over Pittsburgh. In the Monday night game, I like Baltimore over Detroit. Last week: 13-3. So far this season: 142-66.

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From the weird news file this week, I read in Wednesday of last week’s “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” comic strip that King Edward II of England banned soccer in 1314. I looked it up, and sure enough, King Edward II issued a royal order on Feb. 13, 1314 that banned soccer in London. By this time, the sport had gotten so popular that businessmen became concerned that it was hurting business and disturbing the peace. The penalty for breaking Edward’s royal order was imprisonment.

A number of other British kings attempted to ban soccer later, but none of them had much luck. The sport was just too popular. Today, soccer is arguably the most popular sport in the world, and British teams are among the best in the world.