Jonathan Swatkowski

Well here it is; the end of the football season. For some it came quicker than expected, and for others it couldn’t get here quick enough. So without further ado, here are the contest details.

For the Superbowl, guess how long the National Anthem will be. From the beginning of the first note, to the end of the very last. I will personally be timing it, so we will go off of my watch.

Clarification: It is from the beginning of the singing until the end of the singing. In reviewing previous Super Bowl National Anthems, I noticed that sometimes there are long intros of music that lead right in to the National Anthem. There is sometimes no clear cut of where the music starts and ends. So, that being the case it is from the second the singing begins, until the end of the last note sung. Music length and start will be irrelevant in this contest.

As a tie breaker, guess the total number of penalty yards for the game.

For a correct guess, you will be greatly rewarded. Good luck!

Wow, this was a close one. The longest play of the game was a 62 yard kickoff return by Courtney Roby. There were 3 guesses that were only off by 1 yard. Those guesses were:

62 yards, 44 points by Marc A.

60 yards, 60 points by John S.

62 yards, 59 points by Brian C.

Since it game down to the tie breaker, and Brian guessed perfectly on the total score, Brian wins.  Congrats Brian, I have no idea how you continue to guess so close each week.  Your prize for this week is very fitting. I want to make the disclaimer that the prize for this week was picked out even before the season began, so it was not intentional.

You win a Brett Favre Tribute book put out by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for Favre’s first annual retirement. It even includes a Tribute CD with exclusive interviews with teammates and coaches! It’s actually a really cool book.

There is no contest next week, but there will be for the Super Bowl. I’ll probably give 2 days notice for that so everyone can give their final pick of the year some deep thought.

This week’s contest will focus on the Minnesota vs. New Orleans game that starts at 5:40 Central Time.

So, for this week you need to guess how many yards the longest offensive play of the game will be.

The following could count: A running play, a passing play, kickoff returns, punt returns.

The following will not count: Interception returns, fumble returns.

Remember, you are just trying to guess how long (in yards) the one longest play of the game will be.

As a tie breaker, guess the total number of points scored in the game.

Good Luck!

The winner once again of this week’s contest was Brian C. He guessed 123 penalty yards and there were, in fact, 124. Wow. Congrats Brian! You win a Ryan Leaf Starting Lineup Action Figure!

I’m starting to think that I should just hold on to all of your prizes until after the Super Bowl since obviously you are going to be winning the rest of the way out.

Next week’s contest will focus on the game between the Vikings and the Saints on Sunday at 5:30 PM Central Time.

*There were 2 submissions that were not shown on the site this week as they were given in person. Those submissions were:

Marc A. : 95 Penalty Yards and 51 total points.

John S. 120 Penalty Yards and 42 total points.

For this week’s contest, guess the total number of penalty yards in the game between the Chargers and the Jets.

As a tie breaker, guess the total number of points scored in the game. Good luck!

Congratulations Brian C. on winning the contest once again! Your guess was 77 pass attempts and the correct answer was 75 pass attempts! You win a Tim Couch Starting Lineup action figure!  I’ll make sure and send that along with your other prize here pretty soon.

Wow, that was a great game this afternoon. After the first half I didn’t think there was any way that the Packers could come back. And, I would have never guessed a defensive play would end the game. This year’s playoffs and season have been a lot of fun to watch and I think next week’s match ups will be extremely entertaining.

Next week’s contest will focus on the Jets vs Chargers game at 3:40 PM. See you then!

Well since there is no Monday Night game this week, the contest is slated for the Green Bay versus Arizona game starting at 3:00 PM on Sunday.

So, I want you to guess the total number of pass attempts by both teams. The tie breaker will be guessing the total number of points that the winning team wins by.

This week I will be moderating submissions which means that your submission will not show up until I approve it. I will not approve it until the game starts. This way nobody knows what other people have submitted. If there is a tie even after the tie breaker, the person who submitted first will win.

Good luck!

Congratulations John S! You won last week’s Monday Night Football Contest!  For your prize you win a (used) copy of John Madden’s best selling (?) book “One Knee Equals Two Feet”.

Amazon.com’s description says:

“Insightful and amusing, Madden writes as he broadcasts, giving colorful pictures of the players he has seen and lists of, in his view, the “best players.” Chapters are devoted to positions and what viewers should look for. Football aficionados will enjoy this .”

Reading this book should give you an advantage in the contests in the weeks to come!

Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to work on the new submission method, so the old way will have to do for another week.

Last week, the winner was Adam B. Congrats Adam. You also win a Randy Moss bobblehead! I’ll have to get your address or meet you for coffee someday to get it to you!

For this week, guess what the total number of turnovers by quarterbacks will be, multiplied by the total number of yards that Cutler throws for. If the total number of turnovers is 0, we will default to 1 and multiply Cutler’s yards by 1. The tie breaker will be the total number of yards gained (receiving and rushing) by any player named Adrian Peterson.

For those that haven’t received their prizes from the past few weeks, I will be sending them out shortly. I have kept them together to send out all at once.

This is the final contest of the regular season as there is no Monday Night Football next week. The prize this week starts the series of higher end prizes. Good luck!

First off, I want to congratulate last week’s winner. The correct answer to last week’s contest was 584. Brian was closest with his guess of 550. Congratulations Brian! You have won a Daunte Culpepper bobblehead!

For this week, I want you to guess the Giants’ third down conversion percentage.

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Now for an update. This week’s prize will be a duplicate (but still good!), and then the rest of the prizes start to get really good.   If you haven’t participated before, or have only participated a few times, you will want to be participating from next week on out! (The last week of the season, there is no Monday night game, so we will not be having a contest then.)

So, in preparation of those special prizes, I wanted to make it a little more fair for everyone submitting answers. It’s obviously hard to be the first entry and have everyone after you guessing closely around you. So, I have come up with a new way of submitting your entry that should resolve that issue.  Starting probably next week, you will have 2 ways to submit your entry:

1. By phone. Using a special phone in system you will be able to punch in your guess and it will tell you if it’s taken already or not.

2. By twitter direct message. By sending a twitter direct message to the MNFContest account in a special format, you will be able to submit your entry and receive a confirmation.  You will also be given a notification if your guess has already been taken by someone else.

This way nobody sees anyone else’s entry and tries to steal it.

I was going to roll it out this week, but figured I would test it one more week before using it.

Have a good week, and Good luck!