Participants,

Welcome to the upcoming 33^rd season of the Hewes Super Bowl Trophy (HSBT) competition!  From its humble beginnings in 1989, with league founder Donn Hewes crafting up the competition rules on his trusty Apple II, to today’s high tech environment (featuring a dedicated website rich with historical and Participant information and online submission of weekly picks as well as in-game, real time Participant communication via the Slack mobile app and live scoring updates), the HSBT has become the premier NFL Playoffs competition for an elite group of football enthusiasts now spread over 5 states across the country.

And, for the 1^st time in 3 years all 8 Participants are reporting as healthy and will be competing!  Ben the Butler has finally shrugged off a lingering set of injuries that forced him to miss the last 2 playoff seasons.  He has been diligently rehabbing at his primary residence in Brooklyn and at a newly acquired additional location in the remote reaches of upstate New York.  Glad to see him back and in action!

Admittedly, the 2020 season has been a very unique year and its impacts on the NFL have been noticed.

• Nearly 150 players were on the COVID-19/Reserve list this season (meaning a minimum of 5 days quarantine if contact tracing indicates a player was near another player or other team personnel that tested positive, or 10 days quarantine if personally tested positive)
• More than a dozen regular season games were rescheduled to accommodate teams with several players on that list
• There is now a team without a nickname
• And to accommodate teams with high levels of COVID-19 related impacts, for the 1^st time in NFL history a game was played on every night of the week

As is customary in my role as The Commish I want to take this opportunity to review a few key guidelines of the competition in order to hopefully avoid any conflicts or misunderstandings once the playoffs commence on January 9.  Also, I’m encouraging you to visit our website to review all the updated content and to re-familiarize yourself with site navigation.

PLAYOFF FORMAT
Beginning this year the format for the NFL playoffs will be expanded to accommodate greater viewership and interest (and money…), with 7 teams (previously 6) from each conference now participating in the playoffs.  This is the first playoff expansion in 30 years, when the NFL went from 4 Wild Card teams to 6 Wild Card teams in 1991.  There will now be 6 Wild Card Weekend games, instead of the customary 4.  Three will be played on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, which makes for about 11 hours of playoff football enjoyment each of those 2 days!  Be sure your refrigerator is stocked accordingly.  Kickoff each day will begin around 1:00pm EST.

Only the 2 teams seeded #1 in each conference will receive a Bye during Wild Card Weekend.  The remaining 6 teams will play (#2 seed vs. #7 seed, #3 seed vs. #6 seed and #4 seed vs. #5 seed), with the 3 winners advancing to the Divisional Round.  Playoff format will remain the same as in prior years once we get to the Divisional Round games – 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday (both with late afternoon and evening kickoff times).

SUBMITTING PICKS
Because of the extended playoff format, be sure your picks for all 6 Wild Card Weekend games are submitted via our website by 1:00pm on Saturday, January 9.  Our Countdown Timer on the website will remind you of this important deadline each and every week.  You are encouraged to visit our website, www.hewessbt.com,  to be sure you can view all the content and are able to submit picks.  Feel free to send test picks prior to January 9 – I will reply back to you that everything is in working order.  If you do not hear back from me on your test submission of picks, let me know of the problem via personal email and I will get it corrected.

PARTICIPANT RULES REFRESH
While posted on our website, it goes without saying that there are a few key things to remember in advance of the playoffs:

• All weekend game picks are due in advance of the kickoff of the 1^st weekend game and must be submitted using the website “Submit Picks” tab. This provides for a timestamp of each entry in case we have a future dispute
• No absentee or mail-in picks permitted…

“SLACK”ING IS ACCEPTABLE!
Greg the Great introduced a few of the Participants to Slack last year so interactive chat with each other was available while the playoff games were in progress.  Reviews of this capability and communication platform were 5« and Slack is open to all of us!!  Let me know if you are interested and I will get you up and running.  Please download the Slack app on your device in advance.  Don’t be a non-Slacker…

WHO WILL BE IN???
We have only 2 weeks left in the regular season and the playoff picture is as clear as the waters of a raging mudslide.  Of the 14 teams that will qualify for the post-season, only 6 are in for sure and we know that 11 are out for sure (including the New England Patriots, which certainly brings a big smile to the Buffalo Bills faithful).

Right now, front runner teams for the playoffs include all the teams that the HSBT Participants root for – Buffalo, Seattle, Cleveland and Baltimore.  Even the New York Football Giants are still in the hunt.

I hope you are as excited as I am that the NFL Playoffs are about to begin, which means the 33^rd season of HSBT is ready to go!  Who will unseat HenricoFiveOh and earn the trophy next February?  Or will he win for the 3^rd consecutive time?  So many questions and so few answers at this time…

Until the Wild Card Weekend preview and analysis is sent out, I am

~~ The Commish