Tips from the winners of week#9 

          Paul and I have been alternating

 making the picks over the past month or so

 (mostly because of our travel schedules and

 other conflicts), and we had fallen 7 points

 behind the leader. When Paul made his

 picks and showed them to me Saturday

 night, I saw all home teams picked except

 for Atlanta and Minnesota. I said to Paul,

 this is a conservative sheet, and we're never

 going to gain ground on the leader this

 way. Let's be "contrarians" and, except for

 some very logical choices (NYG, JAX, and

 we THOUGHT the Bears and Vikings!) let's

pick the opposite of what most people are

 likely to pick this week. So, we picked

 Detroit, Buffalo, Washington and some

 road teams like KC, Denver, New Orleans

 and Indy, "contrary" to what we thought

 would be the popular choices picked in the

 pool this week.

          We felt this way -- we're either going

 to gain ground in the 20 point pool with 2

 weeks to go and be a contender, or we'll be

 way out of it. We were in a tie for 37th

 place at the start of week 9, so what's the

 difference whether you are in 37th place or

 70th place when you need to be in the top 5

 to win any money? Yet we were only 7

 points from the lead!! So that was the

 strategy, Bill. At least we won $375!!