Identical picks and identical records mean identical success for identical twins

There was no eavesdropping of any kind.  There was no sharing of strategy.  There was no copying of team names.  There was no eating from the same cheese and mushroom omelet that morning.  It was simply a case of twin telepathy at its best.

Beware of the mystical mind magic of Nicki and Ali, the song-filled identical twins who surged forward in Week 3 of the Sunday Football Picks with identical achievements.  Li'l Girl and the Little Bird picked all 13 games the same way without any knowledge of the other's selections.  The awesome alignment of their beefy brains lifted the troublesome twins to 9-4 records that landed them in a first-place tie.

Two late touchdowns by the Seahawks and rock solid defense from the Dolphins anchored Nicki and Ali's big week.  Hmmm, Seattle and Miami.  It just so happens that Seattle and Miami are the two cities in professional sports that are farthest apart -- a driving distance that stretches an incredible 3,391 miles from the northwest Pacific coast to the southeast Atlantic shore.  Not exactly sure how this amazing statistic fits into the theme of this Picks story, but it seemed too interesting to pass up, and too difficult to logically tie in.  The round-trip fuel cost for The Beast on Amoco Ultimate would run more than $1,000!

Getting back to business, D.J.'s beloved Rams were the unfortunate victims of those late Seattle points, dropping the defending Picks champ into a second-place tie with Nickster in the overall standings.  On her next trip downstate, Girlie just might cruise into nearby St. Louis to crack some skulls and strangle a few Rams players with her belly shirt.

Mark has opened the 2003 season 30-12 and leads everyone by at least two games, but fast beginnings are nothing new to this cheese curd connoisseur.  In his brief Picks career, Mark has already produced starts of 30-10 and 28-12, but won the title neither year.  Let's wait and see if the wheels again fall off the Montgomery Express.

No one correctly predicted a Bears victory on Sunday despite the league clowns not allowing any points to be scored.  The Bears defense kept the end zone empty the entire day after surrendering an embarrassing 73 points in their first two games.  There wasn't a single rusher who gained even one yard on the Bears defense.  And the opponent's passing yards were shockingly kept at zero as well.