Picks Gods send birthday gift to wrong sibling, and Ali reaps the benefits

Alicia knew the Broncos would come out of their slump to beat the high-flying Steelers in Week 7. Denver's 31-28 victory -- only predicted by the Teenage Bird -- helped propel her to an 11-2 record, lifting her to within a single game of first place in the 2007 Sunday Football Picks. Ali is a league-best 30-8 over the past three weeks as she motors up the Picks standings.

However, it appears that Ali wasn't the only person who was supposed to have the Broncos for the upset on Sunday night. With QT Pie celebrating her 42nd birthday, the Picks Gods had something special in store for her, but their delivery got a little mixed up. Instead of sending advance notice of the remarkable Broncos victory to QT, the almighty ones sent the gift to her sibling Mark by mistake. Mark has often served as the conduit between the Picks Gods and the Sunday Football Picks members, so the error is understandable.

The gift came in its usual magical form as Mark made his team selections Sunday morning. He knew he wanted the 4-1 Steelers, but looked down to see that he had actually circled the 2-3 Broncos. Mark scribbled out that pick and tried again, this time circling the Steelers.

"The gift didn't come with any instructions, and I wasn't about to pick the struggling Broncos," said Mark, who often gets stubborn about listening to the Picks Gods. "I didn't think about passing that present along to my sister because I thought her birthday was Monday."

The NFL's recognition of QT's birthday was handled by the undefeated Patriots, who scored 42 first-half points in blasting the winless Dolphins. Peyton Manning and the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts -- QT's favorite quarterback and football team -- wanted to take care of that birthday task, but they didn't play on Sunday. The Patriots didn't mind stepping forward.

"We knew it had to be something big, otherwise QT wouldn't know we were doing it for her," said New England quarterback Tom Brady. "How often does a team score 42 points in the first half? We knew that was the way to get her birthday message across loud and clear."

That night, QT was treated to a special dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center, where the elevator took only 42 seconds to reach the restaurant from ground level. It is not known whether that is the standard operating speed of the elevator, or whether engineers tinkered with the equipment to give John Hancock the title of "North America's fastest elevator" just for QT's birthday. It's probably the latter.