It\u2019s time to call up the gang because me n\u2019 Ellwood are getting the band back together. Greeting sports fans and welcome to another year of mayhem in the Marianas as the National Football League storms back into the Commonwealth like your rowdy cousin coming back from the mainland with a pocket-full of money and suitcase-full of beer.<\/p>\n
This year we\u2019ll welcome back some familiar faces as well as some not-so familiar as we search for the CNMI\u2019s top prognosticator for the 2008-09 NFL season in our weekly football feature, Miller Lite Pigskin Picks.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the good folks at Pacific Trading Co. we\u2019ll be awarding our weekly winner with a case of Miller Lite for achievements, and the overall winner at the end of the season will receive a little something special for Super Bowl XLIII.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been away for a while so it\u2019s time for a reintroduction of the usual cast of characters as well as an introduction to this year\u2019s new faces. <\/p>\n
Our defending champion is ready to defend his title as big Will Hunter comes to the table with a wealth of knowledge and smile as big as the Marianas Trench. Hunter\u2019s a fan of the power running game so look for a lot of solid picks for Denver.<\/p>\n
Rejoining Hunter is a former champion and the man behind the scenes of the Commonwealth Football League, John Blanco. The Wazzu alum was Hunter\u2019s teammate on the line but Blanco would love to take the title away from his friend fair and square.<\/p>\n
Sending his picks from across the channel is big Keith Nabors. The walking, talking heartbeat of the Tinian Typhoon brings his love of the game and Tinian pride when making his picks.<\/p>\n
Look for some pika commentary from Tinian\u2019s middle linebacker as Nabors bars no holds from the \u201cfriendly\u201d competition at hand. You can also count on his instincts when you\u2019re faced with choosing between teams in a tight match-up.<\/p>\n
We were even able to bring back one of the past fan favorites as Chris \u201cThe Lil Mahi\u201d Barry signed on for the new season. The only thing is that I had to rename the kid from Saipan International School because he\u2019s taller than I am. What are his parents feeding him, anyway?<\/p>\n
In light of his runaway growth spurt, I\u2019ve taken it upon myself to graduate Barry to the respected title of \u201cThe Big Mahi\u201d for the coming year. Don\u2019t count this kiddo\u2019s age against him because he\u2019s no slouch. The Big Mahi brings a lofty level of statistical data to the table along with his new level of altitude.<\/p>\n
Sorry Mahi, but you won\u2019t be able to take home any of the Miller Lite if you win each week. The good news is that you\u2019ll be able to enjoy some Pepsi products as well as some Gatorade until you\u2019re old enough. <\/p>\n
One of the newest faces on our list comes from the Great White North, but Glen Smith knows more about American Football than Canadian Maple Syrup. The physical education instructor from Saipan Southern High School is a football fan with a plan of sweeping his way to his first championship.<\/p>\n
Smith is known locally more for his exploits on the soccer field than the football field, but he passed the football knowledge placement test with flying colors and we expect great things from him. Plus he bribed us with some poutine to make the cut.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll round out the final spot to see if I can hold my own with these heavyweights. I bring what many call a misguided loyalty for my hometown Buffalo Bills and more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience convincing people of the difficulty of finishing second four years in a row.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not looking for the Bills to win the Super Bowl this year, but anything could happen. Hey, we\u2019ve made four nights in a row without power outages so who knows? [B][I](Brad E. Ruszala)[\/I][\/B]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s time to call up the gang because me n\u2019 Ellwood are getting the band back together. Greeting sports fans and welcome to another year of mayhem in the Marianas as the National Football League storms back into the Commonwealth like your rowdy cousin coming back from the mainland with a pocket-full of money and suitcase-full of beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}