When it comes to football, there are now almost as many female fans as there are male fans. It’s a sport nearly everyone loves despite what some TV commercials might lead people to believe. But when it comes to football, who’s the smartest, the men or the women – or could it be that a gorilla (sort of) is wiser than any human? We’re about to find out!
The Daily Nonpareil’s annual professional football contest – this year called Football Faceoff – will pit women’s skills at predicting winning football teams against the men’s, and both sexes will battle against the predicting abilities of the gorilla from Gorilla Car Wash.
“It’s really several contests in one,” Publisher Tom Schmitt said.
As with each year’s contest, there will be a weekly overall winner. But in addition to the overall winner there will also be a top female and a top male winner each week; and for extra fun, the predictions from both sexes will be measured against the Gorilla Car Wash’s gorilla to see who knows football best.
“We think it’s going to be great fun seeing if the women can out-predict men and if the gorilla is able to do better than the humans,” Schmitt said, adding, “In addition to the dozens of prizes that will be awarded, there will be the ‘I told you so’ bragging rights up for grabs, and that could be the biggest prize of all!”
To help lead the charge, there are several celebrity pickers for both sexes for this year’s contests. Heading the female team will be Marie Knedler, Tara Slevin and Kristine Plunkett. Carrying the banner for the male sex will be Doug Goodman, Chris Higginbotham and “The Bud Man” from Doll Distributing, the primary sponsor for the contest.
However, Schmitt stressed that neither sex should leave it up to the team leaders to win each week’s challenge.
“The more the better,” Schmitt said. “The more players, each team has the better the chance the team will have at winning!”
When making their weekly predictions, players will be asked to reveal their gender, which will allow The Nonpareil to tabulate which sex has the best predicting average for the week. Those averages will then be measured against the gorilla’s predictions for the week. A final calculation will be made at the end of the season for the ultimate bragging rights.
Playing is free and open to everyone 21 years old or older.
The contest, which begins Thursday, will run the entire pro football season. For information on how to register to be a player and to see the great list of prizes being offered, readers can view the ad on page 7A in today’s Nonpareil or go online to www.nonpareilonline.com/football_faceoff.