After a grueling 13 weeks of The Pilot Football Contest I have learned a few things. First, tabulating the scores on a weekly basis is a chore. Fun. But a chore.

Second, if I ever get back to Las Vegas or to Atlantic City during the fall I have a pretty good list of possible travel partners. Man, week in and week out it was fun to tally the scores because I knew that the winner was going to flirt with perfect. And most weeks it took 13 or more correct answers to take home any cash.

The last thing I learned, is well, who won. So let's get on with the announcements.

First to the weekly winners for the final week.

Brian Norris correctly picked 14 of 16 games to earn top honors. Congrats. Six folks tied for second with 13, thus we came down to the tiebreaker, yet again.

This week's tiebreaker point total of 19 was the lowest of the season. To use a golf analogy -- and this is a golf town, right -- Jody Britt of Star was closest to the pin with 34. Kathy Latham earned third with a total of 40. Congratulations to this week's winners and all the other weekly winners.

Now, can I get a drum roll, please.

First, to build a little suspense, I thought this week may be just crazy enough for someone with the right amount of prognosticating savvy to wrestle away the top spot from our leader.

I mean with the New York teams losing, and several pick'em games on the schedule (Dallas-Pittsburgh, Washington-Baltimore, Tampa Bay - Carolina and Alabama - Florida) I though we could be in for a crazy finish.

And I was wrong.

Michael Weaver secured his claim to the grand prize of $200 with another strong week. The Southern Pines resident nailed 13 games correctly to secure first place overall. Weaver entered the week with a three-game lead on his nearest two competitors.

Way to go, Michael.

For those interested, I will print the final totals later this week.