I expected big things from our football pick'em contest participants and I wasn't disappointed.

Three players finished the week with 15 correct answers out of 16 games. Most impressive, I'd say. That means the first winner of the 2009 weekly Pilot Pick'em was settled by a tiebreaker -- total points in the Redskins-Giants game.

And the winner is Michael Brown of Aberdeen. He missed the total points in the tiebreaker by four, good enough to edge out second- place finisher Zane Grey of Biscoe and Greg Davis of Whispering Pines, who was third.

For those of you interested in my picks, I have a third party counting them for me. Just so there is no tomfoolery. I had 13 correct picks, but take some solace in the fact that I nailed the tiebreaker exactly correct. That didn't however, ease the pain of watching my 'Skins stink up the field.

Brown, our winner, came closest to being perfect. He picked the Bengals to beat the Broncos. Grey missed the Jets beating the Titans and Davis missed the Niners defeating the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals.

The top three finishers were followed by a slew of folks who had 12, 13, or 14 correct picks.

Thanks for all 105 folks who participated in Week 1. Remember weekly prizes are awarded as well as the season-long grand prize for most total wins. So keep playing. Checks for weekly winners will be sent out at the end of the month. So all September winners should receive their winnings by the end of the first week in October.

I will post the complete list of scores on our Web site later this week as it takes a while to type in all those names and scores.