It’s always exciting when you get a “NFL players” themed trivia question that actually turns out to be more of a “movies” question! I joked in a previous game in which we had a question about “Mr. October” – (all of you sportsball experts know him better as “Reggie Jackson”) – I said I didn’t know anything about athletes unless they have movie tie-ins. There was a episode of “Burn Notice” I watched recently in which Sam is quizzing Michael about the Miami sportsball scene, and one of the questions he asked Michael was one where I would’ve known the answer:

“Who was the Phins’ (Dolphins) passing leader? He added as a hint that he was a quarterback. Well – since I can only name maybe 10 or so total quarterbacks and also know a couple of things about this particular quarterback because he was in a movie I liked – yup! It doesn’t matter HOW you know a trivia answer – all that matters is you know it – whether it means having “street cred” with your former Navy Seal buddy – or points in a trivia game!

Read on to see the other questions we had:

1) Companies – What company produced the first successful commercial plain paper copier, releasing its 914 (nine-fourteen) model in 1959? Definitely a “What other company could this be” kind of a question…

2) Numbers – How is the current year, 2021, written in Roman numerals? Take it away, Mike (he is good at this nerdy stuff).

3) New Artists – Who is the current holder of the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, awarded following the success of her album Good News and her singles ”Savage,” “Body,” and “Beautiful Mistakes”? Funny thing is I can name even fewer “new artists” than I can NFL quarterbacks – and I actually thought of the right person – but nope, we missed this. Time to back that big mack truck into my tiny (I’ll stop here).

4) NFL Players – In what 1994 film does NFL quarterback Dan Marino play a fictionalized version of himself, who is kidnapped along with a mascot named Snowflake? YES! Isotoner gloves pitchman!

5) More NFL Players – Since 2020, Carl Nassib, the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay, has played for which team? Yay, got this too. How rare is it for us to do well on TWO sportsball questions in a row?

6) Novel Settings – What 1974 Stephen King novel partially takes place at a school prom?

7) Rivers – The Rhine River forms part of the borders of Germany, France, Austria, Liechtenstein, and what fifth country?

8) Card Games – In what card game that shares its name with a popular sport is the object to get the lowest score over the course of nine deals? Nope, miss.

9) Schools – Which U.S. state is home to the historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) Bowie (BOO-ee) State University, Coppin State University, and Morgan State University?
NERD POINT: Within one, in what decade was Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the country’s oldest operating HBCU, founded?

Miss and miss.

10) Theme Songs – The following lyrics are from the theme song to what TV series?
“I will travel across the land, searching far and wide, teach [title] to understand the power that’s inside” Mike thought of this last second.

Each answer will be a number. Those four numbers will add up to 30.

M1. The number of Major League Baseball teams that play in U.S. states that do NOT border the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, or Gulf of Mexico.
(Note, Pennsylvania does NOT border the Atlantic Ocean.)

M2. To the nearest minute, the length of the LP release of Don McLean’s song “American Pie”

M3. The number of countries outside of Africa and Asia in which Portuguese is an official language

M4. The number of living people who have served any amount of time as U.S. vice president

Missed 1 and 4. This was a tough round!

Authors and Characters
Final: Odd Thomas is a character that appears in over ten publications written by what author?

The author was born in 1945, sold over 500 million copies of his writings, and has written under the pseudonyms K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, and David Axton.

Yay, we got this, but so did every other team. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Ace Ventura – pet detective! Also, have a happy Fourth of July, everyone! We’ll be heading out for a camping trip Sunday afternoon, the car’s trunk is already stuffed to the max!!!