Richard Barker

Many have criticized the Pro Football Hall of Fame for its bias in over-electing too many members of the 1960's Packers and the 1970's Steelers teams, while leaving other more deserving candidates on the outside looking it. Only a fool would compare First Down to Vince Lombardi's or Chuck Noll's legendary squads, but Keith Webster's outfit has gone and done it again as Richard Barker becomes the 4th FD journalist to be enshrined into the Cheddar Hall of Fame! We stand behind the rigged voting process and firmly declare that no purchased liquor had any influence in the decision process what so ever.

So how did Doug Graber's biggest fan earn his selection? We can only put this down to his uncanny ability to forecast the NFL Europe with a Ray Charles like vision. Rumours that Ladbrokes stopping taking bets on NFL Europe games that Barker had tipped were unsubstantiated.

So when did this talent surface? When Neil Reynolds left First Down after the 2000 season, FD needed a new prognosticator and Barker was the man for the job. Years of correctly picking the Harlem Globetrotters over the Washington Generals had earned him his reputation, and Webster quickly put him on the case of NFL Europe games for the 2001 season. Let's see how he did ...

The predictions actually started in time for Week 3 of the season. In a trend that would follow, Richard showed his favoritism for the German teams and went for Fire, Galaxy and Thunder victories. Week 3 scores: Dragons 27 Fire 21, Admirals 28 Galaxy 14, Claymores 28 Thunder 21. Week 4 saw him get his 1st victory - correctly picking the dominant Dragons over the Admirals (31-14). Inexplicably he went for the Claymores in Frankfurt (they lost 27-17), and his safe pick of the 0-3 Thunder losing back fired (they beat the Fire 23-17).

Already at 1-5, could it get any worse? Yes. Week 5 was another goose egg. Inexplicably he went for the Claymores in Dusseldorf (they lost 10-3), the Galaxy (they lost to the rolling Thunder 34-25) and the 4-0 Dragons (who lost to the Admirals 33-13). So after 3 weeks picking he was a 'disappointing' 1-8. But eventually he would come good the next few weeks finishing the regular season an even 12-12, thanks to the rampant Dragons who dominated the league that year with a 8-2 record. Richard tipped them from Week 4 onward which proved to be a safe bet. So he had no hesitation picking them in World Bowl IX versus the Berlin Thunder. And guess what? The Thunder won!

Berlin Week 7 2002 - Preston unsuccessfully tries to Ban Barker from a crucial game after he predicted a Claymores victory. They lost.

2002 saw Nostradamus start his predictions one week sooner - gambling that Week 1's action would provide him with all the knowledge he would need. It didn't. Another woeful 0-3 start, as he never foresaw the Galaxy's record ambush of the Dragons (54-14) nor the Admirals 24-19 victory over the Thunder. And once again he was fooled into the Claymores would win in Dusseldorf as the Fire were once again triumphant 13-10. The rest of the year he battled to get back to 0.500 but never quite made it, finishing 12-15. He did at least predict correctly the Thunder to win the World Bowl this time. However his reputation for cursing the Claymores with his predictions was starting to haunt him. In Week 8 the Claymores traveled to Berlin in a must win game. Barker felt that Dahlquist's win would be victorious, but his prediction had clearly angered the traveling support who felt that he should have gone for Berlin. Thus the "BAN BARKER" banner was born. Despite our efforts he was allowed into the Press Box and 6 Scott Dreisbach interceptions later our World Bowl dreams were in tatters. He did at least have the decency to tip us to lose in our final ever chance to win in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium. We of course won - brining to and end an 7-game winless streak in Spain.

But overall the "Barker percentage" stands at a woeful 46.9% (38-43). Breaking this down by team we can now officially reveal the truth. The team most affected by this picks are the Claymores (only 42% correct)! The Fire perform the best overall (54%), especially when tipped to win (10 of 16 times - 63%). Perhaps the most staggering stat is that when a team is picked to lose by Barker - 5 of the 6 teams in the league actually have a WINNING record in those games! Only the always under achieving Admirals under perform when tipped to lose (6-10).

Perhaps most staggering of all is this: The "Barker percentage" for regular season play is only 46.2% (36-42). If he simply just picked the home team over this span he would gotten 62.8% (49-29) of the game right - a whopping 13 more right! How can you ignore the genius of the man????

Welcome to Hall of Fame Richard! We bet he never predicted that either!

Edinburgh Week 4 2002 - Shuggie is in shock to discover that Barker correctly picked the Galaxy to win

BREAKING DOWN BARKER'S NFLE PREDICTIONS 2001-2003

The 'Barker Percentage' by team
RHE 15-13 (.536)
AMS 13-13 (.500)
FRA 13-14 (.482)
BAR 12-15 (.444)
BER 12-16 (.429)
SCO 11-15 (.423)

OVERALL 38 correct, 43 not correct (.469 percentage)

How teams fare when Barker tips them to win
RHE 10-6 (.625)
BER 8-8  (.500)
FRA 7-7  (.500)
BAR 6-8  (.429)
SCO 4-7  (.364)
AMS 3-7  (.300)

How teams fare when Barker tips them to lose
BER 8-4  (.667)
RHE 7-5  (.583)
FRA 7-6  (.538)
BAR 7-6  (.538)
SCO 8-7  (.533)
AMS 6-10 (.375)

The 'Barker Percentage' by week
Week 2 0-6 (.000)
Week 3 4-5 (.444)
Week 4 3-6 (.333)
Week 5 4-5 (.444)
Week 6 5-4 (.556)
Week 7 4-5 (.444)
Week 8 4-5 (.444)
Week 9 6-3 (.667)
Week 10 6-3 (.667)
World B 2-1 (.667)

Week by Week

2001 (season w-l indicated after each week)

week 3 (0-3)
rhe (bar 27-21), fra (ams 28-14), ber (sco 28-21)
week 4 (1-5)
bar (bt ams 31-14), rhe (ber 23-17), sco (fra 27-17)
week 5 (1-8)
bar (ams 33-13), fra (ber 34-25), sco (rhe 10-3)
week 6 (2-10)
bar (bt ber 55-35), ams (sco 17-7), fra (rhe 22-5)
week 7 (5-10)
bar (bt fra 31-20), ber (bt sco 27-19), ams (bt rhe 17-14)
week 8 (7-11)
fra (bt ams 28-23), bar (bt sco 14-9), ber (rhe 16-13)
week 9 (10-11)
bar (bt sco 26-7), ber (bt ams 41-10), rhe (bt fra 17-13)
week 10 (12-12)
sco (bt rhe 34-21), bar (fra 26-10), ber (bt ams 34-28)
wb ix (12-13)
bar (ber 24-17)

2002 (season w-l indicated after each week)

week 2 (0-3)
bar (fra 54-14), ber (ams 24-19), sco (rhe 13-10)
week 3 (1-5)
ams (bar 30-27), ber (rhe 20-16), fra (bt sco 16-9)
week 4 (3-6)
ams (ber 28-9), rhe (bt bar 31-3), fra (bt sco 14-10)
week 5 (5-7)
ber (bt bar 24-14), rhe (bt fra 24-20), ams (sco 16-13)
week 6 (7-8)
ber (bt bar 24-17), fra (bt ams 21-19), rhe (sco 17-7)
week 7 (8-10)
fra (bar 31-10), sco (bt ams 17-13), ber (rhe 24-14)
week 8 (9-12)
rhe (bt bar 24-21), ams (fra 20-13), sco (ber 31-23)
week 9 (10-14)
bar (ams 45-31), rhe (bt fra 3-0), sco (ber 24-23)
week 10 (12-15)
bar (sco 27-24), ber (bt fra 27-7), ams (bt rhe 28-10)
wb x (13-15)
ber (bt rhe 26-20)

2003 (season w-l indicated after each week)

week 2 (0-3)
ams (bar 10-7), sco (fra 17-13), ber (rhe 21-10)
week 3 (3-3)
bar (bt ams 35-17), fra (bt ber 41-21), rhe (bt sco 34-17)
week 4 (3-6)
fra (ams 20-16), rhe (bar 11-3), ber (sco 34-17)
week 5 (5-7)
rhe (bt fra 14-7), ber (bt ams 34-30), sco (bar 17-10)
week 6 (7-8),
bar (ber 24-14), rhe (bt ams 34-27), fra (bt sco 33-27)
week 7 (7-11)
ber (bar 23-20), fra (ams 34-27), rhe (sco 33-0)
week 8 (8-13)
bar (fra 47-13), ams (sco 31-20), rhe (bt ber 28-21)
week 9 (10-14)
sco (bt bar 45-7), ams (bt ber 51-43), rhe (fra 38-7)
week 10 (12-15)
fra (ber 27-14), rhe (bt bar 33-7), sco (bt ams 31-14)
wb xi(13-15)
fra (bt rhe 35-15)