My Carry On Campaign idea for this year was to run an NFL Survivor Pool with half of the money going to the American Cancer Society. The idea was pretty simple. It cost $10 to enter. All you had to do was pick one team from each NFL weekend that you thought would win. If your team won, great. If they lost, you got a strike. Two strikes and you were technically out, although we instituted a buy-back rule. If you paid an additional $10 after your second strike, you could come back in on a single-elimination basis. (In other words, three strikes and you’re out - for good!) The big catch was that you could only pick a team once. So if you picked Green Bay to win in Week 1, you couldn’t pick them again for the rest of the season.

We had 41 people participate - 16 of whom bought back in at some point. That gave us a pot of $570. Of that, $285 will go to the American Cancer Society by way of the Carry On Campaign. My friend Bryan was the tournament’s big winner, taking home $200. I came in second and netted $75 and Chris, another buddy of mine, won $10 of his money back for coming in third.

It was a ton of fun. We started with 41 and ended up with just two (Bryan and I) in Week 17. Because he only had one strike to my two, he was declared the overall winner. 

The contest brought a whole new dimension to the NFL season. It gave me so many more games to follow — both my pick and the picks of others I was rooting against. 

We’re definitely going to do it again next year and we hope to raise even more funds. 

I’d love to hear your Carry On Campaign story so I can post it on this blog. Click on “Share your story!” on the homepage. 

Carry on!