For the second year in a row, The Pimps were given the defending Super Bowl champions to lead off their season's dance card, and for the second straight year they enthusiastically crashed the party. Withstanding a late rally by the defending champs, The Pimps claimed an impressive 36-31 road victory over the Stereco in Kickoff Weekend's Game of the Week.

Pimps signal caller Tommy Maddox torched the Stereco defenders for a game-high 14 points in leading his team out to an early lead. His four receiver set of Rice, Price, Bruce, and Smith, however, was kept in check, scoring only a combined 13 points. All the attention to the wideouts freed up Shaun Alexander, who – operating alone out of the backfield – rushed for 12 to extend the lead. The Stereco rallied with a balanced offensive attack that saw all six skilled-position players score between 5 and 8 points. Despite losing the defensive struggle 10-9, Sims found itself only down by 5 going into Monday night. Yet place kicker David Akers, who averaged 8.5 points-per-game last season, was shut out entirely under the prime time lights, preserving the Pimp victory.

The win avenges The Pimps' Championship Week loss to Sims a year ago and gets their second consecutive Eastern Division title defense off to a good start. The loss, meanwhile, is the Stereco's first at home since Week 5 of last year and halts their overall winning streak at seven.

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The only remaining title defense to begin this weekend was in Bockville, where the current Western Division Champion Bock Boys hosted the once three-time division champion Irwin Hellions in an old fashioned grudge match. Showing some of their old swagger, the Hellions used an explosive Monday Night defensive comeback to down the defending champs on their own field, 39-35.

The game started well for Thomas, who raced out to the early lead behind the strong play of Daunte Culpepper (12 points) and Priest Holmes (15). Irwin struggled from the backfield, where Brett Favre, Curtis Martin, and Edgerrin James combined for a measly 7 points. Yet the revamped Hellion receiving corps – historically the offense's weakest unit – kept the visitors in the game. Chris Chamber torched the Bock Boy secondary for 13 points while draftees Chad Johnson and Andre Johnson pulled down another 12. Down eight after Sunday, Irwin's heralded Buccaneer defense flexed its muscle Monday night, routing Thomas' Eagles squad 17-3 in head-to-head play to steal the victory.

The win marks the second time in three years that the Hellions have up-ended the Bock Boys on Kickoff Weekend, and it arguably re-establishes the them as legitimate contenders in the West.

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Having had nine months to recover from the franchise's third Super Bowl loss, Jody's Colossal Waste of Time promptly reenacted its first, being routed at home by the arch-rival Anderson Brewmeisters, 37-18.

Brewmeisters Charlie Garner and Torry Holt led the attack for the visitors with 10 and 9 points, respectively, and provided a much needed boost with quarterback Peyton Manning being ineffective (0 points). Jody's signal caller didn't fair much better (2 points), but Deuce McAllister and Plaxico Burress tried to make a game of it, combining for 13. In a receiving subplot, Donte' Stallworth and Laveranues Coles – who were traded for one another during the draft – battled to a 5-5 draw. The most surprising story came on defense, where Anderson's Steeler unit stripped 13 away from Jody while the C.W.O.T.'s once mighty Dolphin team actually coughed up a pair of points to the visitors.

With the victory, Anderson has won consecutive season openers for the first time in franchise history. The C.W.O.T., meanwhile, had been an impressive 5-1 during Kickoff Weekend before this season.

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For a game featuring two high-powered offenses, the Figs–P.W.O.P. opening week shootout did anything but disappoint. On an afternoon that saw each club outperform the combined efforts of the Piana Raze and Abstract Machines, Pirk's Wicked Oil Profiteer$ claimed the narrowest of victories, 47-46 over the visiting Figs.

This was a sprint from the beginning. Five Profiteers -- Jeff Garcia (14), Ahman Green (10), Travis Henry (10), Hines Ward (11), and Randy Moss (11) posted double-digit points. Clinton Portis and Fred Taylor helped the Figs keep pace, combining for 21 before Rich Gannon and Sebastian Janikowski brought in 21 more on Sunday night. Perhaps the biggest story of the game was the Figs' Buffalo defense, which signed for the league's defensive minimum after being drafted in the fifth round, yet posted a league-best 22 points in the opening game. Despite that Herculean effort, the Profiteer$ used a solid 12-point effort from their new Titan defense to draw to within a point before the Oil Town home field advantage tipped the victory scale in their favor.

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it wasn't pretty, but the Piana Raze accomplished in the opening weekend a feat that took them two months last season: win a game. Indeed, a struggling Raze team got the best of the misfiring Abstract Machines, 23-18, to open the 2003 campaign.

Neither club put up offensive fireworks. The leading point getter at a skilled position for each club had only 6 (Tiki Barber for Piana and Trent Green for the Machines). The Raze's Kurt Warner overcame four turnovers to salvage a positive number, while five members from the home team -- including Marshall Faulk and Marvin Harrison -- managed a mere 2 apiece. At least the opposing kickers made a greater effort to put points on the board; Piana's Jason Elam bested the Machines' Morten Anderson 13-10. Both teams debuted new defenses for 2003, and Piana sealed the upset with their Panther squad outlasting Abstract's Ravens unit 13-9.

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