I’ve got good news, awesome news, and crazy awesome news.

For starters, the winner for the free $25 gift certificate has been selected. Hey, I’m a man of my word, I’m just not too punctual. Anyway, Random.org gave me comment #12, which was Bellesouth. So congrats to her and thanks again to everybody who chimed in with a thought or suggestion as well as Free Samples Direct for sponsoring this giveaway!

Next, I don’t like to brag, but I’m immensely thrilled to announce that HIF has been accepted into 9rules, a highly respected directory of cool and awesome sites. This won’t change anything here on the site, but I wanted to thank all of the loyal Hiffers who constantly read HIF, interact with me on the forums, and take the time to e-mail me with their (both good and bad!) opinions. HIF wouldn’t be what it is without y’all.

And finally, it’s time for not just one contest, but two! I mentioned back during the March Madness Contest that I’d like to do something similar for football and then promptly forgot all about that until today. Opps No worries though, as I’ve set up two leagues (one for NFL and one for NCAA) and we’re ready to go!

We’re holding the contests on Yahoo again, so if you don’t already have a free Yahoo account, you can get one here. After signing in, go to both pages and join our groups on the right side of the page!

Here’s a link to the NFL Pickems join page, our Group ID (63704), and our password (freebies).

Here’s a link to the College Pickems, our Group ID (31153), and our password (freebies).

And for the record, even if you’re reading this a few days or even a week later, you can still join and have a chance at winning! For more info, click below or go here on the forums.

Rules are quite simple. Each week you pick what team you think will win. Knowledge of football is not required, as even a monkey can pick “Team A or Team B?” At the end of the season, whoever picked the most correct games wins.

We are using the “spread” feature. Basically, before every game, gamblers in Vegas determine which team is favored to win and by how much. The “how much” is a spread. For instance, in tonight’s game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, the Giants are considered the better team by 4 points. So if I pick the Giants to win, they have to win by 5 or more points for it to count as a victory for me. Thus, if I pick the Giants and they win 22-20, I’ll lose even though they won in real life. Yahoo clearly shows what the spread is and even which team most people are picking, so it’s really easy.

As for prizes, there will be the usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and random prize winner. In order to qualify for prizes, you must make picks in at least 15 of the 17 weeks. The NFL league will drop each player’s lowest week total and the NCAA will drop each player’s two lowest week totals (since we all missed the very first week!).

Each winner will receive a yet undetermined cash prize, but I promise it’ll be good