After a few rough weeks picking winners among friends and co-workers, Kailua's Lionel Stoddard can now brag that he beat all of Hawai'i in winning the Pigskin Picks contest.

Stoddard, a superintendent for the engineering firm of Charles Pankow, became the first online winner of the contest, beating more than 2,100 online players and thousands of others who submitted printed ballots. Online players are allowed to play just one ballot while print players can submit multiple ballots.

"We already had a meeting this morning (at work) and I was rubbing it in pretty good," Stoddard said. Some of the lines he tossed around to co-workers were, "Next time you want advice on the picks, just call me."

Stoddard, 43, who has lived here for the past eight years, began playing Pigskin Picks about two years ago as a friendly rivalry among co-workers and friends. "It's just kind of fun to play," he said.

The winner, he said, would get lunch from all the other guys over a certain time. "If you don't win, you're all losers," he said. "Actually, this is the first week I won. It had been a couple rough weeks."

Stoddard said his strategy is to "just go with your first instinct. I don't like to second guess."

He said picking San Jose State over Hawai'i was "a tough pick to have to make." He described choosing Kansas City over Denver as "one of my long shots." He selected Washington over the Dallas Cowboys because "whoever Dallas plays, I'm going to go the other way."

"I grew up in the '70s when they called themselves America's Team," he said. "I couldn't stand that."

A man of his word, Stoddard picked against Dallas this week, choosing winless Cincinnati, an 18-point underdog.