LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

You may have a passing familiarity — get it? — with JOE MONTANA, the only three-time Super Bowl MVP in history. And last week’s meta answer, which he must consider the greater of those two achievements.

Eight entries in the grid featured parenthetical enumerations:

1-a [Iconic British car (1)] = E-TYPE. Nasty thing to put at 1-across in a meta, isn’t it? Makes you think it’s going to have something to do with the letter E.

19-a [He seized Fort Ticonderoga (6, 3)] = ETHAN ALLEN. Now he just makes furniture.

28-a [“The Red Eminence” (8)] = Cardinal RICHELIEU

35-a [She was burned at the stake (9, 2)] = JOAN OF ARC. And now you know how Joan of Arc felt.

48-a [Mother of Erato (7)] = MNEMOSYNE

58-a [Predator over six continents (10)] = the PEREGRINE, a.k.a. the peregrine falcon.

64-a [He took control of TWA in 1985 (5)] = CARL ICAHN, the “icahnic” 1980s corporate raider.

80-a [He named Greenland deceptively (4)] = ERIK THE RED

What’s the common thread? Each of these eight entries is an example of an NFL team member:

The E-TYPE is a Jaguar (Jacksonville) (1)
ETHAN ALLEN was a Patriot (New England) (6,3)
RICHELIEU was a Cardinal (Arizona) (8)
JOAN OF ARC is a Saint (New Orleans) (9,2)
MNEMOSYNE is a Titan (Tennessee) (7)
The PEREGRINE is a Falcon (Atlanta) (10)
CARL ICAHN is a Raider (Oakland) (5)
ERIK THE RED was a Viking (Minnesota) (4)

What to do with this information and the enumerations? “Playces, Everyone” reads the title, so plug the first letters of the places these teams play into the enumerations — the J of Jacksonville into the (1), the N and E from New England into 6 and 3, and so forth — and you get a great player who’s also a place: JOE MONTANA, found by 173 solvers.

Brent Holman quips:

As a San Franciscan, I must say that this one was well received.

Golem says:

If I time this right, maybe I can be #16…

Close — he was #23.

Abide found an Easter egg:

and Jerry RICE’S crossing 49er-Down!

Pete Rimkus has a personal connection, almost:

I was a couple years behind Joe at ND…and I only played Intramural football there…but I’ll still be able to tell my grandkids (someday!) that I played quarterback at Notre Dame the year they won the National Championship.

Kim McW points out:

Between Schwarzenegger and Joe Montana, an easier month (so far) for Bay Area solvers!

And finally, Puff Daddy got a little help:

Two minutes into the puzzle, girlfriend frustrated that I am saying random names aloud says: knowing you they are probably sports teams. Thirty seconds later meta solved and a Notre Dame grad doesn’t suffer the humiliation of missing #3 (both his number at Notre Dame and the week).

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 173 correct entries received, is Cole Kendall of Washington, D.C. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Cole will also receive a copy of Matt Jones’ new puzzle series, “No Holds Barred Crosswords.” Check out Matt’s Kickstarter campaign here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/166613892/no-holds-barred-crosswords

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE MGWCC SOLVERS? UPDATED:

Jeff Gellner writes:

115 entries received so far from 29 different states (plus DC), 5 Canadian Provinces and 5 other foreign countries. New York is the top state with 17 entries followed by California (13) and Massachusetts (11). I’ll keep updating locations as long as solvers keep sending them in.

Come on, California (and Mass., and everywhere else!) — you gonna just let New York walk away with this? Represent! To put your info on the map, e-mail the following info to Jeff at WITWrMGWCCsolvers@gmail.com:

MGWCC username (required – case sensitive, must match exactly)
City (required)
State (required if located in US)
Country (required if located outside US)
Location (optional, can be a ZIP code, Canadian Postal Code, or lat/long coordinates. This helps prevent overlapping points on the map if several solvers are from the same city. The coordinates can be obtained by going to https://maps.google.com, right clicking on the map and selecting “What’s here?”)

Thanks again, Jeff — the map is very cool.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a well-known American corporation. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday. [UPDATE, 9/27, 1:50 PM: The clue at 47-across contains an error: instead of September 23, the Royals’ streak should have been listed as starting on July 23. This is just a mistake and has nothing to do with the meta. My apologies.]

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (2,097 members now!) here.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.