@George,
Amusingly enough, I sent Spendius a pm inviting him to play this year. I said that I, as the host of this game, kind of enjoyed his participation. His off the wall comments made my job a bit easier. It is sort of a variation on the idea that "bad publicity is better than no publicity" for washed up has-been celebrities.
My objection was that he was cluttering up our game with how we all did based on point spreads. That kind of threw off my rhythm.
Anyway, he replied to my pm. Very gracious, saying that he would decline. His interests on A2k lie elsewhere.