[EricH]

The encrypted manual is usually released less than a week before Kickoff. The encryption is rated as secure for days, as I recall.

The password is some combination of letters and numbers, often something to do with the game (but NOT repeat NOT the game name).

Even the one year the password was released early it didn't help. "Vets hurdling FIRST tetras" unscrambled to Drive*Straight*Turn*Left* (where * is a punctuation mark that I don't recall, and wasn't included in the original) back in '08 (Game Hint #3). Not that anybody figured that one out.