I wanted to get some closing correspondence out before a whole month has passed since the official end of the NFL season. As a Packer fan the obvious, desired Super Bowl outcome was mostly received, but a broken Kaepernick neck would have capped off the Ravens victory quite satisfactorily. However, I must admit that this year’s Super Bowl brought little entertainment compared to our inaugural fantasy season.
My last motivational update hit your inbox after the completion of Week 12, just one month before the end of our fantasy season, and much was up in the air. There were dramatic shifts in standings the last few weeks. Packer Cave capped off a season-high, 8-game winning streak at the end of the regular season to take over the #2 seed, while Schoolya’gain dropped 6 of the last 7 to fall out of playoff contention.
The following 3-week playoffs proved three things: (1) you gotta make the top 6 to show, (2) it’s anyone’s game once you are there, and (3) no one cares about the consolation bracket. Eventually, the top 3 seeds all went down including epic, winless meltdowns by the #1 and #3 seeds, LockinUWL and Reservations for Six. The #4 and #6 seeds, Genetic Black Jesus and The Stepdads, would ultimately meet in what opened up a controversial playoffs conversation. This was controversial because many key players were sidelined in a real world effort to rest players prior to the NFL playoffs. This seemed to affect other fantasy teams in our league as well and demonstrated genuine fantasy lineup challenges. This was a management mistake on my part, and next year our fantasy playoffs may start 1 to 2 weeks earlier. Either way, there is zero dispute over this year’s winner as Genetic Black Jesus put up unbeatable playoff numbers, including a record-breaking WR performance by Dez Bryant who put up 49.40 points in Week 16.
**Had the playoffs been played 1 week earlier…..
The same 6 teams would have competed, however The Goonies would have played the #4 spot and Genetic Black Jesus the #5 spot. The Goonies beat Genetic Black Jesus twice in weeks 5 and 13, and would have won the tie breaker. All other spots would have remained the same. Applying the points earned in weeks 14-16 vice 15-17, LockinUWL would have secured the finals spot by 1/10 of a point beating Genetic Black Jesus 129.15 to 129.05. That shit cray! The Stepdads would have continued on to the finals but would have lost to LockinUWL by, no shit, 2/10 of a point. The final Week 16 score would have been 140.30 to 140.10. I can’t make this up. And now that I have slaved through this scenario, I’m so glad it went down the way it did. I’m not sure how I would have handled, literally, a 2-yard loss. This would have been quite the epic game day to say the least. And, how boring would it have been to have had LockinUWL just roll through the entire season unchallenged. No thanks.
***Had the playoffs been played 2 weeks earlier…..
Again, the same 6 teams would have played however spots 3 through 6 would have shifted quite significantly. And interestingly enough, applying the points earned in weeks 13-15, Genetic Black Jesus and The Stepdads would have been the first 2 teams to lose, eventually playing for the #5/#6 spots. Genetic Black Jesus would not win a game in this playoff scenario. Wow! LockinUWL would have eventually won by a decent margin in each matchup. Again, kinda boring. It would have been nice if one of the lower half teams had squeaked in under this second scenario, but their week 14-15 outputs were pretty slim and wouldn’t have survived long.
I have issued virtual trophies for the season and they are available to view in your trophy cases online. NFL.com issued trophies for League Champion, 2nd and 3rd Place finishers, Regular Season Champion and Regular Season Total Points. I have issued the following additional trophies including 2 of the most impressive accolades by Packer Cave: (1) the 8-game win streak, and (2) the 68.20 single-game performance by RB Doug Martin, put up in Week 9. Any takers on how high he drafts next season?
A physical trophy for League Champion will be issued and is still in the works. I’m toying with perpetual options, but afraid it requires a serious commitment from all Team Owners, willing to ship the trophy back to me at the end of each season for engraving and distribution to the next year’s winning team. Additionally, I have had at least 2 more team owners indicate that they want to join our league, potentially expanding it to 14 teams next season. We will revisit the league closer to the end of the summer to talk about incoming, outgoing and/or merging team owners.
I’d like to leave you with some final thoughts for next season, including a small buy in to pay for physical trophies and awards. Nothing serious, just $5 or $10 to up the competitiveness and cover rewards. We’ll gauge this and the following items prior to draft day next season and get league consensus on any and all changes.
Some notes for next season:
League buy-in ($5 – $10)
Lengthen live draft time
Add another WR position
Add Special Teams stats
Add 1 or 2 Reserve positions for injured players
Change DEF points to start at +20 or +25 wrt points allowed deductions
Add DEF bonus points for a win, despite score (~+5 pts.)
Possibly add Linebacker or Defensive Back position
Possibly change K points to penalize missed FGs (~-1 pt.)
Expanding the league to 14 teams
Start Playoffs 1 to 2 weeks earlier
Travel safe this summer.
Till next season,
The Commish
The Lombardi Three 