Author: League Commissioner

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Trophy / Draft Date and Location

I’ll do my best to keep this brief. Last year’s trophy has been delivered (see attached photos) and I have set the date and location for the draft.

TROPHY – After a lot of back and forth, I went with the 25 oz. large beer mug. I designed the league logo and originally had this prepared in color, but the outfit that could do it in color had a minimum order of 75. F-that jank!  So, I went with the etched glass from another vendor. I think it still looks great, but now that I know what the trophy will be, I will continue to search and improve as the year’s progress. I am certainly jealous of the 2012 Champ and think these are really cool annual trophies that will make the competition that much better. If anyone has any suggestions on design or stats to include let me know.

Design 1 Design 2 Trophy 1 Trophy 2

DRAFT LOCATION – We are holding the live draft in Hickory, NC this year, at newcomer Hickory Swallops’ lake house. All teams are invited for the weekend and lodging will be available for anyone that wants to attend. As we all know, the draft party is the premier event of the season so I am hoping that we can get together as many teams as possible. Hickory is less than an hour from Charlotte, and a little more than a 5-hr drive from Norfolk or DC. There will be plenty of boating, fishing, golfing, corntoss and drinking going on all weekend. We can carpool down from Norfolk for anyone that wants to join. Let me know if you are in or out.

DRAFT DATE / TIME – I have gone ahead and chosen Labor Day weekend, Saturday, August 31st. Draft is set to begin at 11:00am EDT. Actual draft start may vary by a few hours to coincide with travelers schedules, but we will try and keep it manageable on a Saturday morning.

As always, I’m looking forward to hearing back from everyone. I hope all of you are envious of Genetic Black Jesus and his trophy. Wherever he is on draft day, I’m sure we will see plenty of it. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

LM – The Stepdads

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2013 Season Introductions

I wanted to get this out prior to the long holiday weekend to give you something to chew on during this extended break. Don’t be overwhelmed by this email, as they only come 3 or 4 times a season. And, really?! Find a better League Manager. Let’s get rolling.

In conjunction with my introductory memo on the 2013 season, I have made some significant modifications to the league, the team rosters and the scoring settings. We have added 4 new teams, dropped 1 and combined 1, expanding the Lombardi Three from a 12 to a 14 team league.

Introducing the new teams:

  1. Young neophyte, dimly named, The New Guy (seriously bro, come up with a better name)
  2. Jackie Treehorn’s sleeper squad, the Lake Hickory Swallops
  3. Straight from the spirit world, Navaho tenderfoot, Chavez Chavez
  4. Portland’s parturient, “still waiting to register…any day now…”

We dismissed Don’t Be Butt Hurt to cover his ever-pressing rectal examination schedule, and IJamAllDay and Laces Out have pooled efforts in an attempt to better their chances as each team competes for the prominence and grandeur that comes with the title, 2013 League Champion.

The draft will be the same scenario as last year; however, we will bump up the time to 2 minutes per pick. Last year flew by at 45 seconds per pick. We will certainly host a LIVE DRAFT PARTY on location, and set up Google Hangout for those who can’t make it. Draft day will likely be sometime in mid to late August, no later than the weekend of August 24th. This allows for some previews of the preseason commotion, room to avoid fluke preseason injuries, and 2 weeks to make any trades and plan strategy prior to the regular season start.

I have decided to take the best of both worlds when it comes to the draft order. Some of you may have seen the sneak peek I left on the league home page yesterday. I wanted to maintain real-world conventions by giving the worst teams the higher draft status, but I also wanted to reward the league champion. That said, the draft order will be winner, loser, winner, loser, and so on. The new teams will fill in at the bottom of the order. Subsequent draft rounds will be flipped like last year. See table below.

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 1.35.08 PM

The current weekly matchups on our league page are all subject to change. Much of this was automatically activated by NFL.com. I will go in and refresh this when we get closer to the draft, so don’t pay too much attention to what you see now. Just start thinking about your draft picks.

The fantasy playoffs will compete with the top 8 teams (bottom 6 playing in a consolation bracket) and the playoffs will begin one week earlier in Week 14, with the playoffs taking place over weeks 14-16 of the NFL regular season. This will avoid the issue we had last year in Week 17 when the NFL teams typically bench their key players to rest them for the NFL playoffs and you get screwed because your best guy is taking a nap.

As promised, I have made the following roster and scoring changes.

Roster Changes

  • Added 1 additional WR (now 3 WRs)
  • Added 1 Linebacker (LB) position
  • Added 2 Reserve Positions for injured players

Scoring Changes

  • KICK PUNT RETURNS*
    • Kickoff and Punt Return Yards: 1 pt for every 20 yards
    • Kickoff and Punt Return TDs: 6 pts for every TD

*All individual players are eligible to earn these statistics. This is key. Last year you may have had a WR or RB who was returning punts and you weren’t getting the credit for those yards. This will make an otherwise average player that much more valuable if he is adding points in the kick and punt return position.

  • KICKING*
    • Point-after Attempt Missed: -1 pt (negative)
    • Field Goal Missed: -1 pt (negative)

*As you all know, I analyzed just about every matchup last season and recognized that more than a few came down to a point or two. Why not add the real-time drama of the end-of-game FG to the fantasy game. I’d love to see one of these pad-less strokes miss a FG at the end of the game and drop some team a point out of the win.

  • DEFENSE*
    • Fumbles Forced: 1 pt
    • Blocked Kicks: 3 pts
    • Kickoff and Punt Return Yards: 1 pt for every 20 yards
    • Points Allowed 0: 25 pts
    • Points Allowed 1-6: 20 pts
    • Points Allowed 7-13: 15 pts
    • Points Allowed 14-20: 10 pts
    • Points Allowed 21-27: 5 pts
    • Points Allowed 28 or more: 0 pts

*No negative points. The worst you can do on DEF is net zero. I’ve enjoyed playing leagues in the past where the DEF output actually had a decent impact on the matchup. The way we were set up last year, the DEF put up pretty indistinct numbers unless you had a rare, blowout game. With the NFL progressing to more of a high-scoring, pass-first offense, I thought we could up the ante on points allowed.

  • INDIVIDUAL DEFENSIVE PLAYER (new LB position)*
    • Tackle: 2 pts
    • Assisted Tackles: 1 pt
    • Sack: 3 pts
    • Tackles for Loss Bonus: 1 pt
    • Sack Yards: 1 pt for every 5 yards
    • Defense Interception: 2pts
    • Forced Fumble (resulting in a turnover): 2 pts
    • Fumbles Recovery: 2 pts
    • Touchdown (Interception return): 6 pts
    • Touchdown (Fumble return): 6 pts
    • Touchdown (Blocked kick): 6 pts
    • Safety: 2 pts
    • Blocked Kick (punt, FG, PAT): 2 pts
    • Interception Return: 1 pt for every 10 yards
    • Fumble Return: 1 pt for every 10 yards
    • 10+ Tackles Bonus: 5 pts
    • 2+ Sacks Bonus: 3 pts

*This is a new, experimental position this year for us. It may look like a point here or two, but this is really a ton of available points, so we’ll see how it goes. Remember, this is only one player and it is rare that they get a tackle, force a fumble, recover the fumble, and run it back 40 yards for a TD (netting 16 pts.) all in the same play. However, I did some analysis on last year’s top LBs and the way these points are set up, the LB can net as much as the top RBs. Something to think about…a good LB may be just as valuable as a good RB.

As always, I’m looking forward to everyone’s feedback, your take on the outlined changes, questions and/or concerns, general bitching about your shitty job and shitty summer vacation, your bad haircut, commentary on former Packer, now Viking receiver, Greg Jennings and what’s wrong with Jermichael Finley’s hands. Oh, and upload an image for your team already, or I’ll do it for you. Let’s see how that goes.

See you all again in about a month to finalize the draft date and location. Travel safe.

-LM, The Stepdads (because we beat you and you hate us)

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The Lombardi Three 2013 Season

As our second season approaches I wanted to get an idea of who is returning to play this year. I have had some interest from other teams that want to join our league, so I need to know if I should expand the league to add a few more teams, or replace (combine*) the teams currently on the roster.

You may have seen an email from NFL.com about the league and the upcoming schedule. This was something automatically sent out by NFL.com to get the ball rolling. I have not sent anything official out and we can certainly make some changes to the teams, league settings, and scoring. For now, I’d just like to know who plans on playing this season. I had a great time with it last year and I think this year’s improvements to the settings and scoring will make it even better.

Additionally, if you know of anyone who wants to join, this is the time to let me know and I will invite them to the league, space permitting. This will come on a first-come, first-serve basis. I already have one definite join and I do not plan on expanding the league to more than 2 to 4 more teams (16 teams max).

Please respond no later than June 30th.

League Commissioner – The Stepdads

*Combine – Teams with significant others may wish to join forces and play as 1 team.  Just let me know.

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Playoffs, Trophies, Final Words

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.

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 12.34.52 PM

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

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12 Week Recap

It’s been nearly 2 months since I last sent out an update. The last 8 weeks have seen some shifts in the standings. Most notably, Regal Beagles has finally put together a pair of wins. The progress comes a little too late for the playoffs, but the Beagles got a fresh bath and a trim and will definitely be contenders in the consolation bracket. Schoolya’gain started off strong at 5-2, but have dropped 4 out of the last 5 and struggling for a spot in the playoffs. After starting 2-4, Packer Cave furnished his squad with some Campbell’s Chunky and some sort of ball-busting, epic halftime speech and they went on a 6-0 path of destruction to take the #2 spot. Genetic Black Jesus had mixed results early in the season, but has since won 5 of their last 6 and showing significant playoff muscle. Reservations For Six sits in the top 5 after winning 4 of the last 6 but shows signs of weakness having let 2 of the last 3 slip away. The Stepdads have dropped 4 of the last 6 and are now in position to potentially slip out of playoff contention, along with a handful of other squads +/- a game out of .500 to date. LockinUWL has maintained their reign at the top, but continues to rack up easy wins against feeble matchups, having the least amount of points scored against them in the league, by more than 350 points. This stat provides evidence that there is a significant dose of luck mixed in with that strong lineup, and that good fortune can run out any week now. Seriously, any week now.

We just finished Week 12 and there are only 2 weeks left to contend for a playoff spot. The central 6 teams in the standings are only 1 game apart from each other and the next 2 weeks will make or break each one of these teams for a playoff spot. I predict you will have to finish 8-6 to contend for a playoff seed in the top 6 teams. If two team’s records are tied, the tiebreaker will be determined by the head-to-head record between the two teams. This scenario will most likely come in to play.

To recap the playoffs: we are set up to play 14 weeks of regular season league play, then the top 6 teams compete in a ‘playoffs’ setting which is played over the last 3 weeks of the NFL’s regular season. The bottom 6 teams play in a consolation bracket during those last 3 weeks. The top 2 teams in each playoff will get an opening week BYE. Your goal is to make the top 6 in order to compete for League Champion. There is no trophy for second place. The league officially ends at the conclusion of the NFL’s regular season.

Some notes for next season:
Lengthen live draft time
Add another WR position
Add Special Teams stats (I thought I had this set up preseason)
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 (presently have an additional 2 teams that want to join)
Let me know if there are any other discrepancies and/or things we can do better.

LM,
The Stepdads – because we occasionally drink too much and fall off the couch

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League Update – Week 4

For those that don’t know, our league name was established in honor of the three consecutive NFL titles that Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers won in ’65, ’66 and ’67. The latter titles were Super Bowls I and II. Hence the league name and password 656667. Moving on.

The opening 4 weeks of regular season league play is complete. We are set up to play 14 weeks of regular season league play, then the top 6 teams compete in a ‘playoffs’ setting which is played over the last 3 weeks of the NFL’s regular season. The bottom 6 teams play in a consolation bracket during those last 3 weeks. So, your goal is to make the top 6 in order to compete for League Champion. The league officially ends at the conclusion of the NFL’s regular season.

Week 4 certainly had its share of blowouts, and for now, the league is showing signs of a few standout leaders. Although, no one is undefeated. LockinUWL has had a solid start and has outscored his opponents by an average of 41.2 points a week. He also holds the top score in Week 3 at 181.4 points, inflating the previous statistic. The Stepdads are 3-1 but only have one player in the top 30 for fantasy points this season. Reservations For Six has been outscored by a total of 53.9 points this season and still sits with a winning record at 3-1. There are only 2 winless teams left, and coincidentally, they have had the most points scored against them through week 4. All that said, there is tremendous evidence of variation in the league and this is still anyone’s game.

Performance indicators are starting to surface. Your top draft picks should be showing some consistency in one direction or the other, injuries are playing out, and undrafted league rookies have been staking their claim.

I added some working notes below for next season and hope you have some suggestions to make it more fun and competitive. Of present note is Reserve positions. I can still set up 1 or 2 reserve positions in our lineups, and I can do it now. I thought I had set this up at the beginning of the season, but I guess that setting didn’t take or I missed something. Basically, this allows for you to take any injured players and place them in a ‘Reserve’ spot in order to not have to drop them, and free up that available space on your roster for a free agent. To bring that player back out of ‘Reserve’ you will obviously have to drop someone off your roster to make room for them. Only injured players can be placed in ‘Reserve’.

*Bye weeks are in play so pay extra attention to your lineups and don’t make the epic mistake of playing someone who is off that week. Talkin’ to you Regal Beagles and Laces Out! You both have 4 players on Bye this week.

Some notes for next season:
Add another Wide Receiver position
Add Special Teams stats (I thought I had this set up preseason)
Add 1 or 2 Reserve positions for injured players (again, I thought I had set this up preseason)
**I can still set this up but it must be voted in. I won’t establish mid-season without at least a 10/12 vote.
Maybe add Defensive Line, Linebacker and/or Defensive Back positions

Looking forward to everyone’s feedback, your vote on Reserve positions, questions, general bitching about your shitty team’s performance, or commentary on the unending debauchery between the NFL referees and the Green Bay Packers. The Packers got the other end of the wheel barrow handle this week against the Saints and the Refs blew 2 challenges and a 4th quarter fumble. Just sayin’, something’s amiss.

LM,
The Stepdads – because we beat you, and you hate us

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Draft Date & Time

Stage is set. Let’s try and not dick this up. This is easy. If you are the ‘minimal effort’ type, the most you will have to put in to this league is the DRAFT, and setting up your lineups each week. The rest pretty much takes care of itself.

I’ll keep this pre-DRAFT announcement as short as I can. We need to pick a LIVE DRAFT time that works well with everyone. I am thinking either early Saturday the 18th or the 25th. Please let me know your preference, or if either day works, and we will go with the majority. Being that we have a few teams on the west coast (CA and OR) and one in WI, the time will be set for 10am ET (7am for the west coast, 9am for WI). There will be a LIVE DRAFT brunch at my place in Norfolk for anyone local. *With 12 teams at 14 players each and 45 seconds per pick, the DRAFT will take less than 2 hours.

If you can’t participate in the DRAFT, don’t worry about it. The system will automatically choose the highest ranking (projected) available player for you. The only minor problem with that is you may end up with a bunch of extra running backs and an unbalanced team. You would have to go in afterwards and make some post-DRAFT trades or free-agent acquisitions to be competitive. So you might as well try and participate in the DRAFT. There are a few of you who haven’t played FF before so just go to ESPN, or YAHOO, or even right here on NFL.COM and print out some fantasy draft projections for each of the key positions (QB, RB, WR, TE, DEFENSE, K). That way you can follow along with who has already been picked and choose the next best player for your team in the position you are looking to fill. Right now there will be a bench of 5 to backup your rotations. Enough basic strategy for now.

Send me a quick note or reply with your DRAFT date choice ASAP. This coming Saturday is the 18th if we want to go early. I am open to any suggestions anyone has with the DRAFT or any of the league settings.