I’d have to say, win lose or draw, we’re getting our money’s worth out of this fantasy football season. It took 13 full weeks and literally the Monday game at Midnight to settle the division this year. We’ve had a little bit of everything including two first time division winners; The Panthers and The Sharks.Not ba at all.

That said, how do you score 905 points in the regular season and wind up in the bridesmaid’s bowl? Easy lose 5 games by a total of 18 points combined. Now there’s a big fat fantasy football kick in the groin for ya. One of those was by 7 to The Onslaught earlier. At least I get an opportunity to exact a little revenge this week.

Points of interest: 

- Only 3 teams had winning divisional record this year; Maulers, Magic and WoWW.

- The season high scoring team was The Sharks with 921. The league high scoring team has ever won the title. Which is possibly the strangest stat we have.

- Of the top 12 draft picks in 2003 only 6 started for their drafted teams and they scored a total of 33 points in week 13. 19 of which came from one player, Mason.

- Of  the 12 2^nd round draft choices, 2 players started for their drafting teams, for a total of 0 points in week 13.

Champs Bowl

Panthers vs. Sharks.

This is a hard game to pick since both these teams have nearly a mythical tradition of losing. The Panthers are sporting the best record in the league as they make their first Champs Bowl appearance in franchise history.  However, they are also the lowest scoring team to earn a playoff spot and have only averaged 53.5 points per game over the last month. Conversely, The Sharks are sporting league high points total, have averaged over 79.5 PPG in the same period and won literally the single closest contested division period.  Battled tested, The Sharks led by #1 back Ahmann Green, should get by the first round without much of a challenge from The Paper Panthers.

Sharks 78 Panthers 60.

Maulers vs. Magic

Over the last three weeks, head-to-head, The Maulers would have been 7 – 2 against the existing playoff teams. I think that has to make them the favorite in The Champs bowl. However, The Maulers face The Magic who are looking for their 4^th title in as many years and aren’t used to losing big games. They also have some particularly good matchups with Pennington and Moss this week.  That said if The Maulers start falling behind I’m certain that the Col. will enforce “Executive Privilege” at some point without much objection from the league. 

Maulers 72 Magic 65.

Bridesmaids Bowl.

Onslught vs. WoWW

When asked about playing a team that had so many former WoWW starters on it’s roster, Coach McMahon simply pointed to Coach McQueeney and said, “The force is strong in you young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet!”  Clearly last week’s 3-point loss has had an affect Coach McMahon either that or he is off his Prozac again. Regardless, I under stand he is considering taking up a hobby less stressful than Fantasy Football… Like High Stakes Poker or Russian roulette.  This may very well be one of the more closely contested games this week, with two teams that fell short on late season runs at divisional titles.  Just to emphasize how close this contest is, both these teams have averaged 74 points per game over the last month and had they played head to head over that period would have split the series 2-2. Earlier this year The Slugs beat WoWW by 7 due to a monster 35-point performance fro Steve McNair. I’m not sure he’ll be able to duplicate that feat with the number of injuries robo-quaterback has sustained since. Besides that injury, this is an immensely even match up top to bottom and may come down to tight end play. Flip a coin. I did. (Of course mine was a 2-headed coin.)

WoWW 79 Slugs 78

Storm vs. Lightning.

The Lightning made a heck of a run but came up a tad short in The North.  Considering the number of injuries they sustained through that year is amazing they made it that close. The Storm had their own rash of injuries but are healthy for the first time this year. Good news for The Storm, bad news for the Lightning.

Storm 70 Lightning 60

The Sauer Memorial Bowl.

Crushers vs. Knights.

The Crushers made a statement last week firing off 50 points in a loss. That may not sound like much but 50 points is like 4 or 5 weeks worth of scoring for The Crushers. While The Knights on the other hand, finished strong winning one of their last two.

Knights 63 Crushers 30.

Cougars vs. Nukers.

In any other division, The Cougars may very well have been in The Champs Bowl in 2003. However, The Least…err EAST division was just brutally tough to play in this year. The Nukers, in any other division, would have easily made The Sauer Memorial.

Cougars 75 Nukers 45

Good luck to all,

Jim,

Joke of the week:

Hey Col., what are you going to do for a face when the baboon wants its ass back?