Some Negatives of the New Scoring Rule

I'll try to remember to bring this to everyone's attention closer to the start of 2016, but now that we've adopted new scoring rules which award points for every yard passing, rushing and receiving, it's good to keep in mind these negatives as well.  Here are a couple of questions I sent off to ESPN, along with answers:

If an RB rushes for -6 yards (say), will his total be recorded as -0.3 points, or 0 points?

Anthony L replies: In the situation you provided, the RB would have -.3 points

If my QB is sacked for an 8-yard loss, does that deduct 0.4 points from my score?  Or does it count as a passing play, so rushing totals are not affected?

Ryne S replies: Any time a quarterback is sacked it will count as negative rushing yards. For example if you quarterback is sacked for -8 yards you would get -.4 points for this play.

Thank you for attending this edition of ESPN answers your scoring questions.

Big Changes for 2016?

From the Time Machine . . . .

As I write this, Demariyus Thomas just caught his fourth TD of the year, the first offensive TD the Broncos have scored in 25 drives.  Also, it's looking like a damn shame the Ninjas and Golden Graham's didn't make the playoffs, because they are blowing the rest of the league off the map, and might make for a very interesting title game matchup.

Instead, they'll just have to battle for *yawn* the #1 overall pick next year.

But enough complaining about my disappointing finish in 2015.  I'm sure you've heard enough of that already by now.  The focus here is the future, and laying out some (significant!) possible rule changes for 2016.  I'm going to lay out proposals in three areas: Scoring, Playoff Qualifications, and Number of Playoff Teams.

Scoring
This should be simple.  There's been some discussion about keeping score at a finer granularity, for the sake of (mostly) eliminating ties.  While I acknowledge that ties can make things interesting as far as playoff qualifications, I would pretty much love it if we never had another game end in a tie.  My reasons for this are fairly selfish, however --- I just hate it when two or more teams tie for the high score in a week, and I have to split the $15 prize that week.

Anyway, ESPN allows us to keep score by the yard, rather than in increments of 20 or 50 yards, and I think we should, if for no other reason than it's the 21st freaking century (assigning points for every 10, 20, 50 yards, etc. is an artifact of the unreliability of statistics in fantasy football's early days, combined with the need to make it easier on early commissioners to compute point totals).  By the time you read this, there should be a poll up on the league web site.  Voting 'Yes' will change the scoring as follows, effective at the start of the 2016 season:

• 0.02 points for each yard passing
• 0.05 points for each yard rushing or receiving
• All other scoring remains as it is today.

This is the same scoring system we have today, except that now every yard counts --- for passing, rushing and receiving, anyway.  Ideally, we would change things so that all field goals from 1-30 yards count for 3 points, and all other field goals count a 0.1 points per yard --- but unfortunately, ESPN can't handle that level of granularity for field goal scoring.

It has been correctly pointed out that if we adopt this system, every now and then you'll end up losing a game when your QB kneels at the end of a game, thus subtracting a few tenths of a point from your final score.  Just keep in mind that those tenths of a point are points you don't even have in the current system.

So why don't you mosey on over to the league website and cast your vote right now, before you read the rest of my ideas, before you forget?  It's okay, I can wait.

Playoff Qualifications
Every year, someone outscores their record.  Anecdotally, it seems to me that at various times, Jody and Taylor have each scored tons of points while only winning maybe a half-dozen games or so.  This year, Kevin and Merrill each scored in the neighborhood of 1,000 points while wining only 8 and 6 games respectively, and missing the playoffs.  Now, the fact that Merrill is kind of getting screwed this year is definitely an argument in favor of leaving the playoff system exactly as it is.  But if you feel like performance should be rewarded --- even in the case of Merrill --- read on.

There are multiple possible ways to adjust the playoff seeding to make sure performance is rewarded.  My favorite, and the one I think we should consider adopting, is something I'll call the 'zebra' system.

I call it the 'zebra' system because playoff seeding is determined by alternating best won-loss record (with tiebreaker, obviously) with most points.  Under our current 4-team playoff system, it would look like this:

1. #1 seed: Team with the best record at the end of the season.
2. #2 seed: Remaining team with the most points on the season.
3. #3 seed: Remaining team with the best record.
4. #4 seed: Remaining team with the most points.

I've played in a league for the past two seasons which uses this system, and I think it's a nice system.  It guarantees that you make the playoffs if you have one of the two best records OR one of the two highest point totals.  And if you're not in the top 2 for scoring or won-loss record, you really can't complain about missing the playoffs.

An alternate approach is to use something I'll call a 'multi-game' format.  In this system, the playoff seeds would still be determined strictly using won-loss record like we do today, but each team would play twice as many games each week.  In addition to your usual game, you would get an additional win or loss depending on whether your point total was in the top half or bottom half of scores for the week.  The teams with the top 6 scores would get an additional win, while the teams with the bottom 6 scores would get an additional loss.  This way, if you score the second-most points in a week where you lose to the high-point scorer, your record for the week would be 1-1 (and his would be 2-0).  This system helps to insure that your won-loss record more accurately matches how well your team has performed.

This system has a couple of minor drawbacks, however.  I'm pretty sure ESPN isn't set to track the additional wins and losses, which means I'd have to do it on the blog (and you all would need to double-check my work).  The other problem is that we would need to hammer out what 'top 6 scores' and 'bottom 6 scores' mean.  What happens if three teams tie for the 6th-highest score?  Do they all get an additional win, or an additional loss --- or, heaven help us, a tie?  This will be less of a concern if the new scoring rules are adopted, but we still need to have a rule in place just the same.

Number of Playoff Teams
We've already had a vote to keep the number of playoff teams at 4, so maybe this isn't even worth discussing.  But I want to throw out a proposal which I think might be ideal in some ways.

We *could* expand the league to 14 teams.  Finding another couple of owners shouldn't be a problem, especially if we start looking in July (we could probably mine a couple of owners out of Battlin' Sweethearts).  Why is this a good idea?  Mostly because we could then move to a 13-game regular season schedule, in which every team plays every other team once.  It has always bugged me that our current schedule requires us to play some teams twice and all of the others once --- if I happen to get stuck playing a really dominant team twice, I'm at a disadvantage; and on the flip side, if I'm lucky enough to play a pathetic team twice, it gives me an advantage.

And of course, adding 2 more owners increases the size of the prize pool.  In fact, if we decide to go down this path, I'd like to increase league dues to $75 a year, for a prize pool of $1050.  We could award a really nice championship prize with that much money.

So with a 14-team league, there's a level playing field.  A ripple effect of this change, though, is that we move to a 13-game regular season, and so we would pretty much have to put either 6 teams (top two seeds get a first-round bye) or 8 teams in the playoffs.  We would determine playoff seeding using whichever method we decide on (zebra, multi-game, or the current system).

Conclusion
So there you have it.  We're already voting on changing the scoring to be more granular, and we have some things to discuss about playoff qualifications and (potentially) league expansion and the size of the playoff field.

But there's no reason to stop there.  I have at least three other changes I'd like to make, including moving to an auction draft, using blind auction bidding for waivers pickups, and changing the RB/WR flex position to a 'superflex', which could be any offensive position.  And if there's significant support for any of those changes, we can go ahead and hold a vote on it.  But I think these changes are enough to get the discussion going.

2015 End-of-Year Accounting

Happy New Year everyone!  And just about everyone has something to be happy about in the new year, because just about everyone won something in 2015!

Note that I said 'just about' everyone.  See if you can find the odd man out.

• Aaron is the big winner, of course.  In addition to taking the league title, he also scored the most points (or perhaps I should say 'the moist points') in weeks 8 and 12.  This brings his total winnings to $330.  Subtract off $60 for 2016 TTFFL dues, and $50 for 2016 Battlin' Sweethearts dues, and his net is $220. Check mailed 01/08/2016.
• Mex took second place ($120), and scored the most points in week 10 ($15).  So his total winnings are $135.  Subtract $60 for 2016 and his net is $75. Check mailed 01/08/2016.
• Adam took third place, which is good for $60.  He also won week 9 for another $15.  So his net is $75, minus $60 for next year's dues, for $15.  Check mailed 01/25/2016.
• Kubicek actually didn't win anything in this league, but he DID take the title in Battlin' Sweethearts.  After subtracting various 2016 dues, he nets a total of $40.  Check mailed 01/25/2016.
• Jody actually won the most weeks this year, which is a bit surprising, seeing as he ended up playing in the Toilet Bowl.  Just the same, he gets $45 credit toward 2016 since he won weeks 2, 3 and 16.  So he owes $15 before the start of the 2016 season.
• Kevin is close on his brother's heels, winning weeks 4 and 11, and sharing the win (with Levi) for week 6.  So he has a credit of $37.50 toward 2016 dues, and will owe $22.50 before the start of the season.
• Pete won weeks 1 and 13, and so gets a credit of $30 toward 2016 (and still owes $30 for 2016).
• Merrill is in the same position, as he won weeks 7 and 14.  He owes $30 for 2016.
• Taylor may no longer have control of his team's name, but at least he gets a $15 credit for winning week 5.  He owes $45 for 2016.
• Similarly Jason, who won week 15 despite having the league ass-draggingest crappy team, will owe $45 in 2016.
• Levi's only claim to fame is his share of the highest score week 6, when he tied with Kevin.  He will owe $52.50 in 2016.

Everyone double-check your total to make sure I have it right.  Assuming I do, it looks like I need a mailing address for Aaron, Mex, Adam and Kubicek.

The draft order for 2016 is available here.

Please remember that, per league agreement, our draft will be held the night before the kickoff for the season.  I believe this means our draft will occur on Wednesday, September 7 at 8:30 PM EDT!!!

Finally, the next post you see in this space will discuss a list of possible rule changes for 2016.  Look for it to show up here within 24 hours.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Hail to the Moist Spots!!!

Moist Dermatitis is a skin condition in dogs.

In my 9 years in the TTFFL, I have seen a lot of amazing things.  Like a newbie winning the title in each of his first 3 years in the league (I forget which owner did that).  But Aaron has accomplished something that even the amazing Psychotic Ninjas have never accomplished --- and never will!  He won the league title one year after finishing in last place, and having his team ignominiously renamed to The Moist Spots.

Well done, Aaron.

This is a fitting end to what has probably been the craziest season of fantasy football I've ever played.  I've already pointed out the high degree of roster turnover among the league's best teams, partly due to injuries (Andrew Luck, Marshawn Lynch, LeVeon Bell, Jamaal Charles, Dez Bryant, Peyton Manning --- the list goes on and on), and partly due to outright sucking (C.J. Anderson, DeMarco Murray, Demariyus Thomas, Calvin Johnson, Jeremy Hill, Randall Cobb, Peyton Manning --- the list goes on and on).  But another thing I've noticed is how easily the season could have ended differently.  Just about every team in the league could have claimed the title with just one or two different decisions.

The Moist Spots are the champs, of course, but Mex would have pulled it out if Antonio Brown and Ted Ginn played in week 16 (combined total of 3 points) a little more like they did in week 15 (37 points).  Similarly, Adam would have taken the championship easily if he had made it to the title game, which he would have done if he had picked Teddy Bridgewater off of waivers and played him in the semifinal round instead of T.J. Yates.

Continuing on down the line, the only thing that kept the River Horses out of the title game was the fact that he sucked really, really badly in the semifinal game --- Mex nearly doubled his score --- and then continued his powerful sucking into the final round.  Hey, I said 'just about every team' could have claimed the title --- not ALL of them.

But consider the 5th-place Golden Graham's.  They would have won the title had they made it to the title game, and would have won in the semifinals against Aaron if he had made it into the playoffs as the #4 seed.  So the only thing keeping the title out of Kevin's hands is the fact that he started DeAndre Hopkins in week 14 instead of Michael Floyd.  So cheer up, Kevin! You were only one bad decision away from the title!

And lest anyone think I'm picking on Kevin, the same holds true for your esteemed commissioner, who only missed the playoffs by starting Vincent Jackson over Allen Hurns and Tyler Lockett in week 14.  Of course, it also would have helped if Thomas Rawls hadn't gotten hurt, or Vincent Jackson hadn't gotten hurt, or if Cam Newton threw a TD to Greg Olsen once in a while, or if the Dolphins gave Lamar Miller more than five freakin' carries in the second half of their game against the Giants, after he rushed for more than 7 YPC with two touchdowns in the first half.

If any one of those things had just gone slightly differently, I would be claiming my fifth title right now.  Not that I'm bitter.  And since Jason decided to have his one good game of the year last week, when I posted my highest point total, it has now been exactly two years since I won a damn thing in this league.  Again, not that I'm bitter.

It looks like Levi really wasn't that close to claiming the title.  Like father, like son, I guess.  Merrill wouldn't have won the title, but could have finished second if not for a run of bad luck in weeks 11-13, when he lost by 6, 5 and 3 points.  Jody probably could have managed a better finish than 6-8, maybe.  And Taylor, Kubicek and Jason certainly could have been more competitive if they had paid someone to draft for them.

At any rate, congratulations once again to The Moist Spots.  I look forward to finding out what name he'll give to Taylor for his team next year.  And speaking of next year, the draft order will be:

1. Golden Graham's
2. Psychotic Ninjas
3. Leviathans
4. Merrill's Marauders
5. Screaming Eagles
6. Los Diablos
7. Team Harbaughs
8. The Team Formerly Known as Air Apparent
9. Orion River Horses
10. Suspended Atomnation
11. ~AirMex~
12. The Moist Spots (or Strike Team, or . . . ?)

Moist or Mex?

You don't want to know what I found when I Googled for 'Mexican Moist Spots'

This year has the potential to be a first in the TTFFL (at least in the modern era, which began in 2007).  If Aaron and his Moist Spots defeat Mex next week, he will have accomplished the league's first-ever worst-to-first finish from one year to the next.

The matchup promises to be a thriller, as Aaron and Mex were two of FIVE teams to score 87 or more points last week --- a stunning display of fireworks.  If history is any guide, the championship will likely be a 23-21 defensive battle.

In the other brackets, the Ninjas and Graham's --- two of the other high scorers this week --- will duke it out for next year's #1 overall pick, and in the upset of the weekend, Jason (with a mind-boggling high score of 106 points this week) and Kubicek both avoided the toilet bowl, which will feature Taylor against Jody --- who has a chance to finish last for the third time in the last 4 years.

When all of the fireworks is over --- sometime around New Year's Eve --- watch this space for a typically wordy discussion of possible rule changes for 2016.

Playoff Matchups

Just a quick hit here --- I guess Pete really showed me with his resounding 73-46 victory over Jason.  I guess I reverse-jinxed him.  So, in that spirit, I bet Kubicek is going to beat the living daylights out of Taylor this weekend!

Anyway, congratulations to this year's playoff qualifiers, The Moist Spots, River Horses, Mex and Suspended Atomnation!

Moving on down, one of these teams will get the first overall pick in next year's draft: Golden Graham's, Psychotic Ninjas, Leviathans and (*sigh*) Merrill.

And one of *these* teams will be playing with a different name next year: Team Harbaughs, Air Apparent, Los Diablos and Screaming Eagles.

Remember, if any playoff game ends in a tie, the higher-seeded team is declared the winner.  I had to rearrange playoff matchups a bit to make sure the correct teams were playing each other --- I don't know whether the system might have sent out a notification of some sort.

Good luck, everyone!

Week 14 Playoff Scenarios

What are the ingredients for success in fantasy football?

Some of the things are obvious (prepare for your draft), and some are more subtle (mind your position on the waiver wire).  Most are directly related to the game of football (pay attention to all the games and each player's performance), but some are more arcane (you can't be named "Taylor" or "Merrill").

Over the weekend, I noticed a startling fact about the teams in our league.  There has been a LOT of waiver wire activity, but some teams have definitely made more use of the waiver wire than others.  In fact, four teams in the league have more than *HALF* of their rosters pulled from the waiver wire:

1. Supended Atomnation: 14 waiver-wire players
2. ~ Airmex ~: 12
3. The Moist Spots: 11
4. Psychotic Ninjas: 10

Is it just a coincidence that these are four of the top 6 teams in the league (another top-6 team, the River Horses, has 8 waiver-wire players)?  Does it mean that these owners are better at spotting hot prospects than the rest of the league, or does it just mean they're more proactive team managers?  Or maybe, does it just mean that they suck at drafting?

Of course, a lot of waiver wire activity doesn't necessarily guarantee success.  Take Taylor, for example, with his 8 waiver wire adds.

Whatever it takes to succeed, I guess.  I have to admit, I was getting a bit nervous last night as I watched Matt Cassel consistently NOT throw the ball to Dez Bryant.  If Bryant had put up a doughnut, I still would have tied with Merrill, but it probably would have ended my season, and that would have been an especially crappy way to go --- with my brilliant early-season trade for Bryant dooming me.

And really, who wants their fantasy season to end with a tie?  No one.  Am I right, Mex?

Fortunately, that didn't happen.  Unfortunately, I'm still on the outside looking in as far as playoffs are concerned.  The season-ending playoff scenarios are as follows:

The Moist Spots fell to the River Horses last week, but it doesn't really matter.  Aaron could probably bench all of his players next week, take the loss and the zero, and he would still get in unless Pete scores 124 and I score 126.  In other words, congratulations on clinching a playoff spot, Aaron.

Suspended Atomnation will clinch a playoff spot with a win OR losses by two out of Golden Graham's, River Horses, Psychotic Ninjas or Mex.

Golden Graham's only need to win to clinch a playoff spot, thanks to their huge point advantage over the River Horses and Ninjas.  They will also clinch with a loss if two out of the River Horses, Ninjas and Mex lose.

River Horses clinch with a win, unless Ninjas also win and outscore the River Horses by 3 or more points.  Both can clinch with a win and a loss by the other, or by Graham's, or Atomnation.

I'm going to predict right now that Pete loses to league cellar-dwellar Jason --- currently the lowest-scoring team in the league by almost 200 points --- because if Jason knocked Pete out of the playoffs, it would be really, really funny.

Finally, ~ Mex ~ will clinch a playoff spot with a win and losses by two of the teams ahead of him (Atomnation, Graham's, River Horses, Ninjas).  If Atomnation is one of those teams that loses, Mex also needs to retain his lead in points.

And that's it.  The rest of y'all can huddle together and come up with suggestions for Jason's team name next year, to give to the eventual league champion 

Week 13 Playoff Scenarios

Insane.  In.  Sane.

I was expecting some clustering as we neared the season's end.  What I didn't expect was for half of the teams to cluster more near the TOP while the other half clustered more near the BOTTOM.

1. Moist Spots: 9-3, 858 points
2. Suspended Atomnation: 8-4, 778 points
3. Golden Graham's: 7-5, 843 points
4. ~ AirMex ~: 7-5, 794 points
5. Psychotic Ninjas: 7-5, 744 points
6. Orion River Horses: 7-5, 721 points
7. Merrill's Marauders: 5-7, 824 points
8. Team Harbaughs: 5-7, 754 points
9. Leviathans: 5-7, 751 points
10. Air Apparent: 4-8, 723 points
11. Los Diablos: 4-8, 719 points
12. Screaming Eagles: 4-8, 514 points

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first.  All of the 4-8 teams are done.  All of the 5-7 teams are out with one more loss.  And even if Merrill, Jody or Levi win both of their remaining games, they still need at least THREE of the 7-5 teams to lose both remaining games AND finish with more points than all of them.

So let's focus on the teams with a prayer, shall we?

Moist Spots haven't finally, formally, without-a-doubt mathematically clinched a playoff spot yet, but the only way they miss is if they lose both remaining games; at least THREE of the 7-5 teams win both remaining games, and all three of those 7-5 teams finish with more points  than Aaron.  Given that Aaron already has 100+ more points than the Ninjas and River Horses, it's safe to say he'll finish in the top 4.

Given his 80-point lead over Adam, it's likely he clinches the #1 seed with one more victory.

Suspended Atomnation needs to win both remaining games to be assured a playoff spot, although just one more victory will likely be enough, since it's unlikely that three of the 7-5 teams will win out with enough points to outscore Adam.

And then there were --- the Graham's, Mex, the Ninjas and the River Horses.  Surprisingly, none of them play any of the others in the last 2 weeks, so they could all finish anywhere between 7-7 and 9-5.  So the final 2 weeks for these teams will resemble a kind of demolition derby --- we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Finally some observations . . . One great joy of fantasy is to score the most points the same week you're playing the guy who scored the second-most.  Almost as good is when you score the second-fewest points on a week when you play the team scoring the fewest.  Thanks for making last week fun, Taylor!

Also . . . man, I've made some bad trades in my day, but I bet Jody's really regretting his trade where he gave up Matthew Stafford for Matt Ryan.  It didn't make any difference to the results this weekend --- both Mex and Jody won --- but it's still looking like a big win for Mex at the moment.

And Merrill, Jody --- since you guys are out of the running anyway, there's no reason you need to put up your A game the rest of the year.  Rest your starters, let some hungry up-and-comers show what they can do.  No point sacrificing the future just for the sake of some meaningless wins which won't help you anyway.

Week 12 Playoff Scenarios

It's that time of year again.  Time for me to spend insane amounts of time figuring out possible playoff scenarios.  This will give me a pleasant break from obsessing over my 4 fantasy teams.

I need to take a knee for a moment.

First, our current standings are as follows:

1. Moist Spots (8-3)
2. Golden Graham's (7-4)
3. Suspended Atomnation (7-4)
4. ~ AirMex ~ (6-5)
5. Psychotic Ninjas (6-5)
6. River Horses (6-5)
7. Merrill (5-6)
8. Leviathans (5-6)
9. Harbaughs (4-7)
10. Air Apparent (4-7)
11. Los Diablos (4-7)
12. Screaming Eagles (4-7)

The Moist Spots are sitting pretty, but they don't have anything locked up yet.  They'll clinch a playoff spot with two more victories, and even one more win will likely be enough given their substantial points advantage over Mex, Ninjas and the River Horses.

Coincidentally, Aaron goes up against the cellar-dwelling Screaming Eagles this week, which would seem to be a perfect setup for him to get a near-clinching win.  Of course, it also sets him up to stumble and fall over an opponent who doesn't even belong on the same field with him --- and I can see it happening.  After all, it's already a miracle that Jason has managed 4 wins this year; knocking off the league-leader wouldn't be any more surprising than any of those.

The Golden Graham's and Suspended Atomnation will both clinch a playoff berth if they win out, but that's hardly a news flash.  Kevin will almost certainly clinch a playoff spot with two more victories, given his surprisingly large lead in points over all the 6-5 teams.  Adam doesn't have that luxury, but 2 wins still probably clinches a playoff spot for him unless two of the three 6-5 teams win out AND outscore him by a bit.

After this, it's pretty much of a crap shoot.  Mathematics dictates that one (or more!) of the remaining 9 teams will make the playoffs, but no one really has an advantage over anyone else.  Merrill has a substantial points advantage over the remaining 8 teams, and so winning out will earn him a playoff spot so long as Mex, the Ninjas and the River Horses all lose at least once.  And other than Jason --- who still has scored a laughably pitiful number of points --- none of these teams is facing an insurmountable hurdle to the playoffs, either.

But I'll diss Jason some more later.  For now I want to talk about my week 11 victory over Kubicek.

THANK GOD I managed to eke out that victory.  Other than winning a title, there is probably no greater joy in fantasy football than picking out that sleeper and having him put up big points for your team when you really need it.  I added Thomas Rawls after week 3, and I watched helplessly when he put up 14 points on my bench in week 5.  But I held onto him, thinking that Marshawn Lynch might have more soft tissue problems, and that Rawls would be a worthy starter again this season.

And I was right!  Shortly before 3:00 Sunday afternoon, word came out that Lynch was inactive!  I wasn't too keen starting Randall Cobb anyway --- the guy has been a stiff all year, except for week 3 when I got to enjoy Cobb catching 3 touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers, the guy Taylor had at QB against me --- so I went to my roster to bench Cobb in favor of Rawls.

AND DAMMIT TO HELL, I couldn't do it, because Dez Bryant was already locked into my RB/WR flex position!  Noooo!  I was denied the opportunity to reap the fruits of my foresight and patience, and all because I started Bryant as a 'flex' instead of a WR!  Are you kidding me?  Who pays attention to that crap?

AND TO MAKE IT WORSE, I had to sit and watch helplessly as Mason goddamn Crosby kept hitting field goal after field goal against the Vikings (jacking up Kubicek's total), while Blair Walsh, the Vikings kicker in my lineup, didn't even attempt a field goal --- AND he even missed an extra point!

Have I mentioned that I really dislike even having kickers on our rosters?

Anyway --- all's well that ends well.  I got the victory, and in the end my inability to swap in Rawls only cost me 17 points.  Of course, that would put me in 4th place right now instead of 5th, and could very well be the difference between me making the playoffs and battling for next year's #1 pick, but what the hell.  That's fantasy.

Anyway, getting back to playoff scenarios --- obviously, the 6-5 teams all have an inside track on the final playoff spot, but as fate would have it, none of Mex, the Ninjas or the River Horses play each other the final three weeks of the season, so it's possible for them all to finish 6-8.  Similarly, none of the 4-7 teams play each other the final three weeks, other than a week 13 meeting between Team Harbaughs and Air Apparent, so three of those teams could conceivably win out to finish 7-7.  So in a very real sense, everyone still has a realistic shot at the playoffs.

Even Jason.

How the hell does he do it?  Every other team in the league has outscored him by at least 18 points per game.  Not only that, only 3 teams in the league have had more points scored against them --- but he still has as many wins as Team Harbaughs, Air Apparent and our laughable defending champ, Los Diablos.  Not only that, somehow he managed to beat Merrill, the second-highest scorer in the league, this week.  So, you know, go Jason!  And as mentioned above, his foe this week is the league-leading Moist Spots, so maybe the hoodoo that's keeping him in the playoff hunt will also bring down Aaron.

I'm telling you: it could happen.

The Season at the Halfway Point

Why do we play fantasy football?

I'm sure we all have different reasons.  We do it because it enhances the experience of watching football.  We do it because it makes us care about games we would otherwise ignore (Jags/Bills, for example, or Chiefs/Lions --- any game played in London, really).  We do it for the glory when we win, for the trash-talking when we lose, and for the money we might win now and then.

But mostly, fundamentally, we play fantasy football because it's FUN!  Okay, the losing part isn't so fun.  Drafting a first-round bust (Andrew Luck, Eddie Lacy, C.J. Anderson, DeMarco Murray) isn't so fun.  Losing games you should easily win isn't so fun.  But when you end up on the right side of any of those things, it makes all the rest of it worth it.

So in this mid-season summary, I plan to focus on fun.

For example, I'm guessing our defending toilet bowl champion, Aaron (aka Moist Spots) is having hella fun right about now.  There's been a lot of talk about a possible Past Champions Curse, in which previous year's champions drop to the bottom of the league (Jody x2, Aaron) or near it (Pete) in subsequent years.  (Your Esteemed Comissioner has thus far been immune to this curse). In fact, while we're on the subject, it's worth pointing out that the current defending champ, Kubicek, currently sits at 10th place in the standings.

But Aaron is on pace to complete what is possibly the first worst-to-first finish in league history, as he currently sits atop the league standings with the league's only 6-1 record --- and his last 5 victories haven't been close, with a margin of 16 points or more in each.

For those who haven't been paying attention, Aaron has been regularly posting trash talk on each of his opponents --- just about the only guy in the league (with Your Esteemed Commissioner a notable exception) who actually engages in trash talk in this, you know, trash talking league.  Yeah, I would say he's having fun.

I'm guessing Kevin is having fun, too, sitting at 5-2 when he's usually the butt of most of our jokes.  Of course, there's still half the season left to play, which gives him plenty of time to pile up the losses.  Plus he just lost to Merrill, which is a serious buzzkill (trust me).  Still, more good times than bad, year to date.

Rounding out the top 4, Mex and Adam were no doubt having more fun before week 7 than they are now.  Mex lost Arian Foster for the season, and Adam, well --- we'll get to Adam's bad week 7 in just a little bit.

Everyone else in the league is on the wrong side of the won-lost ledger, which means we're all having sads more weeks than we're having fun.  But there's still some fun things to point out.

For one thing, half the league sits at 3-4.  That's kind of a fun fact.  I've noticed this in the past; we have a tendency to cluster.  In fact, I predict that with the possible exception of Aaron, the top teams will fall back to the pack before the season ends.

I also predict that with the DEFINITE exception of Jason, the bottom teams will move up.  And there are a lot of fun facts coming out of Jason's current last-place position in the league (well, fun for everyone but Jason, that is).  Because if you haven't been paying attention, Jason's team sucks.  I mean, dear God does it suck.  It may possibly be the suckiest team ever in the history of sucking.

Here's one fun fact.  If you sort the teams in the league by points scored, Merrill sits at the top with 514 points, and the totals drop at fairly regular intervals down to Kubicek, in 11th place with 426.  So the difference between the most points and 11th-most is 88 points.

And in last place sits Jason with 247 points --- 179 behind Kubicek.  In other words, the difference from 11th to 12th is almost exactly TWICE as much as the difference between first and 11th.

Here's another fun fact.  Most weeks, you should expect to score 60-65 points to have a shot at getting a win in this league.  Jason's pathetic 247 points averages out to just a bit more than 35 points a week.  It's kind of a miracle Jason has won any games at all.

And coming to Jason's victories, THAT'S kind of fun, too --- at least to me.  His first victory was in week 4, when somehow Taylor managed to only put up 32 points despite Aaron Rodgers, Julio Jones and Martellus Bennett in his lineup (notably, Jason would NOT have won without his kicker --- Vinatieri accounted for one-third of Jason's points that week --- so Taylor is probably wishing we had followed my sage advice to eliminate them).

His second --- and probably final --- victory came this week over the 5-2 Atomnation, and was due almost entirely to a 28-point effort by Kirk Cousins, which was one more point than Jason's 8 remaining players combined.  His 55 point total will usually get you a victory in a week when your opponent plays like crap.  Which Adam did.

I don't mean to pile on Jason like this, but his team is really just stunningly bad (besides, piling on is FUN, which is the whole point, right?).  So I'll finish this review by noting one last fun fact which might make Jason feel better about his lost season.

Merrill has scored the most points in the league so far.  His 514 points doubles Jason's 247 with lots to spare.  And yet --- Merrill has only one more victory than Jason so far this year.  I don't know if it makes Jason feel any better, but it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh . . .