2013 Week 12

Flipping through the channels this week I noticed something that blew my mind. Eddie Murphy was on a talk show. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Eddie Murphy in something that wasn’t a terrible movie. Here’s what’s even weirder, the set looked exactly like the Arsenio Hall show...because it was the Arsenio Hall Show. The set had the couches instead of the desk, the band was still where it always was, and the there was still a Dawg Pound. It was almost like this show has been around the last 20 years much like Leno and Letterman have been. The interview was actually very entertaining and you could tell they were good friends by how comfortable they were with each other.

But then subsequent interviews showed the real thing. You can only have so many friends as guests. You can only get the crowd to go “Woof! Woof!” and do that index finger high five thing so many times. When you’re cool and confident you can interview people with only an ottoman in between you. When you lean in too far and overlaugh like you’ve downed 7 Red Bulls, you start to think talk show hosts have desks for a reason. It led me to think, remember when Arsenio was the best talk show host in the world?

It was only for 5 years but he was.

Arsenio came in at a time when culture was changing. Whether it was changes to the political, racial, gender, health, musical or fashion landscape, it was all changing rapidly during the 5 year period Arsenio was on. Whether it was AIDS awareness or the LA riots, Arsenio was the talk show young people went to to see relevant guests talking about these issues rather than ignoring them.

Add to the fact Carson and Letterman were so vested in the audience of 35 and up viewers they would never take the risk of inviting cutting edge celebs at the time which young audiences would only be interested in. Celebs such as MC Hammer, Andrew Dice Clay, Mike Tyson, Jason Voorhees, Vanilla Ice, Snoop Dogg, Sam Kinison, WWF wrestlers, 2Pac and presidential candidate Bill Clinton were often overlooked initially by the bigger networks but proved to be a “must see” for younger audiences.

It seemed like anything could happen. Sometimes it was planned and sometimes it wasn’t. Here’s a link to some of the random things that happened. Some of  these would never happen on a talk show again:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/arsenio-hall-show-top-late-night-moments/story?id=16604430#

I was only 11 when he started but remember foregoing NBA games, MLB games, MTV (back when it was actually music), and anything else during that time to watch the show on the weekends. Did I live in a small town, have a mullet and double rimmed glasses? Did I wish I had a fade haicut, gold chains, and gold parachute pants? Yes and yes.

In fact I was convinced my ticket to becoming the most popular kid in my school was if I wrote a letter to MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice and they held a concert on the wooden stage in the school’s gym and then invited me up on stage to dance with them...that didn’t happen.

OK enough fun talking about the 90’s I could do remember when about this constantly (Like remember when Coolio was a legitimate artist, had #1 hits and even won a Grammy? Can you imagine him next to Jay Z or any other legenday hip hop artist today?) but let’s to a fantasy football remember when. Like remember when Ray Rice was a top 3 starter? Remember when Ryan from “The Office” was indestructible and didn’t have a creepy mustache Creepy ? Remember when the New England Patriots were an offensive juggernaut and had character guys on their roster? Remember when we all drafted a bunch of running back as if they would dominate scoring this year? Remember your opening day lineup? Opening Day

Much like life and late night talk shows, the only constant in fantasy football is change. I’m sure there are plenty of remember when’s from this year and others. Here’s to you rolling with the changes and hoping a few breaks go your way to end the season.

Please see the Power Rankings below. This week the Blows took over the top spot by beating the Pickles and clinching a playoff spot. Last week could be a preview of the championship game.

We’ll also see some teams clinch soon as you can see the magic numbers (number of wins and final playoff spot losses needed to make the playoffs) are shrinking. Believe it or not everyone still has a chance. If you are 4-7 and can win 2 and have some of these 5-6 teams lose the next 2? You are in. Even if you have a tie in your record you still have a chance as the tiebreaker is who has the most “Points For” between the tied teams. So get in as many points as you can then next 2 weeks.

Power Rankings Week 12

Believe it or not everyone still has a chance. If you are 4-7 and can win 2 and have some of these 5-6 teams lose the next 2? You are in. Even if you have a tie in your record you still have a chance as the tiebreaker is who has the most “Points For” between the tied teams. So get in as many points as you can then next 2 weeks. Here’s what the picture looks like this week:

Week 12 Playoff Picture

Have a great week everybody. I’m sure I’ll remind you all about the football extravaganza on Thanksgiving day.  May you and your families have a great Thanksgiving if I don’t talk at you prior.

2013 Week 11

Hope you all had a great week 10. Thank you to all the servicemen and Veteran's and their families who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms my family and I are afforded every day. Your service has afforded me the ability to provide for my family, exercise my beliefs, and even allows me to do the little things like writing this stupid blog. 

I wrote something last night which I thought was long and insightful and as I read it today it started to sound like a high school term paper. But not the kind of term paper with anything personal on it or with a vulnerability to endear anyone to it. More like a cross between Wikipedia and an over the top Amazon review:

Like this Mr. Mister "Welcome to the Real World" album review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Z05SFFACM46J/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000002WBS&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

NOT this Mr. Mister review (although maybe I should try it next time): http://www.amazon.com/review/R395JRNKAMNKFF/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000002WBS&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

I know I wrote plenty of papers for high school but honestly the only one I remember writing was for my German class. It was a fiction story completely in German. I could pick any subject I wanted. I picked OJ Simpson. And not the OJ that jumped over luggage. I don't even remember what the story was about, I just remember copying and pasting a grainy picture of a white Bronco in the middle of the paper, as if a jpg file was going to get me extra points. "Here's my OJ Simpson fan fiction completely in German, Frau Olsen. "A" please!" 

2 to 1 odds she called my guidance counselor and refused to grade it. I also named myself Helmut, ate some pickled herring, sang preschool songs, and shot a video impersonating Richard Simmons while gyrating in short shorts (no Nair involved) in my high school German class. So basically it was anything goes as far as I was concerned in my Ivy league prep German class.

So anyway here's the power rankings for this week. Props to Savannah Pickles who is the first get into the playoffs this year despite losing last week. It's been quite the run for the second year team and this team keeps making moves to set themselves up for the playoffs. This week it's #1 Pickles vs #2 Big Blows which could mean #1 seed for the playoffs. Big game.

I also want to call out the Silver Bullets and Team Kent who had convincing wins last week and who are surging in terms of points scored and over all opportunity to make a run to make the playoffs. We have 4 teams with 4-6 records so we'll be seeing quite the movement each week for a playoff spot. Every team is still in it and so it will make the last 3 weeks pretty entertaining...at least for me in my weird puppet master commissioner mind. Well here they are, take a look:

Power Rankings

Here's the playoff seedings so far. At this point the Bangers make the cut. Can they shake off the 4 teams under them? 

Just a reminder to all, not only do you need to win but they need to score points these last weeks. The playoff seeding tiebreaker is "Points For" so if you have a tie in terms of records the higher seed will be the team with the higher amount of points earned over the entire season.

Projected Playoff Seedings

Well, good luck this week, I guess since it's past most of the games, hope you had good luck this week. Since this post isn't the multimedia extravaganza it normally is, in honor of Veterans day, please to present:

I soooo wish this was my brother in law but of course it isn't. Although get a few in him and I'm thinking he's breaking out his Moves Like Jagger...75 year old Jagger heyooooooo. If he's reading this, this weeks blog is brought to you by a ghost writer, I'm not actually writing this week. The person writing this week is from Denmark... you wouldn't know him. Anyway, if I could move like this in sweatpants, let alone a uniform,  I would literally crash weddings every week. There is no public forum I wouldn't break out the boombox and start playing Billie Jean.

Going to work on my popping and locking right now. (Translation: shoulder is popping out of joint, and knees are involuntarily locking)

Have a good one everybody

2013 Week 10

Not much to say this week. Just wanted to get out the power rankings for this week. As I write, the Vikings won...and the Jags won. We had a chance folks, and we still have a chance. Maybe we’ll get Manziel, maybe we’ll still get the Duck. Maybe we’ll just bring back Gus Frerotte. But maybe, just maybe we can be so bad that we can get Teddy Bridgewater. Believe in your dreams everyone. Shout out to the Redskins who took one half to realize we were trying to tank and decided all that pass protection and tackling wasn’t needed anymore.

Well our league doesn’t allow tanking. In true David Stern fashion you can be the worst for a long time it’s just a matter of percentages as to what draft position you get. And when I say percentages,  I mean percent revenue received off of large market TV contracts. Congrats LA Clippers, Chicago Bulls, and Orlando Magic, you earned it! Also have you heard the rumors about Y2K and the moon landing? *quick clicks on the following link: http://bit.ly/Mnpz8q to get back to reality*

Well here’s the Power Rankings this week. I’ve also included the Magic Number for each team in the playoff race. This is basically the combination of wins by your team and losses from the last seed of the playoffs (currently Levanger’s Bangers) to lock up a playoff spot. So Savannah Pickles needs a win today or a loss by the Bangers to lock it up while Team Kent needs to almost win out or at least have one of those 4-5 teams to go on a 4 game losing streak. Good luck with all that. 

Special shout out to Team Kent. Not only has this team racked up over 1000 Point For and is 2nd only to Savannah in points this year but also leads the league in Points Against with over 1000. I’ve never seen anything like it. Will a large correction be on the horizon for the next 4 games with Payton Manning? Who in the 4-5 melee will make it to the playoffs? Will Mono Peligroso make another inevitable run to the championship no matter what his record is? What is a Mono? or a Peligroso for that matter?

All this to be answered in the weeks to come. Have a good one everybody.

2013 Week 9

Hi all,

Sorry I missed last week and technically I missed this week too. For what it’s worth my sister was inducted into the Faribault Sports Hall of Fame along with such greats as Bruce Smith and Mark Dusbabek. She is also part owner of the now 5-3 Let’s Get Physical team which is making a move up the standings. Granted she’s part owner the way Magic Johnson is part owner of the Dodgers or some dude in Sheboygan is part owner of the Packers. But nevertheless you are all separated by a degree from Faribault greatness.

This week I’m back although not necessarily on time. Or maybe just in time. I just got done watching the Texans shut down Andrew Luck and Trent Richardson for 3 quarters and man did I need both of those players to have bad nights in a different league I’m in. Only to see both players put up numbers at the end. Not the first time Andrew Luck has waited until the last moments of Sunday night to school my team. At least this time he didn’t throw pass to Reggie Wayne so terrible it tore up his knee:

...I’m not bitter.  This time he beat my team the honest way.   I now need 16 points from Brandon Marshall on Monday Night Football. Or what’s more is I need Josh McCown to somehow get him the ball...I’m in trouble. The last time I cared about what a guy named McCown did in a pro football game this happened:

http://youtu.be/mL8S4G9zFK8

There’s a 75% chance I will plow through the kids entire Halloween candy collection in 3 hours tomorrow night go into a blood sugar coma and wake up to find Devin Aromashadu came out of retirement and lead the Bears with 3 TDs .

Meanwhile McCown throws the ball at B Marsh’s head giving him a concussion and then immediately gets traded to the Vikings and spends the last part of the season hoping his 5 yard routes can get him 2 receptions a game from Christian Ponder. 

Then I go back to my coma. Note to self: get a healthy coping mechanism like situps or vegetables.

Well, it’s Week 9 and we only have 4 more weeks until the playoffs and based on how close the records are its anyone’s chance to get one of those 8 spots. And we know from past seasons, once you make it in anything can happen. So if the playoffs started right now, here’s the seeding:

Here's the link to the Projected playoff page if you want to see the whole picture: 

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/h2hplayoffs?leagueId=310468

Even the juggernaut Savannah Pickles still has to win this week and next week to ensure a playoff spot or get some loss by the bottom teams. I’m sure I did the magic number thing last year so I’ll probably break that out again.

Just like always here’s the Power Rankings below: What’s interesting is there’s not much movement from last weeks to this weeks. Props to Replacement Refs for the 2 spot jump and Props to Team Kent for finally winning one after a nasty losing streak despite having the highest scoring team in the league for almost the entire season. Not sure how that’s possible but it is. Watch out for Team Kent in  the home stretch everybody.

Thanks again for everyone playing hope between the ups and downs of fantasy football, the family/friend/SS league rivalries that have developed, and this page you are enjoying the season. It’s fun to have a connection with all of you through a format like this. Everyone has been fantastically competitive and gracious this season and previous ones.

Hope you all didn’t get bit by the bye week bug too much this week. Have a good one.

Week 8

No post here this week just the power rankings for Week 8: