2020 Season in Review
Passionate Playback: 2020 Season
Hola fine gents! I humbly welcome you all in for one last glorious edition of the Passionate Playback to signify the end of a rather hectic yet interesting 2020 season in the Emotional Friends Fantasy Football League. For some it’s been an exciting whirlwind of a season filled with jubilation over many victories. Yet, for others, like myself, we’ve suffered the vicious and unrelenting sorrow of defeat far too many times to count. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: That’s just how this shit goes. Still, it wasn’t long ago I found myself slumped over an empty gallon sized carton of Dryer’s Rocky Road at 3 am, caught in a dysphoric trance staring blankly at my television while an incessant onslaught of Family Feud re-runs and the insufferable family friendly Steve Harvey jokes slowly chipped away the last remaining fragments of my soul. It was in that very moment I started to really ponder the great mysteries of this fabled game of Fantasy and why time after time we succumb to its unforgiving sucker punches of utter disappointment year after year? And then it hit me... Because when you win, that feeling of transcending a simple financial reward and besting your buddies in a silly game of chance to claim ultimate bragging rights for an entire summer is what the ancient Fantasy philosophizers called “True Enlightenment”. Some even say it’s a state of mind so powerful and euphoric that once you’ve reached it, the answer to the meaning of life becomes vividly clear. Gentlemen, this is why we play and this is why we keep coming back. Thus, even though yours truly and four others will not be experiencing said emotions this season, five of you still remain in contention, fervently chasing the aforementioned elevated hyper state of human consciousness. In the spirit of Fantasy I say we celebrate it... and the fact we’ve reached the end of a season many doubted would ever be completed. So, just for old times sake, go slip into something a little more comfortable, whip up some some of that extra rich chocolatey hot cocoa, pop a squat next to the fire, and let the record player bang out all the your fav T Sizzle hits. Playoffs are right around the corner baby!! Let’s do this!!
Headlines:
Final week comes down to five teams vying for four spots in playoffs
Oh baby, this shit is getting really interesting. As is often the case in this league, with but a single week left on the calendar, it’s looking like we are going to once again have a photo finish for deciding who will be making the playoffs. However, unlike last year, no team has 100% locked up a seat at the table, which makes the final week of the season that much more juicy. Therefore, I thought it would be a prudent exercise to go through each of our five contending teams to assess their chances and look at the most likely scenarios for them making and not making the playoffs.
Grant:
Sitting at the top of the standings, Grant would seemingly be in prime position to nab one of the four playoff spots, as he leads the other three 8-3 teams by a healthy margin in Points For. Additionally, like the rest of the 8-3 teams, he controls his own destiny: A win and he’s in. Worst case scenario for Grant would be Daniel, Trevor, Alex, and Tyler winning with Alex outscoring him by 25 points as well. While this is definitely well within the realm of possibility, Grant still sits in the best position of the bunch because of the fact this exact combination of events would need to take place to oust our first (official) year manager from the playoff party. His matchup against the recently frisky squad Kevin has been rolling out isn’t ideal for the big game of the year, but, minus actually locking up a playoff spot already, Grant is in about as a solid of a situation as possible all things considered. Smart money says Grant can start readying his newly purchased squadron of microfiber stain resistant sweat pants for his first ever playoff run.
Daniel:
It’s been an interesting year for Daniel, as he raced out to a 5-0 start, only to fall back down into mediocrity, sitting at 3-3 over the last six weeks. His hot start however has afforded him the luxury of controlling his own destiny as he takes on maybe the worst team in the history of the league, DW’s 2020 squad. Hence, Daniel more than likely will be finding himself in the playoffs for the first time since… well the staff isn’t quite sure on that one. Could we get repeat of the epic “James White” game (Kam vs. Tyler) from 2019 where the worst team in the league heroically plays spoiler to knock out the team they faced from the playoffs? I mean it’s technically possible, but for it to happen in back to back seasons… I don’t know man. How about we bring in the always stunning sideline smoke show, the one and only Erin Andrews for her take on Daniel’s chances. Erin, do you see anyway Daniel loses this game and ends up falling out of a spot in this year’s playoffs?
“Certainly Possible.”
Oh my! Wow! You heard it hear first, folks. Erin is busting out the extra sizzling hot takes this week. Great stuff as always, Erin. Now go on before you make me bust out something else!
Trevor and Tyler:
Moving along to Trevor and Tyler, I included them together, because both of their seats in the playoffs are equally warm and heating up quickly as Alex is closely riding their asses in the final chase. Each of these two managers essentially have to win this week to secure their place in the post season, as they both trail Alex in Points For by a decent quantity of points. Again, like the rest of the 8-3 teams, its win and their in, but both have pesky matchups this week with Tyler facing off against yours truly and Trevor taking on Jared. On paper this seems like it would be easy victories for the two managers sporting records tied for best in the league, but in the final week of the season, crazy shit just seems to happen and we all know that me and Jared are not just going to lay down and take it. The role of spoiler isn’t a glamorous role, but it’s all we have at this point. Thus, if me or Jared win this week, very likely Alex will overtake one of their spots and Trevor or Tyler will be have to taste the cruel bitterness of the consolation bracket.
Alex:
Lastly, looking at our league commish, he is obviously in the worst spot of the five teams going into the final week needing to leap frog at least one team to snatch up a piece of that oh so tasty playoff pie and get a chance at redemption after losing in the championship only a year ago. It’s honestly a rough position for the commish to be in considering he held down a comfortable spot near the stop of the standings for a large portion of the season, but the three game skid from weeks 8-10 leaves him in this precarious situation. All that said, it could be a lot worse. He still has sizeable lead in Points For over Daniel, Trevor, and Tyler and only trails Grant by 24 overall points on the season. Therefore, he really only needs one loss from the 2-4 teams or a loss from Grant and to outscore him by 25 points, which is very much do able. On top of that, he goes up against Kyle who is 1-2 over the last three weeks and hasn’t topped 146 points since Week 6. So, theoretically he should cruise to an easy victory this week. However, he will need a little help from one of the other four teams if the ultimate redemption story is going to be in the cards this year. We will see.
Final Thoughts on the Playoff Race:
Ultimately we couldn’t go through every possible scenario because there are like 348272939 different possible combinations of outcomes that has everything from Alex finishing first in the standings and Grant missing the playoffs to the final standings remaining chalk and staying exactly like they are now. Our only advice to these five brave souls entering the Fantasy Battlefields this week is to strap on the Depends extra tight, because it’s going to be one hell of a ride!
Season Awards
Brucie Worst Team of the Year – Dwwarner
I don’t really have much to say about DW’s team this year other than it was an absolute shit show from start to finish and a complete abomination of a season. If DW’s team was entombed in stone and placed upon the rafters of a great cathedral looking down upon man, every time you look up from the fucking courtyard upon their visage from hundreds of feet below, you truly would feel the wrath of God. His team is so bad, the fear of God would be struck into your heart, because looking up at this wretched creature DW calls a Fantasy Team would remind you of the greatest depths to which you are capable of plunging. Your mortal soul could be subjected to so much worse than the material torchers of the living world and DW’s team is a reminder of that. Thus it is without hesitation that I award DW for Worst Team of the Year and thank God it’s finally over for him. I got a bird… His name is Ronnie.
Severus Snape Best Team to use the Dark Arts – Tspires
Ron Burgandy Best Manager of the Year…
Looking at the day to day managing of these two, they were also pretty close in their abilities to maneuver the waivers and play the best lineups. Grant was able to navigate his second-round pick, Nick Chubb, going down for a large majority of the season and smartly supplemented his RB2 position with Deandre Swift. However, even more impressively, Daniel was able to somehow find a serviceable replacement for McCaffery by making the smart move and shelling out some serious FAAB for Mike Davis. Further, when it came to weekly start/sit decisions, there was only a slight difference between the two as Grant left 15 less points on the board over the course of the season, which is about 1.36 extra points per game he extracted over Daniel. That wasn’t enough in our mind to not favor Daniel in his day to day managing over Grant.
Lastly, if we look at overall performance the numbers bear out that again, both were pretty equal. After all both managers sit at 8-3 heading into the final week of the season and should make the playoffs as serious favorites to take the championship this season. Grant played an easier schedule this year compared to Daniel, but Grant scored roughly 60 more total points than Daniel and sported an outstanding 69-21 League Record, which no one really came all that close to. So, with all that said, even though it was extremely close, the winner of this year’s coveted Ron Burgandy Award goes to…
KenUdigit!!!!
I'm kind of a big deal...
Final Power Rankings:
1. KenUdigit 8-3; Power Score: 9.7
2. DanielWest 8-3; Power Score: 8.5
3. Tborgs 8-3; Power Score: 8.15
4. Tspires 8-3; Power Score: 7.55
5. AlexAshak 7-4; Power Score: 7.5
6. KartierKyle 4-7; Power Score: 5.45
7. Kshak 3-8; Power Score: 5.0
8. JWeverstad 4-7; Power Score: 4.3
9. Jressa 4-7; Power Score: 3.5
10. DWwarner 1-10; Power Score: 2.15
Well, well, well, gentlemen. That will do it for this season. However it turns out, it has been an honor and privilege going to battle on the virtual gridiron with you all this season. As you probably guessed, due to the 2 Week hiatus we took over Week’s 9 and 10, there has been some turmoil going on amongst my highly trained staff (of just me) and a re org and roster shake up could be in the works. Hopefully, in the 2021 season we can continue to bring to you the high quality content that you all have come to know and love so well, but we can’t make any guarantees. Until next season my fellow Swifties! Godspeed and Good Luck.
