This is a guest post from the Commissioner of the league, Travis. Please take all concerns to him. Content has been minimally edited.
Owners,
The 2020 season has come to and end and playoffs are among us. The year 2020 has been nothing but chaos. The year began with the death of Kobe Bryant who has been playing basketball for most of our lives. We saw the Coronavirus turn from a china hoax into a full-on world pandemic that has taken the lives of over 300k people. We saw lockdowns, protests, toilet paper shortages, fake deaths of dictator Kim Jong Un, and so much more. America was divided even more by the mask debate fueled by Karens and Carls everywhere. March Madness was canceled, and every sports team shut down. However, in a moment of crisis this league stood tall together. We bonded more this year over Warzone than any year prior. Used skype to play jack box and drinking games.
We never gave up hope that like your commissioner nothing would stop Roger Goodell from preventing a 2020 NFL season. The Truth is just as we needed football America needed football if it was going to survive the pandemic. There was never a doubt that everyone of us would risk our lives to continue a streak of holding live drafts. This year was combined with Bens bachelor party in Broken Bow Oklahoma in an amazing house. I want to thank the Houston guys for making the drive and especially Cheadle and Matt for flying in. Having everyone there makes it so much better and I am truly thankful.
I would like to also quickly add that 2020 has been a struggle for me personally in my battle with mental health issues. I know that I can be difficult to you all at times but genuinely want you all to know I don’t know if I would’ve made it through 2020 without each and every one of your support. I am truly and deeply grateful for the bonds this league has forged. My mission was to always ensure that this league would continue with all of us in it for decades to come and I now know if we can survive 2020, we can survive anything! So, with that all being said I will recap the season below for each team, announce some new yearly awards that will include trophies that are in the mail as we speak, and preview the semifinals this weekend!
Draft night 2020, when the night started some owners were laughing at the masked-up Bonners in the corner of the room all alone. No one including the Bonners would have guessed at the end of the season they would have the last laugh finishing in first place. The draft for the most part was competitive and strategic. However, the McGibblets as usual had to shock the room with their pick of Mecole Hardman at No. 75, about five rounds earlier than his ADP of 126. They also drafted Auden Tate in the 11th round. But of course, the Undertaker stole the show with the drafting of Barkley 1st and then not selecting a running back until the 9th round in J.K Dobbins and headed into the season with only 2 running backs. The draft weekend ended with another successful out of state trip and the season was full of hope for everyone.
The 2020 Bonners came into the season a different owner. After adjusting to a year of marriage, securing a big-time lawyer job, and entering their 3rd and final year of law school they had one last goal to achieve. Win a playoff game for the first time since 2015 arguably the noncompetitive non money year and show everyone they could compete. They did just that. Starting the season week 1 beating the McGibblets in what now is the closest game this season in an amazing Monday night come from behind win. The bonerz would go on to win 4 of their next 5 games making it their best start in bonership history.
Lead by arthritis running back Todd Gurley who shocking had a low rushing average, the Bonners were a stead Touchdown Machine. But heading into week 6 arguably against their true league rival the Trojans, they wanted to prove they were for real. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, the Trojans blew the bonerz out by 70, as it was the first time the bonerz had not been able to score 100 points in 2020. In years passed this is the time the Bonners softened, having lost an average 4-5 games in the middle stretch. However, this year the yahoo app provided a watch in RedZone feature and for the first time the bonerz were watching more football than ever. After the trojan loss they would go on to win 6 of 7 games including destroying the trojans in their last regular season game and finish in first place with a record of 10-3 and a first-round bye.
Brady and Associates. One thing was on the mind of Brent entering the 2020 season. Win a playoff game. Something that has haunted him since the creation of the league. With another solid draft Brady and Associates started the season of 4-1 including scoring 160 points against Georgia’s Cheadlebros. Things were looking great; however, fantasy football is always full of unexplained loses and after losing to the Mcgibblets they lost their next 2 games putting them at an average 4-3 midseason. Up to this point Brent had put up over 100 points every week and had spent almost none of his faab or made any moves. Having the discipline to trust himself he stayed with what he had and proved to the haters that he knew was he was doing.
Winning the next 5 of 6 games and earning the third spot in the playoffs. Minus a 98-72 win over the Trojans Brent only scored under 100 that one time the season. Lead by alvin kamara, travis kelce who ranks better than majority of every wide receiver, and s diggs who took their game to the next level, Brent was able to dismantle Matt in the first round of the playoffs and finally get over the playoff drought. In a high scoring 145-137 win, Brent Trusted in his guys and knew when push came to shove matt would not know how to set his lineup. Brent is now into the semi finals and will face arguably the most hated team of all time in the Cheadle bros.
Cheadlebros. The 2020 season for the Cheadle Bro’s looked great after the draft. McCaffery at running back, a young but rising star Kyler Murray at qb, and his favorite receiver Hopkins the season was bright, and the JJ’s were week 1 meat. And the Cheadle bros ate! With 1 147-80 point win the cheadble bros scoring the most points of the week things looked similar to the last time the bros were relevant during their championship season. However, in week 2 they would unfortunately put up 130 points and still lose to Brent.
Week 3 was a defining week for the bros against chadsteam. With Christian hurt and a 17 bid win on Tarik Cohen and 24 on Corey Davis with no other offers on either player the Bros needed some help. And Mike Davis did just that. Dropping 18 pts in his first game filling in for McCaffery the cheadlebros were able to beat chad 128-126. From there lead by league leader Kyler Murray the bros were able to win their next 7 of 8 games and hold first place much of the season. Until their last 2 games where they lost to the bonerz and matt and dropped into 2nd place. Still securing the bye week 14 they now look to beat Bens team and make it back to the championship for the first time since the first season and their championship season.
The 2020 season started of like a bad dream for chad. Starting 1-2 and spending almost half his faab on a player he would drop 5 days later. Chad needed a spark and what could be better than having JJ 2 times and matt and max for your next 4 games? Chadsteam rolled over all 4 games. But he knew he needed to fill a better roster if he had hopes to win another championship. As he has done so many times before Chad preyed on the desperate. He traded back up Kareem Hunt for Aaron Jones. A move that shocked the league. However, they were only able to go 2-2 after that and once again Chad knew if he was going to become the first 2-time champion he needed more.
He was able to make a move to get Derrick Henry and Tyler Texas’s Patrick Mahomes. He now had 2 of the best running backs with the easiest playoff schedules. His projections were off the charts. Deep in his heart he knew this was his season to lose, and unfortunately some early season trickery playing rb roulette came back to haunt him and he lost in the first round not none other than Bens Passwords, a chadsteam rival.
2020 was a great year for the passwords. Their longtime girlfriend joined the league through marriage, he once again had zeke, and he was finally learning to kill dove with a shotgun. Oh, and I almost forgot, he was coming of arguably the greatest fantasy football season in league history and was the defending champ. And for the first time in league history the draft was in his backyard, Oklahoma. Bens password started off exactly how he ended the previous season, hot! Scoring over 120 in the first 3 weeks. Unfortunately plagued with injuries he would go on to drop the next 4 games and for the first time since the password season have a losing record at 2-4.
Something had to change and what a better way than proving yourself than beating the number 1 cheadle bros, and that’s exactly what they did. From there they would use their marriage to finish the season winning 4 out of their last 5 games only losing to the cheadlebros in a high stake’s matchup. They entered the playoffs though facing a heavily favored chadsteam who arguable put the best team together on paper. On paper as drott likes to say, bens passwords would prove he was the champ and defeated chadsteam 146 -119 in the first round of the playoffs setting up a 3rd game this year against the cheadlebros for the right to go to the championship.
The 2020 season was all about perseverance for matt personally and his fantasy team. After moving to Denver away from his friends and the league he would be unknown to him endure a pandemic lockdown that would force isolation on him. But he proved to himself and the league that he could overcome any obstacles. And he seasons would test him repeatedly. It started at the draft, matt was more fucked up than he had ever been, and he would pay the price the next day and week 1 losing to Todd.
Again, facing adversity matt rose to the challenge. Scoring 150, 175, 130 the next 3 weeks had taking first place for the first time ever. His team was unbeatable, with Dak Prescott leading his team everything looked great for matts team. But then CHAD. Chad on a Sunday afternoon wished a dak injury that would break daks leg and ruin his season and possibly matts. From there matt would lose the next 5 games in a row and fail to score over 100 in any of them. But when it mattered the most and his back against the wall with 2 games left, he was able to find a way to beat the trojans and Cheadle bros and score 127 in both and crush the trojans dreams and sneak into the playoffs with the 6th seed. Unfortunately, Brent would be too much, but not without a fight, scoring 137 points matts would fall just a little bit short in the first round. But in 2020 Matthew proved that he could overcome any obstacle in his path.
The remainder of you do not get a story because we do not reward mediocrity including the beloved Trojans. Now we will move onto remaining Playoff Matchups:
Ben (-3) vs Bonners (+3)
Cheadle Bros (-7) vs Brent (+7) – (Brent money line for the boys)
Thank you all for another great fantasy season and best of luck to everyone in the semifinals! I look forward to the next two weekends and planning our 7th Fantasy football draft weekend!
-Commissioner, Travis Gerard
Matt Moore 