1998 Week 6 Newsletter

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What's inside:

1. Standings
2. Letter From The Commish
3. Transactions
4. Game Capsules/Box Scores
5. Swami Sez
6. Weekly Order of Pickup

Letter from the Commish:

The Commish is confused. Normally, this would not be news. One need only look at the Commish’s team to see how jumbled the human mind can sometimes work. This time, however, it’s different. The Commish has just been updating the latest batch (not Charlie, who is still be treated around the league like the three year old treats the stovetop-teams want to touch but are not sure of the consequences) of drop/adds. What has the Commish confused is the players being picked up this week. One must give the benefit of the doubt, mind you, but why did Montezuma’s Revenge add Travis Jervey this week when Jervey’s team, the Packers, have a bye week coming up? The Revenge has Terry Allen, Warrick Dunn and Robert Smith as staring running backs. Two of those already have Week 6 off just like Jervey. This leaves only Terry Allen and Keith Byers to start for the Revenge in Week 6. The Bone Club picked up a second kicker in Greg Davis of Oakland. However, Davis shares the same bye week as Jason Elam. In fairness, Elam was questionable entering Week 6 so Davis had value from that standpoint. However, this move still necessitates a follow up move prior to Week 7 for another kicker. The Bone Club also will need a defense for Week 7 to substitute for the Chiefs barring a decision to just ride it out with the Chiefs regardless of their bye status. The Stanley Steamers continue to play musical chairs with their kicking game. Prior to Week 4, the Steamers waived Michael Husted and added Matt Stover. Prior to Week 6, they waived Stover and added Husted. Now prior to Week 7, they’ve waived Husted and added Stover yet again. With any luck, those two have frequent flyer miles accumulated by now. The bad luck continues for the Natural Mystics, a.k.a. the 4077^th. In his first contest after being picked up by the Mystics, Raghib Ismail suffered a concussion and was forced to leave the game. To print a full listing of injuries incurred by the Mystics to date would necessitate changing the toner in your printers so the Commish will spare you further details. Suffice it to say that the Mystics’ list of injured is probably superior to its active payroll.

The Commish apologizes for the craziness of late in getting out the newsletter and other pertinent info. He has been on the road more than Willie Nelson lately and flies out to Green Bay on Sunday October 18. He’ll be back in town on Tuesday night so there should be no issues with this coming Wedneday’s pickups. If you need your opponent’s lineups, please give them a call directly for Week 7. Also, thanks for getting in your lineups in time for the Thursday night game in Week 7. We had absolutely no one missing. The Commish collected all lineups from an O’Hare Airport payphone and communicated through Lt. Commish Widtfeldt all transactions so teams would know who they were successful in picking up. Business goes on as usual.

Go deep, I’ll throw it!

-The Commish

Stop here for reminders:

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• Drop/Adds begin Wednesdays at 6:00pm this year.
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• Wednesdays from 6:00pm-10:00pm are reserved for pickups based on low season point total. There’s a limit of one pickup per team during this time.
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• First come/first serve drop/adds begin Wednesdays at 10:00pm.
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• All transactions are to be called in to 402-392-9749 and left on my voice mail for date/time stamping. This will serve as the official arbitrator of any disputes that may occur.
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• All lineups should be called in to 402-392-9749 for the same reasons. However, you may also call 341-2674 with your lineup if I’m home or you may also e-mail me with your lineup if necessary.
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• To find out what lineup your opponent is using, either: call your opponent directly (remember to notify me of your starting lineups in any event-see above) or call me at 402-341-2674 after kickoff of the first weekly game.
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• I realize some trades are made at the last minute but, whenever possible, please notify me of any trades ASAP after they are made by leaving a voice mail at 402-392-9749.

Transactions:

Thirty MNF Points For Retreads Dooms The Party

The Retreads have a rosterful of talent from the top to the bottom of their roster. While that can be a good thing, it also can pose a dilemma when selecting a starting lineup. It’s often a difficult thing not to get too fancy for one’s own good. In selecting a Week 6 starting lineup, the Retreads bucked the percentages in benching its 1^st string QB, Drew Bledsoe, in favor of backup Eric Zeier. During a phone call last Thursday with the Commish, Coach Detwiler stated that he had concerns with starting Bledsoe against the Chiefs’ defense. As it turned out, Bledsoe threw 3 TD passes on the day while Zeier was shut out by an average Oilers’ D. What did this mean for the Retreads? It meant that they trailed Grande To The Party 33-25 entering MNF. But that was erased as quickly as a chalk board with Fred Taylor’s 77 yard TD run on his 1^st carry of the night. He added a 2^nd TD. Keenan McCardell added 2 TD catches and Karim Abdul-Jabbar scored a TD. When the dust settled, the Retreads had high points around the league with 55 and, more importantly, the win over Grande’s Party. The Retreads take sole possession of 1^st in the Howe division at 5-1 and play the Greenback Iguanas next week while the Party will attempt to lick its wounds against the Bone Club.

The Retreads 55 33 Grande To The Party

Zeier 00 QB 15 S Young

T Davis 09 RB 02 C Martin

Jabbar 06 RB 00 E George

T Mathis 06 WR 00 Stokes

McCardell 12 WR 00 K Johnson

E Green 00 TE 00 Santiago

F Taylor 12 U 00 C Johnson

Stoyanovich 04 K 16 Vinatieri

Seahawks 06 D 00 Cowboys

Highways Hit Bumpy Stretch In Steamers Shutout

The Strange Highways, seemingly ready to put away the division by Halloween, have made a race out of the Cheatem by being shut out 14-0 against the Stanley Steamers in Week 6. The shutout was the first ever game in six years for the Highways where they failed to score at least 10 points. Further, it was only the 2^nd shutout in league history, the 1^st coming inWeek 9 of the 1995 season by A Team With No Name in a 16-0 loss to the Deadbeats. The tone was set early for the Highways when QB Rob Johnson, newly signed, suffered bruised ribs in the first half of his game and was forced to leave. Fred Lane did not play for disciplinary reasons as he missed the team flight Saturday evening. Worst of all, K Doug Brien, picked up for this game, failed to score as his Saints also were shut out on this day (see the Mystics recap for more on that storyline). The Steamers did not set the world on fire either. Garrison Hearst scored 8, Matt Stover had 6 and Marc Brunell added points on MNF. The Steamers, now 3-3, have climbed to within one game of the division lead in the Cheatem and will face the NFC Norris next week. The Highways (4-2), losers of two in a row, next square off against the dangerous Palace of Swords (4-1-1).

Stanley Steamers 22 00 Strange Highways

Brunell 08 QB 00 Rb Johnson

Hearst 08 RB 00 Zellars

L Smith 00 RB 00 Lane

Jefferson 00 WR 00 Rice

McKnight 00 WR 00 Galloway

F Jones 00 TE 00 Dudley

E Bennett 00 U 00 Moulds

Stover 06 K 00 Brien

Panthers 00 D 00 Raiders

Iguanas Keep Hold On Lead With Win Over Club

The Greenback Iguanas came off a two game losing streak to maintain its division lead with a 45-22 victory over the Bone Club in Dewey division play Sunday. Stalwarts Antwoine Smith (14) and Darney Scott (12) led the way again. Darney Scott, at this point in the season, must be considered as a possible comeback player of the year candidate after a disastrous 1997 that saw him waived in FFL and nearly demoted to second string by the Bengals in favor of David Dunn. K Jeff Wilkins, signed this past week for Ryan Longwell’s bye week, also contributed 13 points. QB Steve McNair accounted for six more with a 40 yard TD run. The Bone Club did push one right button in signing QB Steve Beuerlein for the week. Beuerlein threw 3 TD passes on the day. However, his supporting cast failed to do their part. Only Carl Pickens (9 points) helped out. He caught a TD pass and had 204 receiving yards. New K Greg Davis had only one point. The Iguanas (4-2) will next meet the high flying Retreads in a possible playoff preview while the Bone Club (2-3-1) go from the frying pan into the fire with Grande To The Party next week.

Greenback Iguanas 45 22 Bone Club

McNair 06 QB 12 Beuerlein

Faulk 00 RB 00 Watters

A Smith 14 RB 00 Anders

J Smith 00 WR 09 Pickens

D Scott 12 WR 00 McCaffrey

Walls 00 TE 00 Glover

Westbrook 00 U 00 M Jackson

Wilkins 12 K 01 G Davis

Bills 00 D 00 Chiefs

Swords Keep Heat On In Howe With 3rd In Row

The Palace of Swords, behind new QB Rodney Peete’s 10 points, defeated division rival NFC Norris by a 34-26 count to up their record to 4-1-1 and move into second place in the Howe division. TE Ben Coates had only 2 catches on the day for the Swords but both were good for TDs. K Al Del Greco returned from a bye week to add 6 points while Tony Martin (of the Swords’ WR duo of Martin & Lewis comedy fame) also scored a TD. Lewis did not score. Coates’ performance offset the 16 points by the Norris running backs. Robert Edwards made the KC defense look mortal with 14 points and Jamal Anderson ran for 100 yards. The Swords’ running game was nonexistent this week. Donnell Bennett had six yards on six carries. None of the three starters scored. But after surviving for their 3^rd straight win, the Swords will now prepare to face the recently slumping Strange Highways in Week 7 while the NFC Norris the 3-3 Stanley Steamers.

NFC Norris 26 34 Palace of Swords

Plummer 00 QB 10 Peete

J Anderson 02 RB 00 D Bennett

Dillon 00 RB 00 P Holmes Irvin 02 WR 00 Lewis

T Brown 00 WR 06 T Martin

Gedney 00 TE 12 Coates

R Edwards 14 U 00 M Edwards Daluiso 08 K 06 Del Greco

Broncos 00 D 00 Dolphins

49er Shutout of Saints Leaves Mystics Mumbling

Last week the Natural Mystics lost a 35-33 game against the NFC Norris on K Gary Anderson’s 13 MNF points. This week it was the 49er’ shutout of the previously solid New Orleans Saints that proved to be the undoing of the Mystics in a heart wrenching 21-20 loss. The Mystics have now dropped four games in a row, three of them by a combined eight points. The day started optimistically for the Mystics as their new defense, the Ravens, scored a safety in the first 15 minutes of action after their previous defense, the Cards, had not scored a single point in five games. But 49er TE Greg Clark caught a 1 yard TD pass while Irv Smith was on the bench and QB Trent Green got benched against the Eagles. Moreover, the Mystics left 26 points on their bench in Neal O’Donnell (12) and Raghib Ismail (14) and once again got absolutely no production from their K. Last week, the Mystics would have won had they started John Kasay in favor of Todd Peterson. This week they could have won had they started Todd Peterson in favor of John Kasay. In all, the Mystics have left three wins on the bench thus far in 1998 and, after six games, no Mystics K has scored more than 6 points. Emmitt Smith and Rod Smith each accounted for 8 points for the Mystics while the Revenge got 8 points from John Elway, finally healthy after four weeks. Richie Cunningham was the only other Revenge player to score, with 9 points. The Revenge evened its record at 3-3 with the win and will face PMS next week while the Mystics fall to 1-5 and meet the NFC Norris next week in a contest that could reveal yet another way for a team to lose a close game.

Montezuma’a Revenge 21 20 Natural Mystics

Elway 08 QB 00 T Green

H Williams 00 RB 08 E Smith

T Allen 00 RB 00 Kaufman

Glenn 00 WR 08 R Smith

Fryar 00 WR 00 Rison

McGee 00 TE 00 I Smith

Dawkins 00 U 00 L Shepherd

Cunningham 09 K 02 Kasay

49ers 04 D 02 Ravens

Dogs Howl With Delight As Hollis Kick Goes Right

PMS, needing only 7 points from K Mike Hollis on MNF, got four extra points but a missed 45 yard field goal that sailed right. The result was the difference between victory and defeat in a narrow 24-22 loss to the King of Dogs in Week 6 action. The Dogs got 8 K points along with 8 from WR Bobby Engram and 6 from Shannon Sharpe. Kordell Stewart was still MIA, scoring only 2 points. PMS got 6 points from Jerome Bettis and James Jett, Jett’s coming in the last 2 minutes of the Raider game on a 68 yard TD catch. Bettis’ status is unknown for Week 7. He suffered a mild knee injury. At 2-4, PMS will play Montezuma’s Revenge next week. The 1-5 King of Dogs will play the equally inept 1-5 Natural Mystics in Week 7.

PMS 22 24 King of Dogs

Kramer 04 QB 02 Stewart

Bettis 06 RB 00 Murrell

Means 02 RB 00 Garner

J Jett 06 WR 08 Engram

Conway 00 WR 00 R Moore

Bruener 00 TE 06 Sharpe

Chrebet 00 U 00 Holcombe

Hollis 04 K 08 N Anderson

Steelers 00 D 00 Giants

This week’s additions to the FFL Record Book:

• Strange Highways-0 points marks the first time Coach Widtfeldt’s team has scored under 10 points in a game in six seasons of competition is only the 2^nd shutout in league history.
• The combined score of the Highways-Steamers game was 22, making it the 4^th lowest scoring game for two teams combined in league history.
• Ben Coates-12 points, ties with many TEs on the single game scoring list. The record is 18 by Keith Jackson in 1996.
• Adam Vinatieri’s 16 points kicking places him on the all time single game list of kickers. The last K to score 16 was Vinatieri himself in Wk. 7 of 1997. His 16 is eclipsed in 1998 only by Gary Anderson’s 17. The all time K record is 21.

Swami Sez:

Week 6 was a 3-3 week for the Swami, bringing him to 22-13-1 for the year. In an abbreviated Week 7 version, here goes:

King of Dogs (2-4) vs. Natural Mystics (1-5)

Power Rankings: King of Dogs 10; PMS 12

King of Dogs

Montezuma’s Revenge (3-3) vs. PMS (1-5)

Power Rankings: Revenge 6; PMS 11

Revenge

Greenback Iguanas (4-2) vs. The Retreads (5-1)

Power Rankings: Iguanas 4; Retreads 1

Retreads

Grande To The Party (4-2) vs. Bone Club (2-3-1)

Power Rankings: Party 2; Bone Club 8

Party

Strange Highways (4-2) vs. Palace of Swords (4-1-1)

Power Rankings: Highways 7; Swords 3

Swords

Stanley Steamers (3-3) vs. NFC Norris (2-4)

Power Rankings: Steamers 9; Norris 5

Norris

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