A story about resilience

mikeybok · Post by **mikeybok** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:15 pm

Some might find this interesting, others not so much.

After week 5, the Tomatoes NFFC Classic team had a below average record of 2 – 3 and are already over 100 points out of first. As we all know it might be possible to catch 1 or 2 teams from behind, but at some point, catching up when 7 or 8 teams are ahead of you just isn’t very realistic. We were seeing our chances of a first place finish slip away and we really needed things to really turn around week 6. We felt it was looking like a do or die week 6 for us ...... and we died. Unfortunately our team had taken a turn for the worse. We lost week 6 by a score of 134.15 to 66.55 … That’s right … 66.55!. We moved to a 2 – 4 record and now trailed the total point’s leader by 194.95 and fell all the way back into 12th place in the league.

We had a very average team (still do) and it seemed very unlikely we would even have a chance at as much as a 3rd place finish this year since we were behind a lot of guys with a lot more points than we had and a lot better records. I guess this is a story about plugging along and staying active in your league and staying active in free agency and putting the best lineup in every week even when it seems like your team is out of it.

It’s been a bad year for the Tomatoes. It would have been a good year to quit managing all of our managed teams and sign back in after week 16 to see if any of our crappy DC teams made any miraculous comebacks. But we just plugged along because just like a lot of other NFFC players in this league ... quitters bother me. It bothered me 10 years ago when I got into my first Yahoo league and 6 teams quit after week 3 and frankly "I just don’t want to be that guy".

Any bets on our chances of a 3rd place finish 6 weeks later? Well it’s just about as likely as our team finishing first or second. OK ... The weird part about that answer is ... all three outcomes are still on the table (not that it's likely we will finish in the money as it's more likely that we won't).

But for the record. We are currently tied for first place (technically second by the total points tiebreaker) with a record of 8 – 4 and we are 4th in total points ... but with less than 25 points separating 2nd and 5th place so it's very close for second. Actually 7 teams are still alive with a realistic chance at second place.

I wrote this “post” today because I doubt we will finish in the top three and it will seem odd to talk about a miraculous comeback if and when the outcome of week 13 is unfavorable. Anyway, week 13 will be very interesting, and maybe, just maybe, a fairy tale ending to what has been a crappy NFFC season is out there with the Tomatoes name on it. Either way, it should be a testament to teams not giving up after a slow start. It’s NEVER over until it’s over.

UYT

Eddiejag · Post by **Eddiejag** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:08 pm

Nice story and nice job.If you have the time could you post your week 6 lineup and what you did to improve your team. thanks and good luck

Coltsfan · Post by **Coltsfan** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:38 pm

Mike,

Great story Mike! Since I'm in that league with you I knew that you were pretty much done early on and the other day I looked up and there you were. I couldn't remember if you were near the bottom and then made up ground or if I was just crazy but that is an awesome comeback! Now we are falling as fast as you're climbing so best of luck this week!

Wayne

mikeybok · Post by **mikeybok** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:49 pm

David Garrard - QB JAC 1.45
Michael Turner - RB ATL 5.40
Cadillac Williams - RB TB 10.60
Marques Colston - WR NO 10.30
Nate Washington - WR TEN 1.90
Louis Murphy - WR OAK 5.70
Antonio Gates - TE SD 3.20
Todd Heap - TE/FLEX BAL 13.90
Nate Kaeding - K SD 6.10
New York Giants - TDSP 8.00

Here's the team. We made 20 FA moves in all. Churned a lot of crap players. We did grab Massaquoi and Goodson. Both were helpful (sad but true).

Last week we picked up M Morris, Hasselbeck and Bryant and played all of them which worked out pretty nice (although having to play Free agents that are picked up week 12 is pretty sad). We had no brilliant FA moves. We were just persistent and got guys to fill holes like we did last week. We had Palmer, TO and Ocho on the bench week 6 due to Cinn bye week so we are not as bad as that lineup looks.

mikeybok · Post by **mikeybok** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:54 pm

Originally posted by Coltsfan:
Mike,

Great story Mike! Since I'm in that league with you I knew that you were pretty much done early on and the other day I looked up and there you were. I couldn't remember if you were near the bottom and then made up ground or if I was just crazy but that is an awesome comeback! Now we are falling as fast as you're climbing so best of luck this week!

Wayne When you consider how tough this league is, it really is remarkable that our persistence has at least made this interesting (for us). FA has really been a bitch in this league too. We really missed out on some big pickups by just a couple of bucks until last week when we finally won some bids.

batoj · Post by **batoj** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:48 pm

Hey guys,

I'm in the same league (Eagles), it's been very competitive and this last week should be interesting. We've had a rough season with the losses of Romo and Deangelo. We managed to claw our way back to a 8-4 record after starting 1-3. We had a big matchup last week with the 1st place team and if we somehow found a way to beat him, we'd be in first alone and controlling our own destiny. Hillis and Foster ended up with monster games and half way thru the early games it was pretty much over. This week we need a good scoring output from our team to finish in the top 3. Looking forward to it..good luck!

renman · Post by **renman** » Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:44 am

Love stories like this. Glad it was posted. To me, this is what fantasy football greatness is about as much as hitting home runs on draft day and riding a stud team into the money. 3 or 4 years ago I had a wcoff team that was crippled by injury. Lost 3 of my first 4 picks for either the entire season or large portions of it. Team was 1-4. I managed it to cashing for 3rd place (missed second barely) and was as proud of this fantasy team and management performance as any team that won the league outright.

I am glad this was posted because it is a reminder of how REAL fantasy players compete. With all the gutless quitter punks out there who have such a short attention span that if their team is not great from the start the bail on it and go back to video games and doritos, it is nice to be reminded that people who approach this thing with some professionalism are out there and the rewards can be wonderful.

kentucky · Post by **kentucky** » Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:51 am

Way to hang in there Big Mike and Darryl (I assume). It's this kind of effort and persistance that should be a lesson to all.

Good Luck this week.

mikeybok · Post by **mikeybok** » Thu Dec 02, 2010 4:49 am

Originally posted by KyThunder:
Way to hang in there Big Mike and Darryl (I assume). It's this kind of effort and persistance that should be a lesson to all.

Good Luck this week. Hey Bill, I like your method better. Absolutely beat the competition into the ground and coast to a championship with a 150 point lead. I just wanted you to get to see how it works for the rest of us this year