Last Place Wisdom: The most wonderful time of the year?
As the song says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" (that's debatable, since we all know that Draft Day is the best single day of the year), but for whatever reason I'm not really feeling it. Now I'm not talking about Christmas in particular, it's still my favourite holiday and this year is no different, but I'm speaking more to just things in general. My team set the record for the most points scored in the league this season, yet it was hard to get super excited about what transpired. It came to the forefront when thinking about the new Star Wars film this week, and just how little excitement I have towards it and the franchise in general. In both fantasy football and popular culture, an overindulgence of current trends have a way of jading a person.
In fantasy, this seems weird that continued success could make someone feel this way, but now that my team is rolling once again that's where I'm at. It's almost like a "Championship Hangover" is a real thing; it's easy to lose the level of passion once you've reached the pinnacle of success. The most invested and passionate I've felt about the team is when I was worrying about missing the playoffs; as the added adversity and struggle brought something else out in my own personal psyche.
In the case of Star Wars, if early reports are to be believed, I should be excited. If it's something different, that takes the series in a new and interesting directions, that answers what is perhaps my biggest complaint with modern blockbusters and franchises; an unwillingness to take risks and do something different. Despite those indications, I can't get over what I think are major mistakes in the direction they took in rebooting the franchise to begin with. The whole universe has just gotten so depressing; we end Return of the Jedi with a freakin Ewok dance party, the Emperor is dead, Vader is redeemed, Leia and Han can get together, while Luke can rebuild the Jedi. 20 years later, everything is more messed up than when we left it; it's still rebels vs the empire (they just have new names now), but now all the heroes we came to love are deeply damaged as well. What's worse, our replacement heroes are boring and unlikeable. We can't have our heroes living happily ever after, because Disney needs to pump out new films for our consumption every year, and the only way they can ensure those films are successful is by playing off our nostalgia.
That's why I'm jaded about things as they stand right now; the thing fighting against that is my kids. Aiden get's excited about everything, and it's hard not to feed off that excitement. He's in love with Star Wars, mainly through discovering my old action figures and the incredible power of video games. He's picked up on Lego Star Wars for the Wii, and every chance he gets he asks me to play with him. My own feelings about the state of the franchise right now couldn't be further than his, and it's refreshing. It's easy to see why people decide to live vicariously through their kids.
So that really had very little to do with fantasy football, but as this blog is the one creative outlet for speaking my mind you all have to put up with my train of thought from time to time.
Bringing it back to the playoffs; there really wasn't a lot of drama or excitement with last week's matchups. Despite the overall amount of parity and closeness in the league, the teams that scored more points all season long ended up scoring more points in playoffs round one. It would have been nice for there to be an upset, but it wasn't to be. The one real underdog left would have to be Shayne, and he was sure he was going to lose early on only to win due to his Mr. Manager moves.
I have to proceed without Wentz, who has been my boy since early on in the summer. The same feeling of confidence I had about going with Wentz then, I had about Bortles when looking at who I wanted my backup to be, so maybe I'm just tuned-in to something when it comes to QB whispering this season. At this point, there's no second guessing myself and I'm not going to feel bad if Smith or Flacco or someone else outplays Bortles this week. Now I just need to hope Wentz heals up enough to go next season, otherwise I'll be struggling to find enough keepers. At least I didn't trade the rights to Jimmy G like I was trying to.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This award goes to Shayne; his trade with Andrew for Roethlisberger and Johnson ended up being instrumental in their matchup, as those were Shayne's top scoring players. If Shayne manages to keep winning, it will be due to smart additions and lineup decisions making up for his injury and suspension woes. If he can manage to advance and get Elliot back however, the finals could be looking a whole lot more interesting.
Playoff Matchups
The Ross Glen Roadrunners vs The Fear Boners - This is definitely the game of the week; the two top scoring teams facing off, with John coming into the game having won 5 in a row. John has very few roster decisions to make now that he can no longer trust the Tennessee RBs, while Clarke once again could be playing with fire by benching Tom Brady. I'll be watching 3 things in this matchup; whether the Chargers/Chiefs becomes a shootout, who ends up scoring the points for New Orleans, and Julio Jones vs Mike Evans on Monday night.
Make it Rain Burgers vs NFL Owner - Shayne broke his curse by getting out of the first round of the playoffs, so it'll be interesting to see if he goes for more. I'm the favourite going in, however I'm relying on Blake Bortles (I picked him up weeks ago because of easy playoff matchups in case Wentz went down; looks like I was prophetic) which is always a shaky proposition. I'm also turning to Collins this week, so Mike can stop being upset at me, although I fully expect this is the week he reverts to 50 yards and no-TD. I'm also relying on Williams to get the same workload with Rodgers back, which is no given. I expect this game to be closer than one would initially expect. Everything has been running my way for the past couple of weeks, but things can change in a hurry.
On the next Last Place Wisdom
In fantasy, this seems weird that continued success could make someone feel this way, but now that my team is rolling once again that's where I'm at. It's almost like a "Championship Hangover" is a real thing; it's easy to lose the level of passion once you've reached the pinnacle of success. The most invested and passionate I've felt about the team is when I was worrying about missing the playoffs; as the added adversity and struggle brought something else out in my own personal psyche.
In the case of Star Wars, if early reports are to be believed, I should be excited. If it's something different, that takes the series in a new and interesting directions, that answers what is perhaps my biggest complaint with modern blockbusters and franchises; an unwillingness to take risks and do something different. Despite those indications, I can't get over what I think are major mistakes in the direction they took in rebooting the franchise to begin with. The whole universe has just gotten so depressing; we end Return of the Jedi with a freakin Ewok dance party, the Emperor is dead, Vader is redeemed, Leia and Han can get together, while Luke can rebuild the Jedi. 20 years later, everything is more messed up than when we left it; it's still rebels vs the empire (they just have new names now), but now all the heroes we came to love are deeply damaged as well. What's worse, our replacement heroes are boring and unlikeable. We can't have our heroes living happily ever after, because Disney needs to pump out new films for our consumption every year, and the only way they can ensure those films are successful is by playing off our nostalgia.
That's why I'm jaded about things as they stand right now; the thing fighting against that is my kids. Aiden get's excited about everything, and it's hard not to feed off that excitement. He's in love with Star Wars, mainly through discovering my old action figures and the incredible power of video games. He's picked up on Lego Star Wars for the Wii, and every chance he gets he asks me to play with him. My own feelings about the state of the franchise right now couldn't be further than his, and it's refreshing. It's easy to see why people decide to live vicariously through their kids.
So that really had very little to do with fantasy football, but as this blog is the one creative outlet for speaking my mind you all have to put up with my train of thought from time to time.
Bringing it back to the playoffs; there really wasn't a lot of drama or excitement with last week's matchups. Despite the overall amount of parity and closeness in the league, the teams that scored more points all season long ended up scoring more points in playoffs round one. It would have been nice for there to be an upset, but it wasn't to be. The one real underdog left would have to be Shayne, and he was sure he was going to lose early on only to win due to his Mr. Manager moves.
I have to proceed without Wentz, who has been my boy since early on in the summer. The same feeling of confidence I had about going with Wentz then, I had about Bortles when looking at who I wanted my backup to be, so maybe I'm just tuned-in to something when it comes to QB whispering this season. At this point, there's no second guessing myself and I'm not going to feel bad if Smith or Flacco or someone else outplays Bortles this week. Now I just need to hope Wentz heals up enough to go next season, otherwise I'll be struggling to find enough keepers. At least I didn't trade the rights to Jimmy G like I was trying to.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This award goes to Shayne; his trade with Andrew for Roethlisberger and Johnson ended up being instrumental in their matchup, as those were Shayne's top scoring players. If Shayne manages to keep winning, it will be due to smart additions and lineup decisions making up for his injury and suspension woes. If he can manage to advance and get Elliot back however, the finals could be looking a whole lot more interesting.
Playoff Matchups
The Ross Glen Roadrunners vs The Fear Boners - This is definitely the game of the week; the two top scoring teams facing off, with John coming into the game having won 5 in a row. John has very few roster decisions to make now that he can no longer trust the Tennessee RBs, while Clarke once again could be playing with fire by benching Tom Brady. I'll be watching 3 things in this matchup; whether the Chargers/Chiefs becomes a shootout, who ends up scoring the points for New Orleans, and Julio Jones vs Mike Evans on Monday night.
Make it Rain Burgers vs NFL Owner - Shayne broke his curse by getting out of the first round of the playoffs, so it'll be interesting to see if he goes for more. I'm the favourite going in, however I'm relying on Blake Bortles (I picked him up weeks ago because of easy playoff matchups in case Wentz went down; looks like I was prophetic) which is always a shaky proposition. I'm also turning to Collins this week, so Mike can stop being upset at me, although I fully expect this is the week he reverts to 50 yards and no-TD. I'm also relying on Williams to get the same workload with Rodgers back, which is no given. I expect this game to be closer than one would initially expect. Everything has been running my way for the past couple of weeks, but things can change in a hurry.
On the next Last Place Wisdom
- I bust out my Star Wars t-shirts while singing the praises of the Last Jedi after being pleasantly surprised.
- After letting down everyone's expectations when I show up for the podcast, I skip writing the blog because I'm too busy working out and trying to live up to John's hype.
- Having both broken their curses (Shayne losing in the first round, John in the second), we discuss who has more mojo going into the finals.
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