Payton34 Fantasy Football - 2013 Season

We're a Yahoo league:

football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/payton34_football

I use this auxiliary page to 1) communicate with my league home fries and 2) archive league action over time. My website theme this year: as simple and crappy as possible. How'd I do? (he he)

Here are the sections you'll find below:

Draft Order ... Draft Time and Place ... Draft Results ... Draft Fun
Owner Bios ... Final Standings ... All-Payton34 Team
Playoffs: Wildcard ... Playoffs: Semifinals ... Playoffs: Championship!

Questions, comments, ideas... email me: williamt@williamt.com

thanks... yow, bill

Draft Order

Here's the draft order for 2013:

1. Tom - Van Buren Jag
2. Joe - No-Brainer
3. Rob - Metal Militia
4. Aaron - Palatine
5. Bill - Naperville Cootie
6. Daryl - Lawn Ranger
7. Poap - Melonville
8. Ryan - Hobo
9. Angeero - Plano Tiburon (NEWBIE!)
10. Commish - KGG
11. Justin - Mini-Commish
12. Jay - Streamwood
13. Myles - Air Jordan
14. Ty - Chicago

Remember - we'll use a straight up and down draft... same as last year.

Remember #2 - our lineups: QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE, flex RB/WR, K, Def. We'll also pick 5 bench players. That's a total of 14 rounds.

Draft Time and Place

This is it.

• When: Sat Aug 31, 4:00pm
• Where: Castle BillSkull in Naperville   <~~ please note change

We have only one rule change/issue to vote on. The proposal: Change the flex position from RB/WR to RB/WR/TE.

The rationale for doing this is that it allows teams to play two TE's if they want (just like the Patties used to). I'll try and do an email vote, so that people can adjust for the draft.

Draft Results

Great draft manly men! Go!

Here's the original Poap yellow pad text:

Rounds 1-4

Rounds 5-9

Rounds 10-14

And here's my Yahoo results grab:

Rounds 1-6

Rounds 7-12

Rounds 13 and 14

Yahoo grades your draft this year. They hail the Palatine and Van Buren drafts with an A+ grade. Hrmph.

Thank everyone. We're a draft machine after all these years. Good luck to all and let the 2013 Payton34 season begin!

Draft Fun

Here are some shenanigans before the draft.

In an attempt to intimidate the competition, Ty shows up as Bill Belichick... complete with hoodie, headset, and contemplative scowl.

Anticipating losing seasons, the KGG and Naperville each wore NY Jet jerseys to the draft... #36 J Leonard and #19 Keyshawn.

And of course, we bow down to our better in every way... last year's REPEAT champion, Ty!

Ty is in hot pursuit of an unprecedented three-peat this year.
To that I say - No way, Jose!!!

peace... yow, bill

Owner Bios

I've gotten a few emails asking who's who in our league. When you're playing fantasy football, it's nice to know who's brains you're beating in. So, I put this list together.

This list is Bill-centric, describing everyone in terms of their relationship to me. This seemed to make the most sense. It also feeds my bloated ego. The list is also chronological, in terms of when I met everyone. Pretty much.

• Naperville Cootie - Bill. Me. I'm the commish of this league and the LetsPlay3 fantasy baseball league. I write software, invest, teach computers at North Central College, and volunteer at lil St. Ethelreda School. I have two great kids: Holly and TY.
• Lawn Ranger - Daryl and I have been friends since grade school, about 45 years. Daryl works in the movie/TV biz and is listed on IMDB: www.imdb.com/name/nm0956260
• Harper Hawk - Aaron is Daryl's son. He just graduated high school, and it looks like he is going to Harper now.
• Da No-Brainer - Joe and I were roommates at U of I a few decades ago. (cough) Joe is a chemical engineer and works in the nuclear industry. He glows at night.
• Metal Militia - I met Rob through his wife Kim, who used to cut my hair. Rob is grooming his daughter Sydney (1st grade, I think) to take over the Militia franchise in the coming years. Rob is a leg breaker for credit companies.
• Melonville LaRue - Eric (aka "The Poap") and I have been friends for more than a decade. On a whim 5 years ago, we threw the kids into the car, drove to Milwaukee and saw Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter. Eric is in sales.
• CADET - Myles is Eric's son. He's a freshman at Marmion High. Myles is an outstanding athlete.
• Streamwood Streamer - I met Jay about the same time as Eric. I remember Jay being the one guy in our group who could guard me in basketball. Ha! Jay works in air-conditioning or something like that.
• Plano Tiburon - Angelo and I met through my ex-wife's family. Ange is a truck driver and is the nicest guy in the league.
• Driftless Pony Team - Ty is my son. He's a freshman at Naperville Central HS and is the reigning back-to-back league champ. He stinks.
• KGG Football - Chris is a real commish. He is the commish of the Div 3 CCIW conference. North Central College is part of the CCIW. I met Chris when he booted me out of my office at North Central College. Ha! Chris is dating The Belly.
• Mini-Commish - Justin is Chris the Commish's son. He's a sophomore at Nequa High. He plays on the volleyball team.
• Butler Jet - Ryan is Chris the Commish's brother. He lives in Pittsburgh, I think. Ryan is the only team owner that I haven't met in person.
• Van Buren Jag - I met Tom at St. Ethelreda School or one of Ty's little league games... can't remember which came first. Tom lives in downtown Naperville with his wife (and shadow team owner) Eve. Tom's friend Larry was at the draft.

Excellent!

Final Standings

The final regular season standings.

The 2013 regular season was almost perfectly rational. By that I mean:

• Every team over .500 made the playoffs

• 6 of the top 7 scoring teams made the playoffs.

The 5-8 CADET actually scored 11 points more than the Harper Hawk (693 to 682). The CADET were the league's weirdest team. They lost 8 of their first 9 ballgames, and then finished the season winning 4 in a row.

All-Payton34 Team

The 2013 All-Payton34 Team are the top-scoring players at each position after our 13 week regular season. Go!

You 2013 Payton34 MVP is Peyton Manning of the Lawn Ranger with 218 points. So much for not taking a QB with your first pick, eh. The Lawn Ranger made the playoffs (finishing 5th) and scored the 2nd most points in the league.

Usually on these "all" teams there's a surprise or two. Not this year. The lowest draft pick in this list is Dem Thomas, who was taken first in the 3rd round.

Here's the All-P34 second team.

And some honorable mentions...

• QB - Matt Stafford (det), Naperville Cootie, 157 points
• QB - Cam Newton (car), Mini Commish, 152 points
• WR - AJ Green (cin), Da No Brainer, 93 points
• WR - Dez Bryant (dal), Melonville LaRue, 93 points
• TE - Julius Thomas (den), Butler Jet, 86 points

Zee Playoffs - Round 1, Wildcard!

Our top teams are on bye week: #1 Mini Commish and #2 Melonville LaRue.

Wildcard weekend featured strong victories by our two underdogs. The #5 and #6 seeds advance!

• Lawn Ranger 91, Harper Hawk 64

• Da No Brainer 66, Van Buren Jag 61

Let's go to the videotape... here are the boxscores.

Summary: It was all in the family as the Lawn Ranger (father) shellacked the Harper Hawk (son). The Lawn Ranger features Peyton Manning and the top two Bears (Forte, Alshon) in an explosive lineup. Who was that masked man?

Summary: It was a bitter end for the league's high-scoring team, the Jag. Van Buren's #1 overall pick AP went down to injury. His goose egg cost the Jag in their 5 point loss. No Brainer QB Drew Brees led the scoring with 22 points as the #6 seed advances.

zee playoffs... yow, bill

Zee Playoffs - Round 2, Semifinals!

The top two seeds, the favorites, flexed their muscles on their way to the title game next week.

• Mini Commish 108, Lawn Ranger 62

• Melonville LaRue 75, Da No Brainer 41

Read on!

Summary: The Mini's 108 points smashed the Lawn Ranger and the old record for points scored in a playoff game: 88 points by the Chicage Cake in last years finals. Mini MVP Jamaal Charles led the way with 5 TD and 40 total points! It was a statement game for the #1 seed. And that statement is... pain!

Summary: The LaRue powered to victory while the No Brainer listed adrift in the open seas. Featuring a balanced attack, Melonville had 6 players score 9 points or more.

thanks... yow, bill

Zee Playoffs - Final Round, Championship!

Well, this is easy. The top two teams in the league, our best teams, play for all the marbles.

• #2 Melonville LaRue @ #1 Mini Commish

The LaRue beat the Mini way back in week 1 93-51, so Melonville owns the tiebreaker.

Historically, the stakes are high. Neither team has won a Payton34 fantasy football title before. Each owner, however, has won a fantasy baseball championship.

It's Wed... the championship is so close that Yahoo makes a confusing prediction. Yahoo predicts the Mini will outscore the LaRue 66-65. But Yahoo makes LaRue the 51% favorite. Scratch scratch?!?!?

Zee playoffs!

Mini win!!!

Summary: All year, the Champion Mini have performed. The title game was no different. The Mini were led by superstar Jamaal Charles with 12 points. QB Nick Foles added 12 in the Sunday Night game to seal the deal. On a P Rivers to K Allen TD pass, the LaRue pulled even Sunday afternoon 41-41... but it was not meant to be as Melonville would go on to only score one more point on the day.

Congrats to Justin and the Mini... our 2013 Payton34 Champion!

Here's Justin's complete march to glory... the full Yahoo playoff bracket:

thanks... yow, bill