Here you go! Hope it’s enjoyed by all.Week 10 RecapHowdy, fellow FF guys/gals! My name is Melissa Ratley (aka ImBetteratMadden), and Senor Ceiling Cats (aka Matt) has asked me to guest-write the recap for Week 10! As some of you know, I’m a full-time Country singer-songwriter from Denton, but since that career path is virtually (pun intended?) non-existent at this time, and for the foreseeable future, I’m currently a 1st grade teacher to my adorable, intelligent, and certainly NOT patience-testing 6-year-old twin godchildren, Alexa and Claire. I guided them through the last three months of Kindergarden back in March of this year when this madness began, and have been called into action once again this past week when one of Claire’s classmates tested positive, forcing her class (and by familial association, her sister) into virtual learning until December 1st at the minimum. All is well among us, no symptoms of any sort (it’s likely they were exposed at least back in March by me and as recent as August by their Jiu Jitsu coach), but it’s a constant barrage all day of assignments, class meetings, and generally trying to keep both of them engaged/occupied enough to have just five GODDAMN minutes of peace an hour. You can imagine those segments of solitude are rarely achieved. 😊But enough about MY current shitshow, and a little about my time in the Fantasy sports world. I think I started playing Yahoo! Fantasy sports around 6th grade; I remember signing up for just about every sport, not having a clue of what I was doing, but basically doing so just because as long as I looked ‘busy’ on the computer during Library time, I didn’t have to get off. I do have three older brothers, who all cut out NCAA brackets, Fantasy sports clippings, and such from the Dallas Morning News when they showed up in the paper, so my knowledge of all things that had to do with sports was impressed upon me throughout my entire life. Did I get my ass kicked in just about every sports video game? You bet. Did one of them get grounded for doing so at least once? Absolutely. But I did learn to look closely at stats and such through these games, so I suppose there was one positive that came out of it. (Also I routinely kick their asses in front of their children when challenged these days…muahahahaha)As yall are aware, I joined this league on the same day the NFL season started, mainly because I didn’t think a season was going to happen. I happened to spot Matt, Courtney, and Felix at Eastside that night, who said they needed another warm body to manage a VERY mediocre auto-draft team, and I accepted. This season has certainly had its ups and downs (and positives and negatives…bad dum TISKKKK) but between not having much to do in the music world, and herding two godchildren after school most days, it’s been nice to have something else to distract me, at least! Also this is my first year using ESPN, as I’ve always used Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, but I have to say, it’s a pretty friendly app.I’ll be totally honest, I still don’t understand how the traditions work in this league, but as the resident ‘roster churner’ of the league, IM STILL IN THE HUNT BITCHES. I don’t intend to slow down any time soon. Being a ‘waiver wire wench’ is not something for the faint of heart, and yes, it’s VERY much risk/reward, but as our friend Matty Ice has stated, ‘Improvise, adapt, overcome.’If you’ve made it this far…Congrats! Lets talk Week 10 Recap:My auto-drafted, roster churned shit show of a team (ImBetteratMadden) faced off again Team Bizness, who is apparently a fellow musician, but was certainly out of tune with his roster choices, as he left Jordan Howard (apparently no longer a Dolphin) who had a BYE week on his starting roster, had a severe underperformance from Michael Thomas (I sympathize here as I have him in my Yahoo league, ugh) and had the Denver D turn in a -4 with a final score of 82-39 in favor of yours truly. Ya girl is sittin at .500 with a record of 5-5 and Team Biz firmly holding on to last place at 1-9…for good.Next up, Dysfunctionally United and TBIAC locked horns, and while TBIAC had a solid performance from Matt Prater, essentially their most reliable Fantasy player, the absence of the Rams D and Juju from the starting roster, who could have possibly made this a closer game with a combined 26 bench points, resulted in a 103-74 game. Dysfun continues the winning streak with 4 games in a row, and a record of 8-2, while TBIAC drops to .500 at 5-5.The aforementioned Senor Ceiling Cats, and purveyor of this blog (and domain name lol) faced off against The New Tanner…and it was just sad on the Tanner part. It seems he faced what all of us have at least once a Fantasy season, ‘Bye Week Hell’, as Zeke, Julio Jones, Butker, and Matt Ryan were ALL forced to the bench, and despite a strong showing from RJII in the Tampa game, the Ceiling Cats were dancing on the ceiling, floor, walls, etc. in this one with a final score of 134-59. The Cats had all but TWO players score in double digits. Someone send good vibes (or possibly a drink) to Tanner’s team, as they fall to 3-7, while the Cats improve to 6-4.I suppose there has to be one BOOOOORRRING game a week, and as it appears I’ve been the target for the most BOOOOORRRING team/game in this league SEVERAL times, that particular title in Week 10 goes to the matchup between All About da Chiefs Dawg, who took on Team Pigg. A couple of goose eggs on the Chiefs, along with an awful performance by Drew Lock, and possibly an overconfident hope that DeeJay Dallas would do something (it’s okay, I got burned by him last week) led to a total of 54 points, while Team Pigg didn’t have much to write home about either, with the Tennessee D turning in a -3, but hey, a win is a win.Finally, Big Diesel III faced off against Team Grider – and it wasn’t close OR pretty for Mr. Grider. And honestly, I’m not sure how you can justify starting the Giants D AND Duke Johnson and expect a win. A fat goose egg from Jimmy Graham and a poor week from the Seahawks top WR’s (Hotty Toddy to DK!) meant that Team Grider could only scrape up a whopping 65 points, while Big Diesel III had solid showings from Mr. Discount-Double-Check, the rookie Aiyuk from San Fran, and a solid kicking performance from Tampa Brady’s team by Ryan Succop added up to 98 points. The Diesel team improved to 6-4 while the Grider group takes its second loss of the year, falling to 8-2. Hey Nathan, it’s a Lonely View at the top…I would know, that’s the title of my first album. 😊Well I suppose that’s all she wrote (3rd pun) for this week! Thanks to Matt for having me write this, as its been a welcome distraction from the hellish world of 1st grade virtual learning this week, and I promise next time I won’t write so much! Now I’m off to enjoy the solitude of the remainder of the evening, with the promise of some FIFA 21 and my own personal stash of candy that remains hidden for obvious reasons. Adios!

Another one in the books! Every game is a must win from here on out and some actually did, others not so much. We are almost finished with the dreaded bye weeks, but there is no telling what ‘Rona has in store for us. Trade deadline is also creeping up so take a good look at your team and make some tough decisions. Week 14 is the end of the regular season, and as a reminder…. division winners are top two seeds, then the next two best records regardless of division. Tie breaker is “points for”. Other 6 teams (losers) will enter the Sacko Bowl Tournament of pain and anguish. The 4 highest rated teams will play week one with a chance to win and exit the Sacko Bowl. The worst 2 teams will be on bye week one. The losers of week one play the bye week teams in week 2, again, for the chance to exit the tourney with a W. Week 17, the two losers face off for the most coveted title since the “Mustard Yellow Belt”….. the SACKO TROPHY!!!

Grider at #1 is a +149 (“points for” added to “points against”) and is 8-1 while DFUN is only a +67 but somehow is 7-2. 4 teams at 5-4, Cats +174, Big D +32, DSVP +18 and TBIAC +54. Our bottom four (there is still time for some of you) are IamB at -84, New Tanner with -47, Pigg -125 and Biz -140. 965 by the Cats is still the high while Biz is on the opposite end with 624 (and a win over the Cats). New Tanner continues to lead in “points against” at 905, while the low is 791, again, the Cats. Soooooo, all these numbers prove, without a shadow of doubt…..nothing. Good weeks, bad weeks, luck, Shiva, injuries, byes, they are all there to test our FFL fortitude. But the FFL gods can be vengeful at times and lenient at others. They will do what they do and as FFLers we will continue on until someone is hoisting the Sacko.

Current projected Playoff seating….

Quick pictorial recap of this weeks games…..

Week 10 next. Good luck and Godspeed.

Well, it’s definitely 2020. The ‘Boys finally get rid of carrot-top then fall apart. They need some IamBetter style roster churning! DFUN has matched his 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined win total already with 6 W’s. New Tanner is still being punished by the FFL gods (which isn’t that different from the norm). Grider’s deal with Satan appears to be for more than half a season, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of us. Cats are hovering around .500. Unbelievable I know😂. They will need to start a hot streak if they want to make the Winners Bracket for the 24th year in a row. And just when you think things couldn’t get weirder, DSVP shows up to declare his last loss will be his last. Then proceeds to lose 3 in a row. Thank you Todd, we all need a little normalcy in these uncertain times and nothing says that better than your annual free-fall into the Sacko Bowl. You are appreciated.

TBIAC won a clunker 84-50. Terrible game.

Diesel slid past Pigg, who was out hunting the entire game. Mahomie tossed 36 and Gronk got another TD, but no one broke double digits. Rrrrraaaaaaawwwwdddddjjjjjjaaaaassss 21, DHenrt only rumbled for 17, Keenan Allen was healthy long enough to grab 12 and Succup kicked in 15. Bad news for BD, the 49ers are on their 7 RB and 4th QB. Sorry

Biz has set a new “This is Serious Business” league record. Bad news is it’s for the lowest point total in history. 25 points. Led by his QB and team captain, Wentz, threw for 7 points to lead the team. Bell and White both stumbled for 3 each. Elliot, kicker out scored the Den D by 1, by scoring 1. New Tanner finally got a gift wrapped W. Well deserved. Final 80-25

On the opposite side of the gift wrapped W was Grider v IamB. The loser would have beaten every other team in the league this week handily. But sometimes the FFL gods are cruel, as we all know. @aintReba got 23 from Adams, but Griders Metcalf caught 28. KC D scored 10, Philly (against the ‘Boys) 21. DDallas ran for 17 but Dalvin Cook exploded for 46. Great game for both, unfortunately for us all, Grider takes the victory 138-112.

And in the finale, two teams we are all used to seeing slap fighting it out in the Sacko Bowl, DFUN takes on DSVP. 81-71 the Commish takes his 6th win of the year, while DSVP falls for the 3rd game in a row. Brady 19, Gurley-man 10, Krupp 11 and Pitt Def 13 (over/under for this defense in week 9 versus the ‘Boys is set at 124. I’m betting over). Tyreek Hill (still not in jail somehow) 21, 15 from the Indy D and 15 from Kamara (shockingly not on IR yet) just wasn’t enough to beat a extremely mediocre DFUN squad. The next time these two teams meet the stakes will be much higher. Sacko Bowl Championship. Calling it now.

Sooooo, off to week 9, if we survive Election Day (week, month, year?). Grider and DFUN on top of the two divisions, Pigg and Biz on the bottom. There’s still time to make a move, trade a player, fire your GM (DSVP). Let’s go play some fake football!!!!

Editors side note- we apologize for this extremely DSVP centered blog post. We are all in the league together and all of our failures should be written about. But it’s sooooooo much fun to dog-pile Todd. It just is.