Week 15: semifinal previews

 Dublin Brawlers (7-7) vs. Just a Fantasy (10-4) 

at Warren High School Field, Gurnee, Ill.

Playoff records: Brawlers owner Herigodt (5-3); Fantasy owner Newton (8-8)

Head to head: Fantasy 50, Brawlers 43, week 12

The skinny: Newton earned his fourth division title in Finks history by winning the Bednarik Division, but it was his first since 2009. ... Both the Brawlers and Fantasy have won only one Finger Bowl title. Fantasy won in 2016 and the Brawlers in 2008. ... Brawlers reached the semifinals as the runner-up in the Gifford Division, winning the third tiebreaker over the Spotters to advance. ... What a difference a year makes. Fantasy lost seven consecutive games in 2019, but won seven consecutive matches in 2020. Fantasy's streak ended with a loss in Week 14. 

Projected starters: Brawlers -- Roethlisberger, A. Jones, Carson, Diggs, Metcalf, Crosby. Fantasy -- Herbert, Kamara, Drake, Adams, Jefferson, Carlson.

The pick: Fantasy 45, Brawlers 33

Lockport Distillers (9-5) vs. Chicago Heights Mafia (8-6)

at Sarff Field, Chicago Heights, Ill.

Playoff records: Distillers owner Cassidy (4-5-1); Mafia owner Goff (11-9)

Head to head: Distillers 33, Mafia 31, week 2

The skinny: The Finks League makes its playoff debut on the blue turf at the home of Bloom's Blazin Trojans. Mafia is in its first year as a franchise in the Finks League after dropping its longtime moniker of Serkus Act. ... Mafia owner Goff won the Gifford Division to claim his sixth division title in league history. ... The Distillers won the Finger Bowl in 2011, but Goff won four Finger Bowls in 2009-10, 2014 and 2017 as Serkus Act. With a win, Goff would add to his league record for playoff victories. He is the winningest owner in the playoffs and the only owner with double-digit playoff wins. ... The Distillers kept winning this season despite losing starting QB Brees NO to an injury. Meanwhile, the turning point to the season for Mafia was a Week-7, five-player trade for acquiring QB Rodgers GB from the Triangles. ... The Distillers had four different players this season to earn P.O.W. honors. Mafia star RB Henry TEN was one of two players this season to earn Finks P.O.W. honors at least two times. 

Projected starters: Distillers -- Goff, Cook, Montgomery, Hill, Thielen, McManus. Mafia -- Rodgers, E. Elliott, Henry, Thomas, Kupp, Zuerlein. 

The pick: Distillers 38, Mafia 35

Brawlers win tiebreaker

Hard to imagine a closer race for Gifford Division runner-up than the battle between the Brawlers and the Spotters for the last spot in the Finks League semifinals. 

With help from stats analyst Mike Miazga, the Brawlers advanced on the third tiebreaker -- best division record. The Brawlers went 6-2 while the Spotters went 5-3. 

The two 7-7 teams split their season series. If it got down to the fourth tiebreakers, the division rivals would have tied there too. Both the Brawlers and Spotters scored 558 points this season. Amazing. 

The fifth tiebreaker is Points Allowed. There, the Brawlers gave up 564 points on the season while the Spotters allowed 563.

The Brawlers advanced to play Bednarik Division champion Just a Fantasy (10-4) in the semifinals. 

 

Carson Wentz

What do you do when a marginal QB like Wentz PHI pretty much ruins your Finks League season? 

This is not an obituary (yet), but merely a report that Dah Commish has placed a "Do Not Resuscitate" order on the 2020 Triangles. Through 12 games of a roller-coaster COVID season, the Triangles are .500 after a devasting loss in their last Finks League matchup.

I was working Monday night and didn't get to watch the SEA-PHI game, but read about it the next day about QB Wentz PHI's Hail Mary pass near the end of the game. CBS Sports reported that the desperation pass ruined the day for many sports bettors. What about fantasy fans?

If Wentz PHI put some of his fantasy owners over the top in a close fantasy contest, that means someone has to be on the receiving end of a loss. That person was me. Wentz's pass to his TE I've never heard of was worth six Finks points in a 49-45 victory for the Jays over the Triangles. The Monday Night game had both QBs in action from each team. The Triangles' Wilson SEA scored six Finks points while Wentz scored nine. 

Yes, Wentz outscored Wilson, which seemed unheard of entering the game. My trust in Wilson by trading away Triangles backup QB Rodgers GB in Week 7, has not been returned. Wilson was the NFL MVP favorite when he averaged 18.5 Finks points per game in his first eight games. Now he has averaged five Finks points in his last three games. The Triangles are 1-2 in those weeks featuring a struggling Wilson. 

Just when it seemed Dah Commish has put together enough solid starters in positions beside QB, now our Triangles QB starter is underachieving. 

And so it goes in another .500 Finks League season. Only two more games left in the regular season. 

Thankful for Finks League, not the insanity

 Is there a running back in the house? Anyone?

Sure, COVID has made this a crazy Finks League season, but with injuries on top of coronavirus this has become ridiculous. Since nearly everyone is at .500 and in the running for a playoff berth, even my own Triangles have delusions of grandeur and have been chasing a playoff berth. Why not? I found out listening to the Score 670-AM that even the Bears can still make the playoffs if you listen to enough on-air personalities. Yeah, right...

For Week 12, my Triangles made their 11th different transaction for an RB this season. That's right, just at one position. That's got to be some kind of record for my 27th season since starting the Finks League. 

My latest addition was Lindsay DEN, who isn't even a starter on his own team. He follows R. Jones TB, Edwards BAL, Dallas SEA, Hasty SF, Breida MIA, Mixon CIN, Da. Henderson LAR, Gaskin MIA, Gallman NYG and Ahmed MIA. Gallman, Mixon and Hasty never made a start for the Triangles although Gallman is projected to make his first start in Week 12. 

I blame much of this mess on Ekeler LAC, who was my No. 1 RB coming out of the auction, but was placed on the Injured Reserve list in Week 5. He has since been picked up by the Jays, but has still not returned for LAC. Ekeler (pictured) was an auction acquisition for $2.25. My other auction acquisitions were Mostert SF, L. Murray NO and White NE, all for a penny. 

The RB part of my auction was a disaster. I didn't get my top two choices with Barkley NYG at $11.50 and Henry TEN at $11.49. No wonder. 

My one trade to improve my RB woes would grade out a D or C-minus so far. In Week 7, I sent QB Rodgers GB, WR Kupp LAR and Mostert to the Mafia for Mixon and WR AJ Brown TEN. While Brown has become one of my WR starters, Mixon never played a game for the Triangles. His injured foot forced CIN to place him on the IR list so I cut him in Week 12. You would have to ask the Mafia how Rodgers and Kupp have worked out for him. 

I am thankful for creating the Finks League on this day. It has made me a better NFL fan and I enjoy the competition with my fellow owners. Some of you have been around for more than 20 years. I've been competing against you much longer than my own marriage, which is in its 18th season -- excuse me -- year. 

I am now working in the golf department at Dick's Sporting Goods in Lombard and all of my college-aged co-workers play fantasy football. They stare at their phones all Sunday long tracking their several teams. They have no concept of not having fantasy football. The Finks League is older than all of them. 

I tell them how our first year started without computers or even the second year when I bought my first laptop and would send results through dial-up via fax machines. This was long before fantasy websites were invented, which they can't believe. 

I explain to them how fantasy sports was invented in the first place when New York writer Daniel Okrent invited a few of his friends to the now-shuttered La Rotisserie restaurant in Manhattan to hold the first fantasy baseball draft. One of his friends that day was historian Doris Kerns Goodwin. There is a section of Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary devoted to Rotisserie baseball. 

My Dick's co-workers can't believe anyone would play Rotisserie baseball over football. Well, that's because there was a time then people cared more about baseball than football. They can't believe that. I played Rotisserie baseball in the 1980s and 90s for more than 10 years before anyone invented fantasy football through a website. 

Fantasy football is a creation due to the internet. Rotisserie baseball mattered before the internet.

I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving. I hop to share many more seasons with you. 

Sometimes .500 feels just right

 

It should be noted that legendary former Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was just 55-55-1 in the regular season as a head coach for seven seasons in the NFL. 

Ryan went 0-3 in the postseason to finish below .500 on his career, but pro-football-reference.com just lists regular season records on its list of career coaching wins. Ryan ranks No. 89 in NFL history in wins. He isn't the only .500 -- exactly .500 -- coach on the list. Someone named Wally Lemm ranks above Ryan at No.75 with a 64-64-7 career record in 10 seasons with the Houston Oilers and St. Louis Cardinals. Lemm was the coach for the Oilers' 1961 AFL championship. 

And so .500 seems so appropriate for this topsy turvy 2020 Finks League season. Through six weeks, 60 percent of the league is .500. That's a lot of 3-3 records. 

Dah Commish's Dayton Triangles is one of them. The main problem with being .500 through six weeks is figuring out whether my team stinks or maybe it's pretty good. 

I'm afraid the final answer maybe both. And with a 14-game season, I just may finish 7-7 after all. 

Week 5: All in the Family

 Household match ups should be quite interesting in Week 5. 

Two pairs of family members are squaring off in the Week 5 of Finks League action with the main headline perhaps being the only remaining undefeated team left as Kristin Herigodt's Dublin Brawlers take on her husband, Mike Miazga's Ham N Eggers (1-3). 

The Brawlers lead the league in points scored through four games while the Eggers are second in points allowed.

The Quagliano Bowl takes place in the Northwest suburbs as Hurricane Quags (0-4) faces his son, Anthony, the owner of the two-time defending champion Jays (2-2). It has been a tough early start for Quags, who ranks last in scoring (157 points) and leads the league in points allowed (259). 

COVID update, Finks style

My favorite NFL coach has already survived his own bout with COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease- 2019), but it seemed like a matter of time for former USFL New Jersey Generals owner Donald J. Trump and QB Newton NE to come down on the positive side. 

The funny part about the above warning from the Saints is that NOLA coach Sean Payton was fined at least $100,000 for not wearing a mask properly during a recent game. 

Eggers owner Mike Miazga submitted his own idea of holding a second free-agent draft each week for Finks League teams affected by new COVID cases, but I think that will include just about everyone in the league in the coming weeks. Just so you know, both PIT@TEN and NE@KC are both postponed Sunday. The PIT@TEN game will likely be played Week 7 and I don't think the NFL has a clue about what to do with the NE@KC game. 

For now, I have decided to treat COVID delays as injuries. It is your own risk with starting a player in the NE@KC without certainty that the game will be played in Week 4. Perhaps this unusual season will give Finks owners an added focus on what their bench will contain. 

My other fantasy team on CBS Sports' free league lists my quarterback, Tannehill QB, as inactive due to a bye. Everyone in the time if COVID is just making this up as we all go along. 

If even more cancellations are in the NFL's future, I plan to explore this topic again at that time.