Of course, before we talk about the champion, we like to give one last shout out to the loser.
Despite yet another title game defeat (this is Griff’s sixth in 15 years), it’s hard not to marvel at what Mr. Coomer has accomplished lately.
Back in 2007-2008, he was getting fucked like a black kid in Florida carrying Skittles. Despite finishing 7th and 8th respectively in scoring those two years, Griff could only muster back-to-back four win seasons thanks to his opponents scoring the most points in each season.
However, since that time Griff has been arguable the second best team in the league since then (behind Bob). He has produced an incredible five straight seasons of at least nine wins. He’s only the second person to do that. One more and he’ll tie Bob for longest streak in league history.
The reality is, this impressive five-year run has run under the radar for a few different reasons. First, he’s never had a scoring title (finished a solid 3rd, 7th, 5th, 2nd and 6th in scoring). He’s also earned the top seed just once (last year). However, the biggest problem was that he’s struggled to turn his regular season success into playoff runs…at least, until this year when he returned to the title game.
This year though, Griff earned his title run. Think about what he’s had to deal with.
A backfield of Maurice Jones-Drew and C.J. Spiller, projected to be one of the best backfields in the league, both flopped. MJD finished 21st, while Spiller disappeared to 26th among all backs.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald couldn’t produce despite Carson Palmer throwing him the ball in the desert, as he finished 21st among receivers.
Want more? Reggie Wayne was a solid low-end WR1 until he was knocked out for the season in week seven.
In the end, it was a decision Griff made August, 2012. As the entire league passed on Peyton Manning, Griff took a chance in the fifth-round and man, did that pick pay off.
He kept Manning this year and he went ahead and had the second best fantasy season in league history.
Because of the numbers Peyton was putting up (including a record setting 818 points in week one), he gave Griff the cushion he needed to fill his holes (Boldin, Brown & Brown), while waiting for players like MJD and Fitzgerald to kick it into gear later in the season.
It was never easy. He produced two weekly low scores and never won three in a row all season. Yet, he never lost two in a row and that made him a dangerous team down the stretch.
In the end though, he came up 226 points short. Not bad.
Okay, now on to the 2014 Fantasy Football Champion.
I was actually sort of sad to see Calderon win the title. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but love for the man. I wasn’t cheering for or against anyone in this title game.
Yet, by winning the title, Rich FINALLY loses his “best team to never win a title” label. And when I say, NEVER, I’m talking about NEVER.
Rich has been playing fantasy sports longer than anyone in this league and despite plenty of success in all his leagues (this includes football and baseball), he’s never been able to deliver a title in any paid league he’s been in.
Yet, that’s all over and that saddens me. Now he’s just a regular dude with no story to tell each and every year.
So how did he do it?
Ironically, in the year of the non-running back, Rich won this thing with the best backfield in football (at least in the second half of the season).
Since week 10 of the NFL season, LeSean McCoy and DeMarco Murray have combined to average 594 fantasy points. To put that in perspective, Griff’s 2005 backfield of Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson (the greatest backfield in league history) averaged 580 points per game (they did that for the full season and with L.J. only starting nine games that year).
Here are the last six games of McCoy and Murray:
McCoy: 270, 372, 182, 502, 186, 396 = 1908 Murray: 216, 218, 340, 270, 322, 292 = 1658
These two combined for a stunning 688 points in the title game, the second most ever by a pair of running backs in a title game.
The most? Yep, Griff’s Alexander/Johnson each scored over 400 and delivered 832 fantasy points back in 2005.
Anyhow, their 688 points helped Rich overcome his boneheaded lineup changes that gave Griff hope until the end.
Seriously, four lineup changes and all four were wrong (the defensive decision was only a one-point mistake).
Worse yet, by cutting Tony Romo for Jay Cutler, Rich denied poor Romo his only chance for a championship.
Cold man, cold.
Overall, it was a great season.
Rich earned the two seed, finishing a solid fourth in scoring. He failed to hit 1,000 just once all season and never lost back-to-back games. He becomes just the fourth person in league history to win a title and finish with just 3 loses on the year (Robio ’99, Jason ’01, Matt ’09 were the others).
His 22,498 total points (regular season and post-season) are the 12th most ever scored.
He’s gone a stunning 23-7 over the last two years. Those 23 wins are the most wins over a two-year period in the 13-game regular season era.
Congratulations to Rich Calderon, your 2014 Robioland Fantasy Football Champion.
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