Burrier becomes the first five-win team to earn a playoff birth, 2010
It had been a rough few years for Richard Burrier. He was once a great champion in this league, but he had fallen on hard times in the post-L.T. era. In fact, he had failed to quality for the post-season two years running.
Heading into 2010, he didn’t have impressive keepers and after the draft, he was given no love. He was labeled by me as a fourth tier team, meaning he wasn’t expected to qualify for the post-season party.
Early on, that prediction looked dead-on.
Rich started the season with a depressing 913-846 loss to Don. Dating back to the previous year, he had now lost six straight.
In week two, Rich actually ended that losing streak in style, beating Jeff 1,663-650. The win was important for many reasons. It was the first time Rich had broken 1,500 since week nine of last year and the first time he had broken 1,600 since week six of 2006 (Yes, 2006. No shit). It was also his first weekly high score since week twelve, 2006 as well.
Sadly though it would be his only win for a while. Burrier would drop his next four, despite breaking 1,300 a couple of times. He was now 1-5 on the season. Prior to 2010 only one team had ever made it to the post-season after a 1-5 start and that was Calderon back in 2003. Worse yet, when Calderon did it, he did it with a 14-game regular season. Burrier was afforded no such love.
After upsetting Griff in week seven, he fell to the league’s top scoring team (Calderon). He was 2-7, but at least he was now about to face the “easiest” part of his schedule. Over the next month, Burrier would face two teams not going anywhere (Eric and Molly), followed by two teams he would be competing with for the final playoff spots.
Things got off to a good start when he beat Eric, but Rich suffered an embarrassing loss to (2-7) Molly the following week by only 14 points. At 3-7, there was no way Burrier was going to make the playoffs, especially with Matt looming at the end of the season, right?
However, there were a lot of tragically bad teams in 2010 and after crushing Don and beating Jeff, Rich had not only earned a playoff spot with just five wins, he pretty much clinched it with a week to spare (thanks total points). His loss the following week only gave him the distinguished honor of being the league’s first five-win playoff team.
In the end, that would be the only glory Rich would have. His squad had no shot against 12-1 Robio in round one, falling 1,741-1,192.
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