DING DONG, the warlock has finally been knocked off! Wally's Mahatma's Crazed Minions on the Run put an end to Ali's 13-game winning streak. With 9 wins to close out the 2000 season and 4 wins to start the 2001 campaign, Ali's HTTA-SCBoP franchise ran out of gas after just eclipsing Wang's 12-gamer from 1999-2000 (7 for FU, 5 for FitH). Wally's victory did not come without a steep price; however, as interim head coach Joebob kept MFaulk in late to run up the score. Sure enough... MFaulk was able to add 3 pts to MM's total, but might be out of action for 1-4 weeks. GM Wally showed some quality GM'ing skills in having Trung Canidate tucked away on the MM roster - undoubtedly with the knowledge that interim coach Joebob just might blow out MFaulk unnecessarily.

OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND!

The Yankees took 3 in-a-row from the A's, the Cowboys actually found a team worse than they are, Eli Manning led a stirring 4th quarter comeback as Ole Miss beat Alabama, Michigan beat Purdue, and the BU Ice Dogs won their season opener 6-5 over RPI!

Can somebody please tell me what happened to Jerry Jones' face?!?

HACKSAW ME, BABY!

The Trung Canidate (12 team wins) division took 3 of 4 against the Robert Holcombe (11) division, and the Justin Watson (9) division split their 4 contests with the Eric Dickerson (8) division.

Highest scoring team: Mahatma's Minions - 52.4 ppg
Lowest scoring team: Blue Collar Workers - 21.4 ppg
Toughest defense: Mahatma's Minions - 23.6 ppg
Softest defense: Black Knights of the Charles - 53.6 ppg
League scoring average: 36.1 ppg (last year 38.7)

3 teams with all 15 QB bonus pts: Cals (BIG SURPRISE HERE!), JoePa, Shivan
Stan and Wang *finally* got their 1st ''Cals' Rule'' QB points of the season!

Getting to the bloody point... on to WIR #5!

****************************
**** GAME OF THE WEEK ****
****************************
Mahatma's Minions 42
Short-Changed Bastards of Persia 15

GM Wally continues to impress as the TBrady QB move was hailed as ''GM of the Year'' material by his peers. Knowing interim coach Joebob's lax work ethic, there's no way Joebob would have been able to unearth such a free agent find during Brunell's bye week. Wally was also able to coax a 2nd consecutive 9-spot from WWalls - and a splendid effort from the Mahatma's Minions defense. Ali did manage to set the new record for consecutive wins (13) last week, but in doing so... Ali might have driven his charges into the ground - sacrificing the rest of the current season. Fortunately for Ali, the Short-Changed Bastards of Persia have the creampuff portion of their schedule coming up (JGarcia-less RRR, Juggernuts, BCW, BUBE). SCBoP were poised for some Monday Night magic, but when Stephen Alexander got hurt early in the evening... the victory was Wally's.

brady 12 mfaulk 3 dayne 9 rod 6 isaac 0 walls 9 elam 3
awright 3 ma'son 3 garner 3 moss 3 rice 0 alex'der 0 hall 3
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Blue Collar Workers 16
Dude 68

Don't sweat it, DUDE! GM Clark's club didn't break a sweat in pounding Blue Collar Workers. Shaun Alexander is shooting up the RB scoring list. With MFaulk out for a few weeks, Shaun just might steal the top RB scoring spot for the season - unless RWatters comes back strong (yeah, right!). Eddie George returned after 2 weeks off to triple his scoring output for the season. And another protege of Wally's, Cam Cleeland, moved to within a measly 2 pts of TGonzalez in overall TE scoring. GM Brad was led by newly acquired JAllen's 9. Might the rookie GM have actually gotten the better of Stan in that JAllen-OGary deal?!? The JMiller-as-featured-QB experiment has apparently come to an end for BCW. After being offered for the likes of CMartin and RDayne and DStaley and AGreen in separate deals, JMiller was unceremoniously dumped this week in favor of "wheelchAIR" McNair.

jmiller 0 jallen 9 rand'son 0 jj 0 korn 0 becht 0 cortez 7
kerry 6 eddie 12 salex'er 21 conway 6 booker 0 cam 12 j'kow 11
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Having a Hard Time 54
Fighting Poopy Diapers 25

The training wheels have come off for Baby Brodz - as Fighting Poopy Diapers' 2-1 start has faded to a 2-3 record (and some serious danger in missing the postseason for the 1st time since '98). The move to insert free agent TTaylor into the starting lineup was inspired. But the move to replace Vike GAnderson with Brown PDawson was most curious. GM Richard continues to pound opponents with a heavy dose of Priest. Priest is now 2nd in RFL RB scoring - 9 pts ahead of runningmate Edgerrin and a mere dozen behind a crippled MFaulk! GM Richard is still having a hard time picking the right QB between Gannon and Favre, but as long as the rest of the team is producing, HaHT doesn't seem to care who lines up under center. JMorton and MWestbrook contributed nicely in the HaHT win. Brodz appears to have set a record for fewest total pts scored for having all 7 starters score.

gannon 3 ejames 9 priest 18 jmorton 9 w'brook 6 pollard 3 v'jagt 6
elvis 3 sdavis 3 pittman 3 taylor 9 horn 3 tonyg 2 dawson 2
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Boobies! 71
Black Knights of the Charles 24

WHEW!!! Cals' email to the League Secretary on Sunday morning beat the 10am deadline by 22 seconds! Cals was able to get Antowain into the lineup (and pull out Alstott) just in the nick of time. Those extra 6 pts were exactly what Boobies! needed to cover the 46.5 pt spread in Vegas. GM JoePa remains stuck on 34 career victories - and all hopes of catching ''Bear'' Veshia are starting to fade away. Free agent PK Jay was feelin' the Boobies! firm team unity - as Cals has bounced back from an 0-2 start with 3 resounding victories. The Black Knights of the Charles were led by Sir Avery this week, but Sir Billy might have suffered a severe flesh wound. Vince Ferragamo suited up at TE for JoePa this week. Daunte b'jacked for Cals - while Germane and Booba each put in a dozen. The BKotC running game is still stuck in neutral - as no BKotC RB has scored more than 3 in any game this season.

c'pep 21 hearst 6 antowain 6 holt 3 crowell 12 bubba 12 feely 11
brooks 9 biakabutt 3 b'nett 3 muhsin 0 sch'der 0 f'gamo x wilkins 9
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Pimps de la Nast 31
Invasive Species 50

The Foge Fazio jinx has still yet to be broken by Pimps de la Nast - as GM Shiv's squad has fallen to 0-5. The Fazio hex started last season when a 5-0 FITH was struck with a 4-8 finish. After losing Terrell Davis in Week 1, Pimps have gone with GComella for 2 games - and now PHape for 2 weeks. P! U! Has BU put you on academic probation yet, Shiv? GM Stan continues his rise back into playoff contention with his highest pt total of the season. Stan's Terrell came through with a monster game - and nearly single-handedly defeated the Nasty Desais. Maurice's 9 finished off Shiv this week. Has there ever been another RB named Maurice?!? What a lame name for an RFL RB! At least Marion's last name was BUTTS! Chrebet has 6 pts in 5 starts for Shiv. Henry Ellard pimped his booty at TE for the Nasty Pimps.

warner 6 hape 0 tyrone 6 cris 12 chrebet 0 ellard x l'well 7
flute 6 ogary 0 maurice 9 towens 27 gardner 0 dclark 0 richey 8
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Everyone Go Deep 32
Cleveland Steamers 29

GM Vesh tried to pull another fast one on the League Office this week. Digging up a depth chart email from Sept 18 showing Emmitt ahead of JJackson in RB depth, Vesh tried to get Emmitt's Monday Night action in play against Gary's Everyone Go Deep (9 pts which would indeed have given Vesh the victory). But the League Secretary wasn't going for it - noting an email from Cleveland Steamers' HQs over a week later than the 9/18 one which clearly showed GM Vesh moving JJackson ahead of Emmitt. GM Gary's performance this week reminded the WIR staff of years past when only QBs, PKs and #1 RBs would score. Since the yardage bonus level for RBs/WRs/TEs was lowered to 50 last season, seeing only 1 of those 5 starters score is quite a rarity. Gary's bench outscored Adam's 15-14 in a barnburner to avoid taking a scrub win - and to avoid giving Adam a scrub loss.

peyton 9 jstew 12 tjones 0 rwayne 0 twilkins 0 hardy 0 nedney 11
greasy 9 ahman 9 jjax 0 mcknight 0 trb'n 6 conwell 0 stover 5
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Uffdalators 48
Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids 32

Losing the QB matchup 24-0 usually results in a loss, but 30 from the Uffdalators RBs led Kevin to victory over the Tiki-less and Moulds-free Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids. Kevin survived his 4th 0 in 5 weeks from the QB spot. Adam accidentally dropped the wrong Vike RB - as TPrentice hit paydirt against Detroilet. I'm running out of things to say about this game... uh... it's good to have Adam back making transactions. We'll see if he can get his RB situation figured out. If Kevin can get out of his gotta-have-a-Seahawk-QB mindset (he might as well be starting DKrieg), Uffdalators would be quite formidable.

dilfer 0 rw''ms 15 dillon 15 tib'n 6 amani 3 sharpe 0 cahney 9
garcia 24 mgreen 0 chpmn 0 mrob'son 0 hakim 3 fjones 0 mare 5
--------------------------------------------------------
Jersey Juggernauts 22
Brooding Unicorn Blithe Elephant 41

At 10am on Sunday, the League Office immediately launched an investigation regarding point-shaving allegations made against GM John. When John did not call in an updated d chart (after repeated email reminders) on Sunday morning, Vegas bookmakers immediately pulled this contest from its board. Not being aware of WDunn's sudden re-emergence from the DL might have passed under the radar screen. But leaving KC FB JWilliams in the starting lineup? Leaving TGreen in as the starting QB over vINTy? And choosing Tony Zendejas to handle place-kicking chores this week?!? Something smells rotten in Jersey Juggernauts HQs - and we're not talking about Elizabeth! MHarrison did come back from his bye week to perform admirably. But despite GM Wang picking incorrectly again at QB (Batch-Kitna), RB (CMartin-LSmith) and WR (KevJohnson-Boston), BUBE was able to beat the short-handed 'nuts.

green 1 jermaine 0 bus 6 snoop 0 mhar'son 15 ejohnson 0 zendejas x
kitna 7 lt'son 9 lsmith 9 keyshawn 6 boston 3 byron 0 ganderson 7

PERSONAL ATTENTION

Some among our ranks have suggested to me that we enlist the services of an online conglomerate to run the transactions/stats/scores of RFL. Having played fantasy baseball on 3 different online stat services, I cannot argue with the overall timeliness and accuracy of these sites. However, an experience this past baseball season has reaffirmed my belief that we *MUST* keep RFL separate from the rest of the ''cyberworld.''

DATABASE DISASTER

As the baseball season was winding down, Wanger's Fire in the Hole was caught up in a fierce espn.com World Series duel with DAC's All World-2. Late on a Tuesday night, both teams apparently tried to call up the same free agent pitcher at the same time. The transaction executed successfully for All World-2, but espn.com's database fouled up the Fire in the Hole roster - dropping a pitcher from Wang's roster even though Wang did not get the free agent. The result... an "Empty" spot on Wang's roster that prevented him from making *ANY* type of roster move (free agent callup, shuffling players between the active roster and the bench, etc.).

CUSTOMER ''SERVICE''

You would think that such an error would set off some sort of flag for espn.com's tech support to address. Wang was not so fortunate. The only recourse... sending an email to some generic espn.com address - with an estimated auto-reply time of ''4 to 5 business days.'' The beauty of it all... this database screwup happened with 5 days total (3 business days) left in the season. Wang received the auto-reply 5 business days later (after the season had ended) - with suggestions like...
1) reboot your computer,
2) upgrade your browser, and
3) make sure your monitor is plugged in.

NO WORSE NIGHTMARE?

Can you imagine getting your RFL team into the Ags Bowl only to see that you could not change your d chart for that game - with your PK out on a bye, a starting RB injured, and your 2 starting WRs on teams which have clinched homefield for the NFL playoffs?!? I wouldn't wish such torture on any of you.

EXTREME EXPANSION?

With Wally waiting a year for Joebob to stop leeching off his Minions and 2 other firm commitments to join RFL next year, the League Office will be faced with quite a dilemma. Will there be 3 GMs stepping down after this season? Can RFL expand to 18 or 20 teams next year? Or will RFL need to spin off a second League in 2002?

*********************
* RFL GM Profiles: *
*********************
Joebob called in to say that his typewriter broke down this week. It's always one thing or another with this guy! We offload GM duties to Wally... and Joebob *still* can't manage his lightened workload! :-(
********************************************************
SEASON POINTS LEADERS
*********************
QB
68 Daunte Culpepper (Boobies!)
61 Kurt Warner (Pimps de la Nast)
60 Jeff Garcia (Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids)

RB
66 Marshall Faulk (Mahatma's Minions)
54 Priest Holmes (Having a Hard Time)
51 LaDainian Tomlinson (Brooding Unicorn Blithe Elephant)
51 Shaun Alexander (Dude)
48 Ahman Green (Cleveland Steamers)
48 Ricky Williams (Uffdalators)

WR
57 Terrell Owens (Invasive Species)
54 Rod Smith (Mahatma's Minions)
39 Marvin Harrison (Jersey Juggernauts)
30 Cris Carter (Pimps de la Nast)
27 Jimmy Smith (Cleveland Steamers)
27 Jerry Rice (Short-Changed Bastards of Persia)
27 Amani Toomer (Uffdalators)
27 Torry Holt (Boobies!)

TE
30 Bubba Franks (Boobies!)
27 Wesley Walls (Mahatma's Minions)
20 Tony Gonzalez (Fighting Poopy Diapers)

PK
45 Sebastian Janikowski (Dude)
44 Jose Cortez (Blue Collar Workers)
38 Jeff Wilkins (Black Knights of the Charles)

be sure to check:
The Season Points Leaders Page
...for a more complete listing of scoring leaders.

JoePa	Advantage	Stan
ABrooks		DFlutie
MBennett		MSmith
TBiakabutuka		OGary
MMuhammad		TGlenn
BSchroeder		DAlexander
JRiemersma		DClark
JWilkins		WRichey

2 of RFL's more respected GMs meet this week in a virtual ''knock-out'' game. A win for JoePa and his BKotC, and they just might have a chance to turn things around in time to nab a playoff spot. A loss for Stan and his Invasive Species, and the unthinkable (3 straight years out of the playoffs) might become a reality. Yes, it's true... Stan has missed the postseason 2 straight years since Foxy Brown won Aglione Bowl IX. Stan will be missing TOwens this week, but TGlenn has returned the Invasive Species lineup at a most opportune time. JoePa is still missing FTaylor.
Look for ABrooks to give JoePa a 3 pt edge at QB, and for the RBs to be about even. JoePa also appears to have slight edges at TE and PK, so it should be up to the WRs if Stan wants to win this one. Schroeder is a little dinged for JoePa, but he's still perhaps a better option than Qadry. Stan will be choosing between DAlexander and MarTAY for his 2nd WR. Choose wisely, guys!

**** JoePa's older (so he's wiser?), Black Knights by 6 ****

11-Uffdalators (4-1, 41.4) by 27 over 1-Blue Collar Workers (1-4, 21.4)
The WIR Staff questions Brad's McNair pickup. Kevin should win with his RBs alone.

2-Mahatma's Minions (5-0, 52.4) by 8 over 10-Everyone Go Deep (3-2, 32.2)
Gary gets 1st crack at Faulk-less Minions. Which AFreeman will show up? Wally has assembled enough talent to get by without Faulk this week.

3-Having a Hard Time (3-2, 43.6) by 1 over 9-Pimps de la Nast (0-5, 36.2)
Richard's RBs against Shiv's passing game will provide the highlights. Richard's passing game will win the game for HaHT.

4-Boobies! (3-2, 47.4) by 5 over 12-Jersey Juggernauts (2-3, 25.4)
Strong games from John's WRs could tip this one in his favor. C'pepper and overall balance should be enough for a Cals victory, though.

14-Cleveland Steamers (1-4, 37.2) by 3 over 6-Dude (4-1, 45.0)
Clark needs his passing game to come up big. Vesh appears due for a breakout performance.

7-Short-Changed Bastards of Persia (4-1, 31.4) by 12 over 13-Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids (1-4, 29.8)
Ali's Moss will start rolling... NOW! Adam would've had a shot if Garcia wasn't out.

16-Brooding Unicorn Blithe Elephant (4-1, 45.6) by 4 over 8-Fighting Poopy Diapers (2-3, 27.6)
Wang's missing Lamar - and needs to hope TonyG doesn't explode. Brodz' WRs are due for some big pts.

©1999-2001 RFL Inc.
All rights reserved.

Revised: October 16, 2001