Saturday night... I sit down to watch the Rebels-Razorbacks game and the Yankees-Diamondbacks game on my TVs. After 2 innings, I know Game 6 is over and turn that TV off. 7 OTs later, Ole Miss loses to Arkansas 58-56. Also on Saturday, the Knicks lost to the Bulls! Ugh.
Sunday... the Cowboys jump out to 17-0 and 24-7 leads on the G-men - only to have Clint Stoerner throw INTs on 4 consecutive 2nd half possessions. In comes Ryan Leaf... game lost. And then to cap the weekend off... the D'backs stage a 9th inning rally to snatch the World Series away from the Yankees.
Would Monday Night mean more of the same for BUBE against Uffdalators?

MINIONS LOSE

Taking advantage of the bye week for MFaulk, TCanidate and IBruce... Fighting Poopy Diapers hung ''L'' number 1 on Mahatma's Minions. Even though hopes of a perfect season have been dashed, the Minions still project to be the Steamroller winners. The 6 teams currently projected to finish between #2 and #7 (not in seed order): Having a Hard Time, Dude, Uffdalators, Cleveland Steamers, Invasive Species and BUBE. The last spot in the postseason is now projected to go to a 6-8 team (Boobies!, Fighting Poopy Diapers or Jersey Juggernauts)!

HOTTY TODDY

The Yankees Lose (16 team wins) division only managed 1 win against the Rebels Lose (16) division, while the Cowboys Lose (14) division also dropped 3 of 4 contests to the Knicks Lose (18) division.
Despite the 1-4 and 0-3 starts for Vesh and Stan, the Knicks Lose division has bounced back to establish itself as the strongest division in the League. If only Adam would start pulling his weight...

Highest scoring team: Mahatma's Minions - 49.8 ppg
Lowest scoring team: Blue Collar Workers - 20.6 ppg
Toughest defense: Mahatma's Minions and Cleveland Steamers - 28.5 ppg
Softest defense: Black Knights of the Charles - 47.3 ppg
League scoring average: 35.8 ppg (last year 38.7)

JoePa still has gotten the 3 bonus QB pts every week.

Getting to the bloody point... on to WIR #8!

****************************
**** GAME OF THE WEEK ****
****************************
Having a Hard Time 39
Black Knights of the Charles 22

Even with Mariano Rivera failing to pick up blitzes for Favre, Having a Hard Time still managed to forge their way to a 17-pt victory under the glare of Week 8's GOTW. Had GM Richard started Air ''and Ground Assault'' McNair, HaHT would have won 60-22! Looks like Richard has another QB controversy on his hands (after previously getting rid of Gannon)! Richard's 2 former BUBE stars (LT and KJ) combined for 18 this week. Richard's *other* 2 Colts also combined for 18. Black Knights of the Charles slip to 2-6 with this loss. The balance of the BKotC regular season schedule is not as difficult as most, but should prove to be too much to overcome. Fred Taylor failed to return for this one - as a Fred T in his prime could easily have made up the 17-pt difference. None of JoePa's 7 starters scored more than 6 - as BKotC were led by KFaulk and their TE... not a good sign.

favre 3 rivera X ltom'son 9 kevinj 9 b'ford 0 pollard 6 v'jagt 12
brooks 3 elvisj 0 kfaulk 6 muhsin 0 qadry 3 riemer 6 kbrown 4
--------------------------------------------------------
Blue Collar Workers 24
Short-Changed Bastards of Persia 42

Weinker has completely fallen out of consideration for RFL Rookie of the Year. Yes, playing against the better defenses in RFL this year is much more mentally demanding than last year - when Weinke was a 30 year-old playing against 18-22 year-olds. GM Brad will need to go with another QB soon - unless he's playing for a better pick in next season's Draft. Priest's 15 pts were wasted this week - as the other 6 Blue Collar Workers combined for a very un-white-collar-like 9. After losing their last 3 in a row, Short-Changed Bastards of Persia bounced back to improve their record to 5-3. GM Ali survived his Randy Moss bye week with surprise TDs from Laveranueseanusaeunsnueasneaus Coles and Kyle Brady. DMcNabb and JHall pitched in with 19, and the RBs ran up the score with 8 more on Monday Night. Ali now must face a Tailhook-ian gauntlet of Wang-Kevin-Cals-Stan over the next 4 weeks.

weinke 0 priest 15 duce 0 dterrell 0 oronde 6 becht 0 cortez 3
mcnabb 9 ma'son 5 garner 3 lcoles 6 hward 3 kbrady 6 hall 10
--------------------------------------------------------
Mahatma's Minions 35
Fighting Poopy Diapers 45

Out of sight from the rest of the League... many backroom dealings and shenanigans took place - resulting in Joebob buying Wally out to reclaim Mahatma's Minions last Friday. The effect on the club was instantly evident as the Minions lost for the first time in 8 games. Former GM Wally clearly would have been able to fire up Rod and Elam to complete a miraculous Monday Night come-from-behind victory. Under new-boss-same-as-the-old-old-boss Joebob, Rod and Elam only came up with 23. With the win (coupled with an apparent Boobies! collapse), Baby Brodz has jumped right back into the thick of the race for the final playoff spot - despite a 3-5 record. Fighting Poopy Diapers looks to be competing with Cals and John for that #8 spot. In a 3-way tie... John is 2-0, Brodz is 1-1, and Cals is 0-2. Ali and Gary could also force their ways into this battle royale - with cheese.

brunell 6 huntley 3 dayne 3 rod 17 tmathis 0 walls 0 elam 6
couch 9 sdavis 15 kevan 3 graham 3 horn 3 tonyg 3 mort 9
--------------------------------------------------------
Boobies! 18
Dude 44

Dude, what has happened to Boobies!?!? 3 straight losses have reduced Boobies! to a 3-5 record. With Culpepper and Holt out this week for unspecified plastic surgical procedures, GM Cals' passing game was essentially shut down. 6 from Banks was nice, 0s from DHoward and TPinkston were expected, but 0 for Booba was the shocker. If Cals can't get his WR situation fixed up, Boobies! will get squeezed out of the playoffs. Dude's last minute switch at QB proved to be the right move. Kerry outpointed Fiddler 12-6. But benching EGeorge (6) in favor of LCenters (0)?!? Eddie was quick to point out the friendship between Clark and Cals as the main reason for Clark not wanting to ''run up the score.'' Shaun Alexander (T-4th in RB pts) and MarTay Booker (T-11th in WR pts) continue to put up nice numbers for GM Clark. Seabass J'kow has escaped further scrapes with the law for now.

tbanks 6 hearst 3 antowain 6 desmond 0 pinky 0 bubba 0 akers 3
kerry 12 centers 0 shaun 12 conway 3 booker 9 sloan 0 j'kow 8
--------------------------------------------------------
Pimps de la Nast 24
Cleveland Steamers 56

Shiv is getting into dangerous territory now. GM Gary's 12 Angry Men started the '99 season 0-9 before beating Brian Grayeski's nameless (and talentless) bunch of bums to finally taste victory. Pimps de la Nast should lose to Joebob next - before having a shot at dubya #1 against JoePa in Week 10. Brad Johnson filled in nicely for KWarner, but none of the other Pimps gave Shiv any ''business.'' Troy Brown scored his 3rd consecutive dozen for Vesh. Ahman returned from his bye week refreshed and reinvigorated to rumble for his 2nd highest pt total of the season. Cleveland Steamers have evened their record at 4-4 - after sitting ugly at 1-4 3 weeks ago. With JoePa-Cals-John-Brodz coming up on the schedule, Vesh is looking to win all 4 - to solidify his spot in the playoffs. James Jackson is the key. If the Brownie RB can be half the RB Ahman is, Vesh should be feared.

bj 9 tdavis 3 hambrick 3 chrebet 3 wjax 0 chad 3 l'well 3
greasy 10 jjax 3 ahman 18 jsmith 6 trb'n 12 wiggy 0 stover 7
--------------------------------------------------------
Everyone Go Deep 40
Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids 35

Gary desperately needed this win to get back into the playoff hunt at 4-4. The keys for Everyone Go Deep were 1) the 33-yard bootleg for a TD by PManning, and 2) backing into DRhodes' dozen when JStewart could not suit up against the Niners. AFreeman appears to be coming around for EGD, but problems persist for Gary at RB, WR #2 and TE. After what should be a W against Brad this weekend, Gary might need to win 2 against Brodz, Wang, Cals, John and Kevin down the stretch to nab a playoff spot. Adam is looking to be the sibling that Vesh-Stan-Wang don't like to talk about. At 2-6, Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids is the only team with a losing record in the Knicks Lose division. Led by Jeff, Fredo and Olindo... RRR put up a fierce fight against EGD. But with no production from the WRs and RB #2, RRR came up short. Eli Manning dressed as a WR for Adam, but failed to make any plays.

peyton 12 dominic 12 tjones 0 keenan 3 freeman 9 alge 0 nedney 4
jgarcia 15 tiki 3 mgreen 0 eli X moulds 0 fjones 6 mare 11
--------------------------------------------------------
Uffdalators 43 (3)
Brooding Unicorn Blithe Elephant 43 (3+)

With a 6-pt lead heading into MNF, BUBE looked relatively secure in hanging onto this one. But when BUBE QB Gannon disobeyed a direct order from GM Wang (''Do NOT throw more than 1 TD to Tim Brown!''), all hell broke loose. But who could blame Gannon? After throwing just the 1 TD to GM Kevin's TBrown, Gannon got knocked unconscious in the 2nd quarter. When Gannon came back into the game, he clearly had forgotten the pre-concussion stuff ever happened. Sure enough... Gannon threw TD #2 to Brown - tying Uffdalators with BUBE 43-all. It all came down to the Raiders final TD drive. After a Raider LB picked off Greasy and returned the pick all the way to the Denver 2, TBrown was *calling* for TD #3... but Wang was able to get word to Chucky to ''run the damn ball!'' Thank goodness GM Kevin was missing CDillon on his bye week. More proof that the stars were aligned in Wang's favor... the woeful Jets D inexplicably held RWilliams and JCarney to 10 pts.
Scrub loss for Kevin (1-1)

h'beck 0 rw''ms 9 thenry 3 tibrown 18 amani 3 sharpe 9 cahney 1
gannon 12 atrain 15 lsmith 0 morton 0 boston 6 moore 6 feely 4

U bench: rc'ham 3 jmiller X jbrookins 0 cdillon X pwarrick X
BUBE bench: mgramatica 8 ...
--------------------------------------------------------
Jersey Juggernauts 33
Invasive Species 38

More Monday Night drama in this contest as Stan needed a TD or 100 yds from Desmond Clark to pull this one out. Things were looking pretty good for John. After a 1st half in which all the Denver pts came on FGs (and a vast majority of the TE touches went to Carswell), Greasy accidentally threw towards ''88'' instead of ''80'' for Denver's 1st TD in the 4th quarter. A 5th consecutive victory was Stan's! I cannot remember a game ever coming down to the TE and PK matchups like this one. The Jersey Juggernauts and Invasive Species QBs, RBs and WRs all literally canceled each other out. Once GM John was unable to outscore Stan in the RB matchup, JJ was in trouble - despite the fact that EJohnson scored the 1st ever RFL pts for a Yalie. A 3-3 finish for Stan over the next 6 weeks will have IS comfortably into the postseason. As noted above, John appears to have the inside track on the #8 seed - as long as he finishes tied with Cals, Brodz and/or Ali.
Scrub win for Stan (2-1)

green 0 wdunn 0 bus 3 thrash 18 mhar'son 0 ej'son 6 hollis 6
flute 0 lwarren 0 maurice 3 towens 18 rgardner 0 dclark 9 richey 8

A TIME FOR REFLECTION

As I licked my wounds from this past weekend's humbling losses... I found myself seeking the comfort of the 1999 season's WIR #17.
Aaahhh... winning an Aglione Bowl championship! ...and doing it with a lineup of Tony Banks, Byron Hanspard, Mario Bates, Patrick Jeffers, Jason Tucker, Dave Moore and Olindo Mare. It's hard to imagine that we are less than 2 years removed from that game. If anyone tried to start those 7 stiffs this year, they'd be *much* worse off than Shiv or Brad!
Those guys also managed to score 43 points that day in the era BEFORE the bonus pt yardage levels were reduced from 300-100 to 200-50!
Not to mention that my seven scrubs managed to beat JoePa's staunch seven of Air McNair, Edgerrin James, Ricky Williams, Amani Toomer, Derrick Alexander, Jay Riemersma and John Carney!

POSITIONAL SCORING BY FRANCHISE

QB:
1st - Cals 92 (Culpepper)
1st - Gary 92 (Manning)
3rd - Shiv 85 (Warner)
16th - Kevin 15 (Hasselbeck)

RB:
1st - Wang 168 (Martin, LSmith, ATrain, Tomlinson)
2nd - Kevin 150 (Dillon, RWilliams, THenry)
3rd - Richard 149 (Edgerrin, Tomlinson, Priest)
16th - Adam 24 (Tiki, Jamal Lewis)

WR:
1st - Joebob 122 (Rod, Isaac)
2nd - John 114 (MHarrison, Thrash)
2nd - Stan 114 (TO, Gardner, DAlexander, TGlenn)
16th - Brad 12 (TStreets, JJStokes)

TE:
1st - Cals 36 (Booba Franks)
2nd - Brodz 35 (TGonzalez)
3rd - Joebob 33 (WWalls)
16th - Gary 3 (RDudley, THardy, Carlester's bro)

PK:
1st - Kevin 66 (Cahney)
2nd - Clark 61 (Seabass J-kow)
3rd - Brad and Gary 60 (JCortez and Del Greco's replacement)
16th - John 36 (Hollis and Zendejas)

****************************************************************
* RFL GM Profiles: Dave Brodkin, Co-GM, Fighting Poopy Diapers *
****************************************************************
Apparently... we are experiencing some email ''issues'' between Brodz and Joebob and RFL HQs. Hopefully we'll have this interview posted on the RFL site shortly.

This has been an RFL interview. The rights to all proceeds made from this interview belong to the RFL WIR and exclusively to the RFL WIR.
********************************************************
SEASON POINTS LEADERS
*********************
QB
89 Peyton Manning (Everyone Go Deep)
86 Daunte Culpepper (Boobies!)
84 Jeff Garcia (Rabbis Rappin' on 'Roids)

RB
78 Priest Holmes (Blue Collar Workers)
72 Corey Dillon (Uffdalators)
72 Ahman Green (Cleveland Steamers)
66 Marshall Faulk (Mahatma's Minions)
66 LaDainian Tomlinson (Having a Hard Time)
66 Ricky Williams (Uffdalators)
66 Shaun Alexander (Dude)

WR
89 Rod Smith (Mahatma's Minions)
78 Terrell Owens (Invasive Species)
63 Marvin Harrison (Jersey Juggernauts)
48 James Thrash (Jersey Juggernauts)
45 Troy Brown (Cleveland Steamers)
42 Cris Carter (Pimps de la Nast)
42 Amani Toomer (Uffdalators)
42 Tim Brown (Uffdalators)

TE
36 Bubba Franks (Boobies!)
35 Tony Gonzalez (Fighting Poopy Diapers)
33 Wesley Walls (Mahatma's Minions)

PK
61 Sebastian Janikowski (Dude)
55 Jeff Wilkins (Black Knights of the Charles)
55 John Carney (Uffdalators)

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

Clark	Advantage	Adam
KCollins		JGarcia
SAlexander		TBarber
EGeorge		DChapman
MBooker		EMoulds
CConway		A-ZHakim
DSloan		FJones
SJanikowski		OMare

Clark has been very quietly putting together a very solid season with Dude this year. Currently at 6-2, Dude should be able to finish the regular season at 12-2 or 11-3.
At the other end of the spectrum, the silence from Adam this year has been deafening. Despite a poor Draft, great expectations still were attached to the RRR franchise - as Adam took RFL international this season. The long distance relationship between Adam and his team - despite all the benefits of the internet age - has clearly resulted in rudder-less performances by the Rappin' Rabbis every week.
For Adam to have a chance against Clark, he will need JGarcia to have an even better than usual game. TBarber and EMoulds will also need to break out of their slumps. Surprise pts from Hakim, Freddie and Mare would be nice, too.
If Clark gets an average game out of his dudes, he should win easily. KCollins will look to keep pace with Garcia - while SAlexander and EGeorge will look to take as much advantage as possible in the RB matchup. If Dude's pass-catchers can hang with RRR's, Clark will certainly be 7-2.

**** Garcia just might steal this one, but... Dude by 5 ****

10-Everyone Go Deep (4-4, 31.3) by 6 over 1-Blue Collar Workers (1-7, 20.6)
Brad looks to get his RBs going. Gary's getting Manning-to-Freeman warmed up.

2-Mahatma's Minions (7-1, 49.8) by 7 over 9-Pimps de la Nast (0-8, 31.4)
Joebob gets Faulk and Isaac back, but Shiv has TDavis looking good again - and CCarter back (and maybe even Tyrone Wheatley).

12-Jersey Juggernauts (4-4, 31.9) by 3 over 3-Having a Hard Time (5-3, 39.9)
Richard's hopes hinge on a healthy Edgerrin. A healthy WDunn and the right starting QB might be enough for John.

11-Uffdalators (6-2, 42.8) by 8 over 4-Boobies! (3-5, 39.6)
Cals gets Daunte and Torry back, but Kevin's RBs and WRs should overcome Cals' big QB edge.

14-Cleveland Steamers (4-4, 40.8) by 13 over 5-Black Knights of the Charles (2-6, 30.5)
JoePa needs FredT and Muhsin to come up big. Vesh's Steamers have improved their scoring output 3 straight weeks.

16-Brooding Unicorn Blithe Elephant (7-1, 44.0) by 4 over 7-Short-Changed Bastards of Persia (5-3, 30.5)
Which RMoss will show up for Ali? Ali's running game hurt by TDavis' return. Wang's WRs are key in this one.

8-Fighting Poopy Diapers (3-5, 31.5) by 1 over 15-Invasive Species (5-3, 36.1)
Brodz should get a big game from TGonzalez - and TCouch might be ready to take over under center. Flutie's injury isn't helping Stan's running game.

©1999-2001 RFL Inc.
All rights reserved.

Revised: November 6, 2001