After 5 weeks of RFL action, league has taken an amazing turn back to the middle. Only one team, Bust a Nut, remains at 4-1, after their resounding ** GAME * OF * THE * WEEK ** victory over the Mighty Mighty Gnomes (3-2). Two teams (The Surge at 1-4 and Blade Runners at 0-5) stay mired in the cellar, while the remaining 13 teams are swamped together at 3-2 and 2-3. Never before have we seen such parity at this point in the season! The next few weeks will be very interesting to watch, as we find out who the real contenders will be this year.

TRADES!! TRADES!! TRADES!! TRADES!!

This week saw the advent of inter-team trades for the first time in RFL'97. Small time indeed, however- no big name players have changed hands yet. Fiends Uv Carnal Knowledge sent QB Warren Moon over to Grandma's Cussin in exchange for QB Todd Collins. In an even less glamorous collaboration, The Surge sent 5-time all-RFL TE phenomenon DAVID SLOAN to Potential for Destruction in exchange for the wildly successful WR Bobby Engram. Yuck! Where's the blockbusters!!!

HOT-AIR BALOON RIDE ENDS IN TRAGEDY

Hey, pay your entry fees, you slobs!

****************************
**** GAME OF THE WEEK ****
****************************
Bust a Nut (by Bombyx) 46
Mighty Mighty Gnomes 15

Bust a Nut stampedes over the Meager Meager Gnomes, once again with only 3 guys scoring! QB Jeff George is flashing MVP numbers each week, while WR Tony Martin finally burst out of his shell with a whopping 24 points this week. To top it all off, aging rock stars Mick Jagger & Keith Richards took time off from preparations for their upcoming worldwide tour to share kicking duties for Bust a Nut this week.

george 13 watters 0 anderson 9 martin 24 smith 0 jones 0 xxxxx 0
elway 9 levens 3 bates 0 mccaffrey 0 stokes 0 crumpler 0 kasay 3
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Red Rover 28
Blade Runners 21

The woeful Blade Runners drop their 5th straight, despite their 2nd best effort of the year. Keep trying guys! Red Rover has been a model of consistency this year, albeit modest consistency, never scoring less than 26 points.

favre 3 stewart 0 dunn 0 galloway 6 mccardell 0 sharpe 9 delgreco 10
chandler 6 smith 0 davis 0 scott 6 johnson 6 gonzales 0 ford 3
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Gaseous Wombats 36
Team Desai 19

The Wombats stomped out Team Desai this week, thanks to their strong RB attack of Terry Allen & Nap Kaufman. A staunch defensive display denied end zone entrance to the mighty Kimble Anders this week.

dilfer 6 sanders 6 anders 0 brooks 6 hastings 0 green 0 elam 1
mirer 0 allen 6 kaufman 12 irvin 9 kennison 0 walls 0 stover 9
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Cream Machine 42
Chortling Tushy Whackers 18

Wang's boys come up big this week, despite their continued RB/WR struggles! TE RIckey Dudley was the man, scoring a career-high 15, attained mainly by getting his fat ass in the way of balls intended for a wide-open Tim Brown. Brods' Boys fall to a meager 2-3, but beware! Quoth the BRODZ: "Remember, Luscious Brodkin got off to a slow start last year!"

detmer 9 phillips 0 mcelroy 0 moore 3 calloway 6 dudley 15 opie 9
blake 6 brown 0 barber 0 freeman 0 alexander 0 asher 6 blanton 6
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The Surge 41
Landlord Luggage 29

The Surge nets their long-awaited first career victory for rookie GM Dylan Steeg. A balanced attack led by Steve Young & Irving Fryar (9 each) powered the Surge over the top. RFL Star Terrell Davis was joined in the Luggage backfield this week by kids' favorite, "Bob" from Sesame Street.When asked for comment on his RFL debut, Bob blamed the paltry performance on a bad dose from Mr. Hooper's "shop".

young 9 johnson 0 harris 3 fryar 9 morton 0 wycheck 8 hollis 12
banks 6 davis 10 xxxxx 0 carter 6 sanders 0 mitchell 0 boniol 7
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Ravaging Romanians 19
Grandma's Cussin' 12

Stan made a fateful error this week, in entrusting his kicking duties to cartoon icon Waylon Smithers, in an act of unblemished arrogance to the ineptitude of the Fumbling Romanians. Normally a competent shoe, Smithers was too busy scrubbing hemerrhoids from Mr. Burns' tender backside. After coming over from the F Uv Carnal K, QB Warren Moon got the nod for his new team this week, in support of the bye-weeked Drew Bledsoe. It was not enough however, as the soon-to-be *** LEGENDARY *** Romanians combo of Kent Graham to Rob Moore lit it up for 16.

graham 7 autry 0 garner 0 moore 9 chrebet 0 pupunu 0 jaeger 3
moon 6 centers 0 alstott 0 emanuel 6 graham 0 brady 0 xxxxx 0
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Fiends Uv Carnal Knowledge 47
Potential for Destruction 19

Jake Reed was the only Pot4Dest to keep it up this week, scoring 9 in the losing effort. Meanwhile, Fiends RB Robert Smith busted thru for a season high 15, leading an attack which included points from 6 of 7 starters.

vinny 4 smith 15 kirby 6 jackson 2 owens 6 mcgee 0 hanson 14
mitchell 3 george 0 means 0 reed 9 smith 0 santiago 0 hall 7
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Blackhearts 40
Stoked Salmon 15

The Blackhearts come up big for the 2nd week in a row, and this time get a win to show for it. Huge production from the backfield trio of BRAD (9), Murrell, and Hearst (12 each) led the way. This week saw the RFL'97 debut of last year's suprise QB Mark Brunell, who scored 0 for Stoked Salmon in the losing effort.

johnson 9 murrell 12 hearst 12 pickens 6 metcalf 0 chmura 0 husted 1
brunell 0 bettis 0 dillon 0 brown 0 miller 6 popson 0 longwell 9
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* Roster Responsibilities

Immediately following the publishing of this WIR, a league roster will be mailed out to the mailing list. Two files will be sent, one is a MS-Excel 97 file. If you can't read that, a text file is also attached.

OK -> IMPORTANT!!!!!!! It is not the commissioner's responsibility to supply you with updated rosters at your convenience!!!! That is why we publish weekly transactions!!!!! If you want to know who is available, get off your lazy ass and update your own copy of the roster!!!! RFL is not to be spoon-fed to you smarmy sloths!!!!!

* Dibs Rule

People have been complaining about not knowing that certain players were dropped during the week, when they could have picked up those players for the coming game. So, from now on (unless I'm not here) I will publish transactions to date not only in the WIR, but also in a special mailing on friday afternoon.

Remember the dibs rule goes as follows for newly-dropped free agents: There is a 24 hour "waivers period" that must pass between the time the drop is published (WIR or friday update) and when he can be picked up by a new team. During that 24 hour period, the normal dibs rule applies, with ONE CAVEAT! The team that recently dropped the player has LAST DIBS, regardless of record. This is to ensure it becomes a little more risky to drop those good players for an emergency one-week starter. After all, the roster size is 12, not 13. We here at RFLHQ like to discourage such shady dealings.

* Entry Fees

Thank yous go out to Lance Harry and Joe Parker, who have added their names to the honorable list of RFL truehearts. The rest of you slackers, please don't antagonize the commissioner any longer! Send your checks today to:

RFLHQ
405 xxxxxxx Ave.
Los Altos, CA 94024

********************************************************
SEASON POINTS LEADERS
*********************
QB
49 Jeff George (Bust a Nut)
42 Drew Bledsoe (Grandma's Cussin')
39 Brad Johnson (Blackhearts)

RB
46 Terrell Davis (Landlord Luggage)
39 Robert Smith (Fiends Uv Carnal Knowledge)
36 Curtis Martin (Chortling Tushy Whackers)
36 Napolean Kaufman (Gaseous Wombats)
33 Raymont Harris (The Surge)
30 MAlstott (Grandma's Cussin'), WDunn (Red Rover) & BSanders (Team Desai)

WR
42 Tim Brown (Stoked Salmon)
36 Jake Reed (Potential for Destruction)
36 Cris Carter (Landlord Luggage)
33 Herman Moore (Cream Machine)
30 Jimmy Smith (Bust a Nut)

TE
27 Wesley Walls (Gaseous Wombats)
27 Rickey Dudley (Cream Machine)

PK
49 Ryan Longwell (Stoked Salmon)
36 Jason Elam (Team Desai)
34 Adam Vinatieri (Grandma's Cussin')

A critical juncture in the season for both these teams; Blackhearts have shown steady improvement throughout the season, culminating in their convincing 40-15 rout of then-1st-place Stoked Salmon last week. Potential for Destruction has been up & down, but posess perhaps the most explosive lineup in RFL. The matchups:

Kevin	Advantage	JoePa
Scott Mitchell		Brad Johnson
Eddie George		Adrian Murrell
Natrone Means		Errict Rhett
Jake Reed		Carl Pickens
Rod Smith		Eric Metcalf
David Sloan		Eric Bjornson
John Hall		Michael Husted

The most notable absence this week is Garrison Hearst of the Blackhearts, who sits with a bye week. Blackhearts will rely heavily on Brad Johnson, Murrell, and Pickens to keep pace with P4D's high octane RBs and WRs. The loss of TE OJ Santiago to a bye week could prove devastating for P4D!!!!

*** Cals' Line: P4D by 8 ***

Lineups due by 1pm eastern sunday!!!!
(but preferably by friday afternoon!)
RFL Hotline: (415) xxx-1619

©1999-2001 RFL Inc.
All rights reserved.

Revised: August 7, 2001