NOTE: Please pardon all the self-indulgent drivel in this WIR, but winning Aglione Bowl X was a high point in my mundane-to-date life! :-)

Your humbled WIR Editor has won 3 baseball championships (out of 13 seasons) and a basketball championship (out of 1 season), but those were season-long leagues. There were no W's or L's each week and no "sudden death" playoffs in those leagues. Winning Aglione Bowl X was every bit as sweet as my first baseball championship. Making it to - and winning - my first Aglione Bowl (in my 5th RFL season, 6 fantasy football seasons overall) was my most nerve-racking experience ever in fantasy sports. As I mentioned in this week's Monday Madness, I hope all you guys have the chance to experience the feeling of winning an Ags Bowl.

I would like to congratulate JoePa and his Black Sox for being a most worthy Aglione Bowl opponent - and for the fabulous season the Black Sox had. I would also like to acknowledge the fine campaigns waged by Brodz, Vesh, Dylan, and Kevin. I also empathize with the bad luck dealt to everyone else. With the exception of one GM (do you even know who you are?!?), :-) I know you all deserved better fates this year. I look forward to beginning the defense of my title against you guys in September.

The top scoring teams: FU (34.5) and SLAB (33.7)
The lowest scoring teams: 12 Angry Men (16.9) and Brian (18.5)
The League scoring average was: 27.1
The worst D: Brian's bums (30.5)
The best D: Bladerunners (24.4)

Enough random babbling... on to WIR #17!

************************
**** AGLIONE BOWL X ****
************************
Ferocious Underwear 43
The South Side Black Sox 9

Previous meeting: Week 2 GOTW... Black Sox 21 FU 4
When I submitted my Aglione Bowl d chart, I found it hard to believe that I was entrusting my Championship hopes to 4 guys who had 0 pts this year (MarioBates, BHanspard, JTucker, and DMoore), a guy with 3 pts (TBanks), a Week 9 call up (PJeffers), and OMare. I thought JoePa just might *pound* me again - just like in Week 2's GOTW. Simply put... I got WAY lucky.
I figured I'd keep myself from going nuts by taking in the "Any Given Sunday" matinee (and putting on my luckiest shirt), but just as I left my apartment... "Warner TD pass to Faulk" appeared on the bottom of my TV screen (I'd dropped both before the game). I could not have imagined a worse omen. While I was driving to the theater, I listened to game updates on ESPN Radio. Carolina scored on 2 TD passes (neither to Jeffers) and a FG (I'd benched Opie). TB-CHI was looking like it'd be a scoreless draw (no pts for Moore), Baltimore kicked a FG after 1st and goal at the 1 (no TBanks TD run?!?), and GB was looking to blow out AZ (no running for Bates). Everything was looking grim for FU.
The movie wasn't all that great, but something magical happened while I was in there. By the time I grabbed a sandwich and checked the boxscores on ESPN.com... Bates, Jeffers, and DMoore had combined for 30 pts - while Edgerrin, RWilliams, DAlexander, and Riemersma had been held scoreless! Also... TN pulled Air McNair after 1 TD pass to save him from getting re-injured before the playoffs. I sat down in front of a TV to telekinetically minimize the scoring of Toomer and Carney - while simultaneously attempting to enhance the performances of Tucker and Mare.
When the late games ended, Aglione Bowl X was mine! I gave one game ball to Jeffers - for carrying FU through the Playoffs, and I gave another game ball to Foge Fazio. Since hiring Fazio to be D Coordinator after FU fell to 5-5, Ferocious Underwear went 7-0. It was the fantasy football run of a lifetime!
In the Preseason Poll, Foge clearly saw the potential of The South Side Black Sox:
"foge sees weeks where this team could put 70 on the board - and weeks where this team might have trouble getting into double digits."
JoePa's club put up 45+ pts 5 times this year - including a 58-32 drubbing of Team Desai in Week 11. Unfortunately for JoePa, the Black Sox' 9 pts in Aglione Bowl X was indeed the team's 1 time to fail to score double digits. JoePa was the unlucky one on this day, but I have a feeling that an Aglione Bowl championship is in JoePa's not-too-distant future.

banks 0 hanspard 0 bates 6 jeffers 18 tucker 9 dmoore 6 mare 4
mcnair 3 ejames 0 rwill'ms 0 toomer 0 derrick 0 r'mersma 0 carney 6
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't Call It a Comeback 17
Upper West Side Stomp Mongers 30

Week 10: UWSSM 45 DCIAC 18
The agony of starting the wrong guy... Kevin started Galloway and Thigpen instead of finding a spot for T Holt. Holt's 15 would have made the difference. Dylan got a Damien from Kerry, Duce, and Muuse - as UWSSM beat DCIAC again... this time for 3rd place in the Playoffs. Gonzalez tried to snatch All-RFL TE honors away from Walls, but Walls was able to score twice for Vesh. UWSSM finishes the season at 9-8, while DCIAC slips to 8-9.

manning 0 pr'chett 0 biaka 0 galloway 0 thigpen 0 gonzalez 6 nedney 11
collins 6 duce 6 emmitt 3 muhsin 6 dscott 0 alex'er 0 delgreco 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rumbling Romanians 51
Skintight Leather Assless Bodysuits 15

Week 3 GOTW: Romanians 33 SLAB 27
After stumbling in the first round of the Playoffs, the Rumbling Romanians returned with convincing wins over B'runners and SLAB. Back in Week 3, Vesh beat Brodz for the Romanians' first win of the season - and to embark on a 11-1 run. The loss in Week 3 was SLAB's first of the season. After winning this year's Steamroller trophy, SLAB went 1-2 in the Playoffs - averaging an un-Brodz-like 17.7 ppg in the postseason. Curtis, Rich, and Wesley combined for 39 as Vesh finished the 99-00 season with a League-best 13-4 record. SLAB wound up at 12-5.

gannon 12 cmartin 15 bettis 6 ibruce 0 tmartin 0 wwalls 12 v'jagt 6
jgeorge 3 egeorge 0 alstott 6 ccarter 0 wilkins 0 freddie 0 hollis 6
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Y2K Bugs 28
Bladerunners 17

Week 11 GOTW: Bugs 21 B'runners 18
Y2K Bugs had lost 4 of 5 games before winning this week for 7th place in the Playoffs. Bladerunners clearly dropped their guard as the Bugs' threats of terror went unfulfilled on Saturday morning. Clark went so far as to starting Claudia Schiffer and Heidi Klum at RB (over Dillon, pEnis, and GHill).
Tim's strength all season has been WR production. Y2K Bugs finished the year #1 in WR points, but were shutout at WR for the first time all season when starting Marvin and Ed. FTaylor and JLinton picked up the slack. Bladerunners were shutout at WR for the 9th time this season, but Favre managed to finished tied for 4th in QB points. Fred finished the year outscoring Terrell Davis 48-12.

gus 3 ftaylor 12 linton 6 mharrison 0 mccaffrey 0 sloan 0 longwell 7
favre 9 claudia X heidi X freeman 0 chrebet 0 pollard 0 vinatieri 8
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Crazed Beagles on the Run 64
Enid Furth Harmony 32

Week 10: Beagles 33 EFH 10
Dorsey Levens singlehandedly outscored 9 RFL teams this week. Toss in 2 TD's from Wycheck (and solid contributions from Hoard, Moulds, Jimmy, and Wilkins), and Wally's Beagles put up the highest score of the season - surpassing 63's from Brodz and Clark. Levens was also able to rocket his way up to All-RFL Honorable Mention standing.
Beuerlein capped a fine season with 18 pts and QB-of-the-Week honors. Stan's EFH went 8-4 over the last 12 weeks of the season. Some GMs might have packed it in after starting 0-5, but Stan showed us all how an RFL GM should conduct his business.

mcnown 0 levens 30 hoard 6 moulds 3 jsmith 6 wycheck 12 jwilkins 7
b'lein 18 ogary 0 lcenters 6 tbrown 3 mayes 0 gclark 0 hanson 5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wide Open Beavers 42
Team Desai 28

Week 6: Beavers 20 TDesai 10
Team Desai needed a solid performance from CGarner on Monday Night to come from behind in this matchup of the young and the old. Coach Cals of Wide Open Beavers showed that he still has a few tricks up his sleeve - as the Beavers utterly shut Garner and OJ down. A single TD would have landed Garner on the All-RFL Honorable Mention list, but I guess a mere 3 cracked ribs was a little too much pain for Charlie to handle.
Johnnie Morton showed that at least *he* hadn't quit yet on Shiv. Moss, Smith, and Montgomery were solid for Cals.

batch 3 robsmith 9 jmont'ery 8 moss 12 crowell 3 tyrone 0 christie 7
kordell 0 watters 0 garner 0 keyshawn 0 morton 15 oj 0 hall 13
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Men in Brown 39
Jock Itch United 12

No Previous Meeting
Tim Dwight had the Niner D bumbling all over each other last night as he sliced and diced his way to 24 pts. Napolean also bagged 6 for Joebob. Terrell Owens finally showed up again for JIU, but it was too little too late. After losing 4 of 5, MiB finished strong with W's over Brian and Ali - to finish with a winning record. JIU was 4-3 after 7 weeks, but went 3-7 over the last 10.

bjohnson 0 tallen 0 nap 6 westbrook 0 tdwight 24 roland 0 peterson 9
marino 0 rhett 0 priest 3 hilliard 0 towens 6 lafleur 0 stover 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
brian 3
12 Angry Men 20

Week 10 GOTW: 12Angry 28 Brian 24
Tyra Banks QB'ed for Brian as he dipped past Dilfer, Couch, and S Young down the depth chart.
Both Brian and Gary finish their inaugural RFL campaigns at 3-14. Gary beat Brian twice and EFH. Brian beat DCIAC, Bugs, and MiB.
Brian was shutout 20-0 in Week 1's GOTW - and almost matched that score in Week 17. Aikman finished the year ahead of Brunell, Chandler, and Kitna.

tyra X schles 0 bam 0 dawkins 0 marcus 0 glover 0 richey 3
aikman 6 dunn 0 murrell 0 jgreen 3 rice 3 dudley 0 stoy'vich 8
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Playoffs Bracket

Quarters	Semis	Aglione Bowl X
SLAB 12
DCIAC 18
	DCIAC 23
SSBS 45	SSBS 50
Bugs 26		SSBS 9
		FU 43
Romanians 12
UWSSM 36	UWSSM 28
	FU 58	3rd Place
FU 36		*********
'runners 12	Consolation	DCIAC 17
	***********	UWSSM 30
	SLAB 26
	Bugs 19	5th Place
		*********
	Romanians 44	SLAB 15
	'runners 13	Romanians 51
		7th Place
		*********
		Bugs 28
		'runners 17

UN-playoffs Bracket

Quarters	Semis	Scrub Bowl
Beavers 22
12Angry 14
	Beavers 28
JIU 25	EFH 34
EFH 34		EFH 32
		Beagles 64
Beagles 49
Brian 42	Beagles 31
	Desais 26	11th Place
MiB 33		*********
Desais 37	Consolation	Beavers 42
	***********	Desais 28
	12Angry 20
	JIU 34	13th Place
		*********
	Brian 26	JIU 12
	MiB 59	MiB 39
		Last Place
		*********
		12Angry 20
		Brian 3

*********************
Final 99-00 Standings
*********************

Team	W	L	GB	PF	PA	STK
Rumbling Romanians	13	4	-	571	420	W2
Ferocious Underwear	12	5	1	586	452	W7
Skintight Leather Assless Bodysuits	12	5	1	573	477	L1
The South Side Black Sox	11	6	2	500	422	L1
Crazed Beagles on the Run	10	7	3	509	455	W3
Upper West Side Stomp Mongers	9	8	4	552	491	W1
Men in Brown	9	8	4	489	464	W2
Y2K Bugs	9	8	4	470	484	W1
Wide Open Beavers	9	8	4	464	430	W1
Don't Call It a Comeback	8	9	5	443	460	L2
Enid Furth Harmony	8	9	5	416	445	L1
Bladerunners	8	9	5	390	414	L3
Jock Itch United	7	10	6	392	459	L1
Team Desai	5	12	8	407	506	L2
Brian's Bums	3	14	10	314	518	L6
12 Angry Men	3	14	10	288	467	W1

********************************************************
SEASON POINTS LEADERS
*********************
QB
121 Kurt Warner (Ferocious Underwear)
109 Peyton Manning (Don't Call It a Comeback)
109 Brad Johnson (Men in Brown)

RB
153 Edgerrin James (The South Side Black Sox)
140 Marshall Faulk (Ferocious Underwear)
117 Stephen Davis (Upper West Side Stomp Mongers)
111 Eddie George (Skintight Leather Assless Bodysuits)
102 Dorsey Levens (Crazed Beagles on the Run)
81 Emmitt Smith (Upper West Side Stomp Mongers)

WR
110 Marvin Harrison (Y2K Bugs)
105 Randy Moss (Wide Open Beavers)
93 Cris Carter (Skintight Leather Assless Bodysuits)
87 Isaac Bruce (Romanians)
74 Jimmy Smith (Crazed Beagles on the Run)
68 Michael Westbrook (Men in Brown)

TE
72 Wesley Walls (Romanians)
66 Tony Gonzalez (Don't Call It a Comeback)
54 Rickey Dudley (12 Angry Men)

PK
145 Mike Vanderjagt (Romanians)
130 Mike Hollis (Skintight Leather Assless Bodysuits)
108 Steve Christie (Wide Open Beavers)

be sure to check:
The Season Points Leaders page
...for an expanded list of scoring leaders.

After much belly-aching from certain veteran GM's about Wang's "redirect-ness" in his GM Profile Interview (published in WIR #5, October 12, 1999), Commissioner Wang was forced to sit for a 2nd interview - this time with ace interviewer Joseph Pynadath.

RFL Week in Review Editing Staff: Some call the position of RFL Commissioner the pinnacle of any career. How would you rank this post in comparison to some of your other positions in the past (BU Teaching Fellow, SNAP programmer, SONY engineer, etc)?

David Wang: Being the Commissioner of RFL certainly ranks much higher than those other positions you listed for me, but I'd have to say that my highest position was Inter-Fraternity Council Representative for my college frat.
Having been handed so much influence over the Greek goings-on at MIT allowed me receive the quality and quantity of favors rivaled only by my International Olympic Committee member brethren!

RFL: Could you tell us what you learned from ex-commish Pat that helped you in your job? Perhaps a better way to phrase it is - could you tell us what you learned NOT TO DO from Pat?

DW: At the risk of sounding like I'm blowing smoke up Cals' ass, I *truly* am in awe of the job Cals did in his 9 years of running RFL. I simply cannot imagine running the League that long. I hope that someone out there will be ready to take over for me within a couple of years.
To be serious for a minute... as far as the few things I tried to improve (Cals *really* didn't leave much room for improvement) as I carried the League into the new millennium: I tried to respond to transaction requests in a timely fashion, I tried to send out the Monday Madness and WIR emails at a consistent time each week, and I really wanted to construct a website that each GM would use - and would not be bothered to use.

RFL: Which GM do you fear the most year in and year out? And why?

DW: That's an easy one. I fear myself the most. Over the years... I think I have established a reputation for having very mediocre drafts (despite preparing quite meticulously some years), benching GOBS of points each week (as I 2nd and 3rd guess my roster into a mushy pulp), and making horrendous transaction blunders (Brian won most of his games by picking up players that I dropped).

RFL: Can you explain what happened in that slaughtering of the BU grad students when they played the Wilding? Was it intimidation from the start or just pure athletic inferiority?

DW: Sure, I can explain that scrubby victory you Wilding guys *barely* eeked out. You made us play with 3 guys who had never played ball before! Honestly... stuffing our roster with Nelsimar "Brazilian Luv Machine" Vandelli, Pete "Long on hair, short on skills" Simko, and Xianghua "I must go derive turbulence equations now" Xu was quite uncalled for. And then when we Teaching Fellows were about to put the game away... *someone* (I won't name names) rabbit-punched me in the nose - forcing us to play short-handed for a few series while i reset my broken nose and crafted a protective mask out of beer cans and slush.

RFL: Did that game end your football career? How did that game impact the rest of your life?

DW: Hardly. Since that "game," I went on to star in many MIT-BU intra-frat games (11-on-11, no pads, refereed) - a few of which I have on videotape. After moving to CA, I became captain of the World Champion Sony flag football team. You might have seen me in the footage of Ryan Leaf playing in my league down in SD. I was the one picking Leaf off, taking it to the house, and NOT spiking the ball in Leaf's ugly mug - because real men don't taunt.

RFL: Rumors are rampant that once your former employer, SNAP, goes public, you will dump our "Mom & Pop" league and will be buying up some of the more lucrative leagues that are available on-line.

DW: Quite the contrary, if Embark*com IPOs and puts $1M+ in my bank account... I am considering retiring from Sony and devoting even *more* of my time to the RFL Commissionership! RFL is where most of the stiffest competition is, and I have *never* been one to duck. Besides... most of those other leagues have too many rules and track too many stats. I totally prefer RFL's simplicity-complexity balance.

RFL: There seems to be some hostility between the new guard (you, Shiv, Vesh, etc) and the old guard (Pat, Joe, etc). Our sources claim that this hostility is brewing from your fear of an old guard uprising and split. Recent WIR's and RFL trash talk email show consistent battering of the old guard from your own mouth. Any comments?

DW: Recently the "old guard" had started grousing about this, that, and the other. The Commissioner's Office felt the need to put the old guard back clearly in their place. Any "trash talk" from the "new guard" was not instigated by this Office - but if the glove fits, wear it and moonwalk your way back to your rocking chair.
Although the veteran GM's in our League are well-respected and admired (I personally have nothing but love for the old school), they must acknowledge the fact that the "young guns" in RFL will pound their teams mercilessly on the gridiron if need be. The teams that did - and did not - make the Playoffs speak for themselves. Brodz' SLAB was the only old school franchise to set foot in the Big Dance. And they were quickly bounced out by Kevin's DCIAC.
As far as talk of the old guard threatening to split from RFL... we don't need no stinkin' duckers (or pouters) in RFL.

RFL: Can you sum up the Commissioner experience for us? Likes, dislikes, what you expected, suprises, etc.?

DW: Being Commissioner of RFL is no bed of roses. There's a lot of hard work, babysitting, hand-holding, and typing.
Likes... complimentary emails from GMs who appreciate the time and effort I put in - and winning Aglione Bowl X.
Dislikes... people who request to pickup a player who is on someone else's roster.
What I Expected... NOT to win Aglione Bowl X - or to even make it to the playoffs at all.
Surprises... the minimal number of controversies - thank goodness.

RFL: Who is Dave Wang??

DW: Just another guy who's looking for an honest job, a few million in the bank, a 5000 sq ft house on 4 acres in Palo Alto, a bright and beautiful wife, and 2 chip-off-the-ol'-block sons.

RFL: Anything big that we should expect next year in RFL?

DW: Holding the Draft in Las Vegas (I'll pay for the suite), automated RFL website (transactions, depth charts, etc), one or more new and improved GMs, and perhaps one or two rule modifications.

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.

©1999-2000 RFL Inc.
All rights reserved.

Revised: September 25, 2000