9/4/01
Email Commish
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You want to know what most asked question to the Commish is these
days? I'll tell you anyway. It starts like this…
"Dear All knowing genius Commish,
My league just had their draft and I was wondering what you though
of my team. Here is my roster:
Daunte Culpepper
Aaron Brooks
Trent Green
Corey Dillon
Jamal Anderson
Tyrone Wheatley
Ricky Watters
Michael Bennett
Randy Moss
Terrell Owens
Marvin Harrison
Torry Holt
Rod Smith
Tony Gonzalez
Jay Riemersma
Mike Vanderjagt
Olindo Mare
Just curious….
With love and admiration of your fantasy football skills,
Johnny Football"
My response generally is…
"Well Johnny…
It looks like you are in a one-team league. Your team is so good
it could probably beat the 85 Bears. You rock, can I have your baby?"
You see I very rarely ever get an e-mail that lists the scoring
system or the other rosters yet I am supposed to make an educated
guess (a difficult proposition regardless of circumstances) about
their teams worth.
Don't misunderstand I love the challenge but with the average of
4,000,000 of these e-mails per day all of the teams look about the
same.
Your draft should be completed by now. If not you are able to show
the patience unlike anyone I know. Often times I feel like a 6 year
old on Christmas Eve when it comes to draft dates. I just can't
wait to get started. The Commish isn't afraid to admit that he has
overindulged once again…. That's right I am in a boatload of
leagues. I was able to cut it back by one this year but I am still
in 4 leagues this year with two of them being Dynasty or Keeper
leagues and the other two re-draft leagues.
The drafts all went pretty smooth and all have been completed except
my Internet Dynasty league, which continues to plod along with our
supplemental draft. We have 8 picks left as of this writing in that
league and I am in year three of the four-year plan. If you remember
the article I wrote a month ago…you
have to have a plan. My plan so far has been losing but I expect
a .500 season this year and will be disappointed if I am not close.
Here is what I have on my roster in that league (an asterisk next
to the players drafted this year)…
Trent Green (acquired in trade last year)
Rob Johnson (acquired in trade two years ago)
Joe Germaine (waiver pick-up last year)
Tyrone Wheatley (acquired in trade for Duce Staley last year before
he was hurt)
James Allen (waiver pick-up last year)
Trung Candidate (drafted last year)
Shyrone Stith (drafted last year)
Travis Minor*
Derrick Blaylock*
Joe Horn (acquired in trade for Ahman Green)
Sylvester Morris (acquired in Duce Staley trade with Wheatley)
Todd Pinkston (drafted last year)
Troy Brown (acquired in trade for Ahman Green)
Bill Schroeder (acquired in trade for Ahman Green)
Dedric Ward (acquired in trade for Ahman Green)
Derrick Mason*
Snoop Minnis*
Jay Riemersma (acquired in trade for draft picks)
Marcus Pollard (drafted two years ago)
Rian Lindell*
Tim Seder*
Jevon Kearse (drafted)
Gerald Warren*
Jamir Miller(drafted)
Rob Fredickson (drafted)
Sam Shade (drafted)
Marty Carter (drafted)
Brian Dawkins (drafted)
As you can see I have built a pretty impressive receiving corp,
nothing spectacular but strong enough to compete. I will start 3
receivers and 1 running back most weeks and have already claimed
an extra pick in each round next season. So my plan is to finish
middle of the pack or so and then use my extra receivers as trade
bait to move in the draft next year when there should be some running
back talent.
In the other league that I run we had our initial draft to fill
our teams for keepers. We will keep 10 players from the 17 drafted.
I had the last draft pick this year in the 12 team league. To figure
draft spots I let everyone shuffle the BRAND NEW deck of cards and
then dealt everyone a card. I predetermined that Spades were the
highest suit followed by Diamonds, then Clubs, and finally Hearts.
Aces were high so that meant that the Ace of Spades was automatic
first pick. It also meant that 2 of Hearts was the last pick…I
had the 2 of Hearts. I was very happy with my team this year and
I think that I can win the league this year and for the next few
years…
Jeff Garcia (first pick)
Aaron Brooks (third pick)
Chris Redman (thirteenth pick)
Mike Anderson (fourth pick)
Olandis Gary (sixth pick)
Jamal Lewis (eighth pick)
James Allen (ninth pick
Terrell Owens (second pick)
Koren Robinson (fifth pick)
Derrick Mason (seventh pick)
Todd Heap (twelfth pick)
Jerry Porter (fourteenth pick)
Tim Dwight (fifteenth pick)
Sebastian Janikowski (tenth pick)
Bill Gramatica (sixteenth pick)
Jevon Kearse (eleventh pick)
Takeo Spikes (seventeenth pick)
As you can see I took Garcia and Owens as a combo in round one and
two. I followed by making the quarterbacks scarce and taking Aaron
Brooks in round three. I went out on a limb by making Mike Anderson
my feature running back in the fourth so I backed him up with Olandis
Gary in the sixth round. I was going to take Terrell but he was
taken before I could get him so I drafted Jamal Lewis in the eighth
round hoping that he would be healthy next year. I rounded out my
running backs by selecting James Allen to start on during week 16
as the Broncos are on the bye…hopefully I'll still be playing
on week 16! Other than Owens I selected Robinson for future production,
Mason hoping he kicks more ass this year, Heap for his potential,
Porter for when the wheels fall off of Rice and Brown, and Dwight
because kick-offs and punt returns count as td's for all players.
I added two young kickers and two guys that have lots of defensive
scoring potential. I really like this team and hope that it meets
my expectations.
In my third draft, what has been deemed the Idiots league as
of last year, I had the fifth pick out of twelve teams. I tried
to keep the my players as similar as possible but there are some
pretty drastic roster restrictions in this league. The guys are
good guys and a couple of them I would invite to my personal leagues
but for the most part these guys are softball players pretending
to be football fans. Three owners again didn't show up for the
draft. One doesn't even know he is in the league…we drafted
a team for him to tell him later! Anyhow they are going to change
the name of the league to Commish take our money every year league"
Here is my team (plus I drafted two other teams for other owners)
Kurt Warner (1st pick)
Aaron Brooks (4th pick)
Michael Bennett (5th pick)
Mike Anderson (7th pick)
LaDanian Tomlinson (10th pick)
Torry Holt (2nd pick)
Eric Moulds (3rd pick)
Marcus Robinson (14th pick)
Jay Riemersma (8th pick)
Anthony Becht (11th pick)
Joe Nedney (6th pick)
Tim Seder (12th pick)
NY Giants (9th pick)
Chicago Bears (13th pick)
As you can see I tried to give them a chance… waiting until
the 14th round to take Marcus Robinson for instance. Every year
people ask me why I keep getting in this league since there is
no challenge but I have to tell winning about $400 every winter
is nice. Plus it's mostly a work league and I like sticking my
bosses for all I can.
My final league is a new one to me and all of the owners. We broke
away from an existing league that was losing it's fun quotient
and started a new league. Again I ended up with the last pick
but in an 8 team league that is pretty cool. It was only 8 owners
this year but they are all pretty strong and will all participate.
All of the teams are strong but again I really like my team….
QB Jeff Garcia 1st round
QB Aaron Brooks 6th round
RB Corey Dillon 3rd round
RB Jamal Anderson 5th round
RB Ahman Green 7th round
RE Terrell Owens 2nd round
RE Eric Moulds 4th round
RE Derrick Mason 8th round
RE Michael Westbrook 10th round
RE Travis Taylor 11th round
K John Hall 9th round
K Tim Seder 14th round
TDSP NY Giants 12th round
TDSP Tennessee 13th round
This is a pride league more than anything. No big money but these
are the guys that I play fantasy baseball with too and they know
there stuff as well anybody I play with.
One constant that you see with all my teams (except the dynasty
team) is Aaron Brooks. I am counting heavily on him. I also have
a lot riding on Mike Anderson's ability to win the job in Denver
or to at least get it because Davis's legs quit working. I also
am relying on Derrick Mason for some major points in all of my
leagues. Normally when I am in a bunch of different leagues I
do not worry about getting the same players but this year I wanted
to see if basically one team could win the title in different
leagues or if it was different for every league.
Again this year you will be able to track my progress by watching
the league tracker box:
| C O M M I S H ' S R
E C O R D: |
| LEAGUE |
RECORD |
NOTES |
| CCL (Dynasty) |
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CCL
Notes |
| MFFL (Local Keeper) |
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MFFL
Notes |
| RRBL (Pride League) |
|
RRBL
Notes |
| MFIL (Idiot League) |
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No league site |
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Well it is time for the first recipe of the season…I made some of
my famous Commishes Kick Ass chili for the idiots and had a fantastic
cookout for the local guys. Here is something you can cook for the
opening week of the football season...
| F L A N K S T E
A K S A N D W I C H E S |
Est.
preparation time: 15 minutes
Est. cooking time: 28 minutes
Est. marinating time: 1 hour |
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4 1/2 pounds flank steak (about
3 steaks) |
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1/2 teaspoon salt |
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1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper |
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2 large portabello mushrooms,
stems removed |
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1 yellow onion, sliced into 1/3-inch
thick rings |
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1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil,
divided |
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4 shallots, sliced |
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2 cups dry red wine |
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2 teaspoons minced
ginger |
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2 teaspoons fresh
thyme leaves* |
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2 bay leaves |
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1/8 teaspoon ground
black pepper |
DIRECTIONS:
Heat a small skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive
oil. When oil is hot, add shallots. Cook until softened,
1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic, herbs and pepper and cook
another 30 seconds. Add the wine and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add remaining 2
tablespoons of olive oil. Remove from heat and cool
to room temperature.
Pour marinade into a shallow dish or ziplock-style bag.
Add the steak and refrigerate overnight or marinate
at room temperature for 1 hour. (If refrigerating, remove
steak from the refrigerator about ½ hour before
grilling to allow it to come to room temperature.)
Light grill. When grill is hot, remove steak from the
marinade and salt and pepper both sides. Grill 6 to
7 minutes on each side for a medium-rare center. Lightly
oil, salt and pepper the onion slices and mushroom caps,
and grill with the steak until softened and caramelized.
Let steak rest for 10 minutes after grilling.
Bring the marinade from the steak to a boil in a skillet
over high heat. Simmer for 5 minutes to cook and reduce
the raw juices from the meat. Add salt and pepper to
taste. Thinly slice the grilled mushrooms and dice the
grilled onions and add them to the sauce.
Slice the flank steak thinly across the grain and pour
the sauce over the top. |
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commish
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