Hughes Bowl Wrap and Myriad Thoughts

 

First things first...Congrats to Paz on winning his fourth Hughes League title. He's a believer in spreading out the fun as his previous trophy seasons were in 1985, 1998, and 2014. He becomes the sixth owner with at least four championships and is the first #7 seed to bring home a title. (His being the only #7 seed we've ever had in history doesn't detract from that honor, I think).

I also want to give a shoutout to Bobby for not only a successful season but also the gracious way he handled the very unusual way this week went down. 

On we go... it was an odd week, to say the least, ending a rather unusual season for us. Let me just kind of ramble on here with a focus on how we got to this spot. Monday night's awful event on the field in Cincinnati was terrible to watch. I was reminded of being in NRG Stadium in 2013 when Gary Kubiak collapsed on the sidelines as the first half was ending. Nobody knew what was happening (he'd suffered a form of stroke) when was whisked out of the building. Not the stuff you expect to see when you attend an NFL game. We can only hope Damar Hamlin is able to recover fully. Word this morning is that he's showing promising signs.

When it because clear the game wasn't going to be finished that night I reached out to Paz and Bobby and after a bit of back-and-forth it was decided (mostly by Bobby) that our game was out of reach and should be called final. 

The only thing I hadn't determined fully is the final score. I figured it wasn't right to blow off the players that were in the MNF game so I'm adding their season PPG averages... Ja'Marr Chase (16 pts) and Josh Allen (29 pts)... and declaring it a 113-81 Blizzard win. We had some other options...using their Week 18 points, waiting for the game to be concluded, and then using those actual points, but in the end, wrapping it up and moving on is best. 

I'm not totally happy with scoring it that way and I may revise things after they play Week 18 but once I order the trophy, that's it. 👌 I also plan to go back and reinstate the actual lineups. I originally switched out the MNF players to force a final score on the bracket but I later remembered I can adjust teams' final scores easily enough no matter what the lineups show. 

Lots of leagues have cash prizes hanging in the balance and I don't envy those commissioners' situations. If you are involved in one of those leagues I suggest giving your commish a break, it's an unprecedented situation with no easy solution right now.

More Stuff... We will have a trophy presentation and get-together soon, probably in early February. Details to follow... I am updating the spreadsheets with 2022 numbers and if we return to Myfantasyleague I will post them in the Links section once we have a new league site. If we go in a different direction I'll come up with an alternate plan... I'll begin putting together the annual commemorative Hughes Bowl issue of the Hughes News as soon as I settle on a final game score... this news blog will have at least one more entry for this season. I've almost completed my usual year-ender. I have some changes in mind for next season and they will be discussed at length. Please read it when it is posted.

My pixie is cute, and she knows it!