Note: After I published some of my favorite memories in blog posts this summer, Rick suggested I do an entry about some of the more entertaining Hughes Bowls over our long history. I liked the idea, and I'm working on it as time permits.
Another Note: If you have not read the last few News entries you need to scroll for important draft info.
Draft Things:
We are good to go for Monday night's shindig. As always, I'm hoping to get things rolling on time (6:30 Central, 7:30 Eastern, 5:30 PazTime). I'm going to be sending out an email with the PrimeTime Draft link, the Zoom link, Bobby's address, and some phone numbers. I'll sent it out more than once between now and Monday evening.
There is no timer set for drafting, but I encourage everyone to be quick with their picks. Bobby has an early bedtime, and we don't want to keep him up too late.
As I mentioned previously, the MFL league page is the backup plan should something go sideways with PrimeTime Draft. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Site Things..
I think I've settled on the homepage's 'Blue on Blue' theme. But don't be surprised if you pop in one morning and the thing is teal or purple!
I've experienced a slow load of the league website a time or two over the last couple of weeks. I don't believe it has anything to do with the new layout/template. More likely, it is simply MFL's servers reacting to a lot of preseason traffic. The issue doesn't last for long.
You may or may not have found the 'Enlarge' and 'Shrink' buttons under the 'Help' tab in the top menu. You can use those to set the page so that it is easier to read in your browser. The setting 'sticks' from session to session, at least for me. The 'Reset' button (below those two buttons) returns the page to the default view.
If you can't 'see' a module you know was there the last time you visited the site, check to see if the header is still visible with a plus (+) sign on the right side. You may have accidentally collapsed the module the last time you visited and hadn't noticed. Ask me how I know this. 🙄
The 'Quick Links' module in the right column is handy as it contains not only the chat, but also 'Activity', which allows you to see if another owner is online using the site, 'Options', an easy place to find links some of the more common modules, such as Submit Lineup, etc. and 'Notes', an editable scratchpad viewable only by you.
From the album Rolling Stone lists as the Greatest of All Time:
We are set to draft a week from today. Houston owners (who are able) will gather at Bobby's home in Meyerland. Everyone else will be online, and we will use the PrimeTime Draft site.
If you are considering swapping draft positions with another owner, please do so today, as I will be entering the order into the PrimeTime site this evening.
Draft Night Issues
Hopefully, nothing comes up as far as PrimeTime Draft is concerned. But if it does, we can fall back to using the draft room on the site itself, as we did for many years. I will email my phone number to everyone again before the draft, along with the PT Draft link. The link will return an error message if clicked before I start the draft, which is why I don't bother sending it now. I will send it next weekend and open the draft on Labor Day with plenty of time to get it running on your screen.
A Zoom link will also be sent, and the more owners we have 'live', the better.
Again, refer to the previous news entry below for draft night specifics and check your email as the draft gets closer.
Apologies
I'm sure some of you get tired of my nagging re: 1) logging in and 2) paying for the league. MFL has changed the setup over the years, and it used to be much easier to fix login issues, reset passwords, etc. I'd rather not mess with trying to get someone access to the league at 6:10 on draft night. So knowing that everyone can get into the league is a load off my mind.
Everyone has paid or at least committed, so I have unlocked all the teams.
MFL Apps
I am aware of two apps, MFL Platinum and MFL Mobile, at least for iOS devices. They are also (I believe) on the Google Play Store for Android users. I've used both in the past, and they do what they are programmed to do. I prefer MFL Platinum only because I like its look more.
Our website is programmed to work on mobile devices in a way that you may not even need to bother with an app. The menu is mobile-friendly. I've found myself using the site itself instead of an app for most things. The only thing I have found that I prefer to do on an app is check scores during the Sunday games.
YMMV, of course.
After The Draft
I'll upload the rosters once I get home from Bobby's place on draft night. Check the league calendar to see when waivers open. The previous entry (scroll down) has all those details as well. Nothing of significance has changed from last season. I did update the rules page with a few clarifications.
The New Homepage
I've asked everyone to poke around our league site, as many things you will use during the season are not going to be where you've been accustomed to finding them. A few things, our Ed Hughes Tribute, the Rules page, the Champs News archives, and the historical Banners page, etc., have been moved to the Hughes News site. But links to them are also available on the league homepage. Please let me know if you have an issue with the new site layout or if you have any suggestions.
If you want to add links to football sites you visit frequently, you can do so by clicking 'My Links' under 'My Franchise' on the top menu. And don't ignore the 'Chat' function on the homepage. It's an easy way to reach me with questions and comments as I check the site frequently.
...and finally
As you are doing your draft prep, keep in mind that kickers are essential to winning! Drafting a couple in the first four rounds is a recommended strategy. You'll thank me later!
Bobby has stepped up and graciously offered his home in Meyerland/Westbury as a place for the Houston crew to get together on draft night. Some of you live a fair distance away, but hopefully you can make it. Being a holiday, I'd expect an easier trip than on a normal weeknight in Houston.
The details:
What: The 2025 EHFL Draft
When: Monday, September 1, at 6:30 Central time (It's Labor Day night)
Where: Bobby's home in Meyerland/Westbury
See the email from Thursday night for the address. A link to the draft on PrimeTime draft, the Zoom link, and important phone numbers will be provided as the draft gets closer.
Other Stuff:
If you haven't yet checked into the 2025 site, please do so. Draft night emergencies are my biggest commish nightmare. I can't help you log in as easily as I could a few years ago.
We will draft 16 rounds. The morning after the draft (Tuesday, the 2nd) will have a FCFS window that opens at 8 a.m. Central so you can add your 17th player and/or fix your draft night errors. 😔 You will be reimbursed for the cost of one pickup that you make during the window, which runs through 5 p.m. Central on Thursday. Additional claims in that window, and all FCFS claims during the season, will cost you the usual $5. This is the ONLY waiver window before Week One games! If you skip picking up a kicker during the draft, you will need to fill that slot by the close of FCFS. Check the calendar on the league site.
Once that FCFS window closes, you can begin making blind bids on players, and those bids will process the following Wednesday, September 10th.
These are probably repeats from past News entries, but they are favorites of mine.
DRAFT INFO: We are set to draft on Monday, September 1st at 6:30 Central, 7:30 Eastern time. Once I draw for the draft order (by Wednesday evening), I'll enter the order in the Primetime Draft site and send the link to everyone closer to draft night. Your draft slot (not individual spots) is swappable with another owner, but you'll need to get that done before I send out the draft site link. Let's put an August 25th deadline on that.
For you local guys, the draft's logistics are still under review. Paz will still be in Colorado, so we won't be on Heights Blvd. I'm considering a couple of other spots, including Cactus Cove, where we have our postseason meetup, the RBar on Houston Avenue just north of Washington (my 'home' bar where I hang out to watch soccer), or a few other spots over on the west side of town. I was at New Magnolia Brewing last week, and it would be a good option, but I can't ask these places to turn down their music. My fallback plan is to have everyone draft from their own location.
In any case, I'll try to set up a Zoom room. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. An in-person draft is always more fun than a fully remote one, but we've been down this road a time or two.
Notice: The previous entry ("Hi-Lites and Lo-Lites" posted last Monday and those going back for a bit) contained some pertinent links in the text. The problem was that they were color-coded to match the rest of the text, so they did not stand out. One example is the paragraph referencing DraftKings, etc. which included a link to a 1989 story about an Austin-based league having its draft busted by the cops.
I've fixed it so that links are now coded as red text.
More Memories... I found a few other notes I'd made that were intended to become part of that memories post. And those led me down a few more 'rabbit holes'. The following is a continuation of that idea.
Did I Win?... In the pre-Internet days, when results went out via "snail mail", most owners got their newsletter/stat sheets by Thursday. But Steve was our first out-of-town owner, and he had a Manhattan PO box which he didn't check regularly. So in most cases, when he called to turn in a lineup, he always began by asking how he'd done the week before. Seems awfully quaint now, doesn't it?
Speaking of calling in lineups, for a few years, my job at the Houston Post had me working quite a few Sunday mornings. The job of recording the lineups fell to my wife, Lorraine. Interpreting what she had written down was, in many cases, an adventure. Leaving her a copy of the rosters so she could just check off starters helped some. But buying an answering machine saved our marriage. I still recall buying the thing at Service Merchandise in Baytown. Somewhere in my closet, I still have a couple of the little tape cassettes it used, probably filled with crummy phoned-in lineups!
The Weather Weeks... Since we kicked this thing off in 1980 we've had 582 regular season lineup weeks. (sidenote...to me that sounds even crazier than '45 years'!). We would have had 583 if it hadn't have been for a week we lost due to Mother Nature.
In November of 1992 (the Saturday before Thanksgiving to be exact) a mile-wide F4(!) tornado rolled through my neighborhood. I was home with my three little ones that afternoon. I've got a lot of memories of that nightmare but those are not the point here. Needless to say we ended up not playing that week.
Hurricane Rita chased my family to San Antonio for Week 3 of the 2005 season. Our games went on as scheduled. (The Texans rescheduled their game) Tom McLean's S'Rats clobbered my Flyers, so in retrospect I should have cancelled the week! 😉
Strike One...The NFL Strike/Lockout of 1982 cancelled six weeks of NFL games. And, as a result, we adjusted to a single playoff game, the Hughes Bowl.
Strike Two...Another stoppage was the reason we cancelled four weeks in 1987. We were able to have a full two-round playoff, which was the usual deal at that time.
Big Numbers... (or "That's a Lot of Kickers under the Bridge!" ) In total, we've had 119 playoff weeks over the years. Added to the regular season weeks, that gives us 701 total weeks of Hughes League play. I got curious and did some digging. Here is what I came up with re: the number of lineups per franchise and owner...
Most Lineups Submitted by Franchise:
Flyers 626
Nats 625
Giants 620
Heroes 617
S'menn 615
But, as most of you are aware, 'franchise' in Hughes terms is different from 'ownership' and 'management'. The Flyers had Rick (1980) and James (circa 2017/18) as GMs during the club's history. The Nationals have been run by Steve, Dave, and Dan. Likewise, the Strawmenn have a history that includes lineups from Mark, Sheri (Mark's wife), and Mike.
So I did a bit of calculating and came up with this list of the folks who have turned in the most lineups over the years.
Most Lineups Submitted by Individual:
Rick:628
Ben:617
Jimmy: 602
Paz:594
Keith: 572
Rick gets credited with 8 weeks as Flyers' GM in the 1980 season. I dug through the newsletters and found that I made the change in the Week 8 edition. (We played 16 weeks that first season). It's impossible to sort out the Nats' early history as far as who was turning in lineups week-to-week in any given season. But both Dan and Dave probably have a couple of seasons' worth to add to whatever total they have as 'soloists'. They are likely at or over 500 lineups each. I am probably somewhere in the Top 5, but it's hard to figure. Subtract a couple of 'James seasons', Rick's eight games in '80, and I'd be in the 590ish range.
None of this amounts to anything important, but I always have fun playing with numbers like these.
Canon's Kid... Only one 'civilian' has ever made it into an EHFL lineup. In Week 4 of the 1993 season, one-day-old Chad Canon debuted as a running back for his father Tommy's team, the Bowie Knives. Tommy was in dire straits at the RB spot and had missed the e-claim window (he had a good excuse, he was becoming a dad!), so he called and told me to just stick the 'new guy' into his lineup. Funny thing... the Knives beat the Flyers 28-25! Chad Canon will forever be an undefeated Hughes League player!
The Hughes News from that week is below. It's hard to read, but you can click to enlarge it.
Some 1980 Tidbits... As I combed through the 1980 Hughes News issues, I came across some interesting stuff, some of which has been rehashed before, some not.
The first-ever draft pick was Earl Campbell by The Bushwackers.
The first-ever trade was a swap of 6th-round slots between the Strawmenn and Flyers. The Flyers were to be compensated with a 6-pack but that never happened!
The first player waived was Atlanta RB Haskell Stanback by the Flyers.
The first trade to include actual players saw the Lepers (Nic) dealing Cleveland RB Charles White (and a 2nd round pick in 1981) to the Bustouts for Richard Caster, TE from the Oilers.
Our first Supplemental draft was held at Don's Seafood (!). Fancy! The Nats had the first choice (via a trade with the S'menn) and took Seahawks' WR Sam McCullum.
Oh, and I've linked to the 1st Hughes News issue many times. But did you know it was sent out with a handwritten second page and stat sheet? Here they are. You can click to enlarge.
Please with your Inbox for any draft venue updates.
My cuties... Ellis....
Aida...
and Leo....
A handful of live performances.
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Coldplay / Richard Ashcroft - Bittersweet Symphony
EDIT..as I was working on this post Sunday morning, I received the news that my uncle, Ralph Straley, passed away on Saturday at 91. He was the inspiration for our league (see the first entry below), our 'Godfather' as it were. RIP Ralph. I'm mulling over an appropriate way to honor him.
Ralph Straley and the Commish, February 2020.
This is a post decades in the making, weeks in the writing. I hope you enjoy it.
As I was renewing the league for our 46th season, I was thinking about some of the more interesting moments in our history. I've started a similar Hughes News article on several occasions over the years, but always discarded it as it felt so much like a 'good-bye' post. But I recently came across a file of 'story notes' I've been keeping, and thought that this may be a good time to flesh them out and publish them. These are in no particular order.
Floating the idea, 1980 (the softball game)... In the summer of 1980, I took my usual vacation trip to Baltimore. As always, it consisted of a couple of weeks of Orioles games, crab feasts, and shuffleboard at the local corner bar. But on this trip, as I've mentioned over the years, my uncle Ralph asked me to make him a 'cheat sheet' for his upcoming fantasy football draft. Now I was aware of the concept through some Sports Illustrated stories about the Raiders employee who is credited with inventing it. But I had never gotten involved with it until that afternoon.
I went to the nearby market and bought one of those 'pulp', printed in June, football mags off the newsstand and got to work. I was back in Houston before my uncle had his draft, but the idea had intrigued me. At our next softball game, I brought up putting together the draft list. It sounded interesting to several of the guys. One thing led to another, and we had a draft of our own scheduled.
The birth of the Hughes League 45 years ago sometimes feels like yesterday. At other times, it feels like a really long time ago.
Moving The Line...Our old friend Gary Hamman started a day late in the league, but he wasn't a dollar short. He formed his team, the Organs, from the 'free agents' available the day after our first draft in 1980. And he did pretty well with them, too. He won two weeks, more than Kuhlmann, Sam, or Fauser/Andrich could manage.
Gary got pretty involved in the league during his time with us. And that led to the first 'constitutional crisis' that I can remember. We were a keeper league, and we started by keeping eight players going into Year Two (1981). I decided to change the number of keepers at some point (either after that first keeper draft or the next), much to Gary's chagrin. I recall discussing it over beers at Griff's and Gary getting frustrated that I wouldn't see it his way. He kept telling me I was 'moving the line, dammit!' and I kept asking him WTF he meant by that. It got intense but not ugly, and I don't even remember what the end result was, but I suspect I did what I wanted to do with the keepers. I miss Gary; he was a troubled soul. RIP
The Marino Factor... Beginning in 1984 and running through 1990 we crowned seven champions. Of those seven, six had one thing in common...they had Dan Marino as their primary quarterback. Here is the list:
1984 Giants
1985 Blizzard
1986 Sticks
1988 Attica
1989 Heroes
1990 Flyers
Pretty amazing.. or maybe not when you consider that we were a TD-only league and Marino was the most prolific TD-tosser of the era (maybe any era). Interestingly, the Giants, Blizzard, and Sticks ('84-'86) had one more thing in common... they all had Marino's two favorite targets, Clayton and Duper, aka The Marks Brothers, on their roster.
What was up in 1987? Glad you asked. The Blizzard had Marino and finished 3-6-1 in our second strike-shortened season. Hogan won the title that year with Randall Cunningham (and Mark Clayton)..
David Overstreet & Jarvis Redwine... Jarvis Redwine, then a rookie running back with the Vikings, was Gary Hamman's first pick in 1981. I doubt he was on anyone else's radar at that point. But looking back, in that moment, it wasn't as terrible a pick as we've always claimed.
For one thing, the ''first round' was roughly equivalent to a 9th round since we kept eight players that season. And looking at Gary's keepers, it is obvious he needed a running back.
The Vikings' running game was headed by fullback Ted Brown and the mediocre Rickey Young. Redwine was a 2nd-round pick by the Vikes and had been a Heisman contender his senior season at Nebraska until a rib injury slowed him. He had an opportunity to take the lead back job. It never panned out for him. He started one game in his three-year NFL career and totaled less than 100 yards. He served as the Vikes' kickoff return guy in '83 and then was out of the league.
But no matter how one views the Redwine pick, the David Overstreet choice in 1984, which we've chronicled many times, was inexcusable. After all, he was, well, dead.
Where's My Money?... In 1983 Sam's Bombers beat the Nats in Hughes Bowl 3, 38-6. I was happy for him, I knew he put a lot of worry into his weekly lineups. I decided that he deserved a trophy (that would be the first time a Hughes champ would receive one). I bought a nice one, had it engraved appropriately, and looked forward to presenting it to him in front of a bunch of friends (including most of the league) at that Spring's OB Open afterparty.
The big moment arrived and I made the presentation. Sam, as only Sam could, loudly declared "Fuck this trophy, where's my money!?!" Everyone laughed but truth be told, I'm STILL not sure if he was serious or not. LOL
Our First Draft... (aka the Wendell Tyler pick, aka Tropical Storm Danielle) I've already mentioned the first discussions of starting up the Hughes League. We settled on a draft date of Friday, September 5th, two days before the NFL cranked up its 1980 season. We had a plan in place that made sense. Since most of the guys played flag football on Friday nights in Memorial Park, the draft would be at Jimmy's and my apartment, on Wescott at Washington Avenue, right next to the park. We hadn't planned on Tropical Storm Danielle coming ashore that day SSE of Houston. The winds were not terrible, but the rainfall was brutal. For some reason, the football game went on in Memorial Park, and the guys showed up afterward soaked and muddy. But that didn't stop us!
Steve Heinen (The Bustouts) made the first 'unfortunate' draft pick by taking the Rams' Wendell Tyler in the first round. Tyler had been in a car wreck in July and had dislocated his hip. I'm not sure why, but the story among our owners had always been that Tyler had two broken legs, and that's what we rubbed in Heinen's face. Either way, he was unable to walk when Heinen took him.
Tossing Pogge's Girlfriend... In 1983, thanks to an invite from Steve Barenholtz, we ventured out to draft at Barry's Pizza in the Windsor Plaza on Richmond. We had a nice private space, it seemed like a perfect setup. Joe Pogge wasn't able to make it but sent his then-girlfriend to draft for him. Which didn't happen. Two of our owners, neither of whom is still in the league, objected to this in no uncertain terms, and out the door went Joe's gf! Luckily for the league, Paz was there helping someone draft, and he immediately took the reins of Pogge's franchise and drafted. The rest is history.
The aftermath... This whole episode is something I've 'laughed' about, but it's actually a pretty crappy deal. It happened quickly; she was there, and then she was gone. I didn't instigate her getting tossed, but I could have, and should have, stopped it. I'd bump into Joe at UH events, but he didn't speak to me for nearly 20 years. And I don't blame him. We patched things up (more or less) when we met at the Texans' uniform unveiling in the fall of 2001.
The silver lining here is that Paz has been such a great owner since that night at Barry's. I just wish the circumstances had been different.
Permutation Tuesdays...Starting sometime in the late 80s/early 90s, I began doing Permutation Tuesdays. Basically, it was me, a legal pad, pencils, and a shitload of coffee sitting down on the Tuesday before the next-to-last weekend of the season. I'd plot out all possible game results for the final two weeks and calculate playoff qualifiers for each possible scenario. It was great fun, my second favorite day of the fantasy football year. I remember doing it at the McDonald's next to UH, probably in '88 or '89, when I'd return to get my teaching credentials. Other years saw me at the big Starbucks off I-10 in Baytown (I think I took a comp day to sit out there and get it done...what dedication!), the Pasadena Public Library, and once even at home! I'm not sure why I preferred doing it on the road. I think it just became a tradition for me. I gave it up at some point after we began using Myfantasyleague. They had a Projected Playoffs module that could do instantly what had taken me all damn day.
Charo! (aka Drafting With Jerry)... Our second draft (1981) began our first real tradition.. Labor Day drafting at the Parkwood Apartments on Staffordshire near the Medical Center. For six of the next seven years, we gathered at that huge apartment (residents included Hogan, Sam, Jimmy, me, and many non-Hughes guys over the years). We'd start drafting in the early afternoon, take a break to eat (steaks, pizza, etc.), and always have the TV tuned to the MDA Telethon. Jerry Lewis' goofiness and parade of cheesy 'B-listers' always kept us entertained. The highlight was the appearance of Charo, who Wikipedia describes as "...a Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist." That's pretty accurate, but it doesn't convey the ridiculously oddball vibe she brought to Labor Day afternoons. For the full effect, check out this clip from 1991's Telethon and stick with it to see Jerry Lewis' usual schtick:
The Reserve Team Concept, Forced Byes, and other weird shit... I can't recall what year it was, and I'm too lazy to go through the archives, but one year we had a waiver system that consisted of two drafted (or claimed) NFL teams. The idea was that you had 'exclusive' rights to the players on those teams who were not otherwise on a Hughes roster. In other words, if you needed a replacement for an injured/waived guy, you would choose a free agent from your two 'owned' NFL teams. The idea was that we could do away with weekly waiver claims, which had required me to hang out by my phone on Wednesday nights. You just let me know who you wanted to activate, and that was that. No bidding, no bother. It was a one-year thing, and it wasn't a bad idea, but it was too restrictive. I recall you could 'trade in' an NFL team for a different one, but I can't remember how that worked.
Back in our early days, before the NFL instituted the 'bye' system, I had in place a 'cap' on starts. I was trying to ensure that an owner wouldn't just set a lineup in Week One and 'let it ride' the rest of the way. I tracked player starts on graph paper. As the season wound down, usually around Week 10, I'd post the list of players who still needed to sit out a game (or two). The NFL began putting bye weeks into the schedule in 1990, and I started to use that stack of graph paper to make paper airplanes.
Seems rather quaint now when half the commercials during any given game are for DraftKings or Fan Duel and MLB and the NFL run fantasy leagues, but back in 1989, fantasy participants were getting busted for 'gambling'. LOL
We started 1985 with a week of 'exhibition' games, meaning we began the season in NFL Week 2. We played through their final regular season week, which we even then tried to avoid. I'm unsure of why we did this, but I suspect it had to do with an owner's availability for drafting. Moose must have used that exhibition week to perfect his lineup because when we cranked up the real games, he came out of the gate with a 90-point explosion. That sort of scoring was unheard of back in those TD-only days.
Mac's (aka the Westcott Drive-In)... This spot was an old school ice house located on Westcott Drive near Memorial Park. (It is now Canyon Creek Bar and Grill, a member of the same group as our postseason party spot, Cactus Cove.) In the early days, we'd hold 'supplemental' drafts once or twice a year. In 1990, we held one after Week 4. The hot name was Derrick Fenner of the Seahawks, who was coming off his second consecutive three-TD game! At Mac's that Wednesday night, we drew out of a hat and the Strawmenn, after a trade with the Knives, had the right to pick first and took Fenner, of course. That night was great fun because there were three or four trades made right there on the spot. Fenner helped the Strawmenn go 5-3-1 over the rest of the season but they missed the playoffs by half a game. Fenner, meanwhile, went on to play in the NFL through 1997 but never came close to matching that 15-td 1990 year.
Giants win 3 consecutive titles...Rick took home trophies in 2019, 2020, and 2021. That's crazy tough to do under any format. In building our site every year, I poke around a bunch of other MFL sites for ideas, and I've never seen a back-to-back-to-back run other than Rick's. I joked around that I'd burn the Hughes down before I'd see Rick win that fourth one, but truth be told, I was burned out on all the machinations that went into the keeper system that we had in place. Redraft is so much easier to do.
BTW..I went back and checked on the two back-to-back runs we had before Rick's string. Both the Flyers (1996-1997) and Nats (1999-2000) went to the wildcard game following their second straight title and lost there.
Papa Joe's... Speaking of Rick, in 1980, he and Steve B. had a seafood place on Richmond near Greenway Plaza. I was working at the Houston Post, and I hit up Papa Joe's for lunch pretty frequently during that first Hughes season.
It was there at Papa Joe's bar that I turned over the management of the Flyers to Rick about midway through that inaugural season. Papa Joe's, btw, is not to be confused with Steve's Dockside, which he opened on West Alabama a few years later.
Moose's Rant... In late September of 2017 (Friday the 29th to be exact), I was with my wife and boys at the Karbach Brewery in NW Houston. We'd had dinner and were out in their back patio area waiting for the live music. I got a call from Moose. He had been trying to make a FCFS waiver claim for his Attica team. He was getting a message that said the player he was trying to drop was 'locked' and could not be dropped. I recall two things from the beginning of the conversation. It was hard to hear him, and it sounded like he'd had a few beers himself.
I quickly figured out the issue. Moose was trying to drop Bears receiver Kevin White. The problem was that the Bears had played in the Thursday Night game, and a basic rule of every fantasy football league in existence is that once a team kicks off, the players on that team are 'locked', either in or out of your lineup. I explained that to Moose. But he was having none of it. This went on for a while, but I could never get Moose to see my side of the issue. He wasn't happy, and I hate it when an owner is unhappy.
Moose left the league after the 2018 season. I don't know for sure, but I suspect the 'Kevin White Affair' had something to do with it.
The irony in this tale is that Moose won his game that week without making a roster move. He did drop Kevin White via waivers that next Wednesday and replaced him with Latavius Murray, a smart move as Murray was a strong player the rest of that season.
And finally...The News, The Post, and What's Next... I have no idea what motivated me to begin a 'newsletter' when we cranked up in 1980. I think I was just interested in stats and figured everyone else would be as well. The first issue was typed on Houston Post stationery with a handwritten stats sheet and updates, then photocopied in the Post sports department. If by chance you've never seen it, look here.
By the mid-80s, I was "publishing" the News from home on EHFL letterhead I'd ordered from Kinkos, but I still filled in the numbers on the 'Stat Sheet' by hand. We went cutting edge in the late 80s as I bought a Gateway 2000 desktop 396sx-16 with two (count 'em 2!!) mb of RAM, and a 40 mb hard drive. Add to that an AOL account, a 1440 baud dial-up modem, and we were in high damn cotton!
Things snowballed after that. Windows came along, and I used WordPerfect and Quattro Pro for newsletters and stats. Then MS Word and Excel. Somewhere along the line, I stopped mailing out results and newsletters and started emailing. We had a period when I was using an early commish software. I'd get home from my teaching job on Tuesdays and fire up the computer and download the stats file from the weekend. From that file, I could upload standing, etc. to a webpage and publish a newsletter as well.
In 2003, when I jumped into Myfantasyleague.com, life changed. Everything was done for us, instantly. I won't even attempt to put the changes the league has gone through into a timeline (TD-only, --->performance scoring, no TE ---> 2 flex spots, etc.). And I'd rather not think the late 80s and making copies at the gypsy 7-11 on Highway 90, collating those into envelopes in my car, and dropping them down a mail slot at 4:30 am on Tuesdays on my way to work.
Right now, I think we are in a sweet spot. I can't see any reason to make any changes as we (hopefully) head to our 50th season in 2029. But I never thought we'd use a TE spot, so who's to say what the future will bring?
I hope you've enjoyed this entry. I had fun putting it together and traveling down our Hughes League 'Memory Lane'. Drop a comment below if you feed the need.
Before anything else...I'm looking for a quality photo of Steve Barenholtz. I'd like to replace the one I'm using in the memorials graphic. Click the 'About Us' tab on the league site to see what I'm referring to. Thanks. And now for the regular blog nonsense.....
It's funny how life is. Two weeks ago I was, well, ambivalent at best about moving forward with the league, and now I'm in 'Let's F'ing Go!' mode. And when I'm feeling that way, I tend to post crap, even if I know it is generally for my own benefit. 😼
League/Site Stuff:
We are at 75% paid as I type this, with 9 of 12 teams in the bank. Teams that have paid have received their waiver cash bonus. That window closes on Thursday at Midnight.
A few owners took it upon themselves to 'overpay', which is appreciated. But rather than pocket that extra money, I'm going to put it to use in one or two of the following ways:
➤Swag Handouts...You can never have enough Hughes-branded crap, right?
➤Trophy Upgrade... I had to rent a forklift and do some remodeling to get my 2024 trophy from the flatbed to my home office. I may not get something quite that big for the '25 champ, but a one-tier upgrade from the Crown Awards catalog might be in play.
➤A 'tip' for our tech guru... 'TOS' (short for THE Ohio State) has been a fixture in the MFL commish forum for a very long time. He is responsible for most of the customizations and mods I've used through the years. And when I get in trouble (which is often), he's always ready to answer my dumb questions. And he does this for many other leagues and does it all without any compensation. If you take a look under the hood of the new template, for example, there is a huge amount of coding involved. It's time for me to toss him a bone, even if it is just a virtual Starbucks card or something.
Speaking of the site... I'm mostly done with it. I'm going to add some of the in-season modules when the time comes, and I do like playing around with the graphics, but for the most part, what you see now is what we will use.
I moved several things over here to the News blog. The Ed Hughes Tribute page, Banners page, Championship Hughes News editions page, and the Rules page, to be specific. You can find links to them over on the right-hand side of this page. The box that had been on the front of the site with info on our league, Coach Hughes, and three of our former owners is now found under the About Us tab.
I've swapped out all the non-division weeks on the schedule. I just randomly matched up weeks and swapped 'em since with empty rosters it doesn't matter who is squaring off in any week just yet. I also swapped some division weeks (3 for 5 and 12 for 13). I left weeks 1 and 14 as is because the Flyers versus the Heroes to open and close the season is kind of a tradition. tradition.
Draft Info... I haven't talked to Mike to see if he and Lynne are up to hosting again this year. They may still be in Colorado. Other options include a place like Cactus Cove (site of our last two postseason meetups), one of several breweries with good web access, or just doing it all remotely. I'll update as needed. We will draft on September 1, which is Labor Day.
Coming Soon:(or at least eventually) to a league near you: As of late I've been giving a lot of thought to some of the more memorable moments in our 45 years of doing this. Gary Hamman's David Overstreet pick is always the first thing that comes to mind, but that's far from the only highlight (or lowlight). Some time before the season starts I want to post an entry with some of the memorable moments that have made the Hughes League what it is.
An in-season get-together was mentioned in my first email. I think it might be fun if we can find the right date, game, and venue. I don't want to spoil our post-season gathering so maybe mid-season for a fun Monday Night game would work. I'll give it some more thought. We could even have a FaceTime session going so the OOT guys could check in.
And I've also been thinking that we are not that far off (knock on wood) from our 50th season. I've always said jokingly that we will go to Vegas for that year's draft and have showgirls, etc. The problem is I hate Vegas. Like I really hate Vegas! My one visit was one too many. Therefore, I've been mulling over some alternative plans. I'd love to have every owner in one room for that 50th draft. That's probably a pipe dream, but I still want to try. So a location that is easily reachable to everyone would be helpful. Atlanta sort of 'splits the difference' travel distance-wise and it's an airline hub with flights arriving from everywhere. The fact that there is a lot to do there is gravy. I could see us having our draft and visiting the College Football Hall of Fame. We visited there for the 2015 UH Peach Bowl Game, and it was a highlight for sure. 2029 is a long way off. But I like thinking about it.
Yes, indeed we are! Hopefully, you saw the email I sent this past weekend. In it I outlined a few things about the league homepage and the 2025 season. I have more news, so I'll compile it all here.
The Hughes League Site: The 2025 site is more or less good to go. As I noted in the email, the site is now using a simplified template that will easily carry over from one season to the next. It's clean, simple, quick, and (I think) attractive. I muddled around with quite a bit of the code and trashed it a few times over the past couple of days, but it should be nearly in final form now. A couple of things still need fixing, and I hope to get those worked out soon. The problems are cosmetic and mostly minor.
The customized view on mobile devices is not currently working correctly.FIXED
The league logo (the shield on the front page) is out of proportion.FIXED
Some tabs have incorrect/missing icons.FIXED
The text in the 'Rules' tab refuses to stay 'left-aligned'.FIXED...Rules now located here on the News blog.
Only #1 above is very important.
Please visit the site and poke around. I will be adding modules as time goes by. I have not put some of the 'in-season' modules in place. I think everything else is there, but you are going to have to look in a different place to find some things. The most important tools are located in that row of icons to the right of the shield. If you have issues, be sure to let me know.
BTW...in trying to keep things tidy on the site, I have removed the special tabs, including the Coach Hughes Tribute, the historic banners page, the Champions Hughes News Editions page, etc. Those can now be found right here on the Hughes News site over in the right column. (EDIT)..The Rules page is here as well.
I tried a bunch of the different color (theme) options as I was tinkering. You might have noticed the site in red, blue, etc. if you were visiting over the last few days. I finally decided on the 'brown' theme, which is closest to what we have had for several years. In the future, I might give the defending champion the choice to pick the color theme.
Payment: I'm currently collecting payment for 2025. The cost to each owner is $18. That covers the $100 MFL league fee, the $25 for Primetime Draft, and the trophy, which has run about $85/$90 with shipping. (I paid more last year for mine, but I paid the overage out of my pocket.).
I will not be sending endless nagging emails this year. You have several options....
My Venmo address is @Robert-Andrews-91
You can send me a check: 15051 Peachmeadow, Channelview TX 77530.
Or send the fee via PayPal. There is a PP button on the '25 league site, and the amount is already programmed in and includes an extra amount to cover the fees PP collects from me for accepting payment. Please pay promptly.
Once you pay, I will send the league invite and unlock your franchise. As of Monday afternoon, I've collected enough for the league fee. I have paid Myfantasyleague for the 2025 season.
As an inducement to pay promptly, I will add $10 to the waiver budget to every team paid for by August 1.
League Stuff/Misc: There are no rules changes for 2025. I thought about formalizing a rule about 'missed lineup deadlines,' but those will continue to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and I will do what I've done for 45 years: try to use my best judgment and strive to do right by everyone involved.
I have the draft scheduled for Labor Day, September 1st, at a site to be determined or online. I will maintain this Hughes News blog this year as I have in the past. As I mentioned in the email, I'd really like to get more engagement this season. I have a few ideas, such as a Houston watch party. Maybe on a Sunday or Monday night later in the season, we could try to get together and watch an NFL game. Our postseason get-together is always a good time, and more of that sort of thing can't be bad, right?
Stay in touch...read your email and this blog. Please pay for your team if you haven't yet done so.
-commish
Ellis is spending some time in California with her folks. As an unofficial Disney Princess she was super excited to meet a bunch of them over the weekend!
Peter F'ing Gabriel, boys and girls. He still kills it. Seeing his show was a long-time goal. So glad I was able to be there.
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