Officially it is not official but it looks to all the world that Jack has this 2nd season thing in his pocket. He's not leading but has several players that the teams ahead of him don't have. I'd do the permutations but they give me a headache these days. In short... Keith is a sitting duck, Dan has an outside chance to stay ahead of his kid, James can't catch the leaders and the rest of us are along for the ride.
While updating the statistical spreadsheets as I do after every season I came across some errors (Oh, the horror!) in my postseason numbers. I decided to just dig into the numbers and start from scratch. It's tedious work made more tedious by the fact that I need to double (and triple) check everything.
If any of you guys have a free half hour or so I would appreciate a second set of eyes to tabulate some team(s)' postseason record. Here's what this entails... From the updated Postseason results spreadsheet I would ask you to add up the following for a team:
Postseason Appearances (i.e. # of years a team made the playoffs)
PS Games Played
PS W/L
Division Titles
League Titles
W/L for each round as below
WC/1st Rd
Semifinals
Hughes Bowl
I have some teams finished (Flyers, Giants, Strawmenn) but with those teams, I could use a recount LOL You could do a couple of teams if so inclined. If you can help just send word and I will send you the updated Postseason results sheet (the one posted in the Links section of the league page is flawed). I can send along a tally sheet to make it easier.
This is all part of revamping and streamlining my stats workbooks. Uploading individual stat sheets to the Links section is a pain and the site I use is quirky. I'm consolidating all my numbers and history stuff into a single workbook which I can email to anyone interested. But that comes later. For now, I just want to get my Postseason numbers correct.
Thanks In Advance!
Now, see below for info on the Houston Meet-And-Greet!
Houston Meetup next Saturday! (Feb. 8)
Let's aim for 2 p.m. at Cactus Cove, the same spot as last year. I plan to get there early and hopefully nail down one of the big tables like we had last year. I also need the time to use the crane to unload my trophy from the flatbed. 🤣 Feel free to come as early as 1:30. CC is on W. 11th just west of Ella Blvd. In case you've forgotten you can check the map for the location.
Unless I hear otherwise I will be expecting all the Houston guys. The trophy, Hughes News Championship Edition, and maybe Ellis Rose, the Hughes League Queen, will be there!
First to worst is a thing and it bit David this week in the Postseason contest. After grabbing the lead in Week One he dropped to the bottom of the Week Two numbers. He's still in a money spot, though, and as they say in poker, "All you need is a chip and a chair!"
Rick took the permutation reins* and thinks James is going to be difficult to catch. I've been too busy to mess with that sort of task so I'll take his word for it. It's not surprising since James always seems to do well in this thing. Dan as well and his Fish are right there in second.
I had two goals when I decided to crank this up. #1 was to get as many of you guys involved as I could. #2 was to not finish last. At least #1 worked out. 💀
*=According to the googles it is 'reins'. Learn something new all the time.
Houston Meetup!
Targeting Saturday, February 8th. The day before the Super Bowl has become a tradition of sorts. Time and place are TBD but I'd expect it to be around 1:30 or 2ish at a spot on the west side of town. I thought Cactus Cove worked out pretty well last year so I'm leaning toward returning there but other spots, like one of the On The Kirb locations, NettBar Shady Acres (which I considered last year), or maybe Cottonwood on North Shepherd. I'm open to other suggestions.
I hope all the local guys can be there. Stay tuned for finalized details.
Keep Saturday, February 8th open for our annual Houston meetup! I haven't finalized a location but figure on something on the west side of town as usual, early to mid-afternoon. I hope all the local runners-up can make it!
Now... on to the regular business...
Well, David got off to a nice start in the Postseason Challenge, and he is on top of the pack after a week of Wildcard games. Keith is right on his tail, and then there is a gap to the rest of us. I use the term 'us' loosely as I'm currently trying to find a periscope to see above the water.
Then again, he has five players out of the NFL Playoffs now. Can the leaders sustain their momentum? It is interesting to see the different approaches to roster building. I took some time and posted the results below, with the eliminated players in red. You'll need to click the table to make it large enough to view.
Looks like we have all eleven teams in the house! Rosters can be viewed after the first kickoff today. Good luck to all and check back here as I will be posting (probably) updates as the NFL Playoffs continue. I'll also have updates on the Houston Get-together.
UPDATE...Monday, Jan 6th:
The Contest site is now operational. You can pick your players (reminders below).
The non-NFL Playoff teams have been filtered out so you should only see eligible players on the selection page.
I set the deadline for finalizing your choices for 3:30 CENTRAL Saturday, the kickoff of the first Wildcard game. Please don't cut it that close.
The league-wide rosters will remain unavailable to view until I flip the switch at the deadline. (or as soon after that point as I can get to my keyboard.
I thought putting all things related to the Postseason Contest in one place for easy referral would be a good idea.
I will award 2025 waiver cash to two top finishers ($35/$20). If all 12 of us play I'll add a 3rd place award.
Since we had almost a full house of EHFL owners I think we'll add some prize waiver money to the pot. As follows:
1st Place =$35
2nd Place =$20
3rd Place=$10
4th Place = $5
Third and fourth don't pay much but $10 is equal to a bonus Blind Bid claim or a nice kicker for a bid you'd really like to win. The $5 for fourth place will get you a Free Agent. Don't laugh, I picked up Adam Theilen as a $5 FCFS claim and the guy helped me win the league averaging 13+ over the last five weeks.
You will pick 13 NFL playoff players, 2 QB, 3 RB, 4 WR, 2 TE, and 2 K.
Unlike the old Second Season, you are NOT restricted to two players per NFL playoff team, in other words... -You can load up with as many players from the Packers, Bills, etc as you want to. Or spread the wealth and cover more teams, it's your call -You can make changes up to the first NFL Playoff kickoff, but... -Once the NFL Playoffs start your rosters are locked, no changes for any reason -We will use the same scoring system as the Hughes League -No tiebreaks, in the event of a tie I will divide the cash evenly or if more than two teams are involved award a TBD amount to each
Things to know:
Read the message on the Contest site for most of the essential details.
Also...the site is stripped down as much as possible since all we need is to pick a roster and check scores each week.
You cannot currently pick a team as I have turned off that ability until the NFL Playoffs are set.
Once that rolls around here is how you will pick your roster.
Go to Transactions--->Set Roster Select your players: 2 QB 3 RB 4 WR 2 TE 2 PK
This screen is almost identical to the one you use to make waiver claims in our regular season. See the screenshot below.
You will be able to make changes to your roster at any time before that first playoff game! a point close to the first NFL playoff kickoff. See the calendar on the site.
Once you have selected them click the Load Roster button below the player windows.
If you don't select the correct # of players for each spot you'll get an error message when you Load Roster and you'll have to start over.
Until the rosters lock you can use the same method to change players on your roster.
MFL says they will filter out NFL teams that are not in the playoffs once the NFL playoff teams are set and Week 18 ends.
Rosters are not visible to other owners until the deadline.
I will delete any team that hasn't picked a roster by the deadline to keep things tidy and because I'm allergic to zeros.
Pro tips... Use the team/position/name filters below the 'Select Players To Add' Window.
It would be helpful to have your players listed on paper, do one position at a time, and double-check your work.
With the final whistle of the Dolphins-Browns game on Sunday, Flyer fans everywhere celebrated the end of a long drought as the team clinched the EHFL crown by winning Hughes Bowl 44 over the Nationals.
The championship, which came 14 years to the day since their last crown, stretched out over nearly a week but it may have been over on Day One (Wednesday). Derrick Henry steamrolled the Texans and gave the Flyers a healthy Christmas cushion. The Nats held their own through the Thursday and Saturday games but HB MVP Baker Mayfield extinguished any faint hopes the Nats might have had with his 34.5 (369 years/5 TDs) performance in the early Sunday window. Adam Thielen kicked in 25.5 points to help offset the below-standard output of the other receivers. Everything after those Herculean efforts was meaningless as the Flyers were not to be caught. Once Deebo Samuels finished his mop-up duty on Monday night the final score was 132.86 to 84.16 in favor of the Flyers.
Notes... their three winning playoff games were the first postseason wins by the Flyers since 2018... this game evens their Hughes Bowl record at 6-6 and ties them with the Nats for the most titles...in fact, the Nats and Flyers have identical Hughes Bowl records as both are 6-6 in 12 Hughes Bowl games...this win gives the Flyers a 2-1 lead in head-to-head Hughes Bowl games versus the Nats although the Nats are 4-3 in the postseason against the Flyers overall... The margin of victory for the Flyers (47.74 points) is the second largest in Hughes Bowl history behind only the 2013 game when the Bombers doubled up the Bliz 114-57...
The Flyers are the third straight Wildcard club to win the Hughes Bowl, the fourth in the last five seasons. Over the prior 14 seasons only one Wildcard had taken home the trophy, the 2012 Giants... the Flyers' total in the game (132.86) is the fourth-highest Hughes Bowl-winning score... Mayfield's 34.5 points were the most by a player in the Hughes Bowl since 2020 when Devonte Adams scored 37 for the Giants and Stefon Diggs put up 36 for the Nationals... malik Nabors was held out of practice all last week by the NYG and his iffy status led Dan to sit him for the Hughes Bowl. Of course, he went off for 32+ points. He wouldn't have won the game for the Nats but he'd have made it much more interesting... my point here is that sometimes you're better off NOT knowing.
Off-The-Wall Stuff...2024 marks the fifth consecutive season in which the Lombardi winner got a bye and then LOST in the Semifinals. And you can't blame one team for this 'honor' as each Lombardi club has been involved. ¯\_㋡_/¯ ... this loooong NFL weekend (Wednesday-Monday) seemed to drag the Hughes Bowl on forever. But it was not the first time we've had a 'Six Day Hughes Bowl' game. In 2010 the NFL postponed a Sunday night Vikings-Eagles game in Philly due to a blizzard. They played it Tuesday night to wrap up the schedule which had begun on Thursday and the Flyers hung on through a Mike Vick onslaught and beat the Giants 81-70...
The Flyers and Nats had a combined $9 in waiver cash when the season ended. Don't jump to conclusions as Dan and I are the league's acknowledged 'panic buyers'. When we were done, the other four playoff teams had an average of $132... 2024 marks the first time in Hughes League history that we had a three-way tie for best regular season record with the Bombers, Nats, and Flyers posting 10-4 marks... it is also the first time two teams tied for most points. Okay so the Bombers had a quarter point more than the Flyers but I can't make the standings chart parse it out to two decimal places so it appears as a tie.
Off-Season Work...first things first, I am not going to renew the league with MFL until I'm sure I want to continue with it into a 46th year. I've mentioned before that we are like an expired cell phone contract, we're now working month to month. It'll cost a bit more if I renew later in the summer but that's how it is... once/if I renew I will clean up the mess I made of the postseason waiver calendar. Dealing with the league calendar is always a confusing mess and tacking on special waiver windows and adjusting times just worsens it. Wednesday games are almost as bad an idea as two competing MNF games... and, from the "Nobody gives a damn but me" Department, I'll have the stats files all updated thru 2024 in the next week or so and I'll be working on the Hughes News Champs Edition soon. 😉😊
League Things...
A) The postseason contest we've run the last several years (The Second Season) is up in the air. If I'm reading the site correctly they are charging $20 for a league with over five entries. I'd rather not go through the collecting money 'thing' so I may try to find an alternative site. MFL has free postseason leagues but I don't know how they work. If they have a 'set 'em and forget 'em' option similar to what we've been doing that would probably work. I'll check on them this week.
EDIT...The Postseason Contest is live on a MFL site. Check here for details. You need to contact me for an invite and accept it by Friday, January 3 at 10 pm Central.
B) I will decide on a postseason get-together and let everyone know the details soon. We've had good luck with meeting up on the Saturday of Super Bowl Weekend (February 8th this year) so that is a likely date. We've rotated the location every year but Cabin Creek worked out well for us last time so I'll look at doing that again. Other ideas are more than welcome.
Gonna wrap up this year's Music Corner with my favorite songs.. two (or three) versions of each.
Wrapping up this final regularly scheduled edition of the Hughes News with my grandkids enjoying their holidays!
For the first time since 2008, two of the 'Original Nine' franchises will be meeting in the Hughes Bowl. The Flyers and Nats took different paths and had different Semifinal weekend rides but both ended up in their 12th title contest.
For much of Sunday, the Nats appeared to be hopelessly behind the Pirates as Jack seemed to be on his way to besting his Dad and bound for his first title shot. But a funny thing happened...the Nats muscled up with big games from a crew of second-window players. They caught the Pirates at about 76 points, seemed to pause and catch their breath, and then laid down the hammer and ran away to a 50ish-point lead. Jack's Sunday and Monday Night players had no hope of making up the deficit. The Nats won 123.94-94.20 once the once-sided Packers-Saints game wrapped on Monday night.
The Flyers gained a measure of revenge over the Bombers, their Lombardi Division rivals, with a 'don't look back' 129.92 to 60.06 win. Saturday's NFL contests went a long way in determining this one. Bobby had three starters in the early Chiefs-Texans game and when they came away with just a combined 20 points the Flyers saw the door open wide. In the late Saturday game, Derrick Henry almost matched those three Bombers. The Flyers piled up points early Sunday to pull away and used Baker Mayfield's late-game desperation efforts on Sunday Night to score enough to double-up the by-then eliminated Bombers.
There were moments this past season when the Nats and Flyers looked unstoppable. The Nats ended up third in the league in points behind the Bombers and Flyers. They were the league's high-scoring team in Weeks 1 & 2 and had the second-highest 2024 week total in Week 11.
The Flyers led the league in PPG five times this year and had the highest one-week total for the year in Week 3. They were 0.24 points behind the Bombers for the yearly scoring race.
But in fantasy football all that history means little. Hell, the Bombers scored 141.22 and 145.98 in Weeks 13 and 14. Bobby had the bye week off and came back with a 60-point game. Who saw that coming? Nobody. I had two banners prepped for this blog post as seen at the top. One had the Nats vs the Bombers. The other had the Pirates vs the Bombers. Don't count on anything. Don't try to pick the winner of the HB. 45 years of this has to have taught us that, right?
Let's crunch some numbers!
The fine print: It's always been hard for me to parse ownership/management/advisor of franchises in the first couple of decades of the league. For example, Steve had Dan and David as 'partners' with the Nats at various points back then. Sam and Bobby were co-owners of the Bombers after Bobby ran his own team which was known as the Banditos. Then Bobby took the 'Bombers' name when Sam left. Rick was picking lineups for the Flyers at some point in 1980. For that reason, I keep these things simple by just tracking 'franchise' numbers. Keep that in mind with historical achievements.
Fun Facts...Eight of the first eleven Hughes Bowls featured either the Flyers, the Nationals, or both...the Flyers are trying to be the fourth wildcard to win the title in the last five years... they were this year's #4 seed and what was the last #4 club to win it all? Last season's Strawmenn. The Nats earned the #2 seed this year. The 2019 Giants were the last #2 seed to win the Hughes Bowl.
Despite being original members of this league, the two clubs have met only six times in the EHFL Postseason. And the Nats have won four of those meetings:
This chart shows the Postseason records of the two franchises, updated through this past weekend. Note the 1993 "HebePokes". Those were the Nats as they were known under the direction of David as Stevie's GM in his pre-Rbacks days.
Here's a look at all the Hughes Bowl results involving the Nats and Flyers.
Murray Christmas from all of us here at League Headquarters!
I've been saving this. If you don't know Eva Cassidy please watch this Nightline segment from 2001. If you have a soul at all her music will change your life. Or skip to one of the first three videos. You're welcome.
We've made it to Week 16 and we are down to four teams contending for this season's Hughes Bowl. This past weekend was a study in contrast. The Pirates avenged the loss to the Blizzard that closed out their season and had bumped them to a #6 seed. They jumped out to a huge Sunday lead and were spared having to watch the ugly Monday Night Football games.
Their 152+ points were nearly double their Week 14 output and was a high-scoring mark for them in 2024. And they managed that with only a handful of points from their TE. Meanwhile, Paz has to head for the offseason knowing he'd have rolled past either of the other two teams that played this weekend. How many times have I said it? Fantasy football can be a bitch.
Jack's win sets up a fun weekend as he takes the old man's #1-seeded Nationals. Family feuds are an interesting aspect of the Hughes League. I always enjoyed it when Brooks and James had teams in the Lombardi. Those matchups I dubbed the Bunkbed Brawl. I'm on a heavy dose of meds so I'm struggling to come up with a clever fish/seafaring/father-son name for this matchup so I'll just go with the Scofield Scuffle.
The Nats were the third-highest-scoring team over the season's last five weeks while the Pirates were well down that list but none of that matters now that both teams have their full rosters available. Here are a few tidbits I've found with a quick look at the history of this matchup...
The Nats and Pirates have never met in the postseason previously.
The Nats beat the Pirates in Week 6 100.10 to 88.00.
Both clubs were 4-2 and had at least a piece of their division lead after that game.
Jack is 0-2 in Semifinal games having lost to the Giants in 2021 and the Strawmenn last year.
In both those cases, their opponent went on to win the Hughes Bowl.
The Nats are 10-8 in Semifinal games in their long history under Dan and Stevie.
Their last Semi game was in 2020 (that was also their last playoff season).
They beat Lincoln in that one before losing to the Giants in the Hughes Bowl.
This game will tie them with the Heroes for the most Semifinal appearances (19).
The other Wildcard game couldn't have been more different than the Pirates-Bliz affair. I checked the app on my phone late-ish in the second game window on Sunday and the score was something like 36-28 in favor of the Holes. Neither they nor my Flyers had done shit in hours (or so it seemed) and I was like 'This is the worst playoff game in history!' It got a little better Sunday night... but not much.
Below is an actual AI simulation of the Holes and Flyers game.
That led to Monday. <switching to owner mode> The Holes had a lead of about 7 or so and had their rookie Raider TE going. I had the Vikes' TE and kicker. I figured my kicker should erase the gap and it would be a TE fight. Turns out my making the move for the Minnesota kicker was one of the few smart things I did this season. I had contemplated activating the Chiefs guy and going with him. He only got three so I was lucky. I got to about 5 points ahead and switched to the Falcons and Raiders so I could watch the Vegas TE. I feel like the NFL owes me reparations for sitting through that truly awful display of football they spewed in that game. Raiders were down 12 but the Falcons were just fucking around and let them score. About then the Vikings kicker added another field goal so, now up by about 9, I got out my calculator to figure out how long of a TD reception the Raiders' TE needed to beat me by 0.24 points and kill what little soul I have left.
Meanwhile, the Falcons couldn't get a first to run out the clock (FFS, Kirk Cousins! Stop being shite!) so they punted. The Raiders took some idiotic penalties (thanks!), went backward, then forward, backward, forward, and finally chunked two shitty Hail Marys to put a merciful end to that garbage. </owner mode>
And that led to this Lombardi rerun:
These are two old hands ready to duke it out with a Hughes Bowl trip as the reward. A couple of notes:
They split the two regular-season games.
Flyers won 119+ to 60+ in Week 5
The Bombers pummelled the Flyers in the Week 12 rematch as these were clubs headed in different directions.
The Flyers are 8-7 in Semifinal games, the Bombers are 7-6
These two last met in a playoff game in 1999 when the Bombers downed the Flyers in the Wildcard round.
The Flyers' last Semifinal game was a loss to the Sticks in 2021 (their last playoff appearance)
The Bombers' last Semifinal game came in 2022 when they beat the Heroes before dropping the HB to the Bliz.
The way the season finished with the Bombers winning the division by less than a quarter of a point probably made this matchup inevitable.
I usually make notes on possible milestones to be aware of when they happen but I let Hogan's 300th win get past me. The Heroes are the second team to reach 300 regular season wins. When you add in playoff wins, the total is 316! Congrats are certainly in order.
And four(!) teams could reach that milestone in 2025... the Nats (294 wins thru 2024), Strawmenn (292), Holes (291), and Giants (289).
Random League Tidbits... this is the second consecutive season that the defending Hughes Bowl champ has missed the playoffs. The Blizzard, our '22 champs, went 7-7 in 2023. Last year's title holder, the Strawmenn, didn't threaten this year... over the past three seasons, since we did away with keepers and gimmicky drafts, the team drafting in the #12 slot has gone 18-24 and none of the three has made the playoffs. Don't jump to any conclusions because the team drafting first has gone 16-26 and none of them made the playoffs either... across the four remaining clubs, we have the Nats gunning for their 7th EHFL title, the Flyers trying for their 6th, the Bombers hoping for their 5th and the Pirates looking to break through and win one for themselves and the younger generation of owners.
I kind of hope that happens to be honest. Sure, I want to win, but it would be cool to put a new name on the Champs plaque... I was catching up on lineup research and noticed that for the first time in the two seasons we've had these flexible lineups there was a 1-2-3 configuration. The Giants, hamstrung by injuries and byes, started three TEs in Week 14. It didn't go well.
A bit of Mitch Hedberg. RIP, genius.
Stuff I've been saving for a rainy day. Hit 'em all!
Ok, maybe skip this one. 😆
Music Trivia...Mickey Thomas did the lead vocal, not Elvin Bishop.
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