12/24/19 - Karen Page, BSL Lead Pool Reporter - All options were on the table this season in the BSL. Across the 3 leagues we saw a 1st time winner, a Champion come out of the Wild-Card game and seemingly unbeatable wire-to-wire dominance (with a little rest near the end) of the new BSL leader in total trophies. The CDL and FSDL champions had a once very important piece in common, and that is the ‘It wasn’t even close’ RB of the Year in all 3 BSL leagues Christian McCaffery. Apparently even when the entire defense knows who is going to get the ball for the Panthers 75% of the time, they still can’t stop The Great White Hope! McCaffery’s crazy CRAZY season won 2 titles for his owners. Here is a recap of the latest series of the BSL football season.
Starting as usual in the CDL, we saw a FRIST time participant in the CDL title game take all the marbles in a matchup against the team with the MOST BSL title game appearances as the Killer Tomatoes beat a battered Uncanny X-Men [late season injuries will be a theme for the X-Men/36ers/Avengers ownership group]. The Tomatoes are now undefeated in Championship appearances (1-0) and the X-Men move to (5-6) after their 11th title game appearance in the CDL’s 21-year history! While the Tomatoes had the services of the #1 RB in the big game the X-Men were without the #2 RB, Dalvin Cook. In game injuries to RB Mark Ingram and TE Zach Ertz and the inability of top WR Adam Thielen to return to form sunk the X-Men while the Tomatoes made the most of their Week 16 matchup with big games from yearlong top performers in TE Mark Andrews and LB Fred Warner along with late season pick up LB Za’Darius Smith and his 3.5 sacks in the title game. Congrats to the Tomatoes on their first CDL Championship. Elsewhere in the CDL the Kashyyyk Kommandos took 3rd place over the Guilder Dread Pirates in the consolation game and the Blue Coats won the best-of-three matchup with the MLT Predators to gain the #1 overall pick in the 2020 College Draft.
In the FSDL, the Scarlet Widow got hot at the right time. While they missed winning their division against the #1 overall Sinister 36ers, they got revenge after rolling thru their Wild-Card game with a win over the 36ers in the semi-finals. They then moved into the title game against last year’s runner-up Jedi Knights who returned to the FSDL title game for the 4th time in the last 6 years. This year, the Knights missed out on their 3rd FSDL championship because of a mistake made listening to pre-game injury reports. We have learned that the Knights’ ownership removed TE Jared Cook at the last minute due to a report that ‘Cook’ would not play in week 16 and instead of getting a goose egg at a position swapped in TE Cameron Brate. Unfortunately for the Knights the ‘Cook’ that was not going to play was the 36ers aforementioned RB Dalvin, not TE Jared. Jared’s 2 TD game would have pushed the Knights over the top, but instead a equally great performance by the Scarlet Widows, scoring 34 pts over their weekly average, gave the Widows their franchise’s 2nd championship, they were previously (1-2) in title games when they were named the Mighty Mites. The Widows were aided by an awakening by RB Alvin Kamara who along with White Thunder McCaffery and LB Chandler Jones’s 24pt game to their 1st title since 2005. Congrats to the Widows in the FSDL. Elsewhere in the FSDL, last year’s champion Hebrew Hammers took down this year’s #1 scoring team the Sinister 36ers. Following the 36ers injuries, they went into the final matchups sans RB Dalvin Cook, WRs Chris Godwin and Calvin Ridley, and TE Evan Engram. In the end the injuries were too much to overcome for the 36ers as the Hammers finish in 3rd and the 36ers 4th. For the top pick, the China Open Faces won their best-of-three series against the Midway Monsters and have the #1 overall pick in the 2020 college draft.
Lastly we have the TLSL and the BSL’s most dominant team of 2019. While we had a 1st time winner in the CDL and Wild-Card Champ in the FSDL, the TLSL was led by 1 team the whole way, The Avengers. The Avengers took the Offensive Team of Year, Defensive Team of the Year and Special Teams of the Year awards in a sweep of the team scoring awards and led all BSL teams in scoring with a #3 all-time total of 2146.58 points. While this wasn’t the top scoring team of all time what made this season different than other previous top scoring BSL seasons was the margin in which The Avengers were beating their opponents. After starting (10-0) to begin the season and at that point averaging more than 17 points more than the #2 scoring TLSL team and over 25 points more per week than the #3 scoring team. We have never seen this type of separation before. Oddly, while The Avengers swept the team scoring awards they only had a single player win an individual scoring award for Player of Year at Defensive Back in Jamal Adams. It was simple a complete team effort for The Avengers. The Avengers, after clinching their division with 5 weeks remaining in the regular season, seemingly rested their players after week 10 as they lost 3 straight and it looked like a chink in the armor was found but they rebounded in the final 2 games and what looked inevitable for the bulk of the TLSL happened as The Avengers remained undefeated in championship games moving to (6-0) all-time and are now the BSL leader with 6 titles, breaking a tie of 5 with the CDL’s Uncanny X-Men and Tanzmanian Devils. While the X-Men and 36ers ownership group couldn’t overcome the injury bug, they weathered the storm with The Avengers depth. Like the 36ers The Avengers also lost RB Cook, WR Godwin and TE Engram, and like the X-Men they lost RB Mark Ingram mid-game, as well as having the limping to the finish line WR Thielen. The Avengers survived their 3rd lowest scoring week of the year to claim their 6th title over the Omaha Players. This was the Players’ 2nd title game loss in 4 years, their sole title coming in 2012. In the TLSL consolation game, the Clown Show took down the Evil Empire after the Empire made the same mistake with TE Jared Cook as they did in the FSDL. The Clowns finish 3rd and the Empire takes 4th. For the #1 overall draft pick it came down to the final week to resolve the best-of-three series between the FL Nittany Lions and Basket of Deplorabes with the Deplorables taking the series and the top overall 2020 college pick.
Thus ends another BSL Fantasy Football season. 2020 is right around the corner and teams should already be prepping for the offseason. It will be training camp time before you know it. Congrats to all the winners across the three leagues and check the side columns for the Prizes and Awards sheet for your league. From everyone here in the league’s press room and main offices we wish everyone a Merry Holiday season and Happy New Year to you, your loved ones and your families, assuming you like those other people that is, if not, just a happy New Year to you then! See you in 2020!