Week 10 welcomes the second installation of the 12 episode series seeking to explain the history of each team and the league as a whole. I offer my sincerest apologies to those left in the dark, endlessly awaiting the release of this report over the past weeks, my classes are hard and sometimes this shit has to take the back seat. Following the precedent set in place last week, we will continue with previous league winners. After an interview with the inaugural champion, Trever Walters, this week we are looking into the year two winner, Matthew Anderson. Matthew is currently 6-3, with a recent loss at the hands of Baud, and is atop the fierce Western Conference. He is gearing up to make a deep run into the playoffs, constantly looking to make his team better, as he somehow managed to fleece the shit out of Baud this past week, but the league used its veto power to smash that trade to pieces (good job fellas, way to be a democracy). His current team is neither here nor there because this report seeks to lift the veil on Matthew’s franchise history and give further insight to the rest of us on how his team operates.
We know very well that he is the defending champion, after a magical 2022 season that finished with a landslide win over Hunter (his generational fall off will be studied next week) to become the FF Bowl II winner. We must go further back in order to truly understand Matthew’s journey to this point. Again, he was a founding member of the league that predates our records. Known as Bourbs Fantasy, we have no concrete evidence of his success or failure in that league. In the inaugural season of FFFL, Matthew started out hot, jumping out to a 4-1 record with only a loss to Noah, but by week 8 he had fallen to 4-4. However, the second half of the season saw him get hot, winning 5 of the last 6 games to make a push into the playoffs. He even won his round one playoff matchup against Hunter. Despite getting hot at just the right time, he fell flat in round 2, only dropping 77 points in a very important match. He would end up getting 3rd after a win over Noah in the consolation bracket (it should be noted Noah had dropped all of his players and was starting Mike Glennon because he was going to the Bears vs Giants game and he was the starter.) Year one is not where Matthew’s team was interesting, that label belongs to his second year effort.
In year 2, everything went right for Matthew, he finished with the best record (10-4) and was good when necessary to take home first place in the tournament. His season did not start that way, however, as he lost his first matchup with the eventual league runner up, falling at the hands of Hunter, 129-119. He responded to this beginning disappointment by winning six straight, getting to 6-1. It was around this time that he traded Justin Herbert and Courtland Sutton for Josh Allen, a move that would prove to be very helpful, because Allen would score 36 points in the second round of the playoffs after a bye week in week 1. Another ingredient in his league winning soup was Isiah Pacheco, he picked him “7am on Sunday. Woke up hungover as hell to Ian Rappoport announcing he was getting the start.” His words. In the championship game, he was dominant, scoring 153.7 points without his starting quarterback, Josh Allen. There is a bit of controversy surrounding this accomplishment, as his opponent, Hunter Quigley, was missing his two bell-cow running backs, Tony P and Derrick Henry. Two of the best running backs that year and carried Hunter into the playoffs. There is a prevalent conspiracy that Matthew caused these injuries, but the evidence is inconclusive, but those who have seen what I have seen, know that truth.
The current is going well enough for Matthew, as he currently sits atop of the fierce Western Conference, a group of squads that beat each other up constantly, real lunchpail, gritty conference. When asked who his favorite opponent is he said “[I] Love playing the guy across from any given week. Just have a passion for the game. But I really enjoy my bye weeks against Cal “Buffet” Mulder.” He has a daunting matchup with Noah this week, one of the teams that has already handed him an L this year. It looks to be a close matchup, we will see. He has championship expectations, but does he have it in him to win back to back? Only time will tell.
Hall of Fame: Jonathan Taylor (16 GP 21.9 PPG), Austin Ekeler (21 GP 21.9 PPG), A.J. Brown (26 GP 18.9 PPG)
Total Regular Season Record: 25-12 (0.676)
Championships: 1 (2022)
Best Pickup: Isaiah Pacheco (2022)
Worst Draft Choice: Amari Cooper (2021 Pick 4.6) (one pick before Cooper Kupp’s immaculate season)
Number of Trades: 20
Best Win: 153.18 – 57.22 (2021 3rd place game vs. Noah R.) (95.96)Worst Loss: 134.82 – 85.2 (2021 Week 14 vs Emmet) (49.62)