PAFFL.com

Stuff White People Like

A colleague at work passed this along today, I think you'll all enjoy the site as well - its called Stuff White People Like.  I particularly enjoy #11 Asian Girls (white men) or #88 Having Gay Friends (white women). 

What Fantasy Leagues can learn from NFL Rule Changes

The Wall Street Journal published an article today titled, "What Fantasy Leaguers can Learn from the NFL Draft Rule Changes".  They list out five points to take away from them shortening the time between rounds, from adding new elements to the draft and the game itself.  The core point though was that as successful as the NFL is, they're not afraid to continue to improve. The PAFFL and every fantasy league for that matter should take that advice seriously. 

2008 PAFFL Rookie Pick Projections (1st Draft)

       

The 2008 NFL draft brought fantasy football a plethora of fresh talent. Five first round selections at RB, two QB’s and plenty of solid 2nd & 3rd rounders as well.  The one troubling development though is the two-back system becoming pervasive in the the copycat NFL. Possibly not a single RB selected this year will be a true featured back (sans McFadden & Stewart)  McFadden is a likely #2 fantasy back, no team will select a player that high with that type of talent w/o a plan to feature him, and maybe Jonathan Stewart in Carolina where HC John Fox likes a bruising back to wear down defenses.  But the next eight backs off the board (Felix Jones, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Ray Rice, Kevin Jones, Jamaal Charles & Steve Slaton) will be in share situations at best.  In fact the only one in that group with an opportunity to start is Matt Forte in Chicago where all he needs to do is beat out bonafide bust Cedric Benson.

RB Share Situations - New Blood from the 2008 NFL Draft

The NFL draft always brings some surprises but one guarantee you can always count on is new blood, an infusion of 250+ players who are young, healthy and hungry to make it in the NFL.  In a professional sport that carries a career expectancy of approximately 3.2 years for a drafted player, many joke that NFL stands for 'Not For Long'.  For fantasy leaguers, particularly dynasty league participants (where you keep players for longer than a single year), the NFL draft represents new blood, players who shift current player's values and new opportunities for fantasy success.  One trend that people will start talking about a lot more, and expect to see this all over the 2008 fantasy football guides that get published in June, is the NFL shift to Two Back systems where one running back maybe gets a majority of the carries between the 20's and then another one comes in for the goal line work, short yardage or third down opportunities.  The NY Giants won the super bowl with this strategy, and New England has employed it during their reign the past eight years to great success. So while having competent backups has always been the goal, the NFL is moving towards a trend of literally have two guys who could be considered the starter.  For fantasy this means fewer true 'featured backs' and more ambiguity as to who is the 'right' guy to start week to week.

Brett Favre selected for '08 Madden Cover

EA has selected recently retired QB Brett Favre to be the Madden 2008 cover boy. This is a huge relief to fantasy leagues and NFL fans alike as there has been an eerie coincidence of player's appearing on the cover and having injury plagued and/or un-productive seasons.

Don't underestimate the Madden curse, which has befallen nearly every NFL player who appeared on the cover sans one or two. Last year Vince Young wasn't mature or ready for the primetime and the Madden cover sank him. But its not just Young, you can look at the long list and its been an anomaly when a player lived up to expectations the season they appeared as the cover boy.

Blow Jobs are like Flowers for Men

I came across this today, its one of many funny eCards being produced by someecards, a former Onion writer.  Here is a link to the most popular renditions.

Top 64 NFL Draft Prospects

ESPN reporter Todd McShay debuts an article on the top 64 NFL draft prospects (ESPN Insider Subscription required) in tiers of 6 or so. It's what he calls 'tiering' that every NFL war room (draft team) creates to differentiates players of various levels, so they know they're not 'reaching' for a player based on need over a superior talent in the same general area of a selection.

Stanford wins in dramatic fashion; Pac-10 salvages tourney

That was a dramatic way for the Pac-10, particularly UCLA and Stanford to save its 2008 season. The conference headed into the tourney with one of its best regular season's in recent memory and six teams (for the 2nd season in a row) but was on the brink of seeing only one or maybe two teams advance to the round of 16, after three of its six got drubbed in round one.

PAFFL CONTRACTS W/Grossman Trade

The Beavercats just sent me a copy of the most recent PAFFL 3-Year Contracts. Please everyone take a second and check to make sure your roster is correct. Also, a reminder... please don't drop players from your squad on the website until the roll-over. Thanks.

Download paffl_contracts_2008_2.28.08).xls

Super Bowl Party Photos..

We had a good group of folks at this year's Super Bowl party.  Not only was it a classic Super Bowl, it was a crowded Super Bowl party. 

NFL Free Agency Kicks Off in a Frenzy...

This past Friday the NFL's annual free agency period kicked off with a flurry of activity.  However it wasn't until today that the first big fantasy changing signing occurred with the Atlanta Falcons signing former Chargers RB Michael Turner to a 6 year, $34.5 million contract with reportedly $15 million in guaranteed money. 

Yes We Can Obama

I know the PAFFL is apolitical as this is supposed to be a diversion from real life not a substitute for or a place we should be bringing those concerns about life into.  But I thought this video by Will.i.am was appropriate for this group. 

New PAFFL Owner?

For the first time in eight years the PAFFL has a franchise opening.  It's incredible to think we've had the same group for the past eight years, its easily the longest single stretch without a change in owners, division or conference alignments.  This year is as good as any to make changes, I guess.

Rex Grossman & Ocho Cinco for Larry Fitzgerald?

The first trade of the 2008 PAFFL season was consummated earlier this year between two of the league's most active traders, Team Kitty and the PA Short Bus. 

Team Kitty acquired QB's Rex Grossman ($55, 2009) & Kyle Orton ($11, 2007) and the rights to WR Chad Johnson ($55, 2007) from the Short Bus for WR Larry Fitzgerald ($53, 2009)

PAFFL 2008 Auction - July 17-20th

We've finalized the dates for the 2008 PAFFL Auction - July 17-20th.  Due to multiple conflicts over the following four weekends, this year's date will be slightly earlier than most. 

Biggest Super Bowl Upset Ever?

Forty eight hours later, I'm still in a state of disbelief over the 42nd Super Bowl.  The New York Giants were the better team and deserved to win but the Patriots had been up until February 3rd, arguably the greatest NFL team of all-time.  That's hard for me to write as a die-hard San Francisco 49'ers fan who could make an argument that the '84, '89 and '94 squads have to be in consideration but no team had ripped apart their NFL schedule as convincingly as the Patriots did this season. 

Stanford Men's Hoops making a statement!

Now that we're effectively in the off-season (ok the Super Bowl is tomorrow but come on, what do we really have to look forward to - the Combine?) its time to speculate about the second half of hoops season.  There has been some interesting news on the Golden State Warriors front with the signing of F/C Chris Webber.  But the real story, the one that's kind of been developing w/o much fanfare, is the return of the Stanford Basketball team to the top 10. 

Junior RB's make '08 NFL Draft a Fantasy Dream

The college football senior class was unusually thin at the key fantasy football skill positions of running back and wide receiver.  There were several quality senior QB prospects, specifically Boston College's Matt Ryan, Louisville's Brian Brohm and Kentucky's Andre Woodson but there wasn't a guaranteed second round grade on any back and no first round grade on a wide receiver.  However all that changed with the flood of Juniors who declared for the NFL draft, headlined by the likely top 5 selection, Arkansas's Darren McFadden. 

2008 PAFFL Conference Re-alignment

Following this past year's auction, the league agreed that if following the 2007 season, if any single division had a 10% variance (in total points scored) than the next closest and/or 15% from the best or worst, then the league would be realigned by seeding each team based on total points scored. 

Well I ran the numbers this evening and it's conclusive.  The PA South division is 11% worse (15,055 total points) than the 3rd best division, PA Eastern division (16,905 total points), and has a 16%+ variance from the best division, the PA Western division (18,084 total points).  Which means we will realign for 2008. 

PAFFL Winter Meetings Review

Big thanks to those folks who made the effort to join the winter meetings (Ron Jeremy, Los Frijoles Pintos, PA Firefighters, Jack Trippers, Fightin' Irie, the Isotopes & Beavercats).  Since we didn't have at least eight owners present, all we could do was build some consensus (or not) around issues and then we had the playoff fantasy draft. 

2007 Payout!!!!

Hello all,

Sorry about the delay but here is list of what teams got paid and how much.

1) Palo Alto Firefighters - The Jankster Cup winners take home 38% of the pot ($1,216.00). A new record!
2) The Ron Jeremy Fan Club - The Jankster runner-up got 28% of the pot ($896.00). Finally the PAFFL is paying off for RJFC
3) Pomona Stoned Hens - The AFC runner up got 12% ($384.00)
4) Salem Beavercats - The top team in the NFC won 10% ($320.00)
5) South Whore Jibbers/East Bay Funk - Being the 2nd best team in the NFC was equal to one lucky playoff win (j/k). 6% of the pot to each ($192.00)
6) Palo Alto Short Bus - DSing one of the best players of the year never pays off. ($0.00)

For the rest of you, get off your asses and make some moves! IMT, any interest in trading Garret Wolfe for Randy Moss?

For the winners, checks will be sent this week.

PAFFL Winter Meetings - January 2, 2008

This year's PAFFL winter meetings are next Wednesday, January 2nd at 6:30 PM.  The meetings will be held at my house with a conference call in number for those who want to join remotely.  The Fiesta Bowl will be played that night so we'll also be able to scout the West Virginia & Oklahoma squads for the next Adrian Peterson.  I will serve up some appetizers and pick up some beers for folks who make it in person.  We also have the Dutch Goose a few blocks away which we can hit up for some pitchers after the meetings.

2008 PAFFL Rookie Pick Order

The final rookie pick order for 2008 is below.  If there are any questions, please feel free to drop comments on this.  The 2008 NFL draft promises to be deep at QB (Brian Brohm, Andre Woodson, Matt Ryan & Colt Brennan) but soft at RB & WR until the underclassman declare starting next week.  There is widespread speculation that junior RB's Darren McFadden (who said he would enter the NFL this past summer), Kevin Smith and Steve Slatton would enter the draft.  If at least two of them do, we'll have a solid four to five deep 1st round selections QB's & RB's to choose from come next July.

PA Firefighters - 2007 Jankster Cup Champions

Congratulations to the PA Firefighters for successfully defending their PAFFL title in winning a back to back effort in '07.  This year's Jankster Cup featured the upstart Pomona Stoned Hens and the PA Firefighters.

Final 2007 PAFFL Rosters

Next week is the last one to correct any potential errors on your roster.  So please take a minute to download the file and check them.  Also don't waste any remaining cap room, use it to settle those worthless contracts.

Download paffl_contracts_12202007.xls