By Adam Zimmerman
Alright I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way Adam wrote a blog post, he hates writing! Well guess again. The League chat has been pretty dead lately and there hasn’t been a blog post since week 8 (what’s up with that? ) so I figured maybe I would finally write a post. So here is a little bit about me, my thoughts on everyone’s teams with an anecdote here and there, and power rankings (regardless of whether you’re in the playoffs or not) heading into Week 1 of the playoffs. So get ready for the worst written thing you’ve read in a long time folks.
I’ll just give you guys a quick rundown of my life so far. I grew up in a fairly standard family in Fort Myers, Florida. I ended up going to college away from home and struggled a lot with depression during that time. One of the things that really helped me deal with that depression was the fact that I had the MFL that I could focus on. When I started on year round staff at camp my depression got a lot worse, and I made some bad decisions and soured several relationships that were important to me. At that time I was especially grateful that I had people in the MFL to talk to and something to do with my free time.
I ended up taking some advice from my family and moved back home, but thankfully before my last staff meeting where I announced I was leaving I was approached by Phyllis who asked me to take the camp display and present it at FCC Fort Myers for their missions fair, which I agreed to. At that fair I met a girl who I recognized as having been a counselor at camp before, who was wearing a giant globe costume to take pictures with kids. At the insistence of Lynn Miller I took a picture with her and asked for her number, and proceeded to ghost her for 10 months. Thankfully when I texted her 10 months later she forgave me and we started dating, and now we are engaged. It has been almost 2 years since I left camp and I have never been happier in my life. I’m about to start an amazing new job, I’m engaged to my best friend, and I get to be in a fantasy football league that helped shine a light in my life when I was incredibly depressed. I love the MFL and everyone in it.
Now that I’ve gotten through that explanation of why this league is important to me, let’s move on to talking shit about each of your teams.
Hanna
As many of you have heard me say by now I’ve known Hanna longer than I’ve known any of the rest of you heathens. I first met Hanna when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and her dad became the pastor of my church. I was very annoying when I was younger but Hanna seemed to tolerate me, which I was appreciative of. I am also appreciative of the fact that you wouldn’t trade me Zeke earlier this season. Let’s be honest here, if making the playoffs was solely based on how good your team is you would be a playoff team. You’ve been plagued by injuries and schedule pit you up against some of the highest scoring teams at their peaks. That being said you have a strong foundation between Ekeler, Najee Harris, Josh Jacobs, and Miles Sanders. In terms of the power rankings I have you ahead of 2 playoff teams. Sorry about your luck friend.
Mitchell
My first memory of Mitchell was being at the Impact football event that FCC hosts, and he had come up to see Hanna since they were dating at the time. Then I started seeing him around every once in a while and got to know him better when I was an alpha. To be completely honest I thought you were the coolest Omega because you were funny, charismatic, and everybody seemed to be your friend. The only problem here is that charisma doesn’t get you bonus points in the power rankings. You have a solid team, but I personally don’t think it’s enough to get the jacket. You’ve been really hurt by things like the falloff of DJ Moore and performance/injury of Waller. Could you make a push for the championship? Yes. Would I bet on it? Probably not.
Ben
Ben was another one of those guys who was an omega when I was an alpha. I remember thinking you were really nice and a lot of fun to be around. You were the first person to ever encourage me to apply to be an omega, and that encouragement was a huge part of why I decided to go for it despite not having been the most outgoing or popular. So thanks for that dude. Your team looked so dang strong at the start of the season, and then everything fell apart. Despite only having 3 wins on the season I think you managed the team pretty well. You committed to the tank at the right time and you got good value for your top players. You got several 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounders and managed to keep Elijah Mitchell and Michael Carter. You have every opportunity to do what Derek did to his roster with this rebuild. But in terms of ROS power rankings, you’re as low as it gets on this list.
Derek
Since I’ve already brought him up I’ll go to Derek next. I could never get a read on you, and I think that’s mostly because I never talked to you. Did you hate me? Did you like me? Anyone’s guess was as good as mine. Over time the thing that I did realize about you was that you were very smart. Not necessarily a man of many words, but the words you did speak showed that you knew what you were talking about. I’ll tell you what else was smart, this roster rebuild. Talk about knocking it out of the park. Derek managed to build an incredibly young roster full of studs. You’re gonna be terrorizing the playoffs for years to come. I’d bet Derek makes it deep in the playoffs this year.
Caleb
Uncle Billy, the oldest memory that I have of you is my 3rd year as an alpha. You had all of us alphas kneel on the ground and you walked around us with a nerf gun and made us tell everyone if we were talking to any girls, or you would shoot us. I don’t know what conclusion to draw from this, but it was a pretty funny memory. You’ve got a few players that should be decent for the future, plus whatever Calvin Ridley ends up being when he makes it back to the league, but as far as power ranking goes you’re pretty far down the list.
Logan
Unlike most people, Logan was actually the last Devega that I met. I went into the lifeguard certification leading into my first Omega and had heard of Logan before, and I’ll be completely honest I wasn’t excited. I saw a tall, loud, good looking guy and immediately assumed that I wouldn’t like you. I assumed you’d probably be a douche. Fast forward an hour and I’m having an asthma attack during the island swim. Everyone else had finished, even the people who were struggling, except for me and you. You stayed behind with me just to encourage me and to tell me to keep pushing and that I could do it. From that point forward I wanted to be friends with you, and I felt like an ass for prejudging you. Not only are you a good looking guy, you’re a good person and you’re probably the person who knows me more than anyone else in the league. You know what else looks good? Your team. Your team is absolutely stacked, and has somehow underperformed. I still think it can make a strong 3 game run here in the playoffs. You’re high up on these rankings.
You’re going down bitch
Mason
I never actually had the chance to be at camp with Mason. The year you were an omega was the year my application was denied, and if are rumors that I heard are true they hired that tall blonde guy that Lea was dating instead. Regardless as soon as I joined the league I could tell that you were a fun, competitive, outgoing person and that we would get along fine. When this year rolled around I made a dedicated effort to try and manage more like you do, especially at the start of the year. Sending out lots of trades and seeing where people value my players. People may not have been the happiest with my offers to start the year, but my team undoubtedly got better. That’s what your team did this year. You stuck to your process and your team got better. You’ve got a really good squad and could go all the way.
Tim
Tim was one of the parts of year round staff that I really enjoyed. I knew that if I was working on something with Tim I wouldn’t be bored. The best time was always seeing Tim in his element with the ropes courses. Just like with ropes courses, Tim has been “in his element” in fantasy this season so far. Leonard Fornette, Deebo, Waddle, and others have really put work in for Tim this year. I’ve got some concerns though about his team, especially if this ankle sprain affects Lamar week one of the playoffs or if the Bucs decide to attack the saints secondary rather than try and run it. It wouldn’t be out of the question for his squad to fall week 1, which is why I have him ranked lower than one might expect.
Jarrod
Jarrod is probably the person I’ve talked to the least in our league, but regardless he is someone who I have a lot of respect for. Just a nice down to Earth guy who grinds it out. He is the model of consistency for our league. He has never missed the playoffs, has the highest win percentage (of any team with more than a 2 season sample size) by a good amount, and is constantly a threat. Here is the problem though, his team can’t stay healthy. He has been plagued by injury worse than anyone in our league, which makes it all the more impressive that he puts up the numbers that he does and doesn’t miss the post season. The injuries are a little too great to overlook though and that’s why he is ranked where he is. Sorry buddy.
Jake
Jake is the kind of guy you can just sit down and have a beer with. No, for real. Go to YCB. He’s probably there, and if he is I’m sure he will buy you a beer. For real though Jake gets a lot of flack but it’s because he has strong opinions and he’s not afraid to share them. That’s not a bad thing either and I think having Jake in the league always keeps conversation interesting in the chat. Unfortunately Jakes team suffered a few losses like Ruggs and had unfortunate outcomes like Mike Davis, and owning a Steelers receiver not named Dionte Johnson. He tanked at the right time and I think he will be well off next season for it.
Max
Last but not least we have Max. When Mitchell suggested we add Max to the league I knew he would make a great addition. I had only had limited interactions with Max at camp but I knew he was competitive. Boy did he prove it in season one. When we’ve talked it has really only been about trades and stuff, but he reminds me a bit of Mason. Always trying to wheel and deal where he can. He has quietly rallied to win 4 of his last 6 games to make the playoffs. Can he survive long enough for Elijah Moore to return and for Scary Terry to play? It would be pretty incredible if he could. That being said, I don’t think it’s championship level this year. We will see.
And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, here are my rankings
1 – Adam’s Island Survivors
(if I don’t believe in myself who will?)
2 – Logan’s Legion
3 2 – Mason’s Misstress
4 3 – Derek’s BDE
5 4- Mitchell’s Lobos
6 5 – Papa Tim
7 6 – Hanna’s Honeys
8 7 – Jarro’s Landsharks
9 8 – Max’s Marksman
10 9 – Uncle Sammy’s Elite
11 10 – Jive Turkeys
12 11 – The Kraken
12 – Logans Legion
The MFL 