Gentleman, our 2017 Hope Mega League Champion!
So much happened this season. 60 men entered and only one is left. To make things even more interesting, it all came down to the last play of week 16 to crown our victor (more on that later). For the other 59, there is always next year, which reminds me, every winner we have EVER had has been present at the draft! So, mark your calendars for next year’s draft — Wednesday, September 5th, 2018, 7pm at Hope.
Let’s get to some results…
Conference Champions
We had six conference championships this weekend. The winner of each conference will be awarded with a small conference champ trophy. (I will have them in a couple weeks and available to be picked up at the church).
Conference A —Trust the Process (Daniel Lee)
Conference B — The Truffle Shuffle (Dave Falcone)
Conference C — Mazure’s Madmen 2.0 (Jeff Mazure) — Bounced in round 2 of the Mega Playoffs.
Conference D — Voorhees Victory (Joe Kuklis)
Conference E — A Team With No Name (Kyle Phillippi) — Bounced in round 1 of the Mega Playoffs.
Conference F — Team Miller (Ryan Miller)
Before we recap the championship, don’t forget you can check out the other conferences at any time by clicking on the links below.
Conference A …… Conference B …… Conference C
Conference D …… Conference E …… Conference F
The Hunt for the Helmet
This is what it’s all about. There are few things in life that sports management strives to achieve: the Lombardi Trophy, the Stanley Cup, the Commissioner’s Trophy, the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy, and the Hope Helmet.
Congratulations goes out to…
Wait a second…
Am I reading this right?
That’s right fellas, yours truly is this year’s Hope Mega League Champion! Congrats to Dave Falcone! And before we get to our annual interview with the champ, lets touch on just a few notes regarding the championship.
Team Miller was .1 points shy of the title. It literally came down to the last play in the Eagles-Raiders game. When Dougy Fresh decided to stay classy and kneel on the ball instead of kicking the extra point, many in the gambling world flipped there lid when they thought they had a chance to push on their -10 Eagles win. But low and behold, Jake Elliott didn’t get the chance to seal the deal. And thus, neither did Ryan Miller get that extra point he needed to take home the Helmet. Another important item to note, all 58 of the other teams fell short of these two scores this week as well. Here are the rosters side by side of The Truffle Shuffle and Team Miller:
With a little help from good ol’ research, I looked to see what would have happened if each team had optimized their rosters full potential. Could Ryan Miller have pulled out the victory? Let’s take a look:
Looks like the right victor has been crowned! Would a healthy Antonio Brown changed things for Team Miller? Probably, but The Truffle Shuffle could say the same thing about their 1st and 4th round picks in Odell Beckham, Jr. and Aaron Rodgers. Lets get to our interview.
An Interview with a Champ
I thought it might be weird to interview myself, so I decided instead to interview my silent co-owner, Michael Scott.
Michael, congratulations on your victory this year!
When you heard about the Hunt for the Helmet, what was your first thought?
How are you feeling right at this moment?
In all my articles this year, I called our team a “fraud” saying that we didn’t deserve to be 11–2, make the playoffs and even receive a bye. You were in on the ruse from the beginning, but thinking back to all the poor souls reading my articles, what were you thinking when reading that?
When the Helmet arrives and I am ready to present ourselves with this prestigious award, will you be ready?
Could this day get any better?
What is the first thing you are going to do now that you are THE champion?
You mentioned to me a while back that you were a roller coaster of emotions during this entire season and you have been overly distracted . How are you feeling now?
Michael, who is your inspiration when it comes to Fantasy Football?
Well thank you, it is an honor to inspire you. But i must say, you are the best silent co-owner I have ever had in the Hope Fantasy Mega League. I want to thank you for your hard work this season. Keep up the great work.
Anything else you want to mention?
Um, Hmm. That seems a bit inappropriate. I would appreciate it if you kept that to yourself as I am now feeling slightly uncomfortable. Can you do that?
So now that we are entering the offseason and have to wait 9 months before we can defend our title, what are you going to do?
Well, hopefully you can find a way to spend your free time now. For now, thank you, Michael for your time. I wish you luck next year (not that you need it when you are riding the coat tails of a brilliant fantasy guru).
That’s it for this year fellas. I am certainly looking forward to next year. It was a great year and an even greater ending! Mark your calendars for next year and make sure you invite some other guys to be a part of it. Our goal next year is 80 men participating in 8 conferences.
