2020 Fantasy Football Final Standings

Scandalous League

  Grid Iron (Paul DiFilippo)

2020 marked the 2nd year of starting a FLEX player. The biggest changes were related to the circunstances surrounding the global pandemic and COVID-19. For the first time ever we needed to conduct a 100% remote Auction. The Auction went off without a hitch and roughly took the same amount of time as an in-person Auction. The NFL modified the IR rules, so players could return after 3 weeks and also added a special COVID List, which had players missing as little as a single game.

Top 5 Auction Prices:

$135 - Patrick Mahomes (Jeff)

$132 - Christian McCaffrey (Paul)

$107 - Dak Prescott (Matt L.)

$100 - Alvin Kamara (Paul)

$99 - Joe Mixon (Brian G.)

Playoffs:

Championship Game #1: Grid Iron (Paul) defeated Crenshaw Pete (James), 139.5 - 133.0.

Championship Game #2: Just Call Me Dushi (Matt L.) defeated Swamee Selects (Rick), 112.5 - 86.5.

Toilet Bowl Loser: Polk High Panthers (Craig).

Fantasy Bowl: Grid Iron (Paul) defeated Just Call Me Dushi (Matt L.), 156.0 - 149.0.

The Fantasy Bowl was a nail-biter until just before the half in the Monday Night game when Josh Allen threw a 50-yard TD to Stefon Diggs to help Paul pull within 2 pts of Matt Low. With another half of football to be played against the hapless Patriots, it was a foregone conclusion that the Grid Iron would be Champions. The Fantasy Bowl ended as a high-scoring affair, with Just Call Me Dushi scoring 149.0 pts and Grid Iron topping them at 156.0 pts.

In other league action, Rick rushed James 147.0 - 81.0 in the Consolation Bowl. Shea manhandled Craig in the Toilet Bowl, 138.0 - 80.5. Rick also won our Harrison's bet and earned himself a free lunch.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a very unusual NFL season. We were unable to gather for our traditional in-person Auction, so we assembled in a Zoom video room to pick players. We talked about contingency plans for an interrupted season and how to deal with players that were placed on the new COVID-19 List. We didn't know how rampant the virus would run, so some decisions were going to be made "on the fly". Overall, the season ended up going pretty well. There were some postponed games, some re-arranged bye-weeks, and some players that missed games that they typically wouldn't have missed. Looking back at it, it could have been worse. We adjusted and used "average scoring" for players for a couple of weeks where postponements left us with no other choice. This was our second season of the 12th starter - the Flex player, and that led to some high-scoring games. We saw the top-scoring team, Grid Iron, average 141.4 pts a game. The Fantasy Bowl topped 2019's record for a combined score, by 17 points.

The foundation of the Grid Iron franchise was built at the 2020 Auction. While Paul had keeper starters like Josh Allen, D.K. Metcalf, Julio Jones, Daniel Jones, and Pittsburgh DST, he still had to build out the rest of his starting lineup and roster depth with the $358 he had left to spend. Paul added players to his roster that any of us could have outbid him for. His strategy was to "go big" on 10-11 starters and get lucky with cheaper talent. He grabbed Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Travis Kelce, and Robert Woods as his bonified starters. His key "backups" included Mike Davis for $1, Gus Edwards for $3, Rex Burkhead for $4, Devonte Freeman for $3 - all four of these backs took turns having a big impact as starters throughout the season. The pick that helped put Paul over the top was adding Justin Herbert for $10. Herbert took over as the Chargers starter in Week 2 and was started by Grid Iron for the next 14 weeks. The crazy thing is that $132 resource Christian McCaffrey was hurt for all but 3 weeks of the season. Julio Jones also missed 7 weeks. Paul's deadline deal for Austin Ekeler (for Daniel Jones) gave him a solid #2 RB for the final 5 weeks of the season. Ekeler was on Shea's team for an hour and 26 minutes but managed to affect the outcome of the season in a big way. In free-agency, an early pickup of Wayne Gallman paid dividends. Later in the season, Paul was able to potentially fortify his lineup with a red-hot Cam Akers, who, in actuality only scored 3.5 pts in a single start for the Grid Iron. Still, Paul was very strategic with his use of FAAB money towards the end of the season. He was able to outspend his competition to keep Cam Akers, Sony Michel, Zach Ertz, and Trey Burton off of his competitors' rosters. In an underrated Week 11 move, he acquired P.J. Walker, Teddy Bridgewater's backup, so his opponent that week (Brian Guilmet) wouldn't have a chance to grab him. It didn't end up mattering because Brian lost by 85 points....but, it could have. Brian started 1 NFL starting QB that week versus Paul. These types of blocking moves with FAAB and free-agency are examples of strategy and a win-at-all-costs mentality.

A cut-throat strategy that wasn't well-received by many owners in the league happened in Week 14. Paul had already clinched the #1 seed, James and Mike Wakeley were both Wild Card hopefuls, due to the forecast that Wakeley was going to lose to Rick in their Week 14 game. Paul was playing James in Week 14. A win by James over Paul would lock James in as the Wild Card and shut Wakeley out of the playoffs. This meant that Paul could potentially influence the playoff seedings and attempt to choose his Week 15 opponent. It was an unprecedented move. While seen many times in the NFL due to teams "resting" starters in final games, it had never been used in the Scandalous League. After all, there is no injury or fatigue factor in picking starters for your fantasy team. In true Belichikian fashion, Paul opted to sit D.K. Metcalf for the 4 PM game, in favor of a questionable Julio Jones. Once Julio Jones was ruled out for the 4:25 game, Paul had missed his window to insert Metcalf into his lineup, so he was stuck starting Jalen Guyton. Going full heel for the 8:20 game, Paul gave himself no chance of beating James by sitting Josh Allen in favor of Matt Barkley, who was not starting for the Buffalo Bills. This blatant act of tanking drew the ire of many of the Founding Fathers of the Scandalous League. While there is no written rule against it, people felt it was in poor sportsmanship and lacked integrity. It didn't matter that starting Metcalf/Allen still would have resulted in a loss. It didn't matter that Paul was probably going to beat anyone he was up against in the playoffs. This was a situation where win-at-all-costs would put a black mark on Paul's season. It was going to be a no-win situation moving forward. Similar to Spygate, Spygate II, Headset Malfunctions, and Deflategate, * Barkley-gate will follow Paul's career narrative.

In the semi-finals against James, Paul eeked out a 139.5 - 133.0 victory. James brought his A-game and things were touch-and-go for Paul until the 4th quarter of the 4 PM games. Ultimately a late touchdown by Alvin Kamara sealed the victory. In the Fantasy Bowl, it was Alvin Kamara who again led Grid Iron to victory. Kamara scored 6 TDs in his game, to tie a 91-year-old NFL record. As it turned out, Paul needed every single one of those TDs to beat Matt Low for the Championship.

This marked Paul's 3rd Scandalous League Football Title. Adding in his 5 Fantasy Baseball Championships, that gives him 8 Titles overall (tieing him with Mike Wakeley for 2nd place on the all-time leaderboard behind Eric with 9).