I checked and rechecked the calendar before putting pen to paper for this recap. And it is confirmed: Last Sunday was not Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Years. It was just a plain old Week 11 in this 2021-2022 season. So why did it feel so much like a Bowl Game? Why didn’t it seem to matter?

Could it be that the schedule got the better of us? A Week 11 sandwiched between the intensity and pageantry of League Game 3 and League Game 4. Did our players decide to hold back while looking forward?

It’s tough otherwise to explain another Week of Jewball that was just competitively imbalanced.

It was cold, sure, but this is football. It was a gray morning, but see above. We had good players show up. Many of our stars and power rankers checked in. No reason not to have two close games with the vitcor going home feeling accomplished. Yet, once again it was a one sided affair. Make that three one sided affairs. And to be a-fair to the players that showed, this was an example of a day where QB play determined the outcomes. Absolutely, individuals could have tried harder or fought fiercer, but Week 11 showed the unpredictability of Jewball and sports in general. Our power rankings would have you believe that Yaron and Gronk are unstoppable forces. Gronk, all the way at the top! Yaron, not far behind!

And yet….the same Gronk can’t put up a single point in Game 1 or Game 2 and throws picks galore. And yet again, the same Gronk ravages Yaron in Game 3. The same Gronk who got shut out just minutes earlier goes for 9 scores. The same Yaron who has been ascending to the status he deems himself worthy (as do most of us) looks befuddled from the first snap.

Legs tries to call in sick. Then he tries to play GM with 25 minutes to go before kickoff. He ends up coming a bit late but Game 1 is already in tatters. Pray runs for 88 yards to start the game and Gronk throws a P6 to Ernie on his first possession. By the time Legs checks in, the Game feels very much out of hand. Once Pray scored again, and due to the rough “inequitable” start, we run this one back. Everyone gets a reset and a chance to make right. But there was no right to be made by Gronk and co. The QB with the heretofore golden touch looked rusty and tarnished. He couldn’t score a single point. And – prognosticators be damned – there was Pray on the other side living his best life, pumping his fist and celebrating pinpoint hookups with Singer and OBJ receptions by Klink on his way to 4 scores. One of them being a throwback P6 by Klink where he looked as spry and fleet footed as back in 2007 when the Chipmunk could cover anyone. So that’s Game 1 in an acorn shell. Klinky gets the honorable mention for the aforementioned, but Jewball to Pray. He had the numbers. Check the website. You’ll see.

I was worried about Game 2 because  Yaron was loaded with all the players close to his heart and he had been on a winning a streak, looking extremely sharp. He was poised to shine in every way and make the day as memorable as he has had on the Jewball field. He was joined by all the players he had brought to Jewball, including the return of showstopper Flash, plus Rabin whom he uses incredibly effectively out of the TE position. And Gronk was picking himself up off the ground.

But, like Daveo while the cameras are rolling, Yaron was mucho distracted. Jordan picks him on the second pass of the game. Jordan gets stopped at the 1. Gronk to Ivry for the score. On the day, Yaron got picked 4 times, Jordan got stopped at the 1 yard line 4 times, and Gronk threw a TD to Ivry 4 times. This is how it went. It was tough to watch Yaron have such a miserable day with all his very talented players from back in the day surrounding him. Storm had two TDs late to keep his stat train moving, but the game was never close. Gronk wins 9-3. Normally a 4 TD game would get u a Jewball, but all of Irv’s TDs were the same. Crosses from the 6 yard line. He made the plays. He leads the league in TDs and he is definitely an MVP candidate. But Jewball to Gronk for the equally gaudy numbers and the lesson to all of us out here about bouncing back. He had 3 games on Sunday. Fail, Fail, and Great Success. A less mentally tough person would have given up on themselves and the day. A lesson for all our League QBs. In the end. There can be only one.

Jewball could have used a good week of football. The Turkey Bowl was a really nice and special day. The Chanukah party was a really nice and special night. But this isn’t a league about the trimmings. It’s about the roast. And that’s the Sunday morning football experience. And over the past few weeks, it felt damn near vegan up in here. The anomaly and joy of a Rabin win aside – let’s be honest – we have been struggling to feast on good football. We have instead found ourselves in a mid-season famine. Starving for quality games. We wander and stumble through wastelands of blowouts and ties. For a while, I thought it was me. Maybe you thought it was me as well. Surely, it was the team making. It was the imbalance of the squads. The randomizer was busted and in desperate need of a reset. Thank God for League Week 3, right? That’s gonna fix all that ails us. Because the Commish can’t blow this one. The teams are set. They are fair. The competitive balance of the League Weeks has been its defining characteristic. So many great players. So evenly distributed. Bring it, League Week 3! Cure us! FEED US!!!

And here I am, writing a Week 10 recap and there is good news and bad news. The good news is only for me…..the problem wasn’t me. It wasn’t my team making. So I feel better. The bad news is…it’s you. Well, it’s us. It’s our players. The problem with Jewball right now is that the Jewballers are letting us down. To be clear: only on the field of course. 

What do I mean by that? Quite simply…..we aren’t playing to the best of our abilities. We aren’t playing smart enough. Or tough enough. Or hard enough. And bad play has lead to bad habits. Only one thing to do about it. Week 11 the f*** out of it!

It was our first December game. It was Chanukah. It wasn’t exactly cold. You’d call it football weather outside. Low 40s to start Game 1, but the sun was rising and about to make it beautiful. Yaron and the Lionhearts had not won a League Game. And that’s odd looking at their team preparing. Irv, Singer, Ross, Zada, Dobs, Beast, Yaron. Those were the 7 Lionhearts that showed on Sunday. That’s a team without a flaw. They had lost to BOP in a game without Singer. They had lost to the Cronies in a game without Singer (playing like Singer). Unfortunately for Feit Club, Singer had taken about 2 weeks off and was ready to tear someone’s head off on Sunday. Feit Club actually played like that proverbial chicken who has been decapitated and runs around dying for a while before realizing it is dead.

This same wayward chicken, only a few short weeks ago was a proud strutting red crested rooster. The cockiest of cocks, crowing on TBI about a team that has bought in. I remember that golden hued time. I remember the game that precipitated it. Oren and Kut turning back the clock and in relentless pursuit of Pray. Storm, everywhere. MK, everywhere. Feit….so bouncy and confident. Efer-effing-vescent! Like I said on the field, it was the 7th day of Chanukah, and FC looked like it had been binging on donuts and latkas for a week. Their reactions were slow and heavy. Weighed down by an anchor of malcontent. Oren brought the Big O inflatable helmet and it was a great touch. It added flair to the affair, but the player that was a joy to watch against BOP was not the same. Beast and Dobs manhadlndled Kut and O…pretty much on both sides of the ball. Vegh did not have the game that he needed to show FCFT that they made a huge mistake ignoring him. Feit was doing his best to rally his team in the huddles and from the sideline, but his actual play was uninspiring. To the contrary; it was demoralizing. In the prior game he was sure of everything. Now he was sure of nothing. Perhaps nothing but that he wasn’t himself. He was uncomfortable. Hurt. He was once the QB who couldn’t stop bouncing around with exuberance; now the QB who can’t stop pump faking with indecision. He pump fakes his way to another shut out loss. Back to back soul crushing shut outs is not easy to do, but that’s where the early season MVP candidate finds himself. Week 8 he was top of the Power Rankings. Where will he be after Week 10? And this is why you play the game? Because if we didn’t play the games, well, Yaron might still have the reputation of a perennial loser whose receivers love nothing more than to drop his passes. But how does he look on December 7th? After that win? Short answer: He looks pretty darn awesome. His team looks pretty darn unbeatable. Dobs and Beast looked as formidable against Feit as O and Kut did against Pray. All motor and determination. Every receiver is sure handed. Yaron was always accurate. The difference now is the passes are being caught. Singer was getting the butterfinger treatment on Chanukah….maybe he took that personally. Maybe. Good work, Dobs. Brilliant, actually. Singer was grabbing everything. High throws. Low throws. Flags. He pulled a flag on Oren when he was in the air and upside down. By choice! He was also bringing the pressure. He was basically the difference maker. It was Snow Pup without a flake to be found. We call that in Jewball recaps the honorable mention. It’s like a Jewball but doesn’t get you a stat. Singer would have had an actual Jewball but he dropped a late TD. So it’s Yaron who gets it of course. Just like the one Storm got that lifetime ago in a League Game victory, Yaron was perfect. Did he throw a pick? I don’t know. I’m not checking. He was perfect. 6 TDs thrown to 4 different receivers. Heady play from the start. Leadership, arm strength, all the intangibles. And he did it all while dressed like Madonna from the Like a Virgin era. Lionhearts are back. Look out, rest of League.

And after Game 2, maybe look out, Lionhearts. The Cronies looked for real. Feit Club got shut out on Sunday, the BOP did not, but they did have something in common. They weren’t trying their best. Birds of Pray is a star studded team. Sure, that sometimes comes with drama. BOP is carrying baggage stuffed with drama right now. And they need to dig deep and fix it. They need to unpack that shit. They each need to buy in to the team mentality or this train is going off the rails. 3 more games to figure it out.

The game played is more recap worthy than Game 1 since it had some elements of competition, although not many. I believe Cronies scored at will for the first 45 minutes of the game. Goldberg, who has himself a hell of agame on offense and defense, scored the first Crony TD. Gronk has a lot of time and plenty of clear field vision on Sunday. We have to mention that he threw 4 ugly picks, but that seems to be the necessary evil of a Gronk performance. Like a slugger who is good for one home run per game, but is gonna strike out 3 times while getting there. Pray was kinda back to the What’s Wrong With Pray era following a few games where he seemed to reclaim that winning edge. Needless to say, none of those games involved a pass rush of Solo and Munch, with Gronk playing spy. No QB in the league can be their best in that situation. That said, good teams do find a way to make adjustments. BOP made the adjustment – just with twenty minutes left in the game and when it was already surrendered to their opponents. Why surrender? Because the Cronies came to play Sunday. I’m in a tough spot here as I do want to be the objective recapper. This isn’t a PJ’s Perspective. I also don’t want to do a disservice to my team that played so well. I’ll try to be complimentary, but subtle: The Cronies played as if their cosmic bond had been elevated to the dynamic synergy of other wordly supreme beings. Okay…..you know what? They all played very well. Honorable Mention to Goldberg and Munch for the flag grabbing expertise. Logan had a run back of a pick that if I think about for just long enough I will cry because I know what he was battling physically and he’s just the most f***ing inspiring teammate a kid could ask for. Steveo, who scored a TD, is Logan, but even better for me because I’ve actually seen him become Logan. So it’s special and personal. I met Logan and he was already Logan. Less exciting. Klink, I know even longer than Steveo and he’s just pure Klinkness. Did you see how he wears his ski cap?? Pushing down his ears! You can’t fake that purity!! Thrilled he is back in the fold and catching TDs over Tom like a boss. And as for this old commish, all praise to the Jewball Gods for giving me a day like Sunday. With the next generation present, I make a circus catch and throw in a pick and a TD. Jack keeps describing to me when and how he will start dominating Jewball. And of course, he says I suck. Who did I miss? Oh yeah….the man who brought it all together. Sure, he needed a wake up call, but once awake….he brought the house. Solo….how did this man not go first Round?? Between the demeanor that is entirely fierce and entirely placid, he is the ultimate game changer. Just ask Pray. And just as Gronk who outletted to Solo numerous times to evade a sack and to gain yards that lead to scores. Solo gets the Jewball for being the one Crony who actually did it all on Sunday.

So, in short – The Cronies whupped the Birds. Final was 5-2, but it wasn’t close. Birds had some highlight plays. The Rat got his stats. Tom made a splendid one handed pick. But, the team seemed to sag watching Pray struggle. Instead of redoubling their efforts, they appeared at times openly despondent. I give Legs credit for calling people out for it. We gotta train ourselves to motor the whole way through. It’s not easy. At all. But we gotta train ourselves to do it.

And speaking of training, let’s take it upon ourselves right here and right now – to get fit…not for ourselves…F that….for Jewball! To make the games as epic as possible. I usually make this request at the end of the season, but after the let down we’ve had recently, something needs to change. We need to bring IT to the games on Sundays, whatever IT may be. No chat or party or event can make up for football that we are not proud of. Let’s get back to being proud of our football. Week 11…bring IT.

Mark your calendars…

There was some snow dust falling on Sunday morning. Week 9 followed a pretty festive Turkey Bowl which saw Pray beating Gronk in OT and Rabin doing just enough to lose to the return of Frog. The young QB was not the only Jewballer of yesteryear to make an appearance on Thanksgiving. Jesus, Spira, and Socks – each an unbelievably cool resurrection – returned to the family to get a game in and reset their clocks.
Maybe it’s the football overload between the Bowl and the Sunday game, but there was something missing Week 9. And I don’t just some usual suspect players, which allowed a both or 2.
Game 1 was the classic Pray v. Feit matchup. Not a particularly well played game from the part I saw. Feit continued to regress and Pray was there to take advantage and grind out his second win in four days. Feit threw a bunch of picks and couldn’t score a thing. Jewball to….I don’t know…..Maor looked good? Pray won? Dobs…who gets it?
I heard Oren walked off the field upset. I guess he was…..upset. Shouldn’t walk off the field until game is over. But his point was valid. We rotate O line unless someone volunteers to play dead line or take your spot in the rotation.
I didn’t see any Game 2 action, but I know Rabin got mercied and the game was restarted. I have Rabin a loaded squad and he couldn’t make it work. A bad look for him after a W last week and a a decent showing on Thanksgiving. Definitely a step backward. Jewball in Game 2a to Yaron since he beat Rabin when I made that very difficult for him. Game 2b….Jewball to Gronk or Mighty? What say you, Yaron?
Some big losses on Sunday, but huge win on Tuesday as we had our first ever Chanukah party. Once again thanks to Legs for hosting and Daveo for the donuts. Thanks on the DL to those who co-sponsored….I know who some of you are. Was a great time and appreciate everyone who came out. The bottom line is….we say we are a family – and then we actualize it. That makes all the difference.
League Week 3 up next. Happy Chanukah, Jewball.

late entry

Turkey Bowl brought back a lot of vets, return of the frog, and overall gave us brilliant weather. Happy Thanksgiving, players!

Week 8 will be remembered as the week where the luster lost by Feit and Pray was transferred to Rabin and Yaron. An undefeated QB and the reigning MVP tooks Ls from a QB with a losing record and one who squandered his starting role, respectively.  Now, of course there is more to it than that, but…this is a packed week short on time, and the recaps are many. I ask for your understanding over the Bowl Game season since….there are only so many words. And now with TBI in the mix, the themes of the day can get redundant.
I will begin with an apology. First to Feit and then to my team Sunday morning and then to Yaron’s team. I blew it. I made one sided teams. Yes, admittedly, I wanted to test Feit. I wanted to see if he could pull another W out of his ass against all odds, but I absolutely did not give him the personnel to do it. Even with Maor needing a replacement and Colors picking up a speed player in Benj, there was just not enough talent on Colors to cover or adjust to what Yaron and Dark were bringing on Sunday. This isn’t about Colors playing badly or making excuses, this is about a balance of the skillsets on the field. We have proven that when we Draft, we Draft well. The League games have been, are, and will be competitive until the end. The other weeks, I need to bring my A Game in making sure every team has a chance if they play their best. Colors did not play its best, but even if they did, they couldn’t win that game. That’s on me. And the shame is not just that Feit took an L and there goes the streak, but that Yaron and his team played an incredible game. They would have beaten a team much better than Colors. But we will never know. What we do know is they took advantage of Feit being a bit off and very much under pressure. They took advantage of a Singer injury. They took advantage of a vast disparity at line. And they took advantage of a team with 3 rooks learning the zone play. Trick plays, sure. Non trick plays, of course. Again, everyone on Dark looked really really good. I wish we could say it was surely them and not us, but I really don’t know. In the end, it was a thumping. No need to relive the details. 9-1 win. Irv gets the old gaudy stat line Jewball. 3 score, 3 picks.
As much as I deserve blame for Game 1, I got Game 2 right. With Rabin at QB, my aim is to give him what he needs to win, but without leaving the other QB’s cupboard bare. I think the teams were spot on and the game played was exciting once the scoring got going. It did take a while. Rabin and Solo did a very nice job pressuring Pray and a defense sporting guys like Dobs, MK, Zada, and Ross is handsy and formidable. That is not to say Pray didn’t have his shots. Beast did not have a beast of a game by any means and almosted his way into the early storyline of this game by getting spun around by a nice pass over the top that could have gone for points and then missed a flag on Zada which lead to Rabin’s first score. That right there is a 2 point swing. We await the return of the animal version of Beast. Zada needed bodying.
Pray got the game tied up by simplifying his play calling. Screen to Prime….welcome to Stiff Arm City. Jack is getting married in a few weeks and he doesn’t want to show up with Prime’s hand print on his eyeballs. So he didn’t go all out shoving Prime to the sideline. All good for Prime. He churns and burns 67 yards and knots this one.
Rabin then pulled out a play which was used very effectively by Yaron and Gronk in Game 1, but had actually failed for Rabin and MK earlier in the game. It did not fail this time. Swing out sideline pass to MK behind the line…..fake screen! There is Dobs cutting a post through the heart of the Pray defense, splitting the safety and the corner. MK unloads a 43 yard heat seeker that Dobs expertly hauls in (what doesn’t he do expertly?) while running full steam. Celebration for Rabin as they take the lead with a half hour to go.
The revelry was short lived. On the next possession, Pray drives the field and pulls out a miracle escape from Sacktown and finds Effie for the 23 yard strike 1st Down pass. Two plays later, Kut breaks free from the line and shows what a properly used TE can do. Catch and scramble, 45 yards to pay dirt. Game is once again evened up.
For Rabin, in a way, if the game ended in a tie, it would have been a nice showing. What really is expected of him at this stage in his career? How many times can one man be killed off and come back from the dead? Well, with Rabin, over the past 15 years, the answer seems to always be….apparently one more. With 20 minutes left, Rabin uses Zada to move the ball down field. Together they pick up 2 first downs. Now, with a 2nd and Goal and 10 minutes on the clock, the unlikeliest of occurrences transpires. The kind of thing that no betting man would bet on. The kind of moment that breaks every rule of logic and predictability. The kind of Jewball event that keeps us coming back for more, week after week, year after year, dare I say, decade after decade. It’s a simple play. If Yaron and Irv did it in the morning game 3 times, no one would have blinked or scratched their head. But there was Rabin – master of the gofer ball – ambassador of the flying duck – launching as pretty a deep ball as you will ever see. And to who? Is there anyone that had the legs and stamina this late in the game to get all the way behind the defenders to the back of the endzone to meet that ball? I mean that ball is not going to do what we have seen Rabin’s passes do a thousand times and come up short of their intended. This one is hitting someone in the back of the endzone or its flying out of bounds. Rabin happened to have done a professional job of making that the hallmark of his day. And it made all the difference. Instead of picks, we had incompletions. Harmless ones. So, does that spiraling heave land inbounds? And if so, does someone catch it? Yes and yes. Friggin Pops! Is over the top and perfectly placed behind all others to welcome that oblong leather baby into its new home. Rabin to Eddie punctuates the game! That’s almost 100 years of life experience! They get it done. Rabin and his defense hold on and Rabin gets the surprising win. Pray gets another head shaking loss. Jewball goes to someone who I didn’t mention that much but he was definitely the X Factor in the game !and did most of the heavy lifting for Rabin’s squad. Zada was slashing the defense and picking up 1st downs every time one was needed. Smothering defense as well. He added the score which gave Rabin his first lead and set the tone. Basically contributed from wire to wire and seemed to be the kind of weapon that Rabin needs to compete nowadays. A receiver with good hands that can create a lot of yards after the catch. And there you have it. Week 8 in the books, Turkey Bowl tomorrow with some incredible returns.
When some people say….life is a blessing, I totally get it when the response is….well, maybe your life is a blessing because it’s good. My life sucks, so I don’t want to hear it. I don’t know….I can’t argue with that person, but I believe – and belief is subjective – that we can also earn our blessings. And we do so by appreciating everything. Its not an exact science of course or any kind of science for that matter, but its a philosophy that pays off, even if its completely fabricated. So, on this Thanksgiving eve….let’s be sincere about our appreciation. Look at what you have – even if all you have is us! 

 – and say….damn…I am lucky, I am blessed – thank you! A lot of people don’t have a crew like this or the ability to play football or a chat to make them laugh or smile. A lot of people weren’t made with the kind of psychological components that would permit them to tolerate us and this – and I think they are missing something. It is not my job to understand why they don’t get it or convince them that they are crazy. But it is my job – without a doubt – to appreciate and say thank you that for whatever reason, I do get it. So…simple magic trick – appreciate everything you have and are…and earn blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, Jewball.

I love the smell of League Week in the morning (a dated reference – even for me – but look it up if you don’t know). There is just something about it. Maybe it’s the uniforms. Or the fact that people who don’t always show up, show up. Or that Solo is out there bright and early huffing and puffing and doing whatever fearsome preparation he does to psyche himself up and intimidate the opponent. Or maybe it’s because Yaron is out there full squad running drills in the crisp air as the sun sits low in the sky. Maybe it’s the storylines yet to emerge. Can the favorite Cronies secure an actual W now that Logan is back in the lineup? Can Feit keep beating the odds and continue his streak of shocking the haters? Can Pray disappoint PJs even more? Will Yaron’s team finally step up to meet his high expectations and demands? You know…the answer doesn’t really matter. League Weeks are special. Let’s just appreciate that undeniable fact. Through our sheer will and imagination, we created something special. So we just roll with that.
For the Cronies, League Week 2 meant having to face an imposing assemblage in the Lionhearts. Forget that Yaron leads them – a QB that wants it as bad as anyone and has the arm to make it happen. Look at the core of players?? So much damn talent! You look at the roster and you say….this team can’t possibly lose! But it’s Jewball Leagues 2021. You look at the next team and their lineup and have to pause – Wait…No…it’s THIS team that can’t possibly lose! After 2 weeks of Leagues…seeing what our Captains drafted – you have to be a believer.
The day starts with a message to the Cronies. Logan is out. Symptoms…sick….not gonna make it. Game starts in 40 minutes. No time to think about it. Maor and Klink go from bench to starting rotation….and one of them has to step up and have a big game. They both had huge games.
The teams playing in Game 1 seemed built in the image of their drafter. Yaron and the Lionhearts were on the field at least 15 minutes before the game scheming, and the Cronies were strolling in drinking coffee and eating donuts. I guess there are different methods to approach a big game. The only time I saw Gronk outwardly come close to taking a game seriously was Vets v. Rooks last year. He was coming off a League Game where he had squandered the W by throwing ill advised picks. The mantra on Sunday was…keep it simple and don’t listen to the inner voices that say take risks…but could he resist? Yaron’s gameplan should have been equally simple: Get rid of the ball quick to any one of his money receivers – because Munch and Solo are on the attack. The beauty of Munch and Solo, though, is that they are programmed to not just run north south, but east west. On 3 they are coming at the QB, but once the QB throws the ball to a wing…they reroute and run sideways…so….it’s a lose-lose on the short passes. The screen game really was not there for Yaron. Might as well then get to it early on here. His receivers have trouble securing his passes. Sure, some are caught cleanly, but just as many are bobbled, tipped, or dropped. In this game, Yaron would have been happy with clean drops! Instead, a ball off Jack’s hands/chest winds up in Gronk’s. A few plays later, Jordan – realizing Gronk was same-playing him into irrelevance – elected not to do the same play and brazenly crossed to the middle. Gronk hits him at the 5 and Jordan turns and finds some daylight running right. Edging past Irv, the 43 year old Vet who guaranteed a big game knifes his way into the front corner of the endzone and the Cronies are up 1-0. The Cronies were happy to draw first blood, but there game was far from over. Yaron bounced back eventually and found that sideline streak routes were available to him. He became particularly fond of picking on Steveo, who could cover anyone stride for stride, but the height advantage of Ross and Ivry is advantage Lionhearts. Yaron put some good balls up there for Ross to extend for and a hookup eventually went for a score – the game was tied. Gronk began to really really struggle. Numerous deep balls were not deep enough and easily picked by Lionhearts on the prowl. Ross, Ivry, and Yaron were feasting in the middle of the field. Gronk would have sustained drives – mostly by connecting underneath with Maor, but whenever he took a shot, it went for a turnover. His best pass of the day and the best catch of the day put the Cronies ahead for a few moments. A 30 yard strike to Maor in the back of the endzone that Maor hauled in with a full extension of his hands up and his toes down to brush that back line of the endzone. The video replay is inconclusive, but the eyeball test in game said he was out of the back of the endzone by a step. Incredible snag, deleted from the annuls (relax Rabin) of Jewball history.

With the score tied at the half….everything changed when….
Yaron is driving to take the lead. Munch and Solo are still relentless but its been a grind and everyone is tiring. Yaron is finding just a bit more time to gather himself and throw. He hits Ross on a slant over the middle and it splits the linebackers….he has one man to beat. Jordan at safety closes in on Ross, but fails in his duties. Ross stiff arms in and Jordan cannot wrap up…he stumbles back a few steps. Ross is accelerating and Jordan needs to catch up. If he doesn’t, it is a sure TD and a Yaron lead with 40 minutes to go. We will never know if Jordan would have caught up and managed to pull the flag. Because out of nowhere, Klink – of the often injured knees – flies in and plucks that flag from Ross’s belt like it aint no thing. Heroic move. He didn’t give up on the play and he kept the score tied. But would it be enough. Lionhearts were still knocking on the door. 7 yards from a TD and a 1st Down in their pocket. The playcall was a good one. Singer cross. Keep it simple. Put the ball on a bully with great hands and let him body his way in.
Whether it was telegraphed or too slow moving or the ball wasn’t placed far enough away from the defender, Jordan sniffed out the playcall on hike. Racing over to try and jump the route, Jordan inserted an outstretched hand into point of contact between Yaron’s ball and Singer’s nips. Just enough to create a bobble. A bobble that Singer may have been able to control if the sunlight or gravity or the wind was just slightly different, but – whatever forced make great receivers make mistakes – something happened. He didn’t get his hands around the ball. Jordan got a second smack on the ball, this one even more direct. At this point, Solo and Goldberg were swiftly converging on the play. Singer stars to tumble to the ground, leaving the ball suspended above him….and into the well positioned arms of Goldberg. The interception felt like victory enough. To stop a sure score. But what Goldberg did next was stunning. He makes a quick move to avoid a tackle and get out in the open field. Solo, never quitting on the dream of a P6 gets on Goldberg’s 6 and directs and protects him for 85 yards to a score which puts Cronies up 2-1. And damn if Singer didn’t get up off the ground and almost catch him. Incredible football moment.
With the Cronies up by point and a quarter left, it felt like a good time to tighten the defense and try and hold on. Keep it simple on offense. So Gronk throws another pick on a deep ball. Luckily for the Cronies, Yaron’s crew was still trying to figure out what could possibly work against a lockdown defense. Singer was likely bummed about the P6, Dobs was seemingly forgotten in the offense, Ivry was the most reliable player on the day, but he doesn’t seem to have a move yet that shakes a defender after the catch. Gronk did a good job on a late drive getting 1st downs with his legs and eventually calling a controversial roughing the Gronk which allowed him to stay alive and pitch one to Munch for a seemingly commanding 3-1 lead. Yaron bounced right back with Ivry on that deep sideline route and hit him in stride for a TD. The Lionhearts were back in business, down 1 with ten minutes to go. Gronk could not push that 4th score across and Yaron had 2 opportunities in those waning minutes of the game. I hate to twist the  dagger into Singer further, but…
On a 4th and goal, Yaron put a bomb in the deep left corner of the endzone that Singer normally leaps for and catches to save the day. Not on this day. He made an attempt on the ball, but Jordan was in the vicinity with a hand up. It was enough to knock the ball away. No score. No tie.
On the final drive of the game for the Lionhearts, still with a chance for OT, the gameplan was upended by a tipped ball that wasn’t caught cleanly. A high pass? Yes. A dart at close range? Yes. But Singer is Singer and he makes his living catching passes like the one that slid off his fingertips and landed – of course – in the awaiting arms of his nemesis – Maor! Maor makes the play and seals the victory for his Cronies.
Maor gets Jewball for the heroics. For the sure-handedness. For the sunny attitude and constant positive energy of gratitude. He is always nice, but never cheesy. His chat game was always razor sharp, and he has shown that his game on the field can meet that standard. Congrats. Game 2 recap tomorrow.

GAME 2

I will say this about the Feit Club. They look good in green. How could the color of a jersey matter? Just looking at the Game 2 matchup in League Week 2 – one team looked bright and full of life and energy. They were wearing a shining emerald green and they went by the name Feit Club. And across the way was a team decked out in a dark cloud of grey, like the color of a bad mood – and they were the reigning champions – the Birds of Pray (aka BOP). I’ll keep on with the symbolism. Watch Feit right now. Whether on TBI or after he calls hike. Bouncing around. Smiling like a damn fool! The kid has swagger. He’s had it since draft night when he had no reason to have it. When every prognosticator in the room was laughing at him and his picks. When every Captain was counting the games against FCFT as in the bag Ws. Would they even win a single game? Kut a first round pick? Oren a second round pick? And it was interesting to watch as Oren, Kut, and Feit huddled up on the corner of the highest step of Rabin’s patio. The three of them – even then seeming to see and understand what was happening – and working together to form the team. They picked up Storm and MK, Tabak and Vegh, then Rabin, then Effie, while other teams were grabbing perhaps more high profile receivers….but Kut, O, and Feit seemed pretty satisfied. Let’s be honest. People were laughing. Who is laughing now? Oren and Kut have QBs running for their lives. They are playing for Feit like on a mission. Katz and Tabak don’t miss a flag and pounce on everyone. Rabin is picking up critical yards all over the place. It helped that Vegh wasn’t there last Sunday so that Feit could concentrate on the receivers he planned to throw to. And Storm? He’s playing like the best receiver in the league. And it’s not really close right now.
For all those of you who wanted any sort of detailed recap, I’m gonna let you down. I was watching, but also hocking about the prior game. Cronies held on against Lionhearts and it was stress and then relief. My focus was limited. What was obvious was that Feit was really bouncy, really accurate, really poised and confident. Oh yeah, back to the symbolism. On the other side of the ball was Pray, who has been under fire for quite a while now. He is coming off a Jewball Season MVP and just has not regained the dominance. His Birds are sticking with him, surely, but – as we have mentioned here – Pray seems to always run backwards on hike, further from his receivers, and last Sunday, BOP seemed to move backwards. A very prideful team looked in disarray and lost some of its mojo. And this is not on Pray. Yeah, he missed some guys, but the entire team was blowing opportunities. Let’s get to the game.
I believe Feit’s first TD was to Tabak and it was a really nice pass to the back of the endzone over Mighty, but….I think Mighty could have made a better play on the ball. At least from my angle. Not sure what I can say about BOP’s possessions early on, but they just seemed to go nowehere. Intense pressure from O and Kut and just really limited chemistry with his receivers. He wasn’t finding them or they weren’t getting open. Plus really good defense. Mighty and Prime were smothered after they touched the ball. Daveo was really a non factor on offense. Salem made some nice catches and almost a spectacular one. But, overall, Pray had to run a lot and I think there were a lot of throws he wish he had back. Meanwhile, Feit was a magician. He threw a midrange pump and go to Storm that Storm brought down between two defenders that was jaw dropping. But it wasn’t just magic with the arm – he was equally an elusive escape artist. He got out of sacks that were like Houdini under water in chains in the vault. I mean, he was locked up. Done for. And out he came – leaving a defender behind staring at his hands in disbelief – and Feit uncorking a bomb to Storm for yet another score. You see where this is going? Feit scored early and often. 5 thrown TDs on the day to 4 different receivers. Pray was always trying to play catch up but never could.
This despite the valiant attempt by Daveo to singlehandedly give the team a chance. A brilliant one handed pick 6 brought the Birds within one early on, but Feit bounced around and bounced back. Daveo picked another one later in the game that lead to a Pray rushing TD, but…again….Feit bounces around and bounces back. The frustration was evidently mounting for the Birds. Yes, there was grumbling by players. There was drama on the sidelines. There was frustration calls in the game. None of these things should happen. Games test us in a lot of ways. We can’t always pass the test, but – together – we strive to. By the end of the game, it was hard to watch. BOP was broken. Prime was gritting his way through an injury and couldn’t be himself (though he did get a TD because the ball cures all maladies and when its in your hands…you go, it doesn’t matter what your back says). Birds need to regroup. They lost themselves out there. It’s not that they didn’t fight. It just seemed that they were each fighting for themselves and not for each other….and you can’t win like that.
Feit Club is all about the Feit. Those dudes battle. One for all and all for one and it is a gdamn honor to watch and see it all come together for them. They are the kinda team that sells jerseys to Mets fans like me. Feit leads it and they follow. He threw 4 TDs, had a pick, and practically demanded the Jewball after the game (he wouldn’t be Feit (or Prime) if he didn’t, but – anyone watching knows that Storm gets it. Simple reason. Feit…you played a hell of a game. On any other day….enough to get a Jewball. But you didn’t play a perfect game. Perfect Game??! Is that the standard!!!?? No, of course it isn’t. But your boy, Storm, played a PERFECT GAME. Perfection in preparedness, intensity, and execution. It was a game without flaw. The stats were counted, sure, and they were impressive, but he gets the Jewball because of the stats that cannot be counted. He gets the Jewball because he showed every single Jewballer what we are lacking and what we should aspire to become.

Week 6 feels like a looong time ago. So much has happened since I walked off the field dejected after a second consecutive loss. We wrote Jewball movie scripts, Steveo had a birthday, Spira chronicled the Silver Age, Logan revived TBI, and Benj switched to pullups. Definitely a good week to take my time getting a recap out. Sometimes a game is so brutal, you want to tell the story quickly and get it over with. That’s when the loss is devastating because the contest is so close and one or two mistakes turned the tide. Even worse if those mistakes were your own. The kind of game that – if you are lucky – it only haunts you for a week. Then there are the games that just suck the life out of you. Where your spirit gets broken and you just don’t care enough to revisit it. A forgettable game. In many ways, a memorable loss is superior – in the long run – to a forgettable win. After all – as heretical as it may sound – we are here (cosmically speaking) for the memories. Let’s talk memories.
On the first morning of the season that could be described as not warm (though still far from cold as evidenced by Goldberg playing), Jewball settled into a real rhythm at our new home in Hewlett. Old Timers asked us to flip the field and play on the shadowy side and we abided. Respect our elders, disrespect soccer bitches. Easy. Game 1 will be remembered by some as a rousing victory, by others as a gut punch defeat. And neither are true. It was another tie. MK took a knee 40 minutes before kickoff and asked for a replacement. Ivry and Waldo pounced, but it was Irv with the quicker swerve. Teams remained as posted. Once again Pray v. Feit. Sorry, the UNDEFEATED and very much embattled Feit. Pretty much no one wore their designated dark/colors, so….whatever. As captured on film – by yours truly – so I should be exempt from recapping – no one scored for the first 5 drives of the game. A lot of knocking on the doors of glory, but no admittance. Finally, I shut the camera and Feit went deep route to Mighty and a TD happened. Feit had thrown a similar reception to Gronk earlier, but Gronk is not big for running for TDs after the catch. You want Gronk to score  a receiving TD…he needs to be in the end zone already when you throw it. Once again, I started filming….and nothing happened. I realized I was the problem. No more filming. Problem is, now I have no video evidence of what happened next and I have to rely on memory. No memories. Thankfully, we do have Yaron’s box score. I know that Ivry scored for Feit once again. The man who uses TBI every night to help him fall into a deep coma-like sleep had the game in hand. Gronk was playing the best defense of his life. Oren was bringing the heat on the pass rush. And Dobs and Maor were being completely ignored. Feit’s game plan was running on all cylinders. Asked for comment immediately after the game about not throwing to Dobs and Maor – two sure handed receivers – Feit told the reporter to “get over it.”
With a 2-0 lead late in the game and, as mentioned, Oren really limiting Pray’s running game, Pray seemed to be in trouble. He was misfiring and clearly disappointed with his production. One could see PJs’ What’s Wrong with Pray segment on TBI getting longer and longer. Then Pray said F it and decided to run. A lot. In the end he ran just enough. Got some tough 1st downs, kept the chains moving, and scored twice – both to Zada. The first Zada TD was a grinder down the sideline with Singer lead blocking and Zada gutting the defense. The second, I don’t remember. Either way, Pray had come back. Feit had squandered what felt like a sure victory.  At the buzzer, Pray was feeling relieved and Feit was feeling mugged – and we have another tie in Jewball.
Game 2 was a Snow game, which is always special. But the shine wore off quickly. Things never to say in the huddle before an opening drive. “Guys, we are here to have fun and just run around” I know how Snow means it and I know he is a competitor. He has the hardware to prove it. Probably more than the rest of us. He has lead teams to many a championship. And that could be why – at this stage – for him – Jewball is just for fun. He’s coming off an injury and fighting his way back – GOD BLESS HIM – and it’s a long road, but let’s be clear: Jewball is fun, but we are not here for it. We are here to push ourselves, compete, and win ball games (and of course create memories while doing so). And it looked like maybe we would do that with Snow running the huddle as the game opens with a Jack drop of sure TD from Yaron. Snow runs the same play for his squad but Legs makes the catch and punches it in. On the following drive, Legs sacks Yaron and it seems like maybe…just maybe…this is gonna be a rousing victory for the returning MVP and a Jewball for Legs. But, unfortunately, the game had 70 more minutes on the clock. And during those 70 minutes Yaron ignited and MVP wilted. Yaron wants me to kiss his ass for the rest of this recap, and he deserves it. He gets beaten up enough. But I won’t do it. It’s boring, I’ve done it enough in other recaps, and – truth is – he doesn’t need the confidence boost. He knows he was on fire on Sunday. I know he was on fire on Sunday. His team knows he was on fire on Sunday. Gorgeous TD to Daveo (thanks for filming Irv). Cross the body TD to Benj. A bunch of other TDs. Solo blocking like a fiend. It was a dismantling.
On the other side of the ball, just shitty play. Not MVP’s fault at all that his team let up 6 TDs. He sat on D. Okay, the picks didn’t help. And the P6 to Pops from the 4 yard line was brutal and certainly his fault. But the D was soft and confused and porous. Embarrassing lack of conviction on flag pulling and coverage. Twas a beat down in every sense. No brainer Jewball to Yaron for throwing passes that were actually caught.
Memorable or not, Week 6 was played, and another link in the chain is forged. Week 7 will be anything but forgettable. It’s League Week 2, Jewballers. BRING IT!