2025-2026 Season Preamble from our Commish
I’ve been called a lot of stuff since joining jewball 7-8 years ago been associated with snack foods, Russian bad guys, donuts, castles, fatty and the list goes on. Now for some reason I’m getting called commish which just seems downright weird. We all know Jordan is the commissioner, Jordan is our leader of this wild and crazy group and there really can’t be another Jordan. No one can replace the devotion time and love that he’s put into us and we all know that is going to continue even from 6000 miles away. I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I tried to replicate or copy everything Jordan does and did. The only thing I can do is hope that the system he created, the jewball he created somehow runs itself with maybe just maybe the smallest nudge to keep it in the right direction.
Everytime we’ve embarked on something new we’ve added a new era to our history. I guess now unofficially officially is the succession. It’s the time that we can take everything we’ve learned from J and with a little dedication and faith bring it into a continuously brighter future. It’s the era to show each other but most importantly ourselves that we can continue to get better and build upon everything that has come before us.
Week 1 is almost upon us, and we’ll deal with sign ups and a couple of new rookies after YT, but that means the time to devote ourselves back to this island that we’ve created is right here. You can taste it. Whether you played preseason or not when that sign up comes out don’t start questioning yourself or how much time or energy you have on Sunday mornings. Im not gonna pretend I know everyone’s situation but for yourself and for everyone else here Say in both to that sign up. Say in both to playing this season. Say in both to bowl games. And if you really really can’t find it in you then just say “in” to every thing else we do here because while football is the focus we have become so much more than just what happens on the field. It starts there but it certainly doesn’t end there. It is the time to say In. It’s the time to get and stay involved. Kol haschalos kashos – all beginnings are hard. It’s very true but if you think about it, the beginnings can sometimes be exciting and new and fun. Signing up for week 1 isn’t hard. It’s 65 degrees and sunny. Signing up for week 12 in December when it’s 18 degrees with a slight dusting on the ground is hard. So why do we say “all beginnings are hard”? It’s because of you start correctly, if you start with the right foot forward and the right attitude, if you start the right way, the actual hard part becomes easy. The hard part is just starting correctly. That’s it. No one can copy what we have so let’s not waste it. Let’s in both it.
I know for me personally if I’m at an event or a place where I don’t know many people but I see a jewballer it’s instant connection whether you’ve played with that jewballer or frankly even if you never met that guy, there’s a natural flow that just takes over. It cannot be explained it just happens. That’s what succession is, it’s a natural flow from the past to the future. It’s the ability to create a path that continues with no bumps or sharp turns iyh.
With only a few hours left till RH, let this be the year of health, wealth, pornosso, Mazel, brocho, for everyone and their families. Let this be the year that we continue to succeed in every facet of life that we can ask for. And most of all let this be the year that we continue to come together and grow not just as a group of football players but as a community, as friends. Kesivah vchasima Tovah boys! Week 1 is here. Let’s make it the best week 1 yet
. Jewballforlife
9/28/25
Week 1 – Recap
Week 1 was finally here. The moment to start anew. The first game of the season, yes there was preseason, but this was the first real taste of football. no more choose ups, Real sign ups, real teams, real in boths and mighty’s favorite real stats. The teams were ready and after a rainy night the sun was out shining, begging us to play except 8 am came and went without football. Two early games scheduled but only 24 guys on the field… then to make matters worse new rookie tight end speigel gets hurt warming up with yaron. It’s 810 and no football has been played yet. Finally, like a white in shining armor.. the kagan boys arrive to save the day. one game starts with 7s and the other with 6s.
on the far side we had new rookie phenom the lego man leading his crew of bert, logic, mighty, rook, bz, and steveo against yours truly, kut, tbd, prime, schiffer, captain stogie, and special k who eventually morphed into portal. Lego took the ball first and after a brief pre-snap convo about the jewball rules just started ripping the ball all over the field. Pass after pass in perfect spots for his wrs and leading to an opening drive score to captain toilet paper, Mr. Charmin Logic. After a 3 an out by colors, lego back at it once again uses his lego legs to run one in for an early 2-0 lead. Finally, colors gets a drive going with some short passes and runs and scores on a sneaky tight end leakout to kut to make it 2-1. However, Lego wasnt done. on the very next drive they march down the field yet again and retake a 2 score lead with a td to the man in the bushes to make it 3-1. Colors needed to answer and quick. After a few quick throws and runs colors gets into a 4th and short, pray scrambling desperate to keep the drive alive and put points on the board lofts a toss to a curling kut but like the stalker he is bert is standing between pray and where he wants to go and rips the ball out of the sky for an int. after a rook screen for a td, colors finally got back on the board with a td to stella and after a stella int one more to schiffer to close the gap and make it 4-3. However, with about 20 minutes to go and the hope finally back in colors hearts, lego lofts a deep ball up the left sideline that gets tipped by pray, then by schiffer, and falls into the lap of mighty who runs it in for the 6th score of the day. they’d tack on another after TBD pfeffs a ball up in the air that lands in rooks lap and leads to an incredible throw and catch from lego to logic for his second score of the day. and just when you thought they were done scoring and as the chumash play is just about getting started at 935, mighty catches one more td just for good measure for a final score of 7-3 an absolute domination by dark from beginning to end. The obvious choice for jewball is lego and in true recap fashion thats exactly why he wont get one. Bert the jewball is all yours. a td, a pick, and 2 sacks. It was a teambert kinda day.
On the other side we had a new rookie qb get the start for zinns squad and after two early ints they made the switch to zinn. Yaron capitalized on those two ints with tds to dk and goldberg to take an early 2-0 lead but that was all they could muster for the day. Zinn marched down the field and picked a rushing td himself and one for stats. Finally, the drive that i did see, zinn had the ball for last licks and methodically made his way to the redzone for a quick tight end curl to daveo to win it. Jewball to zinn for having a complete stat line of 1 passing td, 1 rushing td, 1 int thrown, and 1 int caught. was a sack short of the cycle. Unfortunately, the ageless old man spira did go down with an injury. Maybe it’s just me but nothing pumps me up more than getting a spira breathless vn while he’s running or training or cycling. He really is the Jewball version of David goggins. Someone will need to carry the boats in his absence. Refuah shleima spira, jewball needs you out there and were looking forward to the comeback part 2 next year!!
In the late game it was the return of dax sheppard and the long awaited reunion between the curl man and his bro. Unfortunately, feit wanting revenge coming off his championship loss was feeling it. Feit was dinking and dunking the ball all over the field to his wrs and opening the scoring with a beauty jump ball by ice man for a 1-0 lead. Dachs not one to go down early throws a beautiful slant right into the hands of…. avenger…. who returns it for a pick six giving dark a 2-0 lead. finally dachs and co get on the board with a long stiff arming td to prime only to be answered back immediately by avenger with one of the wildest stop and go tds. Literally he stopped and started again about 15 times on his way to a 60 yard td. Colors cut the lead back to 1 with a long dachs run and lateral to pray for a td but feit would not be stopped. After a call up to tony romo in the booth and colors playing a man defense, feit calls a tight end handoff to bk who takes it 70 yards for a td. feit added one more to berk to put them up 5-2. on the other side we did dachs no favors with 4-5 drops and just miscues all day. a late td from dachs to pray cut it to 5-3 but was too little too late. a jewball to feit for the 3 tds and no ints. called a great game jimmmm.
Because i have to write recaps now, there is another award that I wanna do. Not sure it’ll be a weekly thing but anytime theres a player who plays both and not just physically plays both but dominates the games in a way that is meaningful and comes away with two wins deserves some recognition. Its the In both player of the week. This may have as long a run as praymakers but we’ll see. Unfortunately for this week the only guy who almost qualified was Ice with 5 ints and a rec td through two games, however, only one win to show for it… better luck next time.
Who wants week 2!
10/5/25
Week 2 – Recap
Week 2, like week 1 before it started off as a hot one. Beautiful day to start off but by 830 it was 80 and the sweat started pouring down. unluckily for defenses everywhere so did the points. a combined 30 tds were scored in the 3 games played.
In game 1a yaron led his squad of dk, portal, stella, walkman, waldo, and zada to an absolute rout of gronk and colors in a 7-2 win. Hard to watch and play at the same time but saw a bunch of missed opportunities by colors including A LOT of drops. but on the other side yaron was slinging it including one absolutely beautiful catch and throw between yaron and portal. portal finished the day with 3 rec tds and then yaron decided that everyone should have a td on the day and literally went onto throw a td to 5/6 of the other players on his team. props to stella for 2 ints. (not sure how but dk threw two ints……no clue) Unfortunately waldo and walkman both got hurt in this one. feel better guys and we’ll see you back out there soon iyh! Jewball to yaron for the 7 tds no ints and 1 int on defense. Cool yaron showed up and balled out.
One other note from that game is kagan and E. both replaced the injured guys who had to stop playing. E literally showed up out of nowhere and walked right back to his car, cleated up and played ball. theres not many things better than coming out to watch some football and then being able to hop into a game. kagan on the other hand somehow has a knack for just showing up and trying to get into as many games as possible. not that we want any injuries god forbid but having a guy who is willing to just come and show up and hope to play is amazing. very very rookesque. thank you guys!
In game 1B, we got off to a 6s start due to some late arrivals. and colors and co jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with pray throwing tds to ernie and vegh. after 2 early ints, dachs finally settled in and remembered that he had zinn on his team and started doing the thing where if zinn runs really fast and you can throw the ball really far it will probably be a td. quick strike from dach to zinn made it 2-1. however despite that, colors marched down the field and took a 3-1 lead with a pretty toe tap td by vegh. for some reason the game turned then and dachs just started clicking. some quick runs and outside curls to rook, stats, and bz (and a few more tds to zinn) had us in a tie game. thats where the quick scoring exchange started. pray with a deep shot and an iceman mossing of rook and sruli made it 4-3. right back at it, dachs has a quick drive culminating in a thread the needle type throw to rook to tie it up at 4. a few mighty catch and runs down the field finished off with an ernie td made it 5-4 colors. it was 9:28 and everything was pointing to our first tie of the season. dachs has another quick drive capped off with a screen to stats and bz bulldozing the corner on a lead block into the endzone to tie it up. after deciding each team would have one more drive. colors took the ball and with mighty and ernie on the line methodically drove down the field to the 10 yard line. however thats when dachs, who is known for his size and strength, perfectly blitzed up the middle and wound up with a sack to give colors a tough 4th and goal from the 15. colors cant convert and dachs takes the ball back with a chance to win it. on the first play dachs drops back and throws an absolute dime to zinn crossing the middle of the field….however ice man is running over and has a play at the ball…he dives…..and the ball just somehow squeezes right by his outstretched hands into zinns chest. Whether it was the speed of the ball or the iceman finger…..the ball bangs off zinns chest and colors may have just caught a huge break. Except when playing against zinn you cant assume that normal things will happen and instead of the ball falling to the floor or being intercepted it somehow hits off his chest and follows him up field landing softly back in his hands 10 yards away and no one in front of him for a wild game winning touchdown. an amazing game capped off by an amazing play. Jewball should prob go to zinn but its gotta be dachs for being down 3-1 and going on to throw 6 total tds and coming up with a huge sack when it mattered most.
onto game 2 and our rookie phenom lego bombs second start. the challenge was set with yaron ice zinn rook prime tom and justin/stats set to go against lego pray gronk schiffer kagan daveo and dk. yaron took the ball first, and similar to dachs in game 1, realized that zinn is faster than everyone and after a quick strike it was 1-0 early. some controversy as kut may have been settling some rooks down during the play but nonetheless lego was down early. however like the methodical qb he is, lego got to work quickly and led his team down the field with short plays wrapping up in a crack run to the left for a td. yaron gets the ball back and gets to work throwing a pretty pass over the middle to…. gronk… who reaches up and snags it out of the sky – no jumping required- and returns it for six. 2-1 colors just like that. after a dark 3 and out lego gets the ball back and hits a deep shot to pray who unfortunately is too fat to outrun the defense and is caught by rook at the 15. two plays later lego rewards pray for the effort with a quick strike to the back of the endzone for another td 3-1 colors. another 3 and out and lego goes back to doing lego things and havs a ziggy zagging run for another td, 4-1 colors. Yaron made it 4-2 after again remembering that zinn is fast. but lego would not be denied and as zinn said “throws the ball on a different atmospheric plane than anyone else” to gronk for another td. 5-2. yaron scored once more to zinn on another crazy tip play similar to game 1. zinn somehow keeps two feet in to make it 5-3. but as was the story of the game. Lego. Didnt. Stop. after breaking zinns ankles, and rumbling for a 65 yard run, a quick slant to pray made it 6-3. with five minutes left the game was all but over – but gronk did gronk things and picked off another pass and flipped to dk for a td return leading to a final score of 7-3. two games for lego. two 7-3 wins. gronk def deserving a jewball but after snubbing lego last week its the Lego man zagelboss. 3 tds thrown 2 rushing tds and just play after play with poise and confidence. someones gotta settle the rookie down.
no in both player this week because no one won two games according to my calculations. The first one will have to wait till week 3.
Whether you’re sitting in a hut for the next week or waiting for yaron to call hike we got pitom bowl this sunday. no stats no real sign up. just good ole fashioned fun football. Will post a poll on thursday. Lots of football left to be played this year and the start of league games right around the corner. Good YT guys! JBFL
10/19/25
WEEK 3 – RECAP
Week 3 started with some late last minute sign ups and a late saturday night posting of the teams but ended up with some of our most competitive games yet on this young season.
In the first early game it was jewballs last qb phenom in dachs set to square off against the new phenom in lego. lego had his work cut out for him going up against ice, bz, dobs, landy, tom and oppen but he had his own weapons of prime goldberg, e, whiskey, justin and rook to match the fire power. although the final score of this game, 7-5, would make one think there was no defense….. there were 7, i repeat 7, interceptions thrown between the two qbs. game got started with dachs picking apart the defense and hitting a quick score to ice only to be immediately countered with a beautiful lego td to rook over the outstretched arms of dachs at safety. I don’t know what the score was when the ints started but seemed to be a tie game through most of it. however everytime we looked over from the other side of the field someone new was running the wrong way with the football. first prime ices iceman leading to a rook pick six and then ice takes one away from lego leading to a dobs td. whether it was the pressure from oppen or the swarming defense lego was throwing some picks. the only thing to do when you get to play both sides though is if you throw a few, you better get a few back on d and that’s exaclty what lego did, fast forward a few plays lego picks off two from dachs leading to tds for goldberg and a real pretty one to prime in the back of the end zone. dachs took a one score lead late in the game throwing another td to ice for his third of the day. Lego had a chance to tie on his last licks drive of the day. and as he drops back to pass he sees what we described as “dachs running the most perfect crossing route”. He loads up, fires… and dachs takes it back for six to seal the deal. second game in a row where dachs makes a huge play on defense seal the deal. the rookie finally takes his first L of the season in what seemed to be an incredible game all around. Jewball to the iceman and current td leader with the 3 td 2 int game. strong stuff from ice cream.
In game 1b it was yaron v pray. the most classic of jewball qb matchups that weve had over the last few years. This was a tight one back and forth as well with yaron opening the scoring with a td to schiffer and colors marching back down with a pray td to kagan on a quick slant past the blitzing mighty. Yaron answered back right away with a methodically long drive and a td to mighty. stella wilmer captain stogie answers right back with a td of his own on a screen pass barreling his way in to tie it at 2. yaron marches right back down and hits none other than the rat who does it again -weaving through the defense for another td giving dark a 3-2 lead. colors gets the ball back and pray calls his own number, dancing through traffic and picking up incredible blocks from stats spiegel and ernie on his way for a 70 yard rushing td to tie the game at three. yaron again having himself a day throws a td to schiffer to make it 4-3 dark. thats when the game started to slip away for colors. Pray on a third and long heaves one deep to stella but underthrows it and mighty makes the jump on it to pick it off. Immediately after, yaron throws an absolute bomb to new rookie akiva to make it 5-3. it was back against the wall time for colors after going for it on fourth and forever and not converting. yaron got the ball back with a chance to ice the game with a first and goal from the 15. but between spiegal and bert on the line, colors gets a huge sack, pushes yaron out of the redzone and manages to get the ball back. first play of the next color possession ernie makes a circus type catch and runs it in from 40 yards out to make it a 5-4 game. Dark gets the ball back. a score would end it as it’s 935 and the game is over by 940. yaron is one of those guys who never sees color. he treats everyone with the respect and dignity that they deserve. on this drive he refused to see color as well and throws a perfect shovel pass to…. stats at the five yard line. the biggest play in the biggest moment made by stats to set colors up for a game tying opportunity with first and goal from the 5. after a couple of incompletions. colors punches it in on a quick slant from pray to ernie that the muppet secures to tie the game at 5. Ties are not wins and they are not losses. Ties are ties. they are an ugly but necessary evil at times. however there are times that ties feel like a loss and times that ties feel like a win. for colors this one felt like a win. down 5-3 with 2 drives left and came all the way back to not take a loss. no jewball for this one but huge shoutout to bert and speigel for the clutch line play down the stretch and ernie and stats for the game saving td and int respectfully. schiffer was prob gearing up for his first jewball had dark pulled it off but only an honorable mention for now.
one final note from the game 1 is that both games started after 810. Guys….game starting at 8 means exactly that…game starting at 8. yes is there an unwritten grace period for a couple of minutes. sure. but that doesnt mean show up at 8 or 815. it means be there at 755, cleats on and ready to warm up so we can actually start at 8. were coming up on week 4 – lets fix this, especially with leagues coming up next week.
onto game 2 where avenger was making his first start of the season at qb. he lined up with his bro- davinger, iceman, justin, logan, prime and stella against yaron pray lego (at wr) kagan tom danny/stats and oppen. Danny made his long awaited return to the field. unfortunately it was short lived and on the third drive of the game he tore his patella tendon. rest up and feel good danny. wishing you a full recovery! but This game picked up where the other left off with an int by yaron to start the game, followed by avenger saying I dont want any free drives and proceeding to throw the ball about 75 yards directly up in the air for an int to pray. it was basically the opposite of a rabin screen pass. unfortunately yaron and co did nothing with that drive and it was avenger scoring first with a td to iceman. yaron finally started moving, hitting a td to stats and a few missed flags later he was in the endzone. yaron scored again on a td to pray leaking from tight end to make it 2-1. aveneger answered immediately with a quick slant to prime and a quick spin and stiff arm later he was down the sideline to tie it up at 2. the game stayed at 2-2 for a while but that doesnt mean there wasnt any action. it really started before the game when lego ripped his shorts and asked logan for a new pair. then logan flag grabbed lego before the pass was thrown. finally logan just wanted to be 100000% sure that lego wasnt wearing his shorts and went for a full investigation. with lego hobbled and on one ball he moved to tight end. and yaron started feeding him. finally the scoring drought broke with a yaron pass to stats who lateraled to pray and blocked stella in one motion for a td. as the hour was getting late avenger had a chance to tie and threw a deep ball to prime who also decided to flag grab lego as lego intercepted the pass effectively ending any chance for dark to come back. Yaron threw a late td to tom to seal the game in a 4-2 final. Jewball to stats for this one. although he only had the one td. the flip play he had was the go ahead score and was just an increidble play. beyond that, he somehow tracked down every flag on defense, got trucked by ice on a block, and literally left his blood all over the field and ball. Awesome game stats!
Last but not least, we finally have an in both player of the week. as everyone knows playing both is tough, its physically and mentally draining, yet there’s nothing like it. Its an adrenaline rush that just makes you want to keep going. However, i get to say that from a position of playing qb or sometimes wr. I cannot imagine what playing both as a lineman might feel like. and i dont mean a rotating linemen. i mean a guy who literally does not leave the offensive or defensive line AT ALL and somehow still manages to bring it every. single. play. Oppen you are the inaugural first ever in both player of the week. While i didn’t see much of game 1 i did see dachs standing in the pokcet with no one near him every play. i also saw lego dancing around trying to avoid you. in game 2 it was more of the same. you were asked to play tight end and your answer was just a simple “no im an offensive lineman” in an almost military like tone. only one sack on the day for you but two W’s in a dominant performance. take this week off. you deserve it.
We got leagues this week. GM. v SP and Gorilaz v. Stogies. followed by a late game. Who wants week 4!
10/26/25
WEEK 4 – RECAP
Week 4 Recap
Waking up early on a sunday morning just feels different on a league week. It’s like the first week of the season all the excitement and adrenaline but on steroids. Whether you blame your captain or not, you’re coming out to prove something- to prove that your team has what it takes to win a chip. To prove to yourself and to everyone else why the place you were drafted was not too high or was too low. To prove the haters wrong and show everyone what your made of.
This year leagues started with some double header side by side action with Captain Stella’s Stogies taking on the Defending Champ captain rook and his gorrilaz and on the other side Kut’s Semi Pro’s taking on the Daveo Green Machine.
We’ll start with the game I was a part of. Green Machine was the talk of the town after the draft as Daveo compiled a team of assassins on paper. Semi pro and kut not to be outdone assembled his own killer squad. Unfortunately Semi pro was missing their captian for this one (although he brought donuts) and it showed early on. While Semi pro initially jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the second play of the game it unfortunately was called back due to a holding call. Green machine then started hot and put up two immediate scores one to berkowitz and one to ice to secure an early 13-0 lead over Semi Pro and we looked to be on our way to a blowout. But just then everything changed. Stats started racking up catch after catch for SP and stuck one with three fingers to bring SP down to the five yard line to be capped off by a vegh td. SP tried a hurry up extra point but was unssucessful, 13-6 GM. one play later Portal from d line bats a levinger pass straight up in the air to which solo grabs and walks into the endzone and just like that it’s 13-12. Not sure if it was the pick six or something else but GM’s offense grinded to a halt. There were bert fumbles and throws to nobody. SP takes the ball back and drives 75 yards down the field for a smooth little td to portal leaking from tight end capped off by a stats two point conversion to give SP a 20-13 lead. but then avenger started cooking hitting all his wrs and finishing with a td to kagan. a missed extra point on a back of the end zone throw to ice kept SP in the lead 20-19. GM’s defense started swarming then and SP could not move the ball down the field to ice the game for two stragiht drives. Finally, GM gets the ball back with their last licks. Score and they go home 1-0. Lose and a lot of their confidence from draft night goes out the window. Avenger methodically moved the ball to midfield and on 2nd and 15 throws a pass to….stats… all that needs to happen is for stats to secure the pick and the game is over. Except pray comes racing from across the field eyeing the ball as if its a donut and wanting to make sure no one else gets it. pray swats the ball away and turns around in disbelief. a miscommunication and GM has a second chance. two plays later on 4th and 2 avenger evades two flag grabs to just barely pick up the first down. the very next play avenger rolls all the way to the right and throws back to left corner of the endzone for a sweet sliding grab by berk to end the game. 25-20 GM over SP in an absolute back and forth nail biter. had SP held on portal would have had himself a jewball with the absolute dominant play on o line and d line when his team needed it the most he stepped up and was a force. but sp didnt win so Jewball to avenger for the 4tds and absolutely brilliant throw at the end to win it. Shout out berk also for the two tds as well as kagan for making play after play and one really incredible extra point while getting leveled by storm.
Onto the other side of the field and Stogies were looking for blood. Stella was questioned at the draft about some choices and he was ready to set the world on fire. Gorillaz on the other hand came out of the draft looking like the biggest steal of draft night went 3rd overall. Lego was lighting jewball on fire game after game and by the looks of it was going to run away with jewball leagues as well. But of course in true jewball fashion that wouldnt be the case. Jewball is the ulitmate equalizer its the bell curve of all bell curves and just because someone is hot one week, jewball can cool you off in an instant. the opposite is true as well and Stogies were looking to prove it. Based on the videos and some of the plays i caught from that game it appeared to be just as intesne and just as much of a nail biter as the other league game. except something was different. stogies were different. stogies would not let themselves be bullied. I believe the scoring opened up with a dump off from yaron to dk who took it to the house to make 6-0 early. Gorrilaz answered right back with a short throw to mighty who did mighty things and zig zagged his way through the defense to make it 6-6. Stogies answered back with a yaron special backward throw to gronk who then threw back to yaron for a sweet grab (maybe you were really born to be a wr…just saying) to set up a td to gronk. But then gronk pulled a mighty and left early and the question was would stogied be able to hold on. The answer was… of course. Stogies absolutely wrecked Gorillaz high flying offense to the tune of 4 ints (2 for wilmer and 2 for mk) and 4 sacks (2 apiece for daxy and dk). the only other score for gorillaz was a volley ball tip drill of a td that landed in rooks hands in the back of the endzone to keep the game close. Stogies scored one more time on a td to ross to cap an 18-15 victory. a lot of options for jewball in this one because yaron played masterfully and dk was a wrecking ball. but its gotta be captain stella with a stellar performance on defense as well as just overall having his team fired up and ready to go to move to 1-0.
In game 2 it was the return of someone we hadnt seen for a while… hockey dachs. Just kidding. dachs started off this game pretty hot leading his crew of pray ernie spiegel/storm whiskey prime and special k against yaron bin kagan legs zinn stats and rook. yaron jumped out to an early lead on a rook td but dachs immediately answered with a pretty corner route to prime to tie it up. after a dachs int to rabin, yaron answered right back with a rushing td to take a 2-1 lead. after a few three and outs, dachs answered with a masterful drive using his legs to extend the drive and then hitting pray in stride to tie it up. after a few yaron misfires, dachs got the ball back and went into attack mode. using all his weapons to run one in from 15 out to give them a 3-2 lead with 15 minutes left. Yaron then hit a td to zinn to make it 3-3. all colors needed was a score and a stop and theyd have the vicotry secure. dachs dropped back and threw a gorgeous throw to ernie, and whether its because hes a muppet or kagan has something against singers, he absolutely decks ernie and the ball falls to the ground. a great play by kagan to break up what likely would have gone for six. one play later, dachs gets picked off by yaron and yaron throws a td to rook for his second td of the day and gives dark the 4-3 lead. next possesion with a chance to tie, kagan picks off dachs to end the game – a 4-3 victory by yaron and co. Another game with a lot of worthy jewballs but kagan its all yours. bartender made play after play at multiple positions and while he only finished with a sack and int, he was all over the field. love em or hate em, i dont know if there is anyone who out hustles kagan on every single play. Cheers bartender.
I didnt think we would have another in both player so quickly but as much as we hate the guy… he threw 6 tds, had 1 rushing td, and added 1 int on defense to lead his team to two W’s. Yaron has alway been an in both player but we all know he only actually played game 2. hed let the other team have their way and then settle in for game 2 and light it up. Sunday was different. Sunday was a guy who matched his league win total from last year on the first week of leagues. Sunday was a yaron who only threw one int ALL DAY. Sunday was a real in both yaron and for that hes the in both player of the week. weather is getting colder and mexico is calling. Who wants week 5?
11/2/25
WEEK 5 – RECAP
Can’t believe that we’re already 1/4 of the way through the Jewball season but after months of anticipation throughout the summer, the jewball season seems to fly by.
On the one side of the field we had zinn v gronk, two guys who kept begging to play qb showing off what they can do. And with yaron MIA it was finally their chance.
Zinn and dark had zada, prime, dk, blitz, kagan, and vegh. While Gronk had colors with bin, bz, mk, rook, oppen, and steveo. Game was a low scoring affair with what seemed to be not much movement of the football. I saw a lot of zinn running and a lot of gronk doing his patented hip move but both teams struggled to move the ball. eventually zinn ran one in to make it 1-0. Gronk eventually tied the game up with a td to mk. Shortly after with time “running” out prime had himself a rushing td to give dark the 2-1 lead and the win. While zinn should prob get the jewball with the rushing td and an int on defense, there was a guy on his team who was putting up numbers but was struggling to get that all elusive W. before this game prime was 0-7 and hope was slowly fading. Prime jewball to you for the rushing td and picking up the first win of the season.
In game 1b it was pray v dach. An all time jewball showdown that probably has more ties over the last few seasons than any other matchup. This game would be no different. After a couple of last minute team changes. it was colors of pray, press, ice, goldberg, tom. bert, and justin vs dark of dachs, dobs, mighty, schiffer, O, berk, and spiegel. Dachs took the ball first and after an impressive first drive hit a td to mighty to open up the scoring. colors answered right back with a pray strike to press in the back of the end zone to tie it up. right back at it dachs hits berk on a long ball to take a 2-1 lead with dark again answering right back with a td to ice…..but instead press rips the ball away from his teammate 2-2 now. That when the defenses started attacking. O turned back the clock and was a force racking up three sacks and forcing a bad throw that led to a berk pick. Not to be outdone the three man rush of goldberg/tom and justin and bert had dachs running for his life as well. After a few stalled drives pray hits iceman leaking from tight end on a 50 yard td to take the 3-2 lead. it seemed like pray may just finally pick up his first win of the season at qb…. however dachs dropped back and hit berk for his second td of the game to tie it at 3-3. colors had their last licks but couldnt get anything going and we headed to Jewball OT… four plays from the 25. Dachs took the ball first and dropped back to throw a quick slant to mighty…iceman charges in and barely misses what would have been a game winning pick six (a sign of what was to come in game 2….) mighty grabs the ball and scrambles in for a td on the first play of OT. all colors could hope for now was a tie. after a sack and a couple of runs, colors was down to their last chance. 4th and goal from the 23. not exactly sure what happened but the entire defense converged on press….leaving ice standing by himself in the right corner of the endzone and easy catch and throw to tie it up. a really incredible ends yet again in a tie. No jewball but dachs and O had themselves a game for dark and press and ice for colors. Goldberg was there also ;).
In game 2 it was avenger v pray, where pray would try yet again to pick up a W at qb. It was colors of pray, kagan, prime, zinn, stella, tom, and oppen vs. avenger, dietsch, legs, portal, gronk, whiskey and ice. this game similar to game 1 had both offenses absolutely struggling to punch the ball into the endzone. Avenger scored first on a td to gronk and colors tied it up on a wacky wacky play- a flip to prime that gets batted by legs, then batted by prime, then caught by tom who takes one giant step over the goalline to tie it up. Avenger answered with a long drive and another redzone strike to gronk to make it 2-1. after a long time of no scoring pray hits prime on a seam route right down the middle to tie it up at 2-2. i dont remember when exactly but oppen got hurt and gronk was bored so they both left leaving us with a 6 on 6. thats unfortunately when the game was marred by some calls. dont need to get into it here as it was discussed all week but after a few controversial ones the game was left in a tie and jewball OT would be played again. On the first play of OT avenger rolls all the way to his left and throws back across his body to dietch. Except zinn is never too far away from a ball to make a play on it. Zinn scoots in and reaches for the ball….pray would finally pick up his first W as all zinn needs to do is secure it and walk into the endzone for a game winning pick six. Zinn grabs the ball but the ball just doesnt stick…pops into the air where zinn tries to catch it behind his back somehow and lands softly to the turf…..dark would survive one more play. the next play avenger hits a strike to iceman to take a 3-2 lead. colors takes the ball for their chance at OT but could not get anything going. after a failed trick play it was 4th and goal from what felt like the 50….a wild play where pray flipped backward to tom and tom then back to pray and a hail mary launch down the field that zinn almost came down with ends this game at 3-2 and a dark win. Jewball to legs for the clutch calls down the stretch….jk jk jk….legs was a force today. racked up 3 sacks and was just a menace all over the field with his pass rush. colors couldnt move the ball well and legs played the biggest role in that. shoutout to gronk for the 2 tds and dietch for making sliding grab after sliding grab to keep drives alive for dark.
11/9/25
WEEK 6
Week 6 started off with some light sign ups. Some say it was due to Mighty hosting the degel flag football invitational tourney and others bc rain was in the forecast. Either way jewball was still played with one early and one late game.
In the early slot we had feit, E, mighty, prime, ross, schiffer and stats vs. Yaron, pray, bert, tbd, logan, steveo, and zada. Game started with a methodical drive by cool yaron capped off by a td to pray. Feit got the ball back and marched right back down the field with a td to mighty to tie it up at 1. cool yaron went back to the formula for the day and hit pray for another td to make it 2-1. feit right back to it hits prime on a nice catch and run to make it 2-2. that’s when the old yaron showed up for a minute….the one that takes long in the huddle and says he doesn’t throw that many interceptions. In a play call that hasn’t worked in a number of years… yaron throws a backward pass to pray in an attempt to catch the D off guard. Unfortunately, everyone saw it coming and pray threw it back to yaron only to be intercepted by prime and put colors right back in the redzone. However……feit could not take advantage and gets picked off by pray on the next play. cool yaron came back and again marched his team down the field finding pray again to make it 3-2. colors then stalled and it looked like yaron and co might jump out to a 2 score lead to break the game open. yaron drops back and throws a dump off to pray who shockingly was not expecting the pass and taps it up into the air and into the diving arms of feit. Except colors stalled yet again in the redzone. No harm no foul for the int by yaron/pray. the next drive, Yaron broke the game open to make it 4-2 with a td to pray. colors kept it close with a beautiful deep ball to ross from feit to keep it a one score game but yaron was just in sync and marched down the field again to make it 5-3 after a rushing td by pray. not to be outdone mighty takes a short pass by feit to the house tiptoeing down the sideline to keep it a one score game. 5-4 and dark ball. If colors gets a stop they have a chance for a tie. but on 3rd and long yaron throws up a PRAYer and ball gets tipped bounced around and into the arms of pray who donuts to the endzone to ice the game. 6-4 final dark over colors. while yaron and pray had a solid day to say the least, the real star of the day was kagans racist, three legged dog on the sideline, and after seeing the backwards pass play early on in this one took his frustrations out on the field…… IYKYK. It was at that moment that team dark was inspired to play better and pulled away with the W. Jewball to peeve.
In game 2 it was pray, daveo, kagan, mighty, special k, whiskey, and newcomer werz vs. avenger, davenger, berk, tom, spiegel, legs, and blitz. as opposed to the high scoring affair of game 1, this game was all about goal line stands. If memory serves right, there were 6 stops inside the ten yard line. three for each squad. Dark opened the scoring first with a td from pray to kagan to make it 1-0. and the game stayed that way for about 45 minutes. avenger was doing his patented jukes and spins and getting his team inside the ten but for whatever reason could not punch it in. the first goal line stand ended with a werz int. dark got the ball back and methodically moved down the field only for pray to the throw a redzone int to berk. back down the field avenger went, only to get sacked twice – once by mighty and once by daveo to knock them out of the redzone. the other story of the game was the deep balls just not dropping in. but finally avenger drops one into legs for a 45 yard strike to tie the game at 1. a few more defensive stops later….pray finally was able to break one with his legs and run it in from 60 out to take a 2-1 lead. next drive avenger dropped back and decided to just throw the ball higher than anyone else can reach……anyone other than tom who just started eating up chunks of yards on the elevated throws. but again stalled drives in the redzone and no points to show for it. as the game was winding down avenger dropped back to pass and was under an immediate rush of mighty and whiskey. whether legs pushed him or whiskey took a swing no one will know but avenger went down. avenger is a gamer though and popped right back up to finish the game…concussion tbd. on one of the last drives of the game avenger made it back to the redzone and called a pitch play to berk to try and punch it in for the tie. thats when the rat took over. mighty split the gap quicker than his vibrator on his hammys and tackled berk for a loss of five. next play mighty did it again with a huge sack on avenger to effectively end the game. jewball to mighty for the 5!! sacks on the day.
Two monster league games for week 7. GM v. defending champ Gorrilaz and Stogies v. Blop. Regular jewball to follow. Who wants Week 7. IJWT.
11/16/25
WEEK 7
We start this week with the 1-0 Green Machine taking on the 0-1 Gorrilaz. Green Machine was looking to add on to their thrilling first walk off win against Semi Pro and Gorillaz looking to even up their record after a disappointing first loss to Stogies. The table was set, the players were ready. GM took the ball first and after going for it on 4th and short, could not convert. Gorillaz now had a short field to try and strike first, but four shots into the endzone that land incomplete ended their first drive as well. That’s when Avenger started picking up the pace. Hitting quick curls to dax and ice and using his legs. On third and goal from the 11, avenger rumbles behind oppen and ice to sneak by the pylon and give GM a 7-0 lead after the conversion. Lego would answer right away with an absolute strike down the sideline to captain rook. The extra point was missed making it 7-6. Unfortunately for GM, that lone score early on was their offense for the day. Now that’s not to say they didn’t have some nice plays and good drives, but the wind picked up and the passing game disappeared. Gorilaz defense was swarming and the avenger couldn’t find any running lanes either. Speaking of running….Lego took captain knish’s advice and decided why throw the ball. Lego took off again and again and the GM defense was nowhere to be found. On one play in particular lego ran right past dax who appeared to look at lego, shrug, and continue his colorful conversation with Goldberg. Lego would finish the day with three rushing tds, each one more impressive than the next. GM eventually scored again at about 9:27 but it was too little too late. The game was well out of reach at that point. Gorillaz win this one 24-13. Jewball to Lego for the electric running and huge flag grabs on defense as well. Other notable play was oren being an absolute wrecking ball on d line to the tune of 2 sacks and 1 “sack” and Mighty doing mighty things with a pick and a sack.
One other note from this game was while I was trying to line judge it seemed like there were arguments every other drive. Unfortunately, as I learned on Sunday, reffing two games is impossible. Trying to get videos of both games while reffing two games is futile. I don’t know what all the disagreements were about, but as I heard from some guys afterwards, it makes the game unenjoyable. It’s a part of the game that there will be arguments, and in a weird way it’s a good thing because it means there’s a game on the line that’s worth fighting for, but it shouldn’t rise to the level of constant fighting. That’s when it becomes too much and ruins the game. So whether you absolutely need to make a call bc you just cant help yourself or you need to insist that the line of scrimmage is six inches further than where the defense spotted it… don’t let it become a fight. Really really ask yourself whether the win or loss is worth this fight before doing it and then go ahead and play ball. not saying don’t make calls– but be absolutely sure you would have made the play but for something illegal that the other team did.
Onto the other side of the field where the 1-0 stogies were looking to continue their hot start against blop who was playing their first game. Blop short handed after losing Spira for the season and not having Ernie in this one, got off to a rough start. After blop stalls on their first drive, cool yaron takes his first play of offense and throws a dump off to dk who takes it 70 yards to the house. DK just ran through the defense and nobody stopped him. 6-0 stogies. blop took the ball back but could not get anything going at all and the stogie defense was all over the place. Whether they were catching picks or hurting zinn, the blop offense was nowhere to be found early on. Yaron gets the ball back and rifles a throw into ross for a 12-0 lead. Suddenly a fire was lit under dachs and co and the offense started clicking. dachs hits zinn on a deep ball to put blop at the 1 and a short td to prime made it 12-6. Then arguably the greatest catch we’ve seen in leagues happened. Yes there is no film… I missed it bc who the heck films extra points but dachs dropped back and threw it high and behind zinn coming across the back of the end zone. Zinn jumps up, inverts his right hand 360 degrees and just absolutely sticks it one handed while somehow landing with his feet in bounds. It was jaw dropping and surreal all in one. 12-7 stogies. Cool yaron never took his foot off the gas though and marched right back down the field with a td to daxxy to make it 18-7. Blop answered right back with a prime rushing td to make it 18-13. not one to be outdone yaron takes the snap and throws a five yard curl to blitz. Now whether blitz was inspired by the zinn catch from earlier or whether he just put the team on his back, he started to rumble. After a zinn missed flag, blitz was off to the races. 2 minutes later and he was in the endzone on a bumbling, rumbling and stumbling trek from 70 out. You can almost hear Chris Berman yelling “he… can …go… all… the… way”. 24-13 stogies. On the next possession dachs hit zinn on a gorgeous deep ball to make it 24-20 and we had ourselves a game. dachs gets the ball back with a chance to take the lead at 9:26. The drive stalls out and now yaron takes it back with a chance to ice it. A score and stogies move to 2-0. In one of the most methodical drives we’ve seen from yaron, he made throw after to throw to march stogies down the field and capped it off with an absolute dart to the back of the endzone to blitz who made an incredible fingertip catch (yes i dont have the video of this either) to end the game. A valiant effort by blop -but not enough- and stogies move to 2-0. Yaron had himself a game and in two games with stogies has matched his league win total from the past two seasons! The trash man is on a mission. While yaron deserves a jewball, blitz had himself a day with some huge flag grabs on defense and the two tds on offense. Jewball to the blitz. Captain stella another league game, another two ints for him. After being laughed out of draft night….stogies are the team to beat and in sole possession of first place with four games to play.
Game 2 was a weird one. Maybe it was the new guys, maybe it was the randomizer or maybe it was giving the ball to the wrong team on two straight drives. It was the colors of pray, bin, bert, kagan, prime, rook, and zinn vs. dark of yaron, jerry, gronk, stats, tom, werz, and whiskey. colors took the ball first and scored immediately with a pray to prime strike. after a 3 and out colors got it back but pray and yaron forgot they were not on the same team and after exchanging ints to each other, it was pray lateraling to rook after the int for a 60 yard pick six. 2-0 colors. yaron finally found the endzone a few drives later by hitting stats in the back left corner. 2-1. Unfortunately for dark that’s when the game went out of control. pray lost his pants and yaron throws a curl to werz who tries to put the moves on prime and either after realizing he wasn’t going to escape or being mesmerized by primes incredible tailoring of prays pants, he laterals it back to….kagan who turns around and waltzes into the endzone for a fumble recovery td. 3-1. The next drive for colors pray hits rook for a td to make it 4-1. Gronk had a rec td for dark at some point to make it 4-2 but after a kagan short pass that turned into a 70 yard score it was all but over for dark. except….gronk wanted to get in on the action of throwing it to the other team and after orchestrating one of the best drives of the day for dark throws a pick six in the red zone to zinn to end the game at 6-2. I don’t know if we can have multiple jewball winners from one game but the line play of rabin, kagan, and bert was just awesome. 6 sacks combined between the 3 of them. regardless….jewball to rook for coming off a huge league game in game 1 and then turning around and bringing it again in game 2 with a rushing td and rec td and just all around hustle all over the field. never Settle down rook.
Week 8 is here. Bowl season starts next week. best time of the year for football. Come get it. IJWT
11/23/25
WEEK 8
Week 8 started with the jewball usual of two early games side by side. On the one side it was the OG matchup of pray v yaron and the other side it was the Avenger taking on Feit.
Unfortunately for the first game, we had some late cancellations and the game started with dark of pray, E, DK., Ice, POrtal, and Stella taking on colors of Yaron, steveo, sam, oppen, logan, bert, and storm. The game was close for a little while but bc we were playing 6s instead of 7s there was just too much speed on the field for dark leading to long tds by ice, portal and a pray rushing td. Colors fought back with yaron throwing tds to storm and bert and a late game bullet to the back of the endzone to sam who toe tapped to stay in bounds. but that was all that colors would put up. Dk was a monster for dark with three sacks and E was racking up catch after catch in the middle of the field to keep dark’s drives alive. Ultimately Stella would score and portal and ice would each get one more to end this game 6-3 dark. One play that absolutely needs to be mentioned is portal taking a tipped ball 99 yards to the house….except Dk BERTcalf stalks him down and grabs his flag at the one. Just a crazy hustle play all around but bert saved a td (dark scored on the next play but thats not important). As we all saw on the glasses recap and stats machine, Portal had quite the day. Jewball to portal for the pick and 2 tds.
Onto the other and seemingly much more exciting early game. It was dark of avenger, bz, landy, mighty, prime, schiffer, and stats v. Colors of feit, justin, rook, zada, zinn, daveo, and berk. This game was a pick fest with avenger throwing 2 to berk and rook and feit throwing 3- two to stats and one to landy. In true TBI fashion I dont know how the game flow went at all but it seemed like a tight game throughout the contest. Avenger was spreading the rock around throwing tds to landy, mighty, schiffer, and bz (we will get to that in a second) and feit throwing a td to daveo and zinn and feit each running one in. The one play I did see was certainly the most impactful. With a tie game and dark on their last chance to try and win it…. avenger dropped back from the 5 yard line, bought himself some time with his patented hip twists, and threw a cross body floater to bz who corralled it with one hand and secured it for the go ahead score. Jewball to bz for the game winner and 5!! sacks on the day.
In the late game it was colors of yaron, bin, bk, dk, stats, rook, and zinn vs. dark of pray, dietsch, kut, logan, oppen, prime, and storm. This was an absolute blood bath. Dont know if dark ever got a stop on defense and I believe cool yaron scored all 7 times he touched the ball. hitting zinn, rook, and stats for 2 a piece and one to dk. As ugly of a blowout game 1a was, this one was somehow worse. a 7-2 shellacking and a jewball to yaron for the 7 tds thrown. Unfortunately for storm, logan and oppen they were on the losing side of both these blowouts. Fortunately for DK he was on the winning side and racked up 5 sacks on the day and was just an absolute menace chasing people down and making sure that no one escaped his sacks. add to that a bunch of catches and a td and DK you are the in both player of the week. The lone highlight for dark in this one was a forward lateral receiving td by oppen that just counted bc it needed to… it was that type of game.
11/27/25
TURKEY BOWL
Turkey bowl came with a few last minute team/game adjustments but at the end of the day we could not have asked for a better Turkey day than what we got. Yes were some of the games less than desirable in terms of the football- sure. but the fact that we got jewballers past, present, and future out to the field to play some football, eat some turkey, wings and donuts, and just overall experience a beautiful jewball thanksgiving was beyond gratifying. In one game Ice played qb and led his team to victory on a jump throw game winner to daveo (yes the OT rules were slightly changed for Turkey Bowl). On the other side it was Lego v Avenger. Again, didn’t see much of the game but I believe Avenger pulled out the W in a tight contest. Lego unfortunately didn’t have a great day throwing the ball but hey when you’re not throwing tds you may as well throw picks. But even in the losing effort highlights of the day may have been Lego scoring a rushing td and Hingle Mpringleberrying the td pumps to perfection.
The early games ended, the traditional jewball pic was taken (thank you Sheriff) and kut arrived with trays of steaming wings and turkey legs. Game 2 eventually started and other than taking some turkey leg eating breaks was pretty uneventful. It was pray (orange) v. gronk (brown) and seemed like mighty for brown and sheriff for orange were just running wild all over the field. There were trick plays, there were laterals to the wrong team, but all in the spirit of good turkey bowl fun. Brown scored 5 i believe and remember socks just running the entire field towards the end of the game to tie it up. But i believe the final score was 6-5 orange after a flip to schiffer for the game winner. Regardless, after the donuts and turkey….. we were all winners. Truly was a remarkable showing and can imagine we made jewball proud. Really showed how the melting pot of jewball works with all people of every background coming together towards one goal.
There’s no world that exists where Prime and I would become best friends let alone even know each other. There’s no world that exists that people who maybe a few months or years ago were absolute strangers would be eating off the same turkey legs as each other…. true story. but that world does exist. It exists right here in our island of jewball. For better or worse there are people who live next door to you or co-workers or other friends who we will never have that same connection with. There’s no rhyme or reason to it but just gratitude and thanks to one above for leading us all here and continuing on this crazy jewball adventure.
Of course there was a part of jewball missing without Jordan there and Amy’s pecan bars but as we hopefully follow along on jordans newest football journey in the holy land, a part of jewball is now there to create more and more jewball connections. I heard that there was a jewball turkey bowl in cleveland last week. Imagine, as crazy as it sounds, that wherever you go there is a jewball connection and something bringing you back to this island. Imagine one of the new rooks who played on thanksgiving, even if we never see him again, may one day bump into someone and they’ll realize the connection they have back to this place. with a little WWJD (what would J do.. for spira) it really is possible. We’re almost at the midpoint of the season. Let’s make this second half just as awesome as the first.
11/30/25
Week 9 – Recap
Week 9 was the return of leagues. We had SP v. BLOP two teams in desperate need of a win. BLOP took the ball first and went three and out. SP took over and went to work, methodically moving the ball down the field, resulting in a td to vegh….without his two feet in and four plays later resulting in a td to vegh with his feet in. Extra point to stats made it 7-0 early. Blop then had arguably one of their best drives of the day and got the ball to the 1 yard line. After a defensive PI, Dachs dropped back and threw a patented curl at the pylon to…..not mordy…..instead it was Zinn and whether the connection on the curl isnt there or the ball floated away, pray jumped it and returned it to the other 15 yard line setting up a td to storm to make it 13-0 SP. Similar to their last league game though, you cannot count the combo of Zinn, Dachs, and Prime out. Eventually they punched the ball into the endzone with a pretty toe tap by dobs to make it 13-6. SP answered back right away and after a portal catch and run and a solo catch and run, pray ran it in to make it 19-6. It was 928 and the game all but over but dachs hit landy on a quick crosser and landy took it the distance to make it 19-12. SP took the ball back with a chance to ice it but decided that after their defense had put up 5 sacks by solo and 2 ints, they would play it safe. Three run plays and they gave the ball back to BLOP for their final drive. The first play of the drive solo did what he had been doing all day and racked up his 6th sack of the day. two plays later a 3rd int by pray ended the game. 19-12 final. Jewball to Solo for the absolutely monster day. A Myles Garret like performance, absolute dominance.
On the other side it was GM v. Stogies. Stogies looking to continue their undefeated start and GM looking to shake off a tough loss to Gorilaz. Unfortunately for stogies this just wasnt their day. a final score of 31-6. Some say it was because DK wasnt there and oppen wasnt supposed to be there but there is a cute irony in the fact that Oppen aka Mr. RT took down stogies to ensure that BOP continues to remain the only undefeated team in jewball history. A team that both Captain Daveo and Stella were a part of. I truly saw no part of this game other than hearing it was violent. I believe ice scored twice and avenger ran a few in. Also saw the tail end of gronk catching a few balls over steveos head deep down the field. I also believe that Ice got his second look at qb for a little while in this one. The details are a bit fuzzy but Avenger disappeared and Ice ran one in. Eventually ice will realize that qbs are supposed to throw the ball. Jewball to avenger for the three tds thrown, 1 rushing td and 1 int on defense and most of all for not pulling a peeve on the field.
In the late game it was dark of yaron, bz, kagan, prime, stats, gronk and new guy mandelabum vs. colors of pray ice, storm, tom, dobs, rook, and new guy ezra. This game was a close one to start out with yaron hitting stats on a deep ball td and pray answering right back with a td to ezra. Yaron jumped out to a 3-1 lead with tds to bz and gronk. Pray answered with a td to ice but then stats went down and popped his shoulder back into place. The guy who is known for his flag grabbing, grabbed the flag so hard that his shoulder stayed with the flag RS Stats! and the game would go to 6s. Whether it was the stench of the league game that took over for yaron and gronk or the high that pray ice storm and tom were feeling the game got out of hand quickly. Pray hit rook for a td and ezra for another and ice ran one to make it 5-3. dark scored twice more in “garbage time” and colors capped it off with a trick play passing td by ezra or chad chinnenburg as some were calling him to rook for a 6-5 final. The final score in this one does not tell the full story. Feels weird to give a jewball to someone who isnt in jewball just yet but 2 receiving tds and a passing td would deserve it. instead its going to rook for the two tds scored and just bringing tremendous pressure all day as a third rusher and batting down balls right and left.
Week 10 is here and we are just about halfway through the jewball season. Who wants it IJWT.
12/7/25
WEEK 10 – Recap
Week 10 had one of the biggest games of the season on tap. Semi Pro v Gorillaz. Both teams coming off huge wins to even out their records at 1-1 and now being given the chance to jump into a three way tie for the 1 seed with GM and Stogies at 2-1. The storylines were set with Pray going up against his former team and the new rookie phenom in Lego trying to prove to his defending champ captain Rook that he can QB the Gorillaz to the promised land as well. The game started off how Lego ended the last one against GM, by running the ball. A LOT. three big runs by Lego plus one mighty scamper on a screen…ending with a quick slant to mighty for an early 6-0 lead. But Semi-Pro have some real battle tested vets on their squad. Led by guys like solo and storm, SP marched down the field using quick pass after quick pass and pray hitting solo on an out route in front of lego to tie the game at 6. Gorillaz offense took the ball back and did not change the recipe… runs, runs, and more runs and on 3rd and goal from the 15, lego fakes a handoff to mighty and bootlegs it himself to take a 12-6 lead. a strike to Captain TP for the extra point made it 13-6. SP again took the ball back and knew that they would have to up the energy if they wanted to hang around with Gorilaz. Enter DJCP. Portal, a sorta super rookie because he played some games last year, is nothing if not an energizer bunny. Whether it’s because he can’t stop talking or because he’s all over the field. Portal took catch after catch on this drive and ended up with a 12 yard strike to the back of the endzone for a td. After a vegh toe tap extra point it was again tied 13-13. Whether SP’s defense couldn’t hold up or Gorillaz are just a tough offense to stop, it only took one play for Gorillaz to make it 20-13 – a mighty screen goes for 70 to the house. Game was anything but over and SP marched right back down the field and into the redzone for a chance to tie it up once more. Pray dropped back, gave a quick shoulder pump to Werz who was filling in for stats, lego bites, Werz flew by him and all that’s needed is to secure the catch to tie the game up. Except sometimes things don’t work out as expected, the ball goes through his hands and it’s a turnover inside the RZ for SP. Lego made quick work to take a two touchdown lead and it was a 35 yard strike to rook up the sideline for a 26-13 lead. It was 9:15 and the game appeared to be over. At least that’s how the conversation seemed to have gone between pray and zada. but SP was determined to FIGHT back (get it bc of the fights :))). On 4th and 13 Pray heaves up a prayer down the field to storm who secures the catch and brings it inside the 15 yard line. Two plays later Mr. Meta goggles himself brings in his 6th catch and 2nd TD of the game to make it 26-19. SP is right back in it. Gorilaz take the ball back with a chance to ice it. If they score its over, if they dont SP has one final chance to try and go win the game. On 4th and 2 from their own 23, Gorilaz decide to go for it. Lego drops back and takes off to the right…he has a clear lane to pick up the first and continue their drive but perhaps it was some crazy jewball foreshadowing of the discussions that would take place during the week, it was ROY on ROY and portal dives to grab his flag just before the first down marker. New life to SP. 4 plays to punch it in and walk off the win. 1st down pray takes a shot into the endzone to vegh but its broken up by rook. 2nd down pray hits storm on a quick curl, storm breaks a tackle and takes the ball just inside the 10 yard line. SP has their chance. 3rd down pray takes the snap and starts rolling to the right. The plan is to hit vegh on an out, let portal unseat lego as the ROY on a block, and SP goes home with the W. Except Rabbi BZ had other plans. He somehow blows by the SP line and has pray in his crosshairs. Pray tries reversing the field but BZ was already calculating the exact amount of force in which to throw the pas hab’ah b’kisnin donut man to the ground (that’s for Rabbi BZ). BZ pile drives pray down for a 10 yard sack. It’s now 4th and goal from the 20 and win percentage for SP just went about as low as goldbergs hand gets on a flag guard call. On 4th down, pray drops back and gets flushed all the way to the left, throws it cross field to storm who breaks a tackle and has a lane, there’s daylight to the endzone and SP may just have a chance…. unfortunately the sea closed up pretty quickly and gorilaz grab storm at the 2 ending the game and securing their victory. An absolutely incredible game that will be remembered just for that and nothing else. 26-19 Gorilaz is the final. So many worthy jewball candidates for this win but it’s going to our reigning mvp and my bath buddy Mr. Mighty Rat. Showing just how elusive and quick he still is with the YAC and two tds in this one. #statsfortherat.
In Game 1b it was dark of yaron, zinn, bert, landy, steveo, and stella v colors of avenger, berk, oppen, prime, big E, and Eggo. Before we get into the game we have to talk about time…..this game started close to 8:30. Simply put, that is unacceptable. Nobody wants to be standing around in the cold waiting for the last few people to trickle in so the game can start and that’s especially true when it’s a 6 on 6. When we say the early game is at 8 that means cleats on at 7:55 throwing the ball around. Not getting into your car or finishing your coffee or taking a dump. It’s one thing to give a buffer of a few minutes but 830 is egregious and simply wrong. If you can’t show up at 755 then don’t play the early game. Now onto the game….From what I was told this was a back and forth battle as well but yaron had the win in hand until chumash plays called and zinn threw a pick six to Eggo to secure the Win for colors. I did see a really cool trick play that zinn threw back to yaron and berk picked off to return to the house as well as avenger on a 4th and forever just evading the entire defense to pick up a first with his patented stop and starts. Jewball to berk in this one for the 2 receiving tds, 1 rushing td, and pick six. doing it all for colors to pick up the W. Put Berk in the ROY convo!
In game 2 there was a lot of passing but not a lot of throwing…..maybe we will save this for Pray’s puzzles on TBI coming soon…..
Who wants week 11. IJWT
12/14/25
WEEK 11 – Recap
Week 11 was supposed to be one league game and one regular jewball game but as the weather changed overnight and the snow started coming down the first jewball tackle game of the season and the first one in two years was looking like a real possibility. Fields would still need to be checked and sign ups need to be taken for the tackle game to become a reality but at 6:57 am on a blizzardy Sunday morning the scene was set. Tackle football was on. it was white of yaron, kagan, kuti, tom, landy, berk, e, zinn, and steveo vs. Blue of pray, prime, mighty, tbd, sam, bz, bert, and werz. The boys rolled up to the pristine white field and were ready to roll. White took the ball first and after a few short plays went for it inside their own territory but a mighty tackle stopped the first down and it was blue’s ball with a short field. Now when playing tackle football it’s sometimes nice to be playing with a guy who actually padded up and played in his past and with prime standing 7 yards behind the center, it seemed all but certain that a hand off to prime was a likely conclusion. However, Blue caught the defense off guard and play action to prime, who sold the fake, and mighty running a streak up the left sideline ended in a one play quick score to make it 1-0. White got the ball back and started moving methodically. yaron utilizing the speed of berk and zinn to create small gains. unfortunately berk went down after a tackle and would miss the rest of the game. Heal Up berk! that didn’t stop white though and after a hand off to E for a big gain, it was landy on a breakaway score to tie it at 1. Blue answered back immediately with a pray option toss to mighty who took it 65 yards for a 2-1 lead. yaron then hit steveo on a short pass and steveo breaks away from the defense for his own 65 yard score. 2-2. Blue again deciding that one play drives were working, flipped a toss to prime who broke 7 tackles and scores from 70 to make it 3-2. But white would respond each and every time. The next few drives were landy, landy and more landy. Yaron kept feeding him the ball and Landy kept breaking tackles for huge gains. Eventually he found the end zone again and it was 3-3. That was when the passing game for blue started clicking. pray hit bert on a beautiful corner route and bert was off the races, except the hunter became the prey and bert gets stalked down from behind by zinn on a forced fumble. Luckily Bert jumped on it to keep the ball. Next play it’s a mighty out route that he takes in for his second receiving td of the day and third td overall. 4-3 blue. Yaron and white went back to the same recipe and moved the ball down the field with Landy to bring it inside the redzone. After a short catch by E and a punch to prays nose, it was looking like White would once again tie this game up. However, next play yaron throws a prayer up into the endzone and mighty takes the ball away and seems to have a clear lane for a pick six but once again zinn tracks the ball carrier down and makes a td saving tackle. After a BZ incredible catch over yaron, bz caught a quick curl to make it 5-3. yaron answered right back to keep the game in check and it was landy again breaking tackles to make it 5-4. Blue decided to go back to jewball resident RB in prime and kept giving him the ball to grind out the tough yards. After a pray pass to TBD to bring them down to the 10 yard line it was looking as if blue would go up by two scores and effectively end this game. After some confusion in the huddle, blue came to the line with no play in mind. A same play of sorts. except Kagan got a great rush and had pray wrapped up. pray flipped the ball to Sam who tried fighting for extra yards and the ball got poked away. A fumble. Kagan scoops it up and is off to the races on a 75 yard fumble recovery td to tie the game up at 5-5. 15 minutes to go and just like that all the momentum swinging in white’s favor. blue gave the ball to prime for a few runs and it was now 3rd and long. pray heaved one down the sideline. it was landy and werz 1 on 1. Landy had the positioning but instead of catching it decided to knock the ball down. the safe play if you will. except with snow pup not out there, today was the day of the snow rat or the snowdent. mighty takes the tipped ball in for the score and snow angels ensue. 6-5 blue. Yaron dialed up a pretty nice drive and this time it was zinn for the score. 6-6. Blue had their chance at last licks. After a few runs by prime and catches by bz and werz, pray rolled out to the left and threw it deep saying “f it either prime or mighty are down there somewhere”. and on this day…the day the snowdent was born… it was the case. Mighty hauls it in for his 4th rec td and 5th td of the day. 7-6 final for blue. doesn’t even have to be mentioned but mighty with back to back jewballs just makes sense for our reigning mvp. Shoutout to the rooks who showed up to play tackle- landy, werz, berk. Landy no doubt would have had a jewball if white took the win.
We got chanukah party Tuesday, followed by week 12 maccabowl, followed by jesus bowl, week 13, and 2026 bowl. So much football over the next two weeks. In Both All. who wants week 12. IJWT.
12/21/25
Week 12 – Recap
Week 12 Maccabowl brought us back to regular jewball following an incredible snow game from the prior week. We had white of Yaron, Bert, Kagan, mighty, O, prime, Stella, and zada vs Blue of Pray, BZ, goldberg, kut, steveo, tom, and zinn. The scoring got going early with Blue orchestrating a long drive with catches by Goldberg and steveo to put them inside the five. A quick curl to zinn made it 1-0. Unfortunately for White, they could not answer. Whether it was the pressure of BZ and Kut or just the extra donuts weighing yaron down it was long drives to the red zone that kept ending in turnovers on downs. Fortunately for Blue they moved the ball methodically with short passes to goldberg, kut, steveo, and tom and ended each of the first three drives with tds to zinn to take a 3-0 lead. Finally, yaron started clicking with his wrs and screen passes to mighty and prime led white down the field and culminated in a bert td to make it 3-1. Blue would answer right back with another long drive and it was pray to tom for a 4-1 commanding lead. But just like the story of chanukah, white would not be defeated so easily. Mighty started making people miss and miss some more and ended in a long td to make it 4-2. all of a sudden the game was in reach. after a great drive by blue to the redzone was intercepted by zada on 4th down, the opening was there. on 4th and forever yaron heaved a 55 yard pass up the sideline for stella, who secures the grab and walks in to make it a 4-3 lead. Blue would stall in the redzone once again and just like that the scene was set for a miraculous comeback. on 4th and 32 and white on their last chance to tie up the game, yaron dropped back, rolled to the right and heaved a chanukah miracle up the field. Zinn and goldberg and steveo all right there for blue to knock it down and walk away with the victory…..except like an oily latke the ball slipped by everyone and somehow landed in the lap of mighty for a first down. The game would continue for at least a few more plays. three plays later though it was 4th and 15 and an int by tom would end it. Blue takes the W 4-3. Shoutout to bz for 4 sacks in this one and 2 on the last drive that were so clutch. Jewball to zinn for the 3 tds.
In the late game it was the return of a QB who we had not seen or heard from in a while. The Self proclaimed greatest QB in jewball ever- Key. It was Blue of Key, rabin, pray, O, prime, rook, and Jesus (the cincinnati one) vs. White of yaron, justin, kut, mandelbread, tom, zada, and zinn. and what a back and forth game this one was. Blue scored first with a screen pass from key to prime for an early 1-0 lead. White answered back with a td to zada to tie it up. key right back to it was methodical, moving the ball down the field and then hitting rook in the back of the endzone for a 2-1 lead. Yaron answered immediately with an impressive drive of his own ending in a kuti td to make it 2-2. Eventually white got a defensive stop and took the lead the following drive with a long ball from yaron to zinn (unclear whether it was a receiving td or int and then fumble but a debate for a different day). Zinn ripped the ball away from pray and it was 3-2 white. However, the next drive after a flip from key to pray, pray rumbled in from 50 yards out after getting huge blocks from rook and O to make it 3-3. Yaron kept answering though and after a long drive flipped it to kuti in the back of the endzone for his second td of the day to make it 4-3. But this was a day that key was determined to prove he is the best and on 3rd and long threw a bomb over the middle to rook, who extended, dove, made the grab and got back up to score on a 65 yard td to tie the game up. it was 11:12 and it would be one more drive for each team. Yaron worked his way down the field hitting zada and mandelbread for a big gain and on 3rd and goal from the 2 tosses a quick out to zinn to take a 5-4 lead. Blue was now playing for the tie. A chance to at least not get that dreaded L on the stat sheet. Unfortunately, White’s defense had enough and 3 incompletions later it was 4th and forever to try and keep the game alive. A flip back from key to pray and pray scrambling and launching a deep ball to rook……just out of his reach. There would be no late game hail mary heroics like in the early slot. A valiant effort by rook to almost make another insane diving catch but the throw was just too far away. 5-4 white victory. a huge shoutout to key for balling out. 3 tds no int and a bunch of Key runs to keep drives alive. A great game from the younger bro and hopefully we see more of him on the field soon. Another shoutout to big O with a bunch of sacks and an int on yaron and like 3 batted balls. Unfortunately both were in a losing effort. Jewball to captain knish for the 2 tds and just racking up catch after catch in this one.
Which now brings us to the In Both player of the week. We haven’t had one of these in a while (mainly bc i forgot) but this week there was one guy who picked up two W’s and just utterly dominated the entire game. Someone who is not new to the in both club but certainly most deserving. Zinn you are this week’s in both player of the week. A total of 5 tds in both games on like 8 catches and threw a sack on the top of that as well. Good stuff Scoot!
12/28/25
Week 13 – Recap
Coming off the heels of an amazing Jesus Bowl in which green took the W from red by 1/2 a td…. we were on to week 13. The weather was up in the air but it smelled like snow. It tasted like a tackle game and by 7 am on sunday morning, we knew tackle it would be. On dark, it was pray, rabin, prime, zinn, logan, daveo, tom and oppen and on colors it was yaron, bert, landy, mighty, avenger, legs, steveo, and bz. Unlike the last snow game this was not a back and forth masterpiece but it was an incredible tackle game nonetheless. Colors started with a 3 and out and Dark took the ball and did the easy thing GIVE THE BALL TO PRIME. prime just ate up yards and brought dark into the redzone. a slant from 20 out to prime and a few broken tackles laters 1-0 dark. Colors put together a nice drive with handoffs to avenger and landy but on 3rd and short yaron throws an easy dump off to bz leaking from tight end….except the big nose tackle in rabin jumps up tips the ball to himself and falls down immediately, cradling the ball in his surgical hands. a dline int and dark with a chance to take control of the game. one play later it’s a 55 yard bomb from pray to zinn to make it 2-0. Another good drive by colors put them within striking distance and after a screen pass to legs with no one in front of him it looked like he would score. However, snow is wet and slippery and legs slips, gets back up and zinn out of nowhere scoots in and strips the ball… now normally this would be meaningless, but in tackle snow games…..fumbles are live. tom scoops up the recovery and gives dark the ball back yet again. 3 plays later its daveo in the back of the endzone with a sliding grab to make it 3-0 and the game is getting out of hand. after a 3 and out by colors, dark struck again with an oppen out route and carries steveo like a backpack to make it 4-0. colors still unable to get anything going on and its darks ball again with a chance to put the nail in the coffin. after a good defensive stop by colors it was 4th and 1 for dark from their own 24. In other words…when playing tackle…it was tush push time and indeed dark did in fact push the tush. With the whole team behind oppens backside he picked up an easy 15 yards for the first down. 3 plays later it was pray evading a sack and hitting logan who took it in from 25 out to make it 5-0. finally colors scored on their next drive on a beautiful strike from avenger to bz to make it 5-1. colors would score again on a slant to mighty who broke every tackle for a 70 yard score to make it 5-2. It was just too little too late. Rabin took over for dark and orchestrated a beautiful 8 play methodical drive capped off by a td to zinn on a wacky back and forth lateral play to make it a 6-2 final. A lot of worthy candidates in this one for jewball but it’s going to none other than the dad of jewball – Bin. Not only did Rabin have an int that we spoke about before….he had 4-5 huge catches throughout the course of the game taking on hits and knees to his back to keep drives alive. Capped off by the game ending drive td to zinn. Congrats Rabin! show these rookies what jewball snow games are all about.
Who wants New Years and Week 14. IJWT.
1/4/26
Week 14 Yarocap:
And just like that we enter week 14 of this bipolar manic season that has felt like 5 different seasons fused into 1, with 4 different ROYs , an endless winter, injuries out the ass and a commish who hasn’t really lost a game since he went on his donut only diet 3 months ago. Sunday started off bizarrely where team Dark led by Bron, mighty, Goldberg, Kagan, tbd, Zada and pray took on Colors with Avenger, Landy, BZ, Bert, Stella, Tom and Zinn. Except not so fast. Pray contracted the superflu and Zinn was in beauty rest mode, so in came rook to Dark and Prime to Colors. Rumor has it Pray and Zinn snuck off to the golf sim for a 16 hour session instead. The game was played at WMS on a brisk chilly morning, but the wind was a non factor and guys showed up on time for a change. Shout out to prime who drove in from Baltimore, got to the field early and it only took him 10 minutes to put on his cleats and smoke 2 blunts. Avenger starts with the ball and marched to mid field, where on a 4th and long threw a post behind maybe Tom? Who deflected it perfectly into the hands of Landy who trotted his way untouched for the first score of the game. Dark now with the ball, and the entire first half was a recurrent theme. Dark would move the ball but at some point would get wrecked by BZ who has been on an absolute tear, making sacks and just wreaking havoc up front, and their drive would stall out. Again and again despite their firepower. Colors next possession was a methodical one , as they marched to the redzone deep in dark territory. After a big sack by Kagan it was 4th and goal from the 25, where avenger would take off running after buying time. He gets down to the 10 yard line and is surrounded by Dark players, and instead throws a cross body cross field lateral to- LANDY again who plows his way in for another TD. Dark can’t catch a break, and after a turnover on downs avenger finds Prime on a beautiful post corner route where he burned someone on the defense I can’t remember who and it doesn’t really matter. 3-0 Colors pouring it on. Next possession a Bron pass is tipped by tom right into the hands of Stella who returns it for a pick6- almost. Stopped at the one but that didn’t matter because on the next play Avenger hits Bert on a quick slant and it’s 4-0. This game is now totally out of reach – or is it ? It’s 905 and team Dark holds a quick meeting, slaps each other, Zada starts not shutting up and invigorates some life into Dark. Finally some plays start clicking with up front adjustments and on a first and goal from the 15 Bron finds mighty who leaks from TE up the middle and finds the endzone. 4-1. Is there time? Dark thinks so. And the defense gets adjusted. Mighty to the line , and man does he bring it. After 2 incompletions and a big sack by mighty, Dark forces a quick 3 and out and gets the ball. Two plays later Bron finds rook on a slant and he quickly breaks a tackle and is GONE. TD to the Rook and it’s now 4-2. Same recipe and Dark forces another 3 and out and it’s 920. On first down after a designed screen, mighty takes it in his own hands and breaks 14 tackles and is off to the races ! Unbelievably it’s 4-3 , and Dark have last licks. If colors scores the game is over, and after picking up one first down, that was all they could manage and force Dark to take the ball and drive the full field for their final possession. On first down Bron checks for the quick out by Rook, but traps the defense playing short and goes over the top to Kagan who’s off to the races ! He could .. go .. all.. the.. way….. to the 9 yard line! As he gets tracked down by Avenger now playing deep safety. First and goal for Dark with all the momentum , and off a scramble avoiding performance enhanced BZ Bron finds Goldberg for the TD! Except it slips through his hands and it’s second down..then third.. then forth where Bron throws a gorgeous ball on a skinny post to Goldberg again for the TD- nope. Pass interference by Tom who single handedly saved a sure TD with that veteran move. And on 5th and goal for the game after being harassed once again by BZ Bron throws a jump ball to mighty and Landy was able to break it up and seal the W for Colors. Great game and great football Sunday. Notable stats were Mighty with 2tds and 2 sacks, Landy with a catching and rushing td, Avengers magic all day and saving the Kagan TD at the end, but the Jewball has to go to BZ picking up another 4 sacks and just being a damn menace all game, further adding to his case of top DPOTY contender. Great stuff BZ! Week 15 signup is out, Weague Leak this week for the earlies. Get out there for the final stretch of the season ! ¡Viva la Mexico!
1/11/26
Week 15 – Recap
Week 15 started with a return of Leagues. It had been a while since we last had a league game and after some bowl games and snow games it was back to regularly scheduled programming. We had a double dose of Leagues with BLOP taking on Gorillaz and Semi Pro taking on Stogies.
First up Stogies v Semi Pro
Both teams came into this game hungry and desperate for a win. Semi Pro had just lost a back and forth contest to Gorillaz by a td and Stogies got themselves pooped on by Avenger and GM. Stogies was shorthanded and without their star mexican QB in yaron, their stalking o lineman in bert, and their singing d lineman in daxy. This meant Gronk to QB and Werz and Whiskey would have to fill in. Semi Pro took the ball first and went a quick three and out. Stogies couldn’t answer and gave Semi Pro back the ball. Unfortunately for stogies, that was the only 3 and out for semi pro and the scoring started early and often. SP drove down the field methodically with quick passes to Glasses boy and Storm culminating in a 30 yard strike to stats for the first score of the game. A beauty extra point toe tap by Portal made it 7-0. Stogies would drive down the field again but a portal int in the red zone gave SP the ball back and once again they went to work. This time with quick strikes to vegh and stats ending in a storm td. 13-0 SP. Stogies again would drive down the field and put themselves in a position to score. Stogies again could not punch it in after a few bad drops in the red zone, it was SP with the ball once again looking to blow the game open. On 4th and 12 portal found the soft spot in the zone and waltzed into the endzone uncovered to make it 19-0. Finally, gronk started doing gronk things and the same play train started humming. Handoffs to werz and ross got the stogies into the red zone and a dump off to dk gave them their first points to keep the game within reach 19-6. It was now on the defense to make a stop. On 3rd and long Blitz jumped a route to storm but just could not hang on and gave SP a second chance. three plays later it was stats once again this time from 15 out to make it 25-6. A solo extra point made it 26-6. But Gronk went back to his game and started running and handing off and upping the tempo to try and keep his team in this one. However, the drops kept piling up and another redzone trip was wasted. five plays later it was storm finding the endzone for his second TD of the game and solo taking another extra point to make it 33-6. after a turnover on downs for stogies, SP would punch it in once more to stats and add on yet another extra point to solo to make it 40-6. Stogies would finally score on their last drive on a gronk 12 yard rushing TD for a final score of 40-12. an incredible game all around for SP and plenty of jewball candidates but its gotta be stats returning to jewball after a month off due to injury and scoring not 1, not 2, but 3 tds and playing stellar defense as always. Good to have you back stats.
On the other side of the Field it was BLOP v. Gorillaz. Gorillaz trying to keep their season going and move to 3-1 and in sole possession of first place and BLOP trying to pick a desperately needed first win of the season. Blop was missing someone though and it was a big someone, not just because of all the weight he’s gained but because of the talent he brings to the field. Zinn was off in NFL playoff mode and Blocks stepped in to see if he could settle down his Roy brother in lego. Gorillaz took the ball first and lego did lego things and ran one in and it was 6-0 in a flash. Blop was hungry and perhaps maybe too hungry and a forced throw to dobs leads to zada int and a pick six 13-0 gorillaz. Now BLOP really needed to get moving, unfortunately though this time it was mighty snatching the ball away from blocks and taking it for a 20-0 gorillaz lead. now blop was angry and led by their captain they started running angry. prime looked like a one man wrecking crew and forced the ball down the field ending in a dachs to legs td 20-7. after a gorillaz three and out, it was dachs going back to the well and just force feeding the ball to prime who was running like a man possessed. four plays later another td for prime and just like that it was 20-14 and we had ourselves a game. However, whether it was Lego feeling snubbed for Roy or just mighty putting on his cape, a long ball from lego to mighty made it 26-14. Dachs and prime would not be stopped and three plays later dachs found prime again. 26-21. Blop would get a turnover on downs the next possession and had four plays from the 20 to try and take the lead. An almost exact scenario that Gorillaz were in the last game against SP. hold on and don’t let the other team score. Gorillaz went to work and BZ sacked dachs (again eerily similar to the game against SP) to stop Blop in their tracks. a turnover on downs and no score. Gorillaz now took the ball back with a chance to ice it. A score would end the game. a stop would give Blop one more chance. Lego worked his way methodically down the field and ended with a shut up zada td to ice the game. 32-21 was the final. Mighty had quite the stat line with a receiving TD, 2 sacks and a pick six…. but that’s how you know he’s not getting the jewball. Instead it’s Zada who shockingly was quietly grabbing flag after flag across the middle and racking up catch after catch , oh and he had himself a TD and pick six as well. good stuff but shut up zada.
In game 2 it was Colors of Lego, legs, solo, steveo, rook, tom and werz vs. Dark of Pray, kagan, storm, prime, madelbread, oppen and kut. Dark got the scoring started first with a pray to oppen td who barreled his way through the defense for a 1-0 lead. two plays later a pray int of lego put dark back into scoring position but this time it was a handoff to mandelbread who threw it deep to kagan for a 60 yard bomb to make it a 2-0 lead. Lego would finally started clicking with his wrs. and would hit solo for a td to make it 2-1. Darks offense would then just stall. Whether it was the pressure from legs who had himself five sacks on the day or just the offense not clicking, dark could not get anything going. Colors took the ball back and lego started using his legs (pun intended) and capped off a long drive with another solo td, his second of the day to make it 2-2. Dark again would go nowhere and this time it was lego taking it himself on a rushing td from 25 out to make it 3-2 colors. finally, after a kagan int of lego, dark was able to manage some offense and a dump off to storm who scrambled in from 20 out tied the game at 3-3. Lego though wouldn’t be denied and marched down the field and hit werz on 4th and goal from the 3 on a pretty curl that would make the great dachs and dax jealous to take a 4-3 lead. After a lego int of pray, lego went back to the drawing board and hit solo yet again to take a 5-3 lead. A legs sack because no one blocked him ended any chance of a dark comeback and it was a 5-3 final. Jewball to solo for the monster game at wr with 3 tds. Between the two games combined, Solo had about 8 catches and six of them went for scores (extra points and tds). Shout out to Kagan who was absolutely everywhere on sunday. Between coming down to sub in the league game and then tracking down every single flag in game 2 was just incredible to see. Unfortunately, dark lost so no jewball for the bartender.
One last thing to touch on from Sunday is that we have another In both player of the week. Someone who not just won two games on sunday but absolutely dominated. And…..he kinda won three football games in the span of twelve hours. Lego Bomb you are this weeks in both player of the week. between the two games having 6 passing tds and 2 rushing tds and leading both games to victory, there is no one more deserving. We need to see you signing up for more boths to add you to the in both club but for this week you absolutely earned it. Keep building on that Roy resume.
Who wants week 16. In Both. IJWT. Happy bday J!
1/18/26
Week 16 RECAP
Week 16 started off with snow. Not the type that would be enough for a tackle game, but enough that the elements were in play and the snow would be coming down during the game. After a quick switch of the fields to WMS the games were ready to go.
On the first side of the field we had the 0-3 BLOP v the 2-1 GM. GM came into this game beat up and down Ice and Berk to injuries and out there to prove that they could still win shorthanded. BLOP on the other hand was almost back at full strength. While Spira was not back another old muppet was. It was the return of Ernie after not having played a game since October. Now the question was could Ernie be the missing link for BLOP and would they finally get that evasive fabulous win. The game started and almost immediately the answer seemed like no. From the other side of the field, we watched Ezra (chin?) take a ball to the house on the first possession and then follow it up with a pick six and extra point and just like that it was 14-0 GM. Finally, BLOP orchestrated a drive with quick dump offs to zinn and legs to make it 14-6. But the avenger to Ezra connection was strong in this one and after a few dump offs to daveo and kagan it was Ezra yet again for his second receiving td of the day to make it 20-6 GM. But then something turned. Avenger dropped back for the extra point and tried throwing a ball over zinn. Zinn snatched the ball out of the sky one handed and was running, a lateral back to dobs who just barely gets the next lateral off to prime as kagan came running over to grab the flag, and prime was off to the races for one of the most electric one point plays Leagues has seen. 20-7 now and BLOP gets the ball on offense. However, Ezra was a machine in this game and he picks off dachs yet again and three plays later, avenger finds him for his third receiving td. 26-7 and time running out. It was at this point that Logan just wanted to play the D and became the official d for both teams. Whether that was a turning point or just woke BLOP up things started happening. But similar to almost all the games BLOP has played thus far…. you cannot count them out. They are a second half team and they came out storming. A great drive with long balls to dobs and prime, ends in an Ernie 17 yard td. 26-14 and 15 minutes to go. three plays later Ernie picks off an avenger deep ball which leads to a dachs rushing TD and it’s 26-20 with 5 minutes left. Each team would get one more possession with the ball. Now in BLOPs last three games, they were in this exact same position, however each time the leading team was able to go on a drive to ice the game and put it out of reach. This game was looking the same……until an avenger pass was just a bit too high for press (who was filling in for ice) and landed in the waiting arms of Zinn. Zinn returns it to the 20 and Blop has four chances to tie the game up. three plays later its zinn once again to tie the game up 26-26. An extra point would give blop their first win of the season and put them right back in the hunt. Dachs dropped back and threw a dart on a curl route to….. Ernie!!! Whether Dax and Ernie practiced that route in their private meetings or dachs confused Ernie for dax in 2026, the Blunts of Prime picked up their first W. 27-26 over Green Machine. Now had this game gone the other way Ezra would be walking away with a no doubter of a jewball 3 rec tds, 2 ints and a pick six. But there is no one more deserving than Ernie. Welcome Back to the field Zeyonce.. and a jewball for you.
In game 1b it was colors of lego, bin, bz, kut, portal, and mandelbread vs.pray, blitz, goldberg, logic, rook and stats. Yes this game was 6s. After a few last minute cancellations we got 13 to the field for this one. Then a last second trade of Logan to the league game made this a 6 on 6. Nonetheless, with the snow falling down the game was played and what a game it was. Yes, it was a bit sloppy with the wet conditions but a back and forth contest till the end. Colors took the ball first and lego was off to the races and would not be caught. 1-0 colors. three plays later pray throws a pick to lego and lego hits kut in the back of the endzone for a 2-0 lead. Finally Dark got on the board after a pray dump off to rook who made everyone miss to take it 65 yards to the house 2-1. After a three and out by colors, dark took the ball back and methodically moved down the field and it was a pray toss to goldberg who took it in from 15 to make it 2-2 but wait….. goldberg called a flag guard on… himself?? After the review it was darks ball at the 2 yard line with no score so still 2-1. The next play dark tried a tush push throw that didn’t work so it was a flip to stats for a td but wait again…. seems like he didnt have three balls in. so it’s now 4th down from the .5 inch line to try and even the score at 2. After all that it was pray escaping from a bz sack (or flag guard) to find stats in the back of the endzone to finally tie it at 2. buy lego wouldn’t be stopped and he unleashed an absolute missile to portal from 60 out to make it 3-2 colors. a few plays later it was pray with a deep ball to logic trying to recreate the lego to portal magic, but rabin tipped it and it bounces around and gets picked by mandelbread. First play of the drive for colors its a toss back to portal who then laterals it back to mandelbread for a throw to lego who high points the ball, tips it to himself over logic and runs it in to make it 4-2. Dark now found themselves in trouble once again down by 2 scores. A quick cleat change by pray and maybe just maybe that would be the spark that dark needed. four plays later the cleats worked and it was pray up the sideline for a rushing TD to make it 4-3. That’s when lego made his first and only mistake of the day. A tight window throw to bz gets jumped by logic and its a pick six to tie the game up. Dark is back in business and it’s anyone’s game. Lego would answer back with a 40 yard strike to portal who put pray on skates (literally there was no footing). 5-4 colors and a stop would effectively end the game. But Dark did their best nfl playoff impression and a hook and ladder from Goldberg to rook ended in a 50 yard scamper down the sideline by rook to tie the game up. Dark got the ball back and had a chance to take the lead but after a good drive stalled on the 3 yard line to give the ball back to colors. All dark needed was a stop to at least secure the tie. but on the very first play, lego faked a handoff to portal and started running. There was only one man there. maybe the best flag grabber in jewball to stop it. but on this day lego would keep running. slipping and sliding stats could not come up with the flag on this wet day and lego was off to the races. 75 yards to the house and its 6-5 colors. Dark would now be playing for the tie on last licks. and dark marched down the field. after three huge catches by logic and a few pray runs. It was third and goal from the 8 to try and tie it. but with the slippery conditions and the enormous pressure from kut, bz, and mandelbread, an attempt at a bullet in the back of the endzone to logic, ended in a wobbly throw to the outstretched arms of portal for the game ending int. While all three rookies of portal, lego and mandelbread are deserving of a jewball in this one… lego was out there to prove his roy status with 3 passing tds, a rec td, and a pick on d. Have to check the rules about co-jewball winners but we all saw the portal’s stat line on the glasses cam and it was truly epic. 9 catches, 2 tds and an int should probably get him a jewball as well.
Who wants week 17. IJWT. VR is 2 weeks away!
1/25/26
Week 17 – RECAP – Snow Game #3
Snow….there’s nothing like it. Yes, some find it annoying and dangerous, but when looked at through the proper glasses there’s something scenic and peaceful about the white fluffy cloud-like substance coating the earth. Yet, some snow comes down so hard and blizzard like that there’s nothing calm about it. It revs something up inside of you that can only mean one thing……tackle football. This would now be our third tackle game of the season, an enormous number that we haven’t seen in years. We’re lucky to get one per year. Ecstatic if we get two. Three??…..almost unheard of. The last time being the 2020-2021 season.
It was colors of yaron, landy, zinn, urkel, logic, mandelbread, and tom vs dark of pray, bert, bz, prime, steveo, daveo, and the mighty snowdent. With the snow coming down hard the first few drives were sloppy three and outs (with one monster sack by yaron on third and goal off a well timed blitz). But then dark got clicking, a slant to daveo, a run by prime, and a deep ball to mighty set up third and 10 from the 40. A screen to mighty was all they would need and dark had the first down and then some as the snowdent took off down the sideline to open the scoring 1-0. The next drive colors got after it and worked the ball down the field with runs to landy and a tom catch and run of 35 to make it first and goal from the 24. After a yaron tush push where the ball may or may not have been stripped by mighty, it was determined that the first down was reached and colors would maintain possession. However, a chance to tie it up on a pass from yaron to zinn was just a bit behind and tips up into the hands of pray for an int. Next drive, Dark was right back at it with a mix of runs and slants, even hitting Bert on a tight end leak for 15 yards. After a logic sack, it was third and goal from the 20 for dark with a chance to go up 2-0. And that’s exactly what they did. With pray evading a zinn blitz, the ball just barely got off and into the waiting hands of prime who adjusts and makes the catch in the endzone. 2-0 dark. Unfortunately for colors, their fortune would go from bad to worse and three drives in a row ended with ints. The first one by pray, his second of the day, on a pass intended for tom. After a lateral to Steveo, it was 1st and goal from the 11. After a pray run to bring them inside the 1 yard line, it was a forward pitch to bz and tush push to bring the score to 3-0. One play later it was a daveo pick six to make it 4-0 dark and the game getting out of hand. Colors would make a qb switch to Zinn but on his first play he lofts a ball up the sideline to urkel that gets picked by steveo island (no map needed) and it’s dark ball once again. Two plays later it’s daveo finding the endzone on a quick tight end leak to make the score 5-0. Colors would finally get on the board with zinn at qb and after some good qb runs and dump offs to landy, urkel, and tom, it was logic in the back of the endzone on 4th and goal to get colors on the board 5-1. Both dark and colors would go three and out on the next two drives to end this game at 5-1 dark. Another awesome snow tackle game for jewball. A lot of jewball worthy candidates in this one, especially with guys keeping track of their tackles. Mighty led the day with 9 and a maybe forced fumble, prime with 7, pray with .5 (ya i sucked at tackling today) but the Jewball winner this week goes to Daveo. A td, a pick six, and a bunch of other catches and huge defensive stops in this one, the GM of Green Machine was all over the place on both sides of the ball.
Tackle games are infectious and bring out the best of jewball. It’s a high that you can only get once you’ve played them. Not saying you should or shouldn’t but if you do….. congrats daveo.
Who wants week 18! IJWT!
2/22/26
Week 18- Recap
January 25, 2026… that was our last football game. A week 17 tackle game in the heart of a blizzard. But then snow turned to ice and the turf was nowhere to be seen. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into a month. But jewball persevered. While some traditions were postponed or updated, we pushed on. Super bowl bbq turned into super bowl breakfast at the Kut home. What should have been week 20 turned into the prancing bowl. Finally though the rain came and the temps got warmer and the field was there once again. Week 18 would finally be played. Just barely though as more snow would come during the game. But a beautiful 3 game jewball sunday morning was had. Can’t say it was worth the wait bc a month without football is too long, but football was back.
On the first side of the field we had Green Machine vs Stogies. Both teams trying to bounce back from losses in their previous league game. Stogies struck first with an opening drive td to gronk and just marched their way down the field with dump offs to dk and stella. 6-0 stogies. Green machine took a while to get going and the score would stay at 6-0 for a while. Stogies marched their way down the field once again and had first and goal from the 5 with a chance to go up two scores. But the GM captain was sneaky and jumped back from d line to the middle to pick a slant off to gronk and returned it 50 yards and gave GM the momentum they needed. three plays later it was captain daveo once again with a dump off from Avenger for a td. 6-6. Unfortunately, the game took a pause then. I didn’t see what happened but it was described as gruesome. Tom went down with an injury and the game stopped to make sure that the In Both vet was okay. He was not. With his wrist bent the wrong way, Tom was rushed off the field. RS Tom! We will see you back on the field soon. Tom doesn’t get enough credit for it, but the man always plays every game. He is the true definition of in both and still doing it at 40. He’s our snow game majestic horse. You’ve bounced back from having Bert as a brother, this is nothing. Feel Better! Eventually, the game continued and Avenger ran one in to make it 13-6 after the extra point. Stogies would falter on their next drive and GM had the ball with a chance to ice the game. On 3rd and goal from the 15, avenger tossed a beautiful touch pass to the back of the endzone for berk.. who hauled it in, toe tapped… and then got rocked by landy and couldn’t hang on to the ball through the ground. An incredible effort, but landy made the defensive stop. GM couldn’t punch it in and Stogies were now down to their final drive. score and a two point conversion would give them the win. a few short plays by yaron set up 4th and 3 to keep the drive going. But a toss to gronk across the middle got knocked down Captain Daveo again and the game would end. 13-6 Green Machine. Jewball to the GM of GM and their captain Daveo on the all around offense and defense in this one.
On the other side of the field it was Semi Pro v. Gorillaz. Last time these two teams played there was controversy abound and it took away from the incredibly close game that it was. This time there was no controversy…..there also wasn’t much of an incredibly close game. SP was without their captain as he was off visiting Jordan in the holy land. But SP (aka solo) came out with a fire that we haven’t seen in some time. When Solo first started playing Jewball he was a dream that Yaron had invented and no one really knew if he was real. Then he finally showed up and dominated. But then solo moved far away and we saw less and less of him. Sunday he was determined to show that he should not be forgotten. After three and outs by both teams, SP took the ball and started moving. a quick out to stats, a dumpf off to solo and a few short plays to storm. set up a 3rd and 3 from the 47 yard line. A designed run by pray got SP the first down but as pray looked up after crossing the first down marker…. it was three gorillaz in sight and one solo. That was all SP needed. Solo proceeded to mow down zada, mighty and rook en route to a 30 yard rushing td for pray. 6-0 SP. Gorillaz took the ball back and moved methodically until on 3rd and 10, lego stepped up in the pocket and was met by a flying solo and pummeled to the turf. Following drive for SP , it was again dump offs to solo and storm culminating in a solo hand off that he took to the house from 20 out to make it 12-0. Stats extra point made it 13-0. Gorilaz then put together their best drive of the game. and had 3rd and 12 past midfield. A lego pass to Goldberg made it 4th and 1. Can’t say for sure exactly what happened but lego tried catching SP off guard and hurried to the line to try a quick play. Unfortunately, that quick play caught everyone off guard and Lego ran directly into solo. Once again Solo pummeled lego into the ground, despite legos outstretched arm it was a turnover on downs. Three plays later it was pray to DJCP (not urkel because he wasn’t wearing the glasses) for a 20 yard td 19-0 SP. Sp got the ball back again and it was djcp for his second td of the game on a ten yard slant to make it 25-0. SP set up for the extra point but a tipped ball by zada led to a mighty int and he was off to the races. 80 yards on a zig zaggin winding return for the rat and it was 25-1. SP would score one more time, this one to storm and a stats phill philly extra point to pray capped the game at 32-1. Gorilaz finally got on the board again after a mighty td to make it 32-7. If you couldn’t tell solo absolutely dominated this one. On both sides of the ball he reminded jewball (and lego) of just how terrifying he could be. Jewball to you. Together with Sam and Spiegel the O line and D line of SP had a day. DJCP would have gotten a jewball but this day was the solo domination one.
In game 2 It was colors of yaron, blitz, bz, spiegel, steveo, storm, and zinn vs. dark of pray, gronk, rabin, kagan, prime, rook and stats. Colors struck first. After a leaping vintage zinn catch over stats, it was storm hurdling the defense to go up 1-0. Dark would put good drives together but each one would end in pray throwing an int (first to storm and then zinn). Whether it was the hangover from a big league win or the ferocious pass rush of blitz, bz and spiegel, it was a redzone int to storm and then a redzone int to zinn to shut down the first two drives of the game. Lucky for Dark, Colors didnt take too much advantage and only scored one more time on a flea flicker td from yaron to storm to make it 2-0. Then the snow started to fall and the QB of Colors made the infamous statement “if I win this counts as a snow game”……. whether the football gods have a sense of humor or that comment enraged Dark enough. They got to work and quick. An angry prime started doing what he does best and catching quick outs and slant and running through people for chunk yards. A 7 play drive ended with a pray to gronk slant to make it 2-1. next drive it was kagan on an out and up from 25 out to make it 2-2. two drives later it was dark with a chance to win it but a pray deep ball to rook was picked off by storm and the game went to overtime. Yaron tried to answer quickly and a deep ball to zinn was picked off by pray and now dark was playing for the win. Dark went right back to the well and hit a quick out to prime to go get them the chunk yards once again. Steveo came up to make the stop and went low for the flag and all we heard was a muted scream. Steveo bloodied all over his face would have to leave. Refuah Shleima Wizard! We will see you back on the field very soon. We went to 6s for the last two plays and on 4th and goal from the six, it was rook in the back of the end zone to win it 3-2. Jewball to kagan in this one for 1 td and being a willing third blocker all game. Also three sacks on the day in huge spots to keep Colors out of the redzone. Storm was on his way to a jewball with the two tds and two ints…..Season of bartender.
3/1/26
Week 19 – VETS ROOKS RECAP
Even with AI, the internet, and the myriad of research tools at our fingertips, we still live in a world of unknowns. Everyone likes to speculate; predict outcomes, even bet on them. But no one knows. Human beings are still autonomous and spontaneous and subject to volatile shifts in mood, perspective, and objectives. Our whims change by the day – sometimes by the hour. So when I asked that Pray be in charge of Jewball – and – in many ways – left Jewball (my precious – I’m Gollum) in all of your hands…I speculated that things would carry on smoothly, I predicted that Pray would be the right leader to keep the Jewball flame burning bright and – in our own way – burning eternal.
But you never know.
You don’t need me to tell you that Jewball is standing strong. That it’s on fire in all the best ways. Did we take hits this season? For sure. The weather kept us from the one thing we need most – football games. Many key players got hurt. Some of our favorite Jewball characters checked out. Leagues gonna League. It happens. JBFL regardless and for real. I saw all this happening from a distance. Not once was I worried. I could tell we were thriving. TBI has never been better. Not a knock on PJs. He would have been part of this had he chose to. It just gets better every year…that’s called experience and technological advancements. Pray was so the right man for the job. Clear as day. We live in an age of Jewball iluys and phenoms and prodigies. Everyone seems to come in young and fresh and avid with so much polish and wisdom. It’s one reincarnated Jewball soul after another. There is no other way to explain some of these Rooks. Pray – now a seasoned Jewball Vet – is in YEAR 1 of this job! And he’s such a pro. Imagine in 10 years! Which sort of brings me to Sunday and the reason I am even writing.
Pray did ask me to write, but after Sunday’s game…I really wanted to. My heart was spilling over with so much awe and appreciation for the world we built. My mind was supersaturated with expressions that I had to share like an incandescent billboard. Starting with a feeling of pure primal gratitude – that at 48 I’m still playing the game. That alone. A miracle in its own way. And like I said in the last recap I wrote – I believe (and in many ways know) that I have merited to stay healthy because I have merited to be playing. It’s a circle of kinetic spiritual energy that continues to pulsate. God runs the world. God runs nature. For now, God wants me to play football and be one of you. Otherwise, it doesn’t really make sense. Next, to know that the field is where we reunite. It’s our makom mikdash (a sanctified place – sanctified by us, but also inherently). We commit to a pilgrimage every Sunday morning. The field is where we gather and the game is the ritual. Not a cult, but there is something devotional about it all. Especially the ingathering bit. I ran into some Jewballers over my first Shabbos in town. Mostly vets who hadn’t played in a while. Marino, Sig, Hackel, Fox (Star’s dad). Of course we talk football and Jewball, because that’s what it means to be a Vet. It’s part of you. And that part longs so much for the game. Which is exactly why you never quit or hang ‘em up or retire. The game must be violently ripped from you. You don’t relinquish it by choice. I didn’t want to see the current roster of active Jewballers in shul. Or on Central Avenue. Or at a kiddush. The field is the sanctified ground. That is where we gather. That is where we reunite.
And so it was. Yaron picked me up on Sunday morning and off we went to play in the annual rite of passage we call Vets Rooks. Here is where I would maybe write about how meaningful Vets Rooks is. But I’ve set the stage enough. Our Rooks are so locked in and committed and get it on such a deep level, my rallying cry polemic would ring redundant. Vets Rooks matters because being a Vet matters. Being a Rook matters. I used to need to explain why. Unnecessary in 2026. You see what we are. You all know why.
The pre-game drama – as there always has to be – was do the Seniors have a team? Jordan was going to be in for the game having been inspired by Singer and flying in for VR, but the big story was the new additions of Tabak and Gronk. Jewballers of 10 years now! Congratulations! An incredible milestone. With G-d’s help, by everyone! The drama involved Gronk being out, TBD being out, MK being out, Steveo being out, and Mighty threatening to be out if his kid’s hockey game was on. After driving the Commish (and Juniors’ Co-Captain) crazy, it was decided that Mighty was in, Rabin (the most Vet of all Vets) was going to QB, and the Seniors would fight with the personnel they had (Rabin, Mighty, Daveo, O, Kut, PJs, Jordan, and Tabak).
They would face off against their fellow Vet Juniors team lead by Pray and Yaron and comprised of a savvy battle tested crew of Logan, Legs, Prime, Storm, Goldberg, Vegh, and Zada.
On paper, many would say the Seniors had no shot. Rabin hadn’t won a big game as starting QB since VR 5 years earlier (crazy how time flies). PJs hadn’t played a game all season. Technically, neither had Jordan. Kut was a little banged up as he always is this time of year after laying his body on the line for Jewball season after season. But Daveo got that motor. O was in the best shape he’d been in for many years. Stella just keeps getting better and was highly motivated in his Seniors debut. And Mighty is the reigning MVP having another MVP caliber season. Any given Sunday.
First of all, an ode to PJs. Few hear the VR call like PJs. Klink hears it, but, alas reality. Singer hears it, but, alas caution. PJs hears it and it is irresistible. Reality is a construct. Caution is thrown to the wind. To paraphrase the patriot Nathan Hale quoted as he marched to execution, “My only regret is that I have but one body to give to Jewball.” PJs has already given his body to Jewball. He is credited with ushering in the Renaissance, just when the Golden Age was fading to black. He took a long hiatus due to family and learning and lack of a game-appropriate wardrobe. But he came back. Participated in the Revolution. Was a star of the Revolution. Pioneered so many aspects of Jewball that are still enjoyed today, including producing and hosting the first bunch of seasons of TBI. But damn does that kid play reckless. So. Many. Collisions. None more monumental and terrifying as the one between he and Prime on Red Sunday. Knocked unconscious. Ambulance to the field. Real damage. Real consequences. The need for real healing. He took the time, played occasionally, but became more of a figurehead in Jewball. Few remember well his playing days. Despite these risks, it was VR Sunday, and PJs heard the call – like many hear the call – but, unlike many – PJs answered it. He came out and battled and showed everyone what it means to be a Vet. Of course Yaron promptly threw a bullet pass directly at his head from point blank range. PJs, you are an inspiration. Some say what you are doing is dangerous. What about your mental health? I mean, that’s valid. But….Jewball is also needed for our mental health. It’s a tough question with no easy answer. I just know you inspire me. Thank you for being my Jewball brother for so long.
The game started with a 3 and out for the Juniors. A good question to ask was – with Cool Yaron dead – did it make sense for Pray to start? The Commish was having another dominant season. But there is that respect thing and Uncool Yaron had been playing pretty well. The problem being that the Seniors had beaten the Juniors the prior year because Yaron was way off. This game started with Yaron being on at QB, but Pray being unable to get a handle on his passes. Three drops in the first few Junior possessions. The Seniors were not doing much better. Unlike in last year’s VR Finals, Rabin was able to grip the ball and throw it, but – even with Solo canceling last minute – Legs and Zada were fierce and pressuring him (3 sacks on the day combined). Neither offense was moving the ball. One can credit good defenses, but it was also bad offense. Drops and play calls that didn’t work. Finally, the Seniors broke through. Option play to Daveo and Daveo chooses to keep the ball, reverse field, and down the sideline…cuts to the middle. He could…go…all…the…nope, Pray tracks him down. Fat boy can run. A few plays later Rabin throws a beautiful pass that no one really knows who it was to, but the flight of the ball was a marvel to behold. It strikes a slanting Daveo right in the hands and Seniors have a 1-0 lead a few minutes before the half.
At that point Yaron decided to stop passing to guys like Pray who were only good for drops and start running the screen game. It worked. It was Prime Time. Even with Daveo and O playing an aggressive middle and pulling flags. Even with Jordan and Tabak sealing the outside and taking on a slew of bruising blockers….the Juniors played very effective bully ball. Well designed and executed screens are hard to stop. Prime is hard to stop when he is amped, and he was amped for VR. He called the Seniors soft and weak over and over as he thundered downfield, picking up yards and first downs. Yards and first downs. Like incontinence, it was a problem the Seniors could not solve. The Juniors found their confidence and scored twice (Pray and Storm). The Seniors offense sputtered to a halt. Besides the one obligatory gorgeous throwback completion from Rabin to Jordan (Est. 2004), the Seniors never punched back. They had opportunities. Short Fields. Tabak – head on a swivel and providing excellent corner play – picked 2 sideline passes intended for Pray to drop. But nothing materialized. The game ended – as it always must – with some controversy as the Seniors hoped to tie the game and maybe send it into OT, but Storm beats Jordan on a slant at the 5 and scores to make it 3-1 as the clock expired. Juniors advance and avenge their 2024 Season VR Semis loss. Jewball to my Assmen, Cronies II, and BLOP brother Stormy for the 2 scores and the intensity. Guy brings it and sets the pace every time I see him out there.
I can’t say I know enough about the actual back and forth of the Rooks Semi-Finals Game. Here is what I do know: Mid-game, Pray yells over to DK, “Why are you trying so hard? You know the game is gonna end in a tie.” A joke. A premonition. In both. It’s been the Freshies v. Smores minhag for a while. Or at least it feels that way. I know that every time I looked over, I saw Avenger and Dachs taking shot after shot. The kids air it out. In contrast to the Vets game which was mainly runs and short yardage plays, the Rooks were taking big swings. The only play I can remember seeing was Landy make a great catch. I saw him make an even better one this past Sunday. The dude in the Seattle Seahawks ski cap can ball. The final score was 4-4. The game went late. There was regular overtime. There was college overtime. Eventually there was I gotta go time. Before I get to the finals, as VR is a day where we count our blessings and realize how lucky we are to be Jewballers with a proud past, an awesome present, and a bright future – where we remind ourselves that Jewball is an exclusive club, but not a closed one. We realized long ago that our strength is in sharing our universe with new blood. Because…doesn’t it seem like every time a new Jewballer arrives and buys in…it was like they were here all along? That’s called destiny. Don’t fight it. Don’t doubt it. Save your cynicism for other aspects of life. It’s warranted in plenty of places. But not by us. Our Rooks have been off the charts these past few seasons. People and players. I’ll just say their names and let the consonants and vowels sing their praises…cuz you all know how insanely blessed we have been: Blitz, Dachs, Daxxy, DK, Ernie, Opes, Stats, Zinn, The Rook, Avenger, Berk, BZ, Kagan, Landy, DJCP, Schiffer, and Spiegel. Of course there are more – but these were the guys who played in the game. Who celebrated the holiday. Who took part in the ritual. We get on the Rooks because they suck and we want them to lose and be humbled…but damn, they are so cool and great. Thank you for being here. Your only job – besides playing great football – is to make sure you are Vets one day and beat the Rooks.
I’ll take this to the sidelines for a moment. You never know who is going to hear the call. VR has been a day special guests come out. They know it’s a spectacle. They understand it’s a pilgrimage worth making. I remember being in the middle of the frenzy of Seniors v. Juniors when a statuesque figure strolled onto the field from the parking lot. And someone said, “Is that Jack Ross?” And so it was. Not much else to say, but, was great to see Jack. In general, but especially on VR Sunday…because it’s not just an appearance. It’s a meaningful appearance. Thanks for coming out, Jack. LGM.
Word had come down on Saturday night that Lego had sustained an injury playing football, I think on Saturday night. Somewhere. Monsey. Lakewood. Who knows. An ankle. He tested it, but there was too much pain and he was out now for VR. The QB depth chart for the Freshies is, well, deep, and Avenger stepped right in. The Captain depth chart was also apparently deep as Lego had replaced Logic and I’m not sure who replaced Lego. Maybe no one did, but who needs Captains when you have beers. The beauty of Jewball is ROY is an all encompassing award. And while you got Avenger, Berk, DJCP, Schiffer, Landy, and Spiegel making plays on the field this VR Sunday, Lego makes sure to quite literally say hold my beer. The scene was then set. Blue Moons and Pink Juice on the sideline, all of a sudden the weather got cold. There were snow flurries earlier in the morning when temps were mild, but as the finals would begin, things got icy.
No clear winner in the Rooks game, but I checked the stats. DK and Oppen teamed up for 7 sacks. Avenger…yikes. Kagan, BZ, and Landy teamed up for 7 of their own. Dachs….geez. Landy came away with some crazy numbers. 3 TDs, a pick, and a sack. No Jewball in a tie game, but definitely an honorable mention. On the other side, we had Stats putting up 3 scores. So….you both were robbed.
The Finals became a classic VR with all the Vets present playing against all the Rooks present. Just like Mighty (kinda) dreamed of. Was it a VR for the ages? No. Everyone was exhausted and beat. I was pretty ripped on Pink Juice by the second half. I knew I had one role and that was to keep everyone hydrated! Zinn, Ernie (both Rook TDs), and Opes were so battered and broken – was exhilarating to watch them push themselves and stay in the game. You watch these dudes – it makes your run that extra mile in the gym, add the weight, finish the set. Regular normals don’t know. They just don’t know. I wish I could tell you that back and forth, but I’m stuck with the box score and the celebration with Mighty scoring the game winning TD. I’m seeing 3 sacks for Legs. I’m seeing 2 scores for Prime. Let’s give that VR Finals Jewball to Prime for 2 scores, but – like Storm – showing up for VR and knowing that another gear needs to be on display. He hated the Vets when he was a Rook. He hates the Seniors when he is a Junior. He hates the Rooks now that he is a Vet. He loves Jewball with his heart and soul.
Jewball, this Vet is once again stunned by where we are and how God blesses us with phenomenal Rooks year after year after year. Rooks, as much as we want to beat and humble you, we keep showing up and working because we can’t imagine a world where we don’t have the privilege of sharing a football field with you and competing (yes, that’s us competing! Shut up!) Much love to you all. Next season in Jerusalem.
3/8/26
WEEK 20 – RECAP
After the excitement from Vets Rooks 26, there was still more football to be played. We had two weeks left on the schedule Week 20 and 21 and three league games to fit in.
In the early game it was colors of yaron, bz, goldberg, kut, stats, rook, and vegh against dark of pray, prime, tbd, kagan, berk, bert, and zada. Colors took the ball first and in just a few plays it was 1-0 colors as yaron hit kut in the back of the endzone. Dark would respond with a really impressive drive of mixed runs and prime screens to get into the red zone but on 4th and goal from the 13, Goldberg stuck his long arms out but instead of a flag guard he wound up with an int and colors had the ball back. Immediately right back down the field they went. Three plays later it was stats from 10 yards out, 2-0 colors. Dark moved methodically down the field again and after a big catch and run by zada it was a flip from pray to berk to make it 2-1. But Colors offense was relentless and after a few dump offs to vegh and kut, it was yaron down the sideline taking it himself from 45 yards out. 3-1 colors. Dark would again respond but they were constantly playing from behind, this time after a missed sack by bz and kut, it was a flip to Kagan who followed his blo(a)cks (aka prime) en route to a 25 yard td. 3-2 now. Yaron though was feeling himself and cool yaron was just about peaking through now that the snow was gone- a long ball to the rook pushed colors back up by 2. 4-2. Dark answered back with another drive mixed with runs and short throws to zada and berk. a screen pass to prime from five out made it 4-3. Dark needed a stop but none was coming, cool yaron was back and he would score once again. This time to vegh to all but end the game. Dark would go on another great drive after a 60 yard bomb from pray to berk who somehow got caught at the 15 by stats, but a redzone stall would keep the game a two possession one. Dark finally got their first stop of the game on a zada int, but it was too little too late. it was 930 and the game was effectively over. Dark would score on a nifty delayed out by bert to end the game 5-4 colors. Easy jewball to yaron in this one for the 4 tds and rushing td. Cool yaron was back….. or was he.
In game 2 it was BLOP v. Stogies in what essentially was a playoff game. The Stogies win and they were locked into a playoff spot. A blop win by at least ten (yes PD head to head for Logan) would guarantee them a playoff spot. Less than 10, and they’d need to win the next game also. The game started out pretty docile and everyone was on their best behavior. The yelling or arguing was to a minimum but the tension was real. Both teams in a fight for their lives. Would either of these teams smoke their last chance for an opportunity at the chip. The real story of the day was that blop was short handed and missing the Invader. How that would affect their team no one was sure. But what they couldn’t replace in zinn’s talent, they replaced in leadership, fiereiness, and just an all out commitment to football and that was Jordan. The big J was in town again and was suiting up for his old blop team. Yes, this wasn’t the same team he was a part of last year. In fact, he was playing against his old QB in yaron. But it was the jordan-prime blop connection and Jordan wanted to make sure that blop went out with a win. The first drive of the game ended in stogies turning it over on downs and it was blops ball to try and take an early lead. A few short passes to Ernie and prime and they were in business. On 3rd and goal from the 12, football dachs (yes he showed up today) delivered a dart to Jordan by the front pylon. The place erupted. Not because the ball was caught, as it was determined that he did not have both feet down, but because everyone was sure they had seen exactly what had happened. The line judges conferred and no catch was the call. One play later though it was dachs to landy 6-0 blop. stogies would start their own drive and moved the ball methodically down the field for a yaron to gronk td to tie the game up. Unfortunately for stogies that was the end of their scoring for a while. Now as mentioned before stogies just needed to play defense, a loss wouldn’t be nearly as devastating for them as a blowout. But as mentioned before as well, football dachs came to play and used every weapon at his disposal. The next td was of the rushing variety 13-6 blop. stogies would try to respond but legs and justin brought every ounce of pressure they could muster. Legs finished the day with 4 sacks and Justin with two batted passes and the stogie offense was on the brink. Meanwhile, dachs put up two more scores one to prime and the other to Ernie and the game was 27-6. Stogies would need to put something together and fast. But between the pressure and secondary coverage of blop (landy with 2 ints). All they could get was a last drive td to stats to make it 27-12. The stogie season was extinguished. what started out as a 2-0 powerhouse dropped the final 4 games to finish 2-4. Huge shoutout to Stella for captaining up this year and just genuinely understanding that leagues are for the good of jewball and not the other way around. For Blop, they now entered the playoff race and anything is possible especially once zinn is back in the picture. A lot of worthy jewball candidates for this one — football dachs balled out with 3 tds and a rushing td, prime made sure his team would not quit despite starting 0-3, legs finished the day with 4 sacks and an almost td but didn’t want to lose yards, and landy had a td and 2 ints on defense. But it is this recap writer’s belief that none of that would be possible without Mr. J(ewball) himself. Maybe Blop still wins this game without jordan. it’s certainly possible. But I for one do not believe that the blop performance is nearly as dominant if not for jordan. Jordan was the heart and soul of blop on sunday and we were lucky enough to get two jewball sundays with jordan back in town. Jordan, a jewball for you for rallying the troops as you always do and picking up that W. Some stats don’t show up on a spreadsheet and are not quantifiable. Similar to what you mean and do for jewball. It’s not something that can be put into numbers.
The next day jewball went south for the Where’s waldo wedding– join the vn chat for that recap 🙂
3/15/26
WEEK 21 – RECAP
It’s weird sitting here after the last regular game of the Jewball season has been played. No signups to post. No teams to send out. The randomizer has been put away for the year. Yes, we still have league playoffs and a chip but as we all know that is separate from Jewball. Our 20 week (this year 21) season came to an end with three games and perhaps the craziest and most beautiful thing we’ve ever done.
In game 1a it was Blop v. Gorilaz. Blop flying high after clinching a playoff spot in their defeat of the Stogies the previous week and gorillaz looking to win and lock up the 1 seed. Admittedly, I saw almost none of the game…..although the good news is there wasn’t much of a game to speak of. Everytime I looked over it was Lego zipping a pass to another wide open wr or mighty scampering down the sideline for a big gain. Gorillaz opened the scoring first after mighty took a short pass to the house to make it 6-0. Blop moved the ball well during the first half but just could not punch it into the endzone. Next drive for Gorillaz it was Lego to Goldberg to make it 14-0. Blop drove again but a drive ending int to lego on a wobbly pass gave Gorillaz the ball right back. Gorillaz scored one more time to mighty on a bullet throw from lego to make it 21-0. Zinn took over for blop at qb and had a solid drive and a crazy catch by prime up the sideline but a redzone stall kept the score at 21-0. Gorillaz would keep the shutout intact. Jewball to mighty for the 2 scores and just making play after play in this one. All gorillaz needed now was a Semi Pro loss and the 1 seed would be theirs.
In game 1b it was GM v SP. The last time these teams saw each other it was Week 1 of leagues and it was a game winner from Avenger to Berk to win it on the last play of the game. This time the game would come down just as much to the wire. Green Machine took the ball first and had a new toy to replace Iceman for this one. He’s a kid a lot of us know from Tuesday nights and arguably one of the best players we’ve played with. Levy stepped in and Avenger went right to him. The first time, a great bat down by storm, but the second time it was a post corner run to perfection and it was Levy off to the races on a 75 yard TD to open the scoring. Extra point to levy as well and a quick 7-0 lead for GM. SP took the ball but went 3 and out and avenger and GM went back to work. After a few more avenger to levy throws, the SP defense caught on and a deep ball intended for levy was picked by pray and SP was back in business. Three plays later it was pray up the sideline following blocks by an all nighter solo for 6. extra point no good and it’s 7-6 GM. The next drive for GM started with more of the same, mixed in with a few avenger runs. It was 4th and 1 from the 49. Everyone on the planet knew where the ball was going… to levy. Except Avenger pumps and tosses a soft touch pass over to Fish (who was somehow also filling in for iceman) and takes it to the house for a 13-6 lead. SP would not go down without a fight and took the ball looking to answer right back. However, a pass intended for solo got stalked down by Bert (filling in for oppen) and picked by avenger. GM now had a chance to take complete control of the game. Thankfully for SP, GM turned it over on downs and they had the ball right back. No harm no foul. SP started to drive and three plays in it was a wild run around backyard football moment with stats leaking over the top for a pray to stats touchdown to cut the lead to 13-12. The lack of extra points for SP keeps them away from tying it up. GM would answer right back with a 8 play drive capped off by a leaping TD by fish to make it 19-12. SP did nothing with their next drive and the game was now on the line. A GM score would end it. A stop would give SP one more chance to try and win it. On third and long, Avenger throws a deep ball intended for levy into double coverage and the ball gets batted around before falling into prays hands and returned for 25 yards to give SP one more chance. Some say avenger was sacked before the ball was thrown yet others say the ball was off. No one really knows and it was determined it was too late to fight it out. One thing for sure is that we always go by the teammates. If someone on the same team determines that the other team is correct, that’s it. No need to argue it out. SP would take the ball with a chance to win it. On first and 24 from the 49 pray launched one to portal who catches it in stride and looked like he would score right away to end the game…. except fish came flying in from nowhere to track down portal at the 2. SP would need to punch it in. Two plays later it was Solo with a beautiful hands catch to make it 19-18. Kut and Co now had a choice, go for two and win it or 1 and play for the tie. The Dan Cambpell in Kut won and SP would try for two to win the game. Pray dropped back and a well timed third rush by daveo right up the middle forced a quick throw. It was one on one with Avenger and Portal. Rookie on Rookie. Roy on Roy. But Avenger wanted this one badly and he jumped right in front of portal to knock it down and end the game. Jewball to Avenger for the 3 tds thrown and the game saving play at the end. (Fish probably could have gotten it also but no jewballs to a guy who’s not yet in jewball).
Both these teams and Blop v. Gorrilaz will see each other again when the playoffs and chip happen 4/19 IYH.
I believe this was probably the first time in Jewball history that our games not only ended exactly at 9:30 but even a bit before. It was 9:22 and there was work to be done. Tables needed to be set up, food picked up, and wine selected. Yes maybe both games end up differently if we play the full allotted time (and start on time) but we were onto more important things. It was time for a 7b, probably the first LHS turf has ever seen. Waldo and Rafa walked in and it was time to celebrate with the new couple in the only Jewball knows how. Slassy. Yes, this was not a typical Sheva Brachos. This was an on the field quick hitter but was just as beautiful and meaningful as any other. While people ate, Lego and Waldo gave us some inspiring words that every Jewballer lives by….. don’t forget your roots. Everything we do is built on a foundation from the guys before us and the vets before them. It is on us to make sure that the next generation of jewballers not only plays and contributes but that they take this family and keep on expanding on it and making it thrive. That’s the foundation that we’re built on. It’s why we called this new “Era” the succession because we want to see jewball succeed beyond our immediate wants and needs. Waldo wishing you and Rafa nothing but the best and Iyh we will see you back on the field whenever you’re in town. Mazel tov. After the brachos were said and a dance on the field it was time for game 2. One that our very own chosson waldo would be playing in.
Game 2 had some guys leaving early and others jumping in but the teams ended up like this: it was red/white of yaron, goldberg, kut, legs, stats, storm, zinn, and tbd vs. black/yellow of pray, levy, kagan, justin, prime, portal, bin, rook, steveo, and of course waldo. Prime Justin and Kagan left early but this game was not a pretty one early on. The first score of the game was a tipped pass that bounced off rook and levy and landed in the waiting arms of zinn for a pick six. one play later a tipped pass by legs landed in Kutis’ waiting arms and it was a shovel pass from yaron to goldberg to make it 2-0. The game would stay that way for a while. Black/Yellow could find no solution for the pass rush of kuti and legs and TBD and no matter how hard he tried, pray could find no solution on how to throw a ball to waldo. (4 missed tds according to the glasses vid smh). Eventually, Yaron hit zinn on a deep ball with zinn making a zinn-like catch over levy and sliding into the endzone to make it 3-0. Black/Yellow had no success throwing the ball so pray and co decided to just run. And run they did. Pray rushed in two to make it a 3-2 game and a little life was back. Maybe just maybe they would pull off the miracle with 15 minutes left to play. Unfortunately, the next drive was a methodical one by red/white and ended in a yaron to zinn quick slant to make it 4-2. Black/yellow would take the ball back looking to just keep it close on what would be their final drive and they turned to the only jewballer who had seen it all… Rabin. Rabin took over at qb and went to work. In classic jewball fashion though the first play was a backward pass to waldo who then threw a deep ball to pray who then lateraled to rook to put black/yellow inside the redzone. Rabin then hit rook in stride to bring them inside the 5 and capped it off with a quick roll out toss to portal for the last td of the jewball regular season. The man who plays for stats had the last one of the season. Kinda fitting that the longest tenured Jewballer hits a rookie to end the jewball season….. the roots and foundation from one generation to the next. 4-3 was the final and jewball to zinn for the 2 tds and pick six. Could’ve been yaron for the 3 tds and just all out balling in the last game of the season A cool yaron game 2 sighting to finish it off.
Jewball, we still have three games left. Two Playoff games and a Champion to be crowned. The 25-26 season is not done just yet.
3/22/26
2025-2026 SEASON RECAP
GROWTH. No I am not talking about my ever expanding waistline in the land of Jewball. I am talking about growth as a person both on the field and off the field but most importantly as a Jewballer. For all intents and purposes we were all rookies this year. Our leader and commish was off to Israel and there would be a new beginning, new chapter for Jewball to start. Of course, Jordan is one 15 minute voicenote away but to say it would be difficult without him is an understatement. Jordan has navigated this Jewball island for 25 plus years and led us to the promised land (l’havdil). An FGD was taking over and now it would be a team effort of all Jewballers to make sure we continued the Jewball ways. To succeed in the Succession.
Taking on a new role is always difficult and it certainly wasn’t easy for me to be called “commish”. The Commish is Jordan….not me and yes I knew there would be challenges ahead… But after looking back at this 25-26 season, I can honestly say there is nothing I love more than being a Jewballer. I’m not going to say there weren’t stresses or late night phone calls because of a last minute cancellation, but watching this group of people come together week in and week out and doing what we do best cannot be put into words. It truly is a team effort every single time. Whether it’s Yaron always being at the field 15 minutes early and setting it up with minimal complaint or steveo always helping with everything that goes on behind the scenes or even zada with the weekly signup posts or the party planning committee helping with every Jewball event or the MJSA or safe space chats where I can just simply vent about how much you guys all piss me off….there is nothing that I would rather be doing. It truly is one of a kind experience that cannot be explained in normal language. To have a group of guys who are always ready to lend a hand and help out so we can succeed as a unit is something remarkable. I for one, can personally say the growth that I have seen from myself has been mind blowing and nothing that I ever could have predicted. Enough about us and me though….. the most important thing is we BH had another tremendous season of Jewball
This season was a long one yet somehow feels like preseason was last week. Walking onto the field in early September in the rain to play a 4 v 4 and then watch the smiling faces of more and more jewballers showing up for a week1 preseason rain game…. you just knew the season was going to be something magical. We had new rookies, new players and new personas that would all be put through the test of the Jewball season. We had Lego, Landy, Spiegel, Berk and then some late carryovers from last season in Kagan, Avenger, portal and most of all cool yaron. But of course as we all know, it’s not how a season starts… It’s about who makes it through the 20 plus week and 50 plus games of football that we have from September through April.
The Jewball season always starts with the talks of leagues and the draft. While certainly not the main focus of the jewball season it has become a staple of the jewball season. With two new captains in the works and three returning ones it would be a race to the finish line. Of course, winning draft night is meaningless, the games on the field would determine the champion. Not going to rehash the whole league season but it culminated in an all out playoff chip tourney just a few Sundays ago. While injuries mounted and replacements had to be found, it was GM v SP and the one seed Gorillaz v BLOP. An injured Green Machine made quick work of the randomly assembled Semi pro. On the other side, Gorilaz and Blop were in a heated battle. 13-6 with Gorilaz driving. A few plays later it was prime, knocking down a pass intended for Mighty to send the improbable BLOP to the Chip. To the grass we went and what a chip game it was. GM jumped out in front as the Avenger to ILNS connection stayed strong on this day (6 tds for ILNS). It was 19-6 and time was running out for BLOP. Prime and Zinn though had other plans in mind. A pick by zinn, a screen pass to prime, a two handed throw by dachs followed by another pick by zinn and it was 19-12 and BLOP with a chance to win it. A slant to zinn from 15 yards out made it 19-18 and it all came down to the extra point. BLOP would go for two to take the lead. If they miss, GM would be the 25-26 Jewball League Champs. Dachs drops back, looks right and throws to the left to an open zinn in the back of the endzone. Unfortunately, Gronk (filling in for Oppen?!?!) was there and bats the ball down and giddily states “I could have let them win” before running off the field. The Daveo led Green Machine are the Champs. Green machine was battle tested. They lost Iceman early on in the season and then lost Oppen right before the playoffs. They dealt with injuries, no shows and cancellations. Throughout it all though one GM with some crazy ideas stayed strong (and made the commish crazy) to win it all. But it goes deeper than that. While Daveo led his team, he had a new rookie jewballer who was an absolute constant for Green Machine throughout the season. I am not going to go into the stats but Avenger played through some real sh$t. pun intended. He somehow played every game despite injuries, work, making bad calls (jk Avenger) and just managed to keep winning through it all. Whether he’s the new jewball villian or not, time will tell, but for now he is a Championship Game MVP and Jewball Champion. Despite my lobbying, Avenger was not ROY and the answer perplexes me. Avenger won a chip, had great stats and really took the leap into jewball land this year way more than last season. But fortunately for jewball, and it makes me say BH how lucky we are every day, that the only reason he didn’t win it is because of a guy by the name of Legobomb.
I don’t think we have ever had a rookie come in with so much hype as we have Lego. I also don’t think we have had a rookie come in who has taken to the jewball way and felt like he’s been a jewballer for 10 years as much as Lego. Lego came in and not just wowed us on the field but wowed us off of it as well. Between his football game and chat game there is no one more worthy of having the ROY title than Lego. He won a bunch, he chatted a bunch, he stickered a bunch….but most of all he Jewballed a bunch. He came in with minimal ego and maximum talent. It’s been a wonder to watch him play and also to grow throughout the season. While the title of ROY isn’t something you can win year after year, it is something that cements your status as a jewballer and something that shows you are truly one of one. While ROY has been a relatively new award except for 2012 Steveo, you join the likes of Ernie, Zinn, Ice and (me! ;)). While we only had you for about 15 games this season, what you have accomplished was truly amazing and something that will be quite difficult to repeat. We of course are more than happy for you and your future wife and we wish you nothing but simcha and mazel, but it is slightly bittersweet that we will be seeing a limited amount of Lego on the field next season. Iyh we will get what we can and of course the chat goes beyond time zones. I have no doubt that while you may not physically be here we will absolutely feel your presence. The race for the 27-28 MVP awaits your return.
While this season has been one of real growth for me. We were also tested a bit. Between injuries, weak signups, and weather we powered through despite it all. As Jewballers always do. While the snow brings us something that we crave, the snow bringeth but it also taketh. We had three incredible snow games this year (and one prancing ice bowl), the most I believe we ever had, but after the third one….. the snow took away football. Four weeks of nothing. The temps dropped and snow turned to blocks of ice and were quite literally Iced in. But like I’ve said, this season was one of growth and while the snow would delay and kick our games into April, Jewball would not be stopped. We were onto the next idea, yes fields were checked daily, but the Jewballers needed something and the SuperBowl breakfast would come in the clutch. Kuti has been a jewballer for who knows how long, but being able to play on his team this year and see first hand as “commish” everything he does behind the scenes for jewball was eye opening. Obviously I knew most of this beforehand but for some reason it was different now. Not only does he open his home to us for SB breakfast but he is always the first person to offer to help set up, cleanup, prep etc for every single jewball event. Between Chanukah parties, Waldo 7b, BBQ’s, purim hot dogs and the list goes on (and yes I realize it is mainly food related now) Kuti is the man behind it all. He does it all with a smile on his face and absolute love for Jewball. On top of that, at 42 years old he still signs up for both every week to play line. Playing line for three plays is hard enough (my shoulder found out the hard way) but two whole games without complaint is something that should truly be applauded. For that, it is abundantly clear to me that Kut is the Jewball Man of the Year (MOY?) He represents Jewball in everything he does. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever seen him not in his jewball sweatshirt. While his settling of rookies has taken a slight dip, there is no one more deserving to rep the title of MOY more than Kuti.
Speaking of in both, it started as something that was an actual meaningful phrase…. it quite literally meant “I am signing up for both games on sunday”. As a rookie, I remember times when Jordan would not grant my in both and I would be upset. Following a few of those occasions, Prime and I began to say In Both for everything and it truly became a way of life. Yes, it still does mean we are going to try and play an insane amount of games throughout the jewball season but it is not just playing in the games that means “in both” it is playing in the games with a ferocity that only someone with a full in both mentality can bring. Therefore, it is only fitting that we award someone the In Both player of the year. Someone who truly personifies signing up for both, playing both, but also living it as a way of life. There are a bunch of guys who I could think of but no one comes to mind clearer (whiter?) than Bartender. He truly was a man on a mission this year to play as much football as possible and to become a completely different player than he was last year. The motor and the drive to succeed was intoxicating. Kagan you are now the racist, the CPOY, The In Both OY and a champion. Keep elevating your game bro.
While I can probably go down a rabbit hole and talk about every single jewballer and how they had an impact on my rookie commish season, the hour is late and hopefully no one cares that badly. I obvs need to shout out my league team and everything we were able to accomplish- stats, sam, djcp, kut, vegh, storm, schiffer, and solo it was an honor to play with you guys this season and looking forward to many more games in the future. I know Solo said he’s retiring, and I am choosing not to believe it, but if this was your farewell tour it was a pretty magnificent one. You were dominant this season. While we missed the ultimate goal of a chip we hope to see you back next season regardless of what you may have written in the chat. You will always be one of the best to ever do it. Right up there with the likes of munch oppen dk/legs. Two other shoutouts that absolutely require mention are the captains. Yes, they deserve a ton of blame. But they also deserve a ton of credit. Leagues aren’t perfect. We all know that. But they are an integral part of the jewball season and they give us an intensity of games that is unmatched with other weeks. Captain Stella, Kut, Prime, Rook, and GM Daveo…. you guys made me crazy but it was so worth it. Thank you for stepping up and being the leaders for leagues that we needed.
The last shoutout goes to someone who I absolutely despise. He makes arcade games about me. He makes fun of my golf game and my weight. But most of all he thinks he’s cool. I guess I didn’t fully understand what Jordan meant when he said that having a partner to help with field set up and other things make such a huge difference. But Jewball would not function without yaron. I could go on and on about what a terrible person he is but we need him and to have him be someone who contributes so much time, effort and money into jewball is incredible. Thank you yaron. A very special thank you steveo as well who keep the website running and makes sure we don’t miss a beat when it comes to all things jewball. The wizard really is a one man show behind the scenes.
There is one more award…. and I have procrastinated in writing this recap because of it. There are so many guys who are MVPs when it comes to Jewball. But mvp is not an award to be given out lightly. It is a signal that this person, this player, this jewballer is the best of the best. Not necessarily only in talent on the field but that they personify what a jewballer is and they have reached the pinnacle of that success. This year, after the dust all settled, it came down to two people. The never aging rat in Mighty and the always staying young Zinnvader. Both guys are truly deserving of the award. Both guys have played through everything and dominated the 25-26 season. While I can get into the Stats and break down the numbers, what both mighty and zinn do on the field isn’t always computed in a number on a screen. The amount of times QBs have to say “hey dont throw it there” which then leads to someone else getting a sack or int or the amount of times they get double covered so someone else can get open and catch a TD just shows how much attention one needs to pay them on the field. To still perform and lead the league in tds and a bunch of other stats just goes to show you how incredible these two players are and how lucky we are to have them as jewballers.
While Jordan and the Advisor to the Commish had their own thing going, Mighty is my bath buddy and someone who I really look up to when it comes to football. He’s been one of the best players in a league full of incredible talent for the past decade. He is going up against guys half his age and still playing every play with the same intensity as he has always had. While I have known mighty since before jewball, back to the old football and basketball days in KGH with his dad, I didn’t understand the legend of mighty until more recently. Yes, Jordan likes to make sure we all think of him as someone who thinks he’s better than us, but Mighty has been nothing but supportive this entire season. Whether it be private messages with ideas about jewball or on the field discussions on actual gameplay, I have learned a ton from Mighty this past season. To showing up in an elf suit for jesus bowl, to monsey for Lego, or to just come back to film game 2s or watch from the sidelines, he absolutely personifies jewball through and through and it is a privilege to be able to share the field with him week in and week out. He is our reigning mvp and for good reason and deserves every bit of this year’s MVP award. But now that I have spoken about mighty…. I guess you all know where I am headed.
5 years ago a skinny athletic kid scoots up to a jewball game… yaron calls his mom and the rest is history. Now he is a Jewball MVP. It’s hard to argue that Zinn could not have won MVP in past years. He certainly had the numbers for it and before Lego he was probably the last rookie who just bought into everything we do here with such a youthful exuberance. He has been the most dominant player in jewball since he joined. While this isn’t strictly a numbers award, Zinn led the league in tds this season with 27 while only playing 19 games at wr. add to that 3 rushing tds, 5 passing tds and 7 ints on defense, this season was all around for zinn. Yes, while he may have struggled with time occasionally, he was always there to jump into game 2 when needed and to bring plus 1s whenever we had some trouble getting to 14. He has become a leader both on and off the field well beyond his years. Personally, I don’t know if I have ever played against someone who you have to account for where he is on the field as much as Zinn. Someone wise once said that we have gotten so lucky that some jewballers feel like they’ve been created in a lab. Now that is not just referring to on field talent. That is referring to a Jewball state of mind as a whole and Zinn personifies that to the max. Zinn, like I said for Lego, we are so freaking happy for you on your wedding iyh, we are def a bit saddened that we won’t see as much of you on the field next season. I sincerely hope that you and dobs carpool each and every week together and that you continue your dominance with us and we see many more mvps in your future. I could go on and on and talk about how good of a player Zinn is but we all know it. There was some poetic justice last year when Mighty finally won MVP in Jordan’s last season despite arguably deserving a whole bunch of times before that. In that same vein, passing the MVP from one guy who could have won it every year in Mighty to another in Zinn feels somewhat surreal as a rookie commish. Therefore, with whatever power Jordan vested in me and without creating an ego (I hope)…Zinn, you are officially the 2025-2026 Jewball MVP. “From Roy to MVP – the Invader Scoot Story”. IYH many more of these in your future. Zinn, wishing you nothing but simcha and mazel as you start out your new life together with your kolloh.
One final final note- Jordan…… I have no idea how or why you entrusted me with this but I hope that we made you proud from afar. The two weeks we got with you here was incredible and we were truly blessed by that. Just a personal thank you for guiding us from afar and making sure that we just keep getting better and better. From the bottom of my heart we miss you and thank you for guiding this world we get to be a part of. Thank you.
While the offseason might be upon us, the Jewball world has no end. We got Weddings, 7bs, kiddushes by daveo, Ernie events, MidSommar, softball, golf, ultimate and the list goes on. In the words of our new TBI theme song- “football, friendship…..from the league to the laughs… you know we’re gonna win”. Let’s keep winning the offseason iyh and keep grinding out the days till the next season starts. To all the injured guys now’s the time to get healthy and put work in. Let’s come back stronger than ever and keep one upping ourselves from the season before. Let’s grow together as a unit, as jewballers. FGD out.
Who wants Week 1???????!!!!!!
2026-2027 SEASON PRECAP
SEASON PRECAP
It is crazy to think that one year ago Jewball started off on a new journey. We called it the Succession. Jordan went off to the holy land and I was left babysitting all of you cry babies….just kidding. But with Jordan not being here on a regular basis, it was on all of us to truly bridge the gap from past to future. To make this transition as seamless as possible. And BH We did exactly that. That is not to say there haven’t been challenges.. of course there have been but we have braved every storm (literally) in a way that only Jewball knows how to do and that’s with perseverance, energy, and absolute in both mentality. It’s not just a love of the game of football. It’s a love for the people in this group and the strength of those bonds that keeps Jewball running like a machine. It’s time to finally wake up from months of nothing and say IN to everything Jewball has to offer.
Speaking of challenges…I am cognizant of the date while I’m writing this. Three years ago today has no words to describe it. It was a gut punch to everyone and it was months and years of pain and agony for our brothers and sisters everywhere. But I think like many of us we became more proud and more emboldened to say I’m a jew. I believe Rabin came up with the name Jewball 20 something years ago, but wearing my JEWball sweatshirt and shirts around made me feel somehow more special. It’s who we are and it’s our identity. Whether it was Jordan arranging for bbqs for soldiers or yakir raising money for boots for soldiers or old time jewballers like joey (I forgot his jewball name) reaching out to raise money. Jewball stepped up in our own way and that deserves some reflection. To be cliche but it’s in the darkest moments that you can see the light. But that’s what we always have done. I’m not sure the dark moments are over but at least we can be a small Island of hope and positive energy in this world. It starts with football but it certainly does not end there.
8 years ago I got a text from a spicy fellow who asked- “hey sholom (no clue who that is) wanna play in this thing called Jewball”? Next thing I know I’m standing in Gries park with a handful of Jewballers and 193ers. Some kid named De’Ante asked me my name and I hesitated, do I say sholom or prager. I was pringle. That was it. Whether I showed up for any more games or not I would forever be Pringle. But to me that was the hook. A group of guys who had a love for the game of football as much as I did but could have a good time both on and off the field. Guys who cared for each other no matter what. Of course the name has changed a bunch over the last 8 years, to its current FGD iteration, but the Jewball world has not. It has grown into something that Rabin and Jordan and the Oracle could never have ever imagined. Even if you take away every other amazing thing this group does, we are the pinnacle of football and that’s not going to change as long we keep our foot on the gas. So hit that sign up button every week. Make sure that you’re starting your season off on the right foot. It was a long summer but now is the time to shake off the rust and get back into it. Rookies, we were all there once. I promise if you show up week in and week out and go to work, you will be guaranteed to have the best moments and memories of your lives. You’ve only just dipped your toe into the jewball pool…. go full cannonball you will not regret it. The bonds and brother hood we form here don’t break once you’re off the field or chat. You can be anywhere in the world, literally, and meet a fellow jewballer and instant connection. It could be someone you’ve never met or played with and immediately you’re talking about games or events that occurred on this island that we get to be a part of.
So whether you’re a rook or a vet, week 1 is finally here. The only hard part is starting correctly. Say in both to football and bowl games, say in both to the extra curriculars we have, but most of all- say in both to jewball.
We got draft night tomorrow night to see who will win leagues because if you win the draft then well…. Let’s get this season started off with a bang.
Who wants Week 1. IJWT. Huh? eh lol
