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.

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, Steve-O, 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 that’s 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. Don’t 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.

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

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.

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.

Who wants week 6!!

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?

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!

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

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! 

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