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

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

GAME 2

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