First, there was League Week. Then, there was Weague Leek. And now there is League Weak. League Weak happens when all the anticipation and excitement of a Jewball League Sunday gets forcibly deflated – violently stamped from our spirits – by circumstances – both in and out of our control. The easy joke to make is that everyone hates Yaron. Bron, one of our true leaders, talents, competitors, and a QB on fire (not the dumpster kind) had nearly his entire team abandon ship by Sunday morning. You couldn’t make it up. O came down with a case of Sharmel’s Revenge. Zada made his wife make him a surprise birthday party (his birthday is in July). Beast got that thing where you don’t like Yaron and can’t get out of bed. Sting woke up in the middle of the night, realized he was on Yaron’s team, and started vomiting blood. DK woke up in the morning, realized he was on Yaron’s team, and chained himself to the radiator. Storm at least remembered he was on Yaron’s team the night before and wisely got wasted and threw his phone onto the mat at Wrestlemania so that Yaron could no longer contact him. And there went the cowardly Lion Hearts. No one showed to face the Top Guns. Except Yaron and Irv. So game was postponed. This was the part of the deflation that was out of our control. The part that was in our control was our reaction. Guys, you can call this moment in Jewball whatever you want – you can blame whoever you want – but one thing it has never been was bad energy. And this past week was bad energy (and editor’s note – I’m told continued on TBI). I’m not above it. I admit. I got sucked into the negative cycle as well. That’s on me to watch myself. And it’s on you to watch yourself. This is a brotherhood of volunteers. No one is paid to be here. No one has to be here. If you are here, love being here. Or like being here. Or quietly dislike being here. But there is no such thing as loud dislike of being here. That’s not a Jewball thing. We fall victim to it sometimes. We forget sometimes. Let’s try to remember. Jewball is the island in the chaos. It has to be.
Game 1 was a League Game! It was Roll Tide (0-1) v. BOP (1-0). Pray was still out and Solo was on a holiday in Spain (yeah, that’s right – I’m a Crows fan), so the surprise team from League Week 1 would need to have a few more tricks up their sleeve to beat the extremely dangerous squad of rooks. But before we get to the on-field action, let’s talk about the weather. This was a brutally cold Sunday morning. Not super windy as was threatened in the forecast, but nonetheless freeze your fingertips off cold. Decent amount of sun, which helps. Old dudes were out and doing there thing, which helps. But the extremities were in danger last week if you didn’t either keep moving or keep em in pockets. With that, I just remind everyone that we had about 30 players come out on Sunday for the love of football to sustain that type of pain and discomfort. I always say…Jewball is more than football. It’s that mental edge over everyone around you. All those who stayed home Sunday morning (non Jewballers and their kind). You own them.
Momentum is a thing and BOP had it coming off a big win against the previously top seeded Top Guns. With Gronk QB for Pray, the charmed signal caller looked to continue his run of winning. And he got his chance to put his mark on the game very early on. Dachs throws a pick to Tom in RT’s first possession and Tom runs it to RT’s 8. First and goal. Gronk looked cold, miserable, and like he didn’t want to be there. But he looks like that every game he plays so can’t read anything into that. What we could read into was his failure to find the open man. His inability to look comfortable. Without Solo protecting him, Oppen Legs gushed right through the line and you saw something you hardly see from Gronk – panic, desperation – sloppiness. He missed Goldberg on 1st and goal and didn’t come close on the next 3 attempts. Dachs took over and although it wasn’t mistake free the rest of the way (3 picks on the day), he breezed through his progressions. His cavalcade of horses were running wild on the BOP defense. Again, without Solo bringing the pressure – Dachs had the time – and we know he has the skill. He sees the field well. He knows his players well. He spreads the ball well. Unless a team is at full strength, RT will be tough to beat. And BOP was not at full strength. That said, they weren’t really out of the game until late. Prime was his usual League self. Locked in and ready to kill. Fatherhood has not softened this man. Could be if he got the ball on that first BOP possession we have a different outcome. He moved the ball for BOP on screens and outs that turned into big yards. But it wasn’t enough. Dachs and Dax is a wicked tandem. Fun to watch. Frustrating to play against. We all know what Steveo can do in coverage, but a perfect jump ball to Zinn in the back of the endzone will win 9 out of 10 times. Two TDs to Zinn and 1 to Dax was all RT needed. There was some controversy because…why not…Did Legs call sack? Did Ernie maintain possession? Did Gronk get sacked before throwing the ball? Probably. I don’t think so. Probably. But, these are quibbles. Was a decent game. The better team won. Next time they meet up it’ll be with Pray and Solo and fully loaded action. Let’s go. Shout out to Rook for replacing Stats late and making a game of it. Hard nosed player, that Rook. I can’t take anything away from BOP. This was a tough assignment. They needed to play perfectly and it wasn’t going to happen with the weather and the pressure Gronk was facing. They played hard wire to wire. They were just outgunned. Both RT and BOP go to 1-1. Hard to give a Jewball to someone who isn’t playing defense and threw 3 picks….but we all know that Dachs is the straw that stirs the RT drink. Jewball to Oppen/Legs for the pressure on Gronk. You guys made an unflappable QB look extremely flappable. Gronk is probably going to learn a few new tricks because of this game, because his old tricks were not at his disposal because of what you beasts brought. Congrats.
Game 2 was Yaron v. Feit as scheduled, but thankfully it didn’t count. The TGs were basically broken up into 2 teams along with RT refugees Whiskey and Waldo, and a game was played in the slightly warmer weather. Feit had game wreckers Munch and Solo on his side and it didn’t take long to figure out that the best thing to do was to let them wreck the game. Misdirection one way and Feit running with Singer and Munch out front yielded an early score for Colors. And although Yaron was extremely sharp on Sunday, the Colors defense was quite effective. The back and forth battle of Jordan v. Waldo on jump balls in the endzone continued – with Jordan stopping another one (though not atoning for last week’s game winner by Waldo). With Colors up 1-0, and Yaron’s third possession stalled at Colors’ 20 on 4th and goal, the defense forced him to throw up a bad pass to Mighty who was in the back of the endzone. The ball came down well short of the endzone and Tom and Singer were there. Behind them Jordan. Behind him Mighty. Tom tips the ball over Singer. And it lands between Jordan and Singer….into the diving arms of a rat. 1-1.
Feit scored two TDs for his team on Sunday, so he was far better than Zach Wilson, but nothing in the passing game was working. However, as mentioned, with Munch and Singer….you don’t need it to. Same play. Feit runs. The big boys lead block. Colors take back the lead. The rest of the game was tight and it was a bend don’t break affair for Colors. With the offense stagnant, it was a matter of whether they could make the 2 scores hold up. To my joy and dismay, Yaron lined up Mighty on Jordan for the entire second half. Joy because that’s the guy I want to go up against until the day I retire. Dismay because he make everyone look bad. One turn around after another after another after another. Chipping away. A Mighty catch, some extra yards with muscle and shiftiness. Salem did an incredible job coming over to help. Singer did an incredible job coming over the top to help. But Mighty is on that MVP trip this season. He’s never won it. He’s talking about retiring. Leave to the Rat to make it his mission and priority to go out on top. Combine Mighty’s success at picking up yards with a few near picks by Singer not being converted into turnovers…it started to feel like only a matter of time. Eventually, Yaron found himself at the goal line and Mighty busted from the slot to the middle – behind the defense….wide open score. Tie game. And with time expiring and Feit still unable to get anything going on offense, Yaron found Mighty deep and although Irv pushed him out at the 1….it was just delaying the inevitable. Yaron throws a bullet to Mighty on a bullet slant and the game is won in comeback fashion by Dark. Add a Jewball to the stat sheet for my TG teammate, Mighty. If Mighty does retire….and he won’t….this will be remembered as the one special season where Zinn and Mighty overlapped like shooting stars crossing in space.
I was going to save my feel good message for the pre-Thanksgiving Teams post, but….I’m hearing that TBI was a rough watch – and although I will check it out myself and judge – I might as well go there now:
5 years ago today, I was preparing Jewball for it’s Turkey Bowl. It was the darkest days of the Dark Age. And it was about to get abysmal. There was no Jewball. We had withered to nearly nothing and had resigned ourselves to the most wretched of fates – we had joined Croton. And it wasn’t even the best of us. It was the good of us. We were called Jewball. I know it was me, MK (when he was around), Press (who replaced Rabin as QB), Rabin of course, Kut of course, Horwitz, probably Steveo or Daveo….was basically that Dark Ages crew who were still hanging on…God bless them. Seriously. I remember we played Perla’s team and though I don’t remember him exactly – I do remember chasing someone who was like Mighty in his prime. I remember Zez played for us one week and got us our only W (though I was out at the time – soon to be explained). I remember Tom caught the game winning TD…..so he must have been with us : )
Anyway, the point was…..we could not get Sunday Jewball games….so we gave up. The prior few seasons were leading us in this direction. It did not come as surprise. So it was pathetic. Then it got worse.
I was 2 months away from 40 and was a perfectly good time to say….hey, it was a nice run. Football was a big part of my life for a bunch of years….now….its’ over. On Thanksgiving, Goldberg caught the ball and I grabbed his shirt to pull his flag or maybe just to stop him (what Dachs would call Holding) and he kept going. My index finger tendon ripped and I could no longer make a fist. Didn’t figure this out until after the game. Had surgery…rehab…the whole thing. Not only was Jewball dead, but I was on the sidelines of the godforsaken Croton games. Season ends. Jewball ends. THE END.
But no…
That’s not how it went.
A Revolution happened.
An Enlightenment happened.
I met so many of you. You met so many of you. Our lives got better. Our football got sooo much better. We made real changes in the world! We healed and grew and built and flourished. My message is only – I am extremely thankful for all of you. Appreciative, Grateful. Don’t take any of it for granted. All that. I feel it. We feel it. We live in a world that loves to talk about privilege. That’s just a word wielded like a weapon. It’s not a good word to use. This is Jewball. There is no privilege. There is blessing. We are blessed. For real. It’s so clear. Recognize and appreciate it. I’ll echo what I said up top. If you can’t appreciate it and show hakaras hatov for it – this isn’t the place for you. We ask for nothing here but positive energy. If you are feeling negative about Jewball, take a step back and ask yourself if this is where you want to be. But under no circumstances will we tolerate negative energy here. Life is too short.