FF HoF- Faulk

RUNNING BACKS

Marshall Faulk

First things first, how sweet would it have been if Marshall Faulk had played with Peyton on the Colts for more than one year. Peyton's rookie season was Marshall's last year in Indy and the tailback eclipsed 2,000 scrimmage yards for the first time in his career. He led the league in yards that season and then went on to average 2200 yards and 20 touchdowns over the next three years with the Greatest Show on Turf. Injuries were his biggest downfall, missing two or more games five out of his ten prime seasons. He still managed to lead RBs in fantasy points in 2000 and 2001, playing 14 games. Marshall broke both Barry Sanders' scrimmage yards record by gaining 2429 in '99 and the rushing touchdowns record, with 26 in '00. Many of us saw this get broken by Priest Holmes then Shuan Alexander then LDT in the recent past.

Year---Rank at RB----------Stats
'94-----4th--------------1804 yards. 12 td.
'95-----6th--------------1553 yards. 14 td.
*'96----17th-------------1015 yards. 7 td.
'97-----7th--------------1525 yards. 8 td.
'98-----3rd--------------2227 yards. 10 td.
'99-----2nd--------------2429 yards. 12 td.
^'00----1st--------------2189 yards. 26 td.
^'01----1st--------------2147 yards. 21 td.
^'02----14th-------------1490 yards. 10 td.
#'03----16th-------------1108 yards. 11 td.

*=13 games due to injury
^=14 games due to injury
#=11 games due to being old and slow
bold=led the league

FF HoF- Emmitt

RUNNING BACKS

Emmitt Smith

During the Cowboys run of three Super Bowls in four years, Emmitt Smith led the NFL in fantasy points each season. Emmitt came in with a bang in 90 putting up over 1100 yards and 11 tds in his first season. Over the next nine seasons Smith was in the top six among running backs eight times. He never lost time due to injury and his only sub par season was when he failed to get into the endzone more than four times. You could always count on him for the yardage during the 90s. He definitely hung on a little too long as the 2000s came along, but hopefully you didn't hang on with him. He dropped to a 20 something ranked running back in his final five seasons. This doesn't take away from him being the most successful fantasy running back of all time.

Year---Rank at RB----------Stats
'90-----7th--------------1165 yards. 11 td.
'91-----3rd--------------1821 yards. 13 td.
'92-----1st--------------2048 yards. 19 td.
'93-----1st--------------1900 yards. 10 td.
'94-----1st--------------1825 yards. 22 td.
'95-----1st--------------2148 yards. 25 td.
'96-----5th--------------1453 yards. 15 td.
'97-----18th-------------1308 yards. 4 td.
'98-----6th--------------1507 yards. 15 td.
'99-----5th--------------1516 yards. 13 td.

bold=led the league

FF HoF- Sanders

RUNNING BACKS

Barry Sanders

Although he would never make a touchdown celebration hall of fame, because he never did it, Barry Sanders is a sure fire inductee to my fantasy football hall of fame. Some argue he is the best running back of all time, I'd say he is definitely top three. Barry was on the LIONS for his entire ten year career and made the pro-bowl every single season. He led RBs in fantasy points three seasons and was in the top four six times. He only missed more than one game once in his career when he injured his knee during the Thanksgiving Day game. That 1993 season as well as his last year in '97, Sanders failed to put up the touchdowns to keep him an elite back. This was the type of durable back you could count on to play every week and get the yardage you needed each Sunday.

Year---Rank at RB----------Stats
'89-----4th--------------1752 yards. 14 td.
'90-----1st--------------1784 yards. 16 td.
'91-----1st--------------1855 yards. 17 td.
'92-----7th--------------1577 yards. 10 td.
*'93----16th-------------1320 yards. 3 td.
'94-----2nd--------------2166 yards. 8 td.
'95-----3rd--------------1898 yards. 12 td.
'96-----6th--------------1700 yards. 11 td.
'97-----1st--------------2358 yards. 14 td.
'98-----10th-------------1780 yards. 4 td.

*=missed five games with knee injury
bold=led the league

Fantasy LL- Week 1

So my second round pick, Elson Pickering, has decided to get injured and play with it. He has continued to play 10 to 20 minutes a game and perform well below his standards. Luckily I picked his handcuff in the last round to fill in for me, while Elson gets back into the swing of things. Ty leads the league in overall points this week with three guys with three games. Mags beat Evan with one of his guys (Temgoua) having a phantom disappearance from the lineup. Larry had all five starters with three games this week and failed to produce 300 points...ouch. Rob Estep was a great pick by Lar. Harlee Wood had the best individual performance (57 points) against good old Vassar. Here are the three matchups of Week 1.

CountryJess (1-0)


G Josh Sharlow, SLU- 32, 31= 63
G Steve Madej, UNI- 33, 27, 29= 89
G/F Garrett Sharlow, SLU- 31, 42= 73
F Drew Desmaris, UNI- 56, 34, 59= 149
F Jon Douglas, SKD- 26, 30, 14= 70

Total= 444


vs.


Henry Gale's Heroes (0-1)


G Rob Estep, HOB- 8, 7, 6= 21
G Lance Wilson, HAM- 24, 27, 17= 68
G/F Tim Llewellyn, HOB- 13, 32, 30= 75
F Joey Lokitis, UNI- 20, 30, 17= 67
F Bobby Langford, SKD- 36, 14, 12= 62

Total= 293





Intercepting the Intersect (1-0)


F Sam Simmons, RPI- 25, 54= 79
G Drew Goldstein, UNI- 30, 39, 24= 93
F Matt Covucci, UNI- 45, 47, 53= 145
G Brian Butterworth, VAS- 21, 29= 50
F George Koduah, CLK- 25, 32= 57

Total= 424


vs.


Alpha Q (0-1)


G Brandon Linton, CLK-26, 47= 73
G Lenny Holt, VAS- 14, 12= 26
F Tim Rupp, RPI- 49, 15= 64
G/F Jeff Altimar, SKD- 30, 29, 29= 88
F Ricky Philatre, RPI- 25, 23= 48

Total= 299





F It- We'll Do It Live (1-0)


F Harlee Wood, HAM- 28, 57, 50= 135
G Ralph Temgoua, SLU- no games
F Matt Nunn, VAS- 39, 25= 64
G Gerard O'Shea, SKD- 30, 39, 34= 103
G/F Adam Salzman, HOB- 29, 17, 49= 95

Total= 397


vs.


The Great Muppet Capers (0-1)



G Tom Wopperer, SLU- 24, 16= 40
F Richard Williams, SLU- 37, 46= 83
G/F Joey Davis, VAS- 8, 22= 30
F Bela Vonnak, SLU- 45, 33= 78
G Caleb McGraw, VAS- 23, 5= 28

Total= 259

FF HoF- Dickerson

RUNNING BACKS

Eric Dickerson

Other than playing for the best franchise in the NFL, Dickerson also was amazing at getting yards from scrimmage. He led the league in the category four out of his first six years in the league. In those same first six seasons he topped 2,000 yards four times and totaled less than 12 touchdowns only once ('87 when was traded mid-season and only played 12 games). He led running backs in fantasy points three seasons and was second or third twice. Like many of the top backs, he deteriorated early in his career and couldn't sustain his prowess. His early dominance is worthy of a nod to the HoF.

Year----Rank at RB----------Stats
'83------1st---------------2212 yards. 20 td.
'84------2nd---------------2244 yards. 14 td.
'85------11th--------------1360 yards. 12 td.
'86------1st---------------2026 yards. 12 td.
*'87-----3rd---------------1459 yards. 6 td.
'88------1st---------------2036 yards. 15 td.
'89------9th---------------1522 yards. 8 td.

*=12 games due to mid-season trade
bold=led the league

Quote of the Day

From Privileged...

After the typical jerk of a friend makes a bad joke about Sage's boyfriend being poor.

Rose- "Are you ok?"
Sage- "Please, like I wasn't expecting this? He's poor. I'm rich. Gass. It's so shocking? They did it on the first 90210."

FF HoF- Payton

RUNNING BACKS

When it came down to choosing running backs for my Fantasy Football Hall of Fame, it looked trickier than QBs. The lifespan of a back in the NFL is typically much shorter than a signal caller so I had to look at things a little differently. In the end it came down to the same factors. Which guys dominated fantasy football on a consistent basis. You don't want a dude that was top five in the league every other year, cause he killed teams in the years that he wasn't a great back.

Walter Payton

This first running back honoree into the Fantasy Football Hall of Fame was as good as they come when he first entered the league. He was a top four RB from 76-80 and led the league three seasons in a row. He went on to break Jim Brown's career rushing record in 84. After two down years, including the strike year of 82, Sweetness came back with four more top five seasons before his career ended. From 83-85 he surpassed 2,000 scrimmage yards and 11 touchdowns each season.

Year----Rank at RB----------Stats
*76------2nd---------------1539 yards. 13 td.
*77------1st---------------2121 yards. 16 td.
78-------1st---------------1875 yards.11 td.
79-------1st---------------1923 yards. 17 td.
80-------4th---------------1827 yards. 7 td.
81-------13th--------------1601 yards. 8 td.
#82------13th--------------907 yards. 2 td.
83-------4th---------------2028 yards. 11 td.
84-------4th---------------2052 yards. 13 td.
85-------4th---------------2034 yards. 12 td.
86-------5th---------------1715 yards. 11 td.

*=14 game seasons
#=strike ended 9 game season
bold=led the league

Jack Is Back

The show that got me to be the terrible television freak that I am is back after taking 2008 off because of the writers' strike. For the second time, Jack Bauer and 24 had a two night, four hour premier this past Sunday and Monday. Back during my sophomore year of college, Larry brought the first three seasons of the real-time drama to our suite. I finished the 72 episodes in about 6 weeks (albeit this was much longer than it took Larry and Mags who stayed up til 5 a.m. watching eps). Mags then went out and bought a bootleg Asian version of season 4 so we got to see the best season ever (with Habib Marwan) before it came back on the air in January.

Now I agree with all of you that seasons five and six have not been up to par with the fourth or third installments, but season seven has started out with a bang. Even though I knew beforehand that, spoiler alert, Tony, Bill and Chloe were coming back for this season, it was still an unbelievable moment. Sure I am as gullible as the next idiot and believed Tony was completely dirty, but finding out that he is working under cover with Buchannon and Chloe to take down the corrupt US Government was like a magical conjunction. When Jacko joins them during the fourth hour to go under, it truly geared me up for a great season.

Just think, Lost starts in less than a week...