OUTCAST AND OUTSTANDING

This article is gonna be a little different from the rest because of the fact that you see me in the picture on the bottom left. In my pre-championship pep talk, I reminded everybody of why we were all on one team. You see, there came a time at the manager's meeting when Geoff asked all the free agents to stand up, and about 10 people stood up. Then he asked all the team captains "Now who needs more players?"... No one raised their hand or spoke up. So these players, by virtue of not knowing anyone with a team or enough people to make their own team, were cast out to the land of misfit toys. In the interest of adding a little organization to this merry band of brothers wh just met each other, Geoff said to me "Hey, why don't you play for them." I thought we'd be OK, maybe get a touchdown here and there and even win a game or two. I honestly didn't think going into the season that we'd go undefeated and come away with the championship trophy. But we did. It's a feel-good story. Like the Mighty Ducks sans-Emilio Estivez. And I'll tell you what, at the end of the season when we were the last team standing, there were probably a lot of teams who wished they'd picked up a free agent or two at the meeting. As it turns out, there was a REALLY good free agent pool this year.

We went into the playoffs with a bye and had a relatively tough time with Dats All Day in the semis. Thankfully we jumped out to an early 2-touchdown lead on two interceptions run back for touchdowns in the first 6 minutes of the game. After that, they swicthed quarterbacks and Reggie was getting outside our normally stifling rush to run for 15-20 yards a play. But leading 19-12 with a minute left, Tom got a crucial first down on a hitch and go play to get us to the one-yard line so we were able to run time out from there. In the other semi-final game, I was sure that Beer would make it to the finals and possibly get the post-season monkey off their back. You see, for the last 17 years, Beer has gone undefeated in the regular season and inexplicably lost every single time in the playoffs, usually in the finals to a team they blew out in the regular season. And then they ran into the Recruits. Both Frank and I knew that our game in the regular season was probably just to determine who would have to face Beer first. Well, Beer looked to be off to a pretty comanding lead, intercepting a ball on the first play from scrimmage and throwing a long touchdown on the second play of the game. That might have actually been another game that I'm thinking of, but I'm pretty sure that every game starts out with Farina looking off the safety to the left and coming back to Dan running a go route on the right for a touchdown. Regardless, I know they went into halftime winning 13-0 and they had the ball to start the second half. It looked over at that point and I think most people had counted out the Recruits at that point too. But a quarterback change was only the beginning of their turnaround. After a long pass play to Dan, Beer's go-to-guy, there was a blatant tackle, which was going to add 15 yards to the end of the run. But the tackle started a fight which got 3 players from Beer and 1 from the Recruits kicked out of the game. Beer had the ball within the Recruits 20-yard line and a 13 point lead and that was the best they had it until the final whistle sounded. A missed fourth down conversion gave the Recruits the ball and without their defensive captain (Dan) and one of their starting D linemen, they couldn't get enough pressure on Jerome. Jerome marched down the field and gave the Recruits their first touchdown on a QB run with about 5 minutes left in the game. Starting with the ball on their own 20, Beer proceded to go backwards for a couple plays and on third and about 35, Fast Eddie came into the game and played line for one play and managed a sack on Farina to both get a much needed two points to bring them within 4, but also it earned them the ball back at the 40 with just over a minute left to play. And it didn't take them long. A 10 yard play over the middle to Omar, another to AJ, and a bomb to Dave in the back of the end zone earned them the lead with 20 seconds to go. Beer would not recover. It was an emotionally exhausting win for the Recruits and I think that may have been what hurt them coming into the championship game against us. To be honest, we had our way with them on defense. They didn't get a first down the entire first half. And because of the last game we played against the Recruits, where Jeremy basically won the game for us on a fourth and five with a one-handed catch on the sideline on his 10-yard drag route, Tom noticed the safety squatting on that play which freed him up for the deep post. He was right. We never looked back. And because of the nature of our defense, Jerome just had to throw the ball up in hopes that his receivers would make a play, but Jason and Az were great that day keeping the ball out of the hands of Dave and Omar. Great game, great season and even without me, they'll be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. A lot of people give me too much credit. It was the defense that won us every game we played and now they know the secrets of running it. Prepare yourselves.

Free Ballin' Agents, Fall 2003 NFL Champions

NEVERMORE

They were pretty cocky and I just kept waiting for them to hit that wall. But they didn't. They were apparently correct when they said they were the team to beat. And their name was very appropriate. Ravens 2000. They played good defense and lots of small ball control offense and won games with scores like 13-12 and 6-0. They had a dynamite running back. I don't know what his name is, but you don't see somebody juke people that consistantly in flag football too often. They won their championship game on a long run where he completely lost at least two Teke defenders who had him right in their grasp. It was pretty nasty. But I need to take a step back to their semi-final game for the most memorable ending to a game I've possibly ever seen in UMBC flag football. And I've been here for a while. The Dawgs had the ball with under a minute and were driving down the field and it looked like they were going to score and end the Ravens miracle run short of the championship game. Having spent all their time outs already, they could only stop the clock by throwing an incomplete pass or running out of bounds. On third and goal, George was scrambling right and couldn't find anybody and wound up taking a sack. So now it's fourth and goal on what was no further than the 4-yard line. George is still fastening his belt and walking back to his spot under center as time is ticking down. Pat decided it was his moment to save the team and got behind center, yelled "HIKE" and after Brian snapped him the ball, he inexplicably spiked it to stop the clock. It was the only snap he had taken all year. Now I know he was trying to do the right thing, but he ended the season on the most absent-minded play I may have ever seen. He spiked the ball on fourth down to stop the clock. Obviously, he didn't know it was fourth down. But not only was it fourth down, but he did it with 9 seconds left on the clock. More than enough time for George to get back under center and take the snap. That's got to be the most horrible way to end a season that I can think of. But it opened the door for the new team to take the reigns. And with all due respect to Tom, Keith, Danny and the rest of the Teke boys, I was surprised to see them in the championship game. I could picture them beating SAE without Rob and Paul, but the B-More Bombers didn't play very well against them and there Teke was in the finals. And they only lost to the Ravens by a touchdown. So hey, what do I know? It just seemed like they didn't call a play the entire year on offense. At the snap of the ball, Little Mike and Tom would run down the field and Jeff would wait until the rush got to him and he'd chuck it really far or he'd try to run. And if he had an extra second or two, he'd dump it off to Big Mike. But I guess you stick with what works best for your personnel. I'd like to tell you all about the championship game, but I don't remember it that well. The only play I remember was the last Raven touchdown when their running made a quick move at the line to get away from the first line of defense and absolutely lost the normally sure-flagging Keith. He broke that for a touchdown and I don't think Teke had enough in their tank to drive all the way back down the field. I'm glad that guy wasn't in our league. And I think they're all freshmen. Look out next year, NFL.

Ravens 2000, Fall 2003 CFL Champions

END OF AN ERA

Games are always a lot more fun when they're between teams that have played each other as much as the Dawgs and Mufasa has the past few years. Their rivalry spanned flag football, arena football and floor hockey. Every year up until this one, Mufasa has gotten the better of the Dawgs in football, at least in our outdoor flag league. But the Dawgs had the advantage of having Janet and Cecil, Mufasa's two biggest female threats, limping into the game with ankle braces. Plus, Larry was quarterbacking Fasa, which is always positive news for the other team. ;) But the Dawgs had to play without George, their normal quarterback. Not that Brian's any slouch, but I'm sure he'd tell you that he would have rather had George there than not. The final game was a hard fought scoreless game for the most part, which is not what I expected. Again, not much of this game sticks out for me. Pretty much all of Larry flailing limb passes blend together in my head. I remember that I expected Quiet Storm to give the Dawgs a better run for their money in the semi-final, but I think they were just emotionally drained from their upset over Beer in the NFL game they played just prior to their coed game against the Dawgs. So they are granted a pass. But of the three of the teams I just mentioned, I think Quiet Storm might be the only one coming back. The Dawgs are going to (probably) graduate George, Brian and Tim and Mufasa will lose Janet (though I think she tried to leave once before) and Eddie. Quiet Storm, by virtue of most of their players being staff, will have most everybody coming back. So this may be the beginning of the sad end of the Mufasa/Dawgs rivalry. It was fun seeing these two teams, who have since become good friends, play each other year after year. I'm sure another rivalry will pop up soon enough. Heck, maybe this one will involve Lambda Chi somehow.

Dawgs, Fall 2003 Coed Football Champions

November 11, 2003 - The CFL and coed championship games scheduled for today will take place at the same time on Friday. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it woulda been really sloppy today anyway.

• CFL
• Coed

November 6, 2003 (2:10pm) - We are postponing the football games today due to standing water on the field. Both games scheduled for today will take place Monday, 11/10 provided tomorrow's games are played as scheduled. Times will be determined after tomorrow's games are played. Sorry for the delay and we'll see you next week.

November 3, 2003 (9am) - Flag Football playoffs will begin on Tuesday, November 4. We can not post the match-ups and game times until after all the games are completed on Monday. So check back after 5:00 for the matchups!!

October 29, 2003 - All games scheduled for Wednesday, October 29th have been postponed. These games will be made up next week if they have playoff implications.

October 16, 2003 - We have officially crossed the mid way point of the Flag Football season and we have not yet had one day of rain (lots of dust but no rain). So here is where we stand going into the second half of the season.

NFL - There has been one major surprise in the NFL season and that would have to be The Free Ballin Agents. This team is made up of players that no one wanted at the Manager's Meeting and lo and behold they are undefeated and have not been scored upon. With the crafty veteran Dustin running the show, could they plow through the rest of the season?? - I guess we will have to wait and see. Not much surprise about Beer's continue dominance this year but will they finally be able to win the big one this year? If they don't, we just might have to rename them the Bills. The other dominating team so far is The Recruits. By combining two teams from last year together, we were expecting big things from them and they have not disappointed us. Their offense has taken a major hit with the loss of their top receiving threat due to a season long suspension but Frank always seems to have some surprises up his sleeve. Two teams to watch are Whooping Cranes who might have finally figured out the game this week by putting up 32 points and Eye of the Tiger who has been only team so far (and maybe the only team all year) to put up points against Beer.