Steelheads Summit

Steelheads Summit

Steelheads climb ladder, reach summit!

12/24/02

Chug Brewski

The Steelheads are the sole survivors of the 2002 PSFFL campaign, and reign supreme while reaping the rewards and basking in the afterglow of victory in the biggest game you can win. Randy Ellwanger’s hard work and perseverance paid off in the end, as is the case for any past, present, or future, Chowder Bowl Champion. Winning a Chowder Bowl is a crowning achievement for any fantasy football player, because the league has a long and storied history and is stocked to the gunnels with grizzled veterans. The majority of the owners in the PSFFL have won championships in other leagues making this league one of the best you’ll ever play in, top to bottom. Those owners that have yet to win a playoff championship are improving every year and at the very least, learning some very serious lessons in the school of hard knocks that is the PSFFL.

To win the Chowder Bowl you need to draft well and work your team hard every day. It takes time and effort to research the NFL’s talent pool. But most of all you need to be able to understand how to use the information that is available to any owner that wants to find it. It is a sixteen-week war of attrition. It can put you through many disparaging moments, as key decisions have to be made during the troubling bye weeks and when the dreaded injuries occur that can and did reap havoc with the league’s premiere teams this year. And perhaps the most key element of all is luck. No matter how much you study or how much you understand or are in tune with your player personnel, or how many right decisions you make. Nobody wins a Chowder Bowl without some luck along the way!

I for one believe that luck is the residue of hard work and design and with good planning and foresight, you can put yourself in position for luck to lift you up. Randy displayed all of those qualities not only this season but last. Perhaps he learned something from last year’s demise of the Steelheads. Something that may have put him over the edge and into a class of elite ownership that he is now a part of.

Steelheads QB Trent Green led the league in scoring for the second week in a row with 28 points by throwing for 337 yards and three TD’s. One from 99 yards away tied an NFL record for the longest td pass in history. The vaunted Steelhead running game was not spectacular or even average. But they were adequate and provided enough points to supplement the Titans special teams unit that put up 15 points. Kicker Rian Lindell shtoinked 12 points, and it all added up to a 78 to 52 Chowder Bowl victory over the Dolphins.

The Phins looked like they might pull off the upset when the Monday Night game started with a bang. Phins WR Plaxico Burress caught a 40-yard pass and nearly broke free for a 12 point TD reception before being hauled down from behind. Burress finished the night with decent numbers but not enough to be a game breaker. The Phins appeared to have the sort of match-ups that favored them going into this week’s game. But Terrell Owens did not play, and the Bengal’s upset the Saints due to some lackluster play. QB Aaron Brooks crapped out as a result. The Dolphins turned in one hell of a year and owner Lou Davis deserves some props too. He played the game hard all year and kept his team at or near the top all season. He too is to be respected as one of the league’s elite owners after getting his team to a second Chowder Bowl in three years.

Stay tuned,

Chug Brewski

Reporter at large