Wisconsin Rapids Bro League
Bro...
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for Father Todd's first birthday off in 37 years. Working in retail as both a department manager and associate while having his birthday coincide with their busiest days of the shopping year, Black Friday and the events/deals surrounding it have made our holidays ho-hum in the face of so many other celebratory families gathering on television during the football games or the parade (which I have never had any interest in viewing) or the classic sitcom episodes (WKRP In Cincinnati, "So help me god, I thought turkeys could fly!"). Back when his work would keep him later than usual on the day of Thanksgiving, we would make it to the family meal on my mom's side (hosted by grandma Irma) just as the out-of-towners were leaving and a few dishes would need reheating for us. It was far from ideal and we cannot get those holidays back. Emergency service people have it worse, believe me and I'm so much more thankful for their existence over my lifetime than I am over dad getting a specific date off for the first time in my life. With that being said, I'm pretty sure I'm not overstepping any boundaries here to say that this Thanksgiving, he is thankful for it being his 65th birthday and that after years of openly stating/joking? maybe? that "I'll never be able to afford to retire", Steve Todd is hanging up the work vest and hopefully they'll put it up in the rafters since he's the second-to-last person remaining from when his now-former employer opened up in this league's hometown. Mom's health has never been the greatest but thankfully outside of the scare in Fall/Winter of 2015 and a melanoma removal 25 years ago, she's remained upbeat and lively and nothing quite sent them into a tailspin that I was made aware of. Combine those moments with my own wildcard health adventures like contracting shingles in the third grade and the weekly doctor's visits I had to make in senior year that maybe I'll disclose some day after a few too many drinks, I too am thankful that even through all the headaches that customer service tasks can provide and with all of the built-up personal time off in the world to spare that he extremely rarely used on himself, my dad fucking made it. Now, after finding a boatload of books in local bargain bins and with my retirement gifts of The Athletic's The Basketball 100 in tandem with Steven Hyden's There Was Nothing You Could Do (A book about Bruce Springsteen and what comes after 1984's Born In The U.S.A.), I'm sure he'll spend all winter reading instead of being asked to carry a TV outside when the stockmen are all busy and understaffed. His springs will hopefully see him golfing more with disc golf being the preferred (read: cheaper) option. Summer can include more focusing on his garden and fall? Well, that's where the fantasy football comes in and if none of that is enough to keep him "busy" and retired, he'll just have to remember fondly on the daily occurrences where he'd be the only one manning his department as management would call for his associates to help out elsewhere in the store. That and he can spend more time with mom. The American Dream, he's living every bit of it.
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| Photo credit: Steve Todd "Hopefully these upcoming Autumns include more Brewers postseason runs" - Steve Todd, probably. Pictured here with Brewers color commentator Bill Schroeder. |
I wouldn't be nearly as into the sports journalism thing as even a total outsider that's just fascinated with the inside baseball aspects of the business if it weren't for Father Todd. Growing up, going all the way back to 2002, he'd pick me up from Kids' Clubhouse after school, drive home and turn on Around The Horn followed by Pardon The Interruption as part of ESPN's Happy Hour daily. 22 years later and it's still appointment viewing for us both and introduced me to a lot of sportswriters and characters that I follow, read and listen to through my earbuds at work today (Pablo Torre, Bomani Jones, Mina Kimes, etc.). What a coincidence it is then for someone that worked 7-4 every weekday from my birth and onward to retire in the same week that it was confirmed that ATH is coming to an end sometime in mid-2025. Just when he could finally guarantee that he'd be home in time to watch a complete episode live, without the DVR! It was a show that valued real journalists giving real takes and real personality that wasn't being overproduced into the talking head mediocrity that ESPN values so highly in the post-First Take and even more frighteningly post-Pat McAfee Show phase of their network. As great as old reliable PTI has been over the same time frame, in no universe should the 76-year old Tony Kornheiser and 66-year old Michael Wilbon's show have outlasted something as young and promising as the constantly rotating panel of "experts" that is Around The Horn. Neither program has experienced any more significant a dip in viewership than any other show hurt by streaming. I do not understand this antagonistic a move being made by a network so seemingly neutral in comparison to whatever the hell FS1 became after I saw them outbid ESPN for Skip Bayless and stopped watching. I'm not as committed to the talking heads on TV as I am thoughtful, hour-long narratives of leagues encapsulated by podcasts but even in that realm, ESPN lost me the minute they dumped Zach Lowe right before tip-off of this NBA season. They better be shelving all of this extra money for the rights to even more games and perhaps refreshing the Inside The NBA set-up once they acquire their rights next year because the ESPN we used to passively keep on as background noise at the bar, at home or in waiting rooms all over the country is becoming unrecognizable and that's not a positive for the dying profession of journalism moving forward.
This year, I am also thankful for the Miami Dolphins (hi Nick!) for rejuvenating their team just in time to save the holiday triple-header that will otherwise feature the unstoppable Lions probably tearing the weak Bears limb-from-limb and the Drew Lock-Cooper Rush classic. Now, we actually get a meaningful primetime game between the 5-6 Dolphins and the GOAT third-place 8-3 team from Green Bay. Is Sam Darnold actually going to keep the 9-2 Vikings in second place or will his continued up-and-down play lead to Daniel Jones getting some snaps under center for his new team? I'll keep an eye on things when they host the 6-5 Cardinals on Sunday. The Sunday slate is also chock full of entertainment thanks to the NFL wisely removing bye weeks from the week 13 schedule. It never makes sense to sacrifice games when there's already four being played before the Sunday schedule. Oh yeah, there's also the Amazon Prime Black Friday game at 2 PM for some dumbass reason. I guess people actually get both of those days off? I can't relate but I'm not complaining. I do not want to see Aidan O'Connell or Desmond Ridder, nor do I need to stress over Patrick Mahomes' touchdown total for my TD-only league when I'll be catching z's before I go into work Friday night. In case the Panthers game had anyone doubting Kansas City, those doubts should be erased quickly when the Riddler and the second most-famous AOC do nothing with no support whatsoever.
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I definitely still should have added RB Ameer Abdullah over RB Audric Estime this week, even if the Raiders are a mess.
The three o'clock slate has three games, highlighted by the Hurts/Barkley Eagles versus the Jackson/Henry Ravens. Some people believe this to be a potential Super Bowl preview... I'll believe it when I see it. The 49ers should have Brock Purdy back for a dramatic Sunday night showdown in Buffalo that could see some snow because it's 20 degrees in Wisconsin, which usually means upper New York is in for some hell-weather soon. Monday night has a weirdly interesting Browns-Broncos matchup that isn't necessarily important to anything Cleveland is doing but after last week's win in the snow over Pittsburgh, I think Jameis and company is just must-see football regardless of how the team actually performs from here on out. Besides, there could be fantasy ramifications resolved in that game including Sparky starting WR Courtland Sutton or Nick starting TE David Njoku. This week contained plenty of dramatics where Sparky upset Brett by 3.02 points, Nick lost to Hoefs by 9.32 and Gabe let Alec hang around despite starting disappointing Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson again.
This was actually the first time that I can remember an entire division defeating the other division in any given week in WRBL history but, I'll leave that to the imaginary fact checkers at league office to officially declare. Now, we have our first eliminated team in Alec's Tax Paying Homeowner but, nothing else is determined with two weeks remaining in the regular season. The Steven Nett Division just dragged the Shooter McGavin Division all season long and yet, the wildcard race still includes Nick and I despite a full game and points advantage that currently belongs to Dad Weights and Protein Shakes (2.8 points ahead of Nick, 10.2 ahead of Andy). Otherwise, it's looking likely that Hoefs and Cole will hold as postseason teams considering their massive points advantage and Brett is alone at 7-5. Nick still hasn't fixed our league rules on ESPN to reflect how the seeding actually works but trust me, it's pretty simple when you break it down.
1. Win games
2. Be a top-4 team in W-L
3. Don't score fewer points than teams with the same W-L record as you
4. Wake up in a new Bugatti.
Who's putting up more yards: Saquon last week or me, running back to fill up a second plate on Thursday? Sparky is rooting for the latter this week when he takes on the 8-4 96ers, coming off back-to-back 170+ point performances. I'll be huddling my players up now that they're all off of their bye week and asking "Who's got it better than us?" and to my dismay, they shall reply "The Van Buren Boys" because Hoefs is three games better and I don't love my odds now that he gets Burrow, Chase and James Cook back and fully rested. Alec can still play spoiler and bring Brett's Shooter McGavin supremacy into question headed into the final week of our regular season. Gabe and Nick arguably play the most important weekend game of them all with the fourth playoff spot potentially up for grabs if Sparky can't get it done as he has failed to do so in 6 of his last 8 outings. No matter what, I'm thankful for family, friends, football and the future. Pass me the stuffing.
Official WRBL Standings
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| Bob Donnan - Imagn Images Benchwarmer of the Week: QB Patrick Mahomes (Dad Weights and Protein Shakes) |
Cole v. Sparky
