Happy New Year! Especially happy right now are the Springfield Bullhawks (#1 seed) who are the 2006 ESPN Fantasy Football Red Zone League Champions, after defeating the Houston Inferno (#3 seed) by an ever-so-close score of 192-191. LaDainian Tomlinson had only 7 points for the ‘Hawks this week, but Steven Jackson made up the difference with a 43 point performance. However, the difference in the game was not points scored, but in missing points. Inferno RB Ron Dayne aggravated an ankle injury during pre-game warmups Sunday and did not play, resulting in a crushing 0 for the Inferno. Despite that, this was a terrific game between the two best teams in the league this year. Congratulations to Alan and Jeff for a great season!
Third place goes to my Spooky Boogeymen (#4 seed) with a 186-162 win over the P’burg PrairiePride (#2 seed). Despite a 5 point lead in this week’s match-up, the ‘Pride were unable to overcome the 29 point lead resulting from last week’s game. Congratulations to Bob (and me!) on a great season.
The Kentucky Mad Max (#7 seed), last season’s league champs, won fifth place this year with a 150-113 defeat of the Shelbyville Outkasts (#5 seed). Congratulations to Bret and Jack for a great season!
The Peoria OrangeCrush (#9 seed) crushed the Batavia Bulldogs (#6 seed) by a score of 210-116 for seventh place in the league. Congratulations to Charlie and Mike on a great season!
The Foreign Bodies (#10 seed) rallied this week to come back and beat the Petersburg PowerPuff Girls (#8 seed) by a total score of 169-136. So, the ‘Puffs will (probably) receive the coveted first pick in next year’s draft. Congratulations to Ben and Elizabeth on a great season!
So, here are the final winners for the Red Zone 2006…
| WHAT? | WHY? | WHO? |
| We’re Going to Disney World Award | 1st Place | Springfield Bullhawks |
| The First Loser Award | 2nd Place | Houston Inferno |
| There’s Always Next Year Award | 3rd Place | Spooky Boogeymen |
| The Break Even Award | 4th Place | P’burg PrairiePride |
| Teamwork Award | Highest team game score | Springfield Bullhawks (157 points in Week 10) |
| Top Gun Award | Highest player game score | Foreign Bodies (51 points for RB Tiki Barber in Week 17) |
| Smackdown Award | Highest team win margin | Peoria OrangeCrush (81 point win in Week 16) |
And finally now that it’s all over with, I’ll try to get back to a more regular blogging schedule about life, the universe, and everything (except for fantasy football
).
