Truth is stranger than fiction

In the first week of 2008,
Meghna lost to Niral
Murtaza lost to Vishal
Saumil lost to Prashant
Darshini lost to Valmik.

In the first week of 2009,
Niral lost to Meghna
Vishal lost to Murtaza
Prashant lost to Saumil
Valmik lost to Darshini.

(In 2008 and 2009, the other 2 matchups involved rookies and weren't managed by the same managers.)

In the first week of 2008, Valmik beat Darshini by getting the highest score of week 1 with 114
In the first week of 2009, Darshini beat Valmik by getting the highest score of week 1 with 118

In the first week of 2008, Prashant beat Saumil by 12 points (76 - 64)
In the first week of 2009, Saumil beat Prashant by 12 points (92 - 80)

You cannot make this up!

Week 1 of 2009 is also special for another reason.
This has been by far the highest scoring week since the formation of NJ Rookies. This week, we have scored a combined total of 1057 points! Thats more than 88 points per team on an average!

Compare this with 2008 where we scored around 75 points on an average per team (888 points on average as a league every week!)
Even our highest total as a league was 1013 points (week 2) which was special in itself because the next highest is 934 (week 10)!

Just to further this point a little bit, we ended up scoring so much not just because a few of us had exceptionally high scores. It is because each one of us had representative performances. The lowest score of week 1 was 70! That has never happened before. In every week of 2008, there were ATLEAST 3 teams who had scores of less then 70!

I must also say this though ... that although none of us scored below 70, there seemed to be 2 distinct classes ... we had 7 good teams, all of whom scored above 90 and we had 5 not-so-good teams all of whom scored below 80. There was no average team. There was no team who scored in the 80s range. Either below 80 or above 90 (80 and 90 included!)

And as proof that life is cruel, we also had a couple of hardluck losers and one lucky winner. TryThrowCatch (Moi!) won despite scoring the 4th lowest and that too, the win came on 2 points that were adjusted to his defense the next morning!

Valmik was the hardluck loser who outscored all but 2 teams in the league and unfortunately one of them was his opponent ... the wizard of Hogwarts!

The other hardluck loser brings me to the rookies ... Devashree did fantastically well to score 90 upon debut but alas! it wasn't enough as the tag team of Shilpi and Jimit scored a century on debut! Indeed this never looked like a battle of the rookies with both teams scoring often to make it very interesting!

And kudos to Shirin for beating out her elder brother! No matter what happens from here on, she beat out her brother in her first fantasy football game ... and no one can take that away from her!


So as we turn a corner and as yours truly expects this scoring frenzy to cool down a little bit, let's look forward to week 2.

This week is especially important for Prashant & Valmik because they play against each other and that means that one of them will start the year going 0-2.
Conversely, Darshini & Saumil will fight it out because one of them is certainly going to start the year going 2-0 (unless of course there is a tie! :))

As for the 5 couples involved in the competition, there is some respite. No one is playing their significant other! So I hope that everyone is happy with their respective teams and if not, I urge them to go out to the Free Agent Market and try to fill the weak spots in their teams with the talent that is available!

See you all next week!

PS: I HAVE TO SAY THIS TO NIRAL:
Buddy! Between 32 QBs who was the one to throw for the 2nd most yards in week 1, lesser only than the poster boy of the evil corporation himself (Tom Brady)?
It was Big Ben ... even with all the yards he loses not throwing away the football, I guess he still beats out the sissies who at the first sign of trouble kneel for cover! :) ... sorry couldn't resist!