Photo by Thomas E Franklin/The Record
2001 was a season like no other. First, we had to scramble to find a date for the draft. Then, one owner couldn't make it in person and had to call his draft in via satellite phone. That provided some difficulties but also a bit of levity. It worked out and we got the draft in just under the wire the Saturday night before Opening Day.
Joey Hunter took sole possession of The Dream Team but there were no other changes in the composition of the league. The division winners this year are Soulmen, Beguilers, Nine Inch Nails, and Silveradoes. Soulmen have won their division three years in a row and Beguilers have won theirs twice in a row. For the 5th year of its five year existence, the CFFL crowned a new champion; Silveradoes. No one has won it twice. It was another well-balanced year with 7 teams finishing with winning records. Unfortunately, The Dream Team (7-6-1) got left out of the playoffs on a tiebreaker for the second year in a row. The Super Bowl saw the Silveradoes playing their best game of the year versus Nine Inch Nails worst game of the year.
Three changes were instituted in 2001. Some defensive scoring changes were voted on and instituted for the 2001 season, bye week lock-ins were no longer used, and 2001 order of finish determined draft position for 2002.
No commentary about 2001 would be complete without mentioning the first Tuesday of the fantasy season. A typical fantasy weekend has a slate of games on Sunday and a Monday night game and my typical routine is to get up early Tuesday and calculate stats, update web sites, and print newsletters for this league and Ya Boys Civil War Fantasy Football League. Fantasy owners look forward to Tuesdays because results, standings, and free agents available are updated and the Tuesday after Opening Weekend is particularly special because it is everyone's first look at their team. That Tuesday in 2001, September 11, is particularly special for another reason altogether. People much more eloquent than I have written about the events of September 11, 2001 but the image captured below does it better than any of them. The NFL postponed Week 2. All CFFL fantasy teams have a 0-0 tie for that week. I thought it appropriate for those ties to stand as a marker of the events of September 11.
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Photo by Thomas E Franklin/The Record |
Rob Ferrara
Commissioner, Causeway Fantasy Football League
January 7, 2002