Football
14 February 2008 by Administrator
A few of the designers and other bods here are big fans of NFL and when the 07/08 season started last year, a handful of us signed up to run our own fantasy NFL league. I've never really been interested in Football american style but they needed to make up the numbers so I signed on for it and the Maiden Minotaurs were born.
When I say "never really been interested" what I mean to say is "have trouble understanding what's happening". A casual glance at the sport on TV just looks like a lot of stopping and starting with one minute of action for every five minutes of standing about and talking but I let it slide now that the no-nonsense Minotaurs were on the case. It was about halfway through the season though, before I decided to learn the rules. It made picking players for the squad a lot easier when you understood what the hell each statistic means and who I want to be trading for. Kris Pope, one of our QA guys and manager of the esteemed Runcorn Rodents, adopted a trade strategy of "I'll give you two of my worst for one of your best". Funnily enough for the entirity of the season no one ever took him up on that offer. Curiosuly, he finished the league with an unbeatable losing streak of 1-12 or something ridiculous.
I must say though, I've become something of a convert to the sport. If only on a basic, spectator level, but at least I know what "first and ten" means. To celebrate the end of the inaugural EvoNFL Fantasy League, Rushy had us all over to his bachelor pad to watch the Superbowl in High Definition, stupidly large screen, surround sound bliss on the sunday night. For me, it was the first game I'd have seen but with friends to fill me in on crucial information like who the hell the guy with the black and white striped shirt was really full of himself, the night was set to be a great one. To assist the immersion in colonial culture, we were only allowed to bring American food and drink to the party and by the time everyone had arrived the fridge was bursting with bottles of Coors, Miller and Bud.
We were in for a good night, and the pre-superbowl games of Madden '06 were in full swing when I arrived with the game just ending and a new one beginning. It was Me and Hal up first, I picked the Ravens to sort out Hal's Vikings. After watching The Wire all week, I was sure my boys from Baltimore would take care of bid'nis.
*Ahem*. Each quarter we passed the controllers around and by the end of the first both me and Hal had failed to put any points on the board at all, locked in a dead heat. In my mind I'd like to think were were in complete equilibrium but more likely I knew less about playing Madden than I do about the sport in general. And that's saying a lot.
After a quiet start, the game took off in the second quarter with Baltimore taking chalking up three touchdowns with Minnesota only grabbing a pair for themselves. A last-minute field goal at the end of the third quarter left the Ravens in front at 21-17. Things were looking up and victory was in sight, but the last recipients of the controllers would have the game's ultimate fate in their hands, production assistant Dave Bramhall and artist Richard Weaver. Dave has been playing a lot of Madden '08 and was already very familiar with the controls and Weaver was still trying to pass the controller to someone else asking about how exactly he gets his guys to shoot. Unfortunately for Baltimore, their winning game was about to be thrown away under his leadership.
Dave cleaned up for most of the fourth, intercepting Rich's attempt to extend our lead and sorting himself out with a touchdown to bring the score up to a Viking lead of 21-24 after a good conversion. Rich was on the offence again and with only half of the quarter left, the pressure was on to get things moving. A good kick from Dave put Rich at 1st and 10 on the Raven's 20 yard line, it was going to be a tough two and a half minutes. Rich did well, considering, but Dave was all-out defence shutting down every play Rich tried to make, just running down the clock as best he could. With thirty seconds to go, Rich was still only on the 50 yard line and defeat looked almost inevitable. 1st and 10 became 2nd and 6 became 3rd and 8 became 4th and 5. There was only 10 seconds on the clock and half the room were scrambling to get the controller and call time-out before the clock completely ran out. With 8 seconds left, we needed a miracle, a breakaway, something to get us a score. Murmerings from complacent Vikings fans that we should check the Superbowl coverage were being hushed as the four Raven players talked "strategy".
By strategy I mean we all just decided to welly it and see what happens.
So with 8 seconds, Rich Weaver jogs backwards with ball in hand looking to pass down field at an open reciever. There are three, but as I'm counting Dave tackles one to the ground. A viking, pumped with all the adrenaline he can muster, the five yards to first down aren't important, just getting the ball out of play is the only thing that matters to him. Weaver beatifully dodges his tackle and remains standing but with three seconds left he needs to find that reciever. The ball is away to a small cheer of those still interested and people wander back from a smoke outside or getting another beer from the kitchen, mildly perplexed that the game is still going. The two remaining recievers are already hotfooting it to catch the ball with Dave's defenceman in pursuit, gaining on the pair. Dave takes a gamble and drops one, one second remains as the other keeps going, into the end-zone and, with zero seconds on the clock, like every high-school football film about underdogs in the 11th hour, scores the finest touchdown the sport has ever seen. I guess that's the appeal of this game. I get it now.
We settled in to watch the Superbowl and had a great night, but come the next morning, it was the hail-mary throw for 'our' game that got talked about the most.
-Will
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