Recap May 20, 2006

PICTURES: A group from this past week is below the writeup.

WEATHER: Perfect for football – sunny, a light breeze, 72. With the season ending, it marked the first time in years that we did not have one rain game, even though it threatened many times.

GAME: A see-saw affair early, then White jumped ahead and held on for the win. The first TD of the game was scored by Demond, the last of the season by Jeremiah, though on the latter he and Zach spent 2 minutes arguing if the goal line was straight since Zach swore JJJ was short. Ah, memories!

Before getting to Saturday's action, some quick season-long awards:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: I am going with Anthony, who played his first season. He is a very talented player, as we all saw, even when he's bored and yawning all the time. In addition, he drove from Banning each week, a 2-hour drive. And he showed up early, compared to a lot of guys who wandered in late despite living 10 minutes away. But especially, Anthony is a great role model for people coming out. He's 18 and was out to his high school football and wrestling teams, never an easy thing to do. He did it because he wasn't going to hide who he was. My favorite story was when he was taunted by a fellow wrestler who had problems with Anthony's orientation. A challenge match took place and Anthony won via a quick pin; talk about facing somebody.

SPECIAL THANKS: To Brent, for securing us Penmar Park during the season. Finding Saturday field space in LA is extremely difficult, but Brent booked the field by paying upfront (which is why I collect the fees each week as a way for him to get paid back as quickly as possible). Plus, Brent never complains about what team he's on, what the score is and he always takes breaks to allow others their share of playing time.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS:

GREAT GRABS: We had several superb catches. One of the best was Sheri on a key first-down grab. I threw is way hard and high, yet she stuck her hands up and came down with the ball. … Anthony excelled on a terrific leaping catch along the sidelines. … Demond made at least two great one-handed grabs that are routine for him. ... JJJ made a beautiful burst to haul in a long pass from me. Oh, wait, that was the one he dropped!

LAND RUSH: Three sacks of note. First was Peter's (picture below), who finally didn't let my swivel hips fool him. JP had a nice sack of Puff Daddy on a blitz for a big loss. And Brent made a sensational grab and he flew by me, reaching out to get the flag.

SPEED KILLS: Demond made two of his patented TD plays. On one, he caught a pass in the flat, made his defender miss, then weaved his way down field for the score. On another, he ran from right to deep left and caught a great pass from Puff Daddy, never breaking stride for a TD.

JJJ showed his other gear when he took a direct snap from center, made one cut left and blew by defenders for a score.

WHOSE BUTT? On one play, a receiver went up, made a nice catch and started motoring left. JJJ said he wasn't sure who it was until he saw "the white skin and the butt and knew it had to be JP." Photographic evidence below.

NO IDLE THREAT: Peter made a great catch in the corner of the end zone for a conversion. On the same play, Brent, as blocker, basically horse-collared JJJ who was rushing. Peter looked at me and said: "If you call my catch back for holding, I'll murder you." OK, no penalty!

SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY: On one play, Anthony made a grab over the middle and tried to evade Peter. Only, his shoulder met Peter's face with the result being Peter holding his bloody nose on the sideline for several minutes.

NEW NAME: Brent kept calling Jay "Chicken Wing," since before the game he ate chicken wings and the grease made his hands slippery. No wonder my fingers smelled a bit fowl.

GATOR BAIT: Will JP ever live down his wimpy attempt at a reception on his first offensive play? He stopped as if he just saw a mouse, retracted his arms and the ball fell for an incompletion. "Oh, that's gonna be in the blog," he moaned. You got that right.

PACKING SOME HEAT: JJJ was badgering me to throw one to him on a slant and make sure I threw it hard. I did my best Elway impression and he looked stunned as the missile came towards him. Putting his hands up more in self defense, he nonetheless made a great grab.

NOTABLE: Oren made two nice plays on offense. On one, he caught a wide receiver screen and followed a great block from Anthony into the end zone for a score. On another, he showed a flash of Barry Sanders, in evading tacklers and gaining an additional 10 yards. … Zach made a beautiful read on a pass over the middle that he picked off. … Dave made a big play on a long pass from Puff Daddy for a score. … Cody really shined as a receiver, being much more aggressive and making several nice catches, though he did have a habit of hitting the turf. Cody also had a nifty interception along the sideline. … The coolest play of the day was a conversion from me to JP. He ran an in route, then broke out and I threw it on his break, hitting him right before the pylon. A super pass and catch. JP caught a ton of balls after his alligator arms incident, a lot of them in traffic. Shame can be a great motivator!

THANKS: A big thanks to everyone who played this season! It was awesome and we will resume our regular games in the fall. See you all around!

May 20 Photos (Click Image for Larger View)

Recap May 6, 2006

WEATHER: Thunderstorms packing 80 mph wind gusts and heavy rain uprooted trees, toppled power lines and damaged buildings in parts of Texas. Meanwhile, in Venice it was its usual boring sunny, slightly breezy, 70-degree day.

SCHEDULE NOTE: We are off May 13 (field not available). We are back for our season finale May 20.

WELCOME: A big hello to new players Bart and John, both of who fit in well from the start. You are welcome back any time.

GAME: A barnburner that saw Dark hang on for a 38-34 win over White, in a game with tons of big plays, weird plays and what-were-they-thinking? plays.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME: A joint award to Bryan and Toby from Team Dark. Each scored on offense and each had an interception return for a score, in what proved to be the difference. Bryan gets the nod for the cool heart-speckled boxers we saw after he lost the top of his shorts, while Toby managed to keep his pants on so we never spied if he was boxer or briefs or freewheeling it.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Rory made a brilliant catch and run on a deep ball that he somehow wrestled from Zach while on a dead run.

DEFENSIVE PLAY OF THE DAY: Toby on his pick that he took back 80 yards. Brent wondered why I didn't go all Roethlisberger on Toby on the return, but I felt that sticking my foot out wasn't the most sportsmanlike thing to do ("I would have done it," Toby said).

HEADS-UP PLAYS: We had a rash of balls being knocked up into the ai by the defense and still caught by the offense. Brent had one grab on a pass from Patrick that was swatted into the air and Brent made a heady play to snare it.

Brent was on the opposite end when he knocked one away only to see Anthony swoop in and catch it off the carom.

Toby got into the act when Jeremiah did the tip drill, only to see the rest of the defense stand there like the proverbial slack-jawed yokels, allowing Toby to catch it.

The coolest was one to Rory in the back of the end zone, that Zach hit with tremendous force only to see Rory catch it with his hands barely moving.

QB RATING: Patrick threw four passes on conversions off of wide receiver back passes. He went 3 for 4 with two conversions and no picks. A 130 rating, though one of his passes went to me for about two yards.

CONTROVERSY: We had three plays in dispute that were basically solved by saying: "You get this one, we'll take the next." The first saw John catch a pass and weave his way on 4th and 15. White said he gained 15 yards, 6 inches, Dark said it was more like 13 yards.

This led to Dark getting the next call. I ran for a first down and alertly tossed back to Rory, who ran for a score. First, Dark said my flag was off (wrong). They then said I threw it forward (wrong again). But they got the call, negated the TD and three plays later Toby picked me off for a score in a 12-point swing and the biggest sequence of the game.

White got the final call, when Jeremiah was called for flag-guarding when he went low on a score.

The game film was Fed-Exed to the NFL Saturday night and league officials came back with these rulings:

--The 4th-and-15 play. Using GPS technology and lasers it was determined that John gained 15 yards, 1.8765 inches. We know how many of you obsess about exact inch counts. First down.
--On Jeremiah's flag-guarding. Bill Clinton was consulted and he said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'flag-guarding' is."
--On the lateral back to Rory. "We sincerely apologize for a total miscarriage of justice." the league said in a statement. "We have fired the officials involved – Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Helen Keller."

BEST RIP: I called one defensive series for White and it led to a quick score for Dark. Said Toby, "Jim will set up a defense an offense can score on." Not sure if I should be insulted or complimented.

CATCHING MACHINE: John might have led the game in total passes caught; he had a bunch, most of them on slants. His best was a key fourth down catch where he went low and caught the ball while hitting the ground.

FINANCIAL REPORT (Sponsored by Ditech): Zach – "I owe for $5 from the last game … so I'll bring up $15 in two weeks." Uh, guess this means you didn't bring money this week? Very JP-like of you.

HONORS: A shoutout to Marino for calling a great game at QB. He had a lot of nice passes and kept throwing left with success. I recall nice passes to Zach on middle/slants, long passes to Toby and Bryan for scores and several nice connections with Anthony. For good measure, David also ran for a score.

ARE WE BORING YOU? Every time I looked over to Dark's right side of the defense, Anthony was yawning. Or coughing.

PRODUCTIVE: Patrick was his usual offensive force. He scored once on a great effort on a deep slant, another time when he totally made the defender bite and set up a third score with a terrific grab low near the right pylon.

BEST MOVE: On a key fourth down and goal from the 2, White did a direct snap to Jeremiah. It looked like two Dark defenders had a chance, but JJJ literally ducked under the arms of one and slid by the other for the score. Very Vince Young-like.

NOTABLE: Best shovel pass was Peter taking a short pass and gaining 15 yards. … Oren ran a nice pattern and stayed with the play in catching a TD pass. … Bart had several nice grabs for White, but we need to teach him to keep running until his flags are off. … Rory was also an offensive force down the middle, making a bunch of nice catches. … Zach played a nice DB for most of the game, constantly staying with his receiver. … Patrick had pre-Vaselined his feet to prevent calluses, breaking his pledge to allow Brent to do it.