Flag Recap March 8, 2008

(Christophe makes a catch in warmups, a sign of things to come).

WEATHER: There was a record 20 inches of snow in Columbus, Ohio, and Cleveland airport was closed. Meanwhile, in Venice, we all had on shades and sunscreen on a gorgeous 70-degree day.

PHOTOS: Have posted some from March 1 here and I will add March 8 to the same batch so keep checking. Thanks to Brent for shooting these!

LEAGUE: Everyone who showed up Saturday (there were 28 of us) is eligible for the league (everyone still has to register and pay). There are three Saturdays left for others to show up, so don’t hesitate; even if you can’t stay for the whole scrimmage you can drop off your forms, signup, run some drills. To play, you must be registered and have played one of the Saturdays.

If you did NOT get the registration forms e-mailed to you, write me or treasurer David Hinders (davidhinders@yahoo.com) and we will get them out.

Since some people asked: Four teams, six-week season, one week of playoffs starting April 12 at Penmar. Cost is $30. We have uniforms (red, white, green and purple) and players will also ref.

There will be a championship trophy, the Castro Trophy, named for Anthony Castro, a beloved player of ours who died in car crash a year ago. For those of you who did not know Anthony you can check out my tribute or the one written about him for ESPN.com

GAME: Our biggest turnout in years and I want to thank everyone for being so patient in subbing in and out. We played almost three hours, so I assume everyone got enough reps. With so many people, I know I will forget a lot in this writeup. Game started close before White pulled away thanks to an all-time performance:

CHRISTOPHE’S DAY: Let’s see, all he did was set a record with 8 eight interceptions, three he returned for TDs. It was kind of surreal at point to see passes fly up and just know he was going to snag it. I think he was the Dark’s leading receiver, pretty good since he was playing for White.

TIT FOR TAT: Christophe also played a little QB and had two picked off by Gilbert, including one where Gilbert brilliantly read the play, sat back and then made a beeline for the ball. Guess it sort of made up for the two Christophe picked off in Gilbert’s short QB tenure, including one run back.

FUNNIEST PLAY OF THE DAY: Leave it to JP to provide some comic relief, Southern style. White had the perfect 2-point play called, one JP and I have run for years (we call it the “$5 play” for inside reasons). He ran the route, the ball was placed right there, but instead of extending his arms to make what we in football call “a catch,” he brought them down to his sides and the ball fell into the void. Seems that Brian, playing defense, yelled “Bugga! Bugga!” and scared JP. “He screamed at me,” JP said as he came off the field.

PAYBACK TIME: Chris is the head ref of the national tournament we play in every year and a lot of us have been dying to flag him one day. We had a chance Saturday when he mugged Eugene on a 2-point try. The whole sideline erupted and I threw my elbow brace to signal pass interference. Of course, being a player, Chris tried to argue the point but his heart wasn’t in it.

LUCKY IT’S A SCRIMMAGE: Miguel ran a fake double reverse, where he kept the handoff and had one man to beat, Bubba. Miguel juked left, Bubba moved left and Miguel then scooted right to howls from the sidelines. Afterwards, Bubba joked that in the league, he would have laid out Miguel.

TO’S DAY OF FUN: Brent (aka TO) certainly had a lively game despite arriving late. He made a brilliant catch on a pass thrown behind him for one touchdown, then let one go off his hands into those of New York Mike, who returned it for the score. As a QB his first pass to me was about 10 feet over my head; his second, on fourth down, somehow found its way through two defenders into the waiting arms of Gator Mike for a score. On a conversion, Christophe threw hard across his body (a great pass) that TO then leaped to snag and keep his feet in bounds.

BALL HAWKS: In addition to Christophe’s Pick 8, I also counted interceptions by Brent, Miguel (for a TD), Gilbert (one for a TD); Dan; Gator Mike and New York Mike (for a TD). In addition, Brent and ZS each had nice sacks; after Brent sacked Gilbert I mock yelled to Gilbert that he should be embarrassed to get sacked by someone so old (“I could be your father!” Brent said).

BEST AND WORST TRICK PLAY: All in one. The plan was for a direct snap to Demond, split wide in the backfield. He had three blockers in front and it would have been an easy score, save for one little thing – Jermaine’s snap that sailed over his head.

BEST NEW NICKNAME: I heard Drew and TO refer to Eugene as “Peja,” after NBA star Peja Stojakovic. They do resemble each other and both Peja’s have great hands.

HIGHLIGHTS: There were a ton of nice catches – Joe had at least two including one where I thought he was going to get drilled; Jay also had several down the middle; Drew made two, including a superb TD grab from Christophe on 4th and 18; Uhrlacher had a nice one down the sideline;

Brian and Shon also had a slew of medium-yardage plays; Miguel was Mr. Everything for White, lining up wide, in the slot or the backfield; David had a key fourth down on a pass I threw high to avoid a sack; … David (Dark team) had some nice grabs along the sideline. … JP made up for his alligator arms with a bunch of catches later, including a nice one on fourth down that kept a drive alive. … Gator Mike had his first and second TDs as a player, so he is no longer a virgin. …

Ty had two beautiful grabs, including one where he fought teammate Eugene for the ball and a nice gain (those of us that had Ty on our Fantasy teams were thrilled). … Demond ran a great deep route that got him open by 5 yards on a TD pass from Christophe. …

Duffy and ZS played great games as pass rushers, constantly getting pressure and forcing errant passes. … Gilbert had a brilliant run after the catch on a deep slant for Dan, reversing field three times and outracing Brent to the end zone. … Bobby called his own number and it worked to perfection on a 15-yard post-corner for a score.