Post Ingural SFL GM Owners Meet Update
Well, here we (Carolina Panthers GM) Phillip Mellon and I on a flight from Phoenix. AZ back home to Ohio. We are leaving 87 degrees for 32 degrees and a bit of snow. We enjoyed the outdoor pool and hot tub which opened up at 7:00 AM. We hit the hot tub up by 7:30 AM each morning we could. We were the only ones in it though. This means one of two things:
A.) The AZ ladies wanted no part of this this almost 45 year old Ohio “Dad Bod”
or
B.) The 70 degree mornings was still took cool for the AZ locals to get pool time in.
I am going for B because well, just look at the oicture below. What AZ lady would not want part of us?
It was great to finally meet Tim, Breck, Nate, Gary, Ian and Brandon. I had already met Will but it was great to spend more time around him too. I left knowing Will and I are going to have some great poker battles when he moves closer next year. I made the finals of the SFL Poker Championship but lost in the end to Will. Will is now the SFL Poker Champion. Yes, Will finally won an SFL championship of sorts. I now know Nate is a billiards master as he took home the SFL Billiards championship. He also has bragging rights about being the SFL Cribbage champ too. I know that I have many hours ahead of me showing Phillip Mellon how to play poker as he sucks at it. I know that I can no longer be mad at Ian for having my 1st round draft pick because he is a pretty cool guy. I also found out Ian was the 3rd person to ever sign up to be part of Football Freaks. That is really something. I confirmed Gary is just as down to earth as I expected. He is an even bigger Eagle fan that I realized. (BTW. Gary I have a Randall Cunningham story for you that I never got to tell.) I was glad to see that Brandon was in full SFL mode during the meetup as he made a trade with Apollo and the Cards. Brandon brought the SFL’s all time leader in tackles for loss, DE Jonathan Abraham to Buffalo. The trade involved a 2nd round picks and some later picks if I am correct. Tim, Phillip and I met up Friday evening and had dinner at a very cool place called Claim Jumpers. There was about 900 pounds of pure men at our table between the of us that night. To give you an idea of how good this down home comfort food was, we all three left absolutely full. I enjoyed the place so well I happily recommended it to the group the next night. I wish we had a picture of the table of food that was before us Saturday night. If I am not mistaken Gary and I got made fun of for ordering salads with our meals. Will had the worlds largest chicken pot pie. We all shared a great mixture of appetizers. I don’t think anyone left hungry. After the feast we went home and that’s when the poker began. Those who got out of the poker game early were caught up in the college football games. I think we all shared the opinion that we want to see a couple top teams fall and Cincinnati keep winning for a potential championship opportunity for the much smaller University of of Cincinnati. Before the night ended Tim and I made a trade. It was not a ground breaker but SFL veteran CB Rhonde Barber was sent to the Pittsburg Steelers for a 5th round pick. There was some more excitement as Breck and the Eagles sent me an offer but it was not quite enough to get who the trade revolves around. (I think he was kidding me anyways.) Throughout the entire trip there were lots of of SFL talk as well as historical Madden league discussions. We spoke of our past leagues, shaniggians purported or at least alleged to have been done by past GMs, funny times, even a couple sad times regarding GM who have passed on and the differences in all the past leagues we have been part of or at least heard about. We all agree that we are lucky to have someone as impartial, trustworthy and dedicated as Will running the SFL. It’s part of what separates the SFL from all other past leagues. So, thank you Will! (Yes I am voluntarily giving you a complainer- don’t get used to it)
I found myself once again victim of the questionable games SFL Commishoner Cook plays against me. I filed a grievance about Mr Cook but the members of the Executive Committee quickly denied my claim. What happened was I left my phone on the poker table. My phone’s internet browser was open and on the SFL home page. Mr Cook logged into the trade app and sent my top guys via trade offer to my division rival the New Orleans Saints (for a 7th round pick). Nate, being the upstanding human being that he is did not accept the trade. I have been telling everyone for a long time that Mr Cook is a bad, bad person. This is just yet another example of the things I have to put up with from him, which are all 100% uncalled for as I have never done anything if the like to him.
I think we all ended up in bed somewhere between 1-2 AM. We all met up the next morning and walked to Dave and Buster to set up shop and watch the early NFL games. Poor Gary had to put up with some anoxious Dallas fans (which included Mr Cook, just saying) as the Cowboys really put a hurting on the Falcons. We all passed on spending around $200 on Cardinal jerseys for the game. (Cardinal clothings was not cheap by any stretch of the imigantion.) After Dave and Busters we walked to the Cardinals stadium. It is a decent stadium but the seats sucked, especially for us big guys. We got to see the mighty Arizona defense get embarrassed by the returning Cam Newton and his Carolina Panthers. We walked back to Tim’s hotel after the game and met up with the strippers we requested from a place called Fhe Alaskan Bush. Okay that might not be true but we did pass a strip clin called The Alaskan Bush. We did not partake. I repeate we did not go to any strip club. This was a PG rated adventure. Last nights meal took place at the famous _________. We loaded up on sandwiches, hotdogs, fries, onion rings and milk shakes. Their cake milk shakes are sort of famous…. and pretty darn good too.Nate and Will dropped Brandon and Gary off for their late night departures. We went back to SFL headquarters (aka Wills Air B&B) for some fellowship and cribbage. Phillip fell asleep but thank goodness his championshop quality snoring did not go into full force. His snoring shook the hotel walls Saturday night! ( I am declaring his the SFL Snornin Champion.)
This morning was bitter sweet as the remaining guys went our separate ways. Phillip and I got to enjoy Brecks company a bit more as we shared a taxi to the airport. The taxi ride was great as we had a super cool lady driver. At the airport Phil and I had gave a final goodbye to Breck and hit our terminal.
Oh yeah one final thing: I now realize as GMs in the SFL we all share a special bond. We are just regular guys who spend way too much time on this weekend outdated hobby that we love. We are happy when we win, upset even pissed off sometimes when we lose and all share the same AI aggravation. We are giving it our all in this thing. It was very good to get to meet in person and share our struggles and even talk about our Madden success we all have had at times.
So, here I am somewhere in the air between Arizona and Ohio leaving the first ever SFL GM Meetup very happy to have been part of it. Where are we going on 2022?
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