November 8^th 2011:

The games that were canceled as a result of the snow storm on 10/30 will NOT be rescheduled. We will be playing out the year according to the regular schedule.  All teams will finish with 8 games just as has been done in previous years.

December 1^st 2010:

The Worcester Telegram had several articles discussing the safety of Worcester following the murder this past week at Crompton.  The citizens want more police on the streets and want to know what to do to keep this from happening again.  Here's a thought, STOP taking away the fields for our league and other leagues to use.  In the fall there are games on Sundays, Monday nights, sometimes Tuesday nights and Friday nights (kids flag).  The more people hanging out at a field for a sporting event, the less likely a murder will be committed.  Some may argue that a couple teams in our league actually increase the odds of that happening but I would like to think not.  If the parks department gives us the permits we ask for, I think everyone wins.  Our league will have fields to play on, the residents will feel safer and the bag lady's will have a steady source of income from the empty Molinari's beer cans.  Win, win, win!!!

October 18^th 2010:

This weeks games has inspired me to put out an opinion poll about who the worst teams are when it comes to holding on the offensive line. 

October 17^th 2010:

One question:  Which team has scored more points on the number 1 defense (JDS) in the league?  Molinari's, Cosmopolitan, Millbury, Cutler or Emerald Isle.  Answer: Emerald Isle yesterday afternoon with 16.  Emerald Isle actually dominated most of the game.  Up 7-0 Emerald drove the field and scored another touchdown according to the both referees on the line of scrimmage but the umpire overruled them and they had to settle for a field goal to go up 10-0.  Their next drive they drove the field again and kicked another field goal to go up 13-0.  Right before halftime, Emerald drove into JDS territory and attempted a field goal that was wide left.  With 12 minutes in the game up 13-0, Emerald drove to JDS' 1 yard line and had a 1st and goal.  They ultimately threw an interception which is part of the reason JDS was able to get back into the game.  JDS would get a go ahead TD with 1:05 to play but Emerald knew they just needed to get into field goal range to have a chance at probably the biggest upset in at least the last 15 years.  Emerald took the kickoff to midfield.  They managed to get to the 29 yard line with :03 seconds left and attempt a 46 yard yard field goal that just cleared the goal post for the victory.  Great win for Emerald.  I hope you don't have any more big upsets for at least 2 weeks though.

September 27^th 2010:

I thought the officials did a decent job this past Monday night.  The only 'suggestion' I would make would be on the last play of a half, if you know the ball will be thrown into the endzone, shouldn't one official be sitting on the back line to verify feet are in bounds?  JDS had a 4th and goal from the 25 yard line.  The ball was thrown to Bama on a fly pattern and he caught it in the back of the end zone.  It was a hell of a catch and he deserved the TD even if he was on or outside the line. I'm not saying he was out of bounds.  I couldn't see it from my angle.  It would just make me feel better if an official was on that back line for the play.

November 12^th 2009:

Last Sunday the league was short a few referees so I was asked to referee the Legends League games at O'Connell field so another ref could be used at Voke.  I agreed and now that it's over I will naturally share some thoughts on the day.  First, the Legends league is a much more civil league than our league.  For example, in the first half of a game one team was winning 32-0.  They easily could have ended the game with a mercy if they wanted to but instead they purposely dropped interceptions and even took a knee to end the 1st half.  That would never happen in the flag league.  In a different game between the 2nd and 3rd place teams, one of them had a 7 point lead.  As the other team was going in for the tying score the nose guard reached over and purposely tapped the centers hand.  I threw a flag for an intentional offsides.  A 20 yard penalty.  The nose guard said he was just messing around.  My reaction was "well it's going to cost you 20 yards".  Then the center said, "we were just fooling around, I don't want a cheap penalty like that".  So I waved it off.  I'm not sure if that would have happened in our league either.  The center who said he didn't want the penalty played for Breens Cafe.  The reason I bring this up is because the Breens sideline went nuts when I waved off the penalty.  I explained to the Breens players on the sideline that their center said the two were messing with each other and he didn't want the penalty.  The players on the sideline after hearing my explanation seemed fine with it but weren't thrilled that their center declined the penalty.  However, even though the players were fine with it, some of the Breens fans on the sideline (aka female significant others) were relentless in badgering me about waving off the penalty.  I believe I called a holding penalty on Breens a short time later and heard "wave it off, they were just messing around" but it wasn't said in a playful manner.  It was said with a really negative spiteful tone.  Later in the game, Breens drove down the field and scored a touchdown.  They went for 2.  A pass was thrown towards my sideline in the back of the end zone.  On the other sideline, there was a ref standing on the back line.  The pass was completed and I raised my hands to signal a good conversion.  At the sametime I noticed the other ref waving his arms indicating the receivers foot was out of bounds.  We discussed it and even though I was closer to the play, the other ref told me he was on the back line and saw the first foot come down on the line.  That being the case, we signalled no good for the try.  Again, the Breens players were not happy.  I explained why I changed my call and even though they didn't like it they seemed to understand why me being the closer ref would allow myself to be overturned.  The female fans however were not as understanding.  The insults were flying at me the rest of the game after that.  I believe the funniest one was "maybe the field should be in braille".  Unfortunately, once again, the comment was not said with humor.  All the comments were said with as much malicious intent as one could say it.  So on one hand I saw a level of sportsmanship by the players in that league that was way over what you'd see in our league but on the other hand, they had the most uptight and rude fans I've seen in a while.  I guess it's good I have a thick skin and didn't let any of the comments bother me too much...... oh ......and it doesn't hurt that I have this website to use as my soapbox to bash them either.

November 2^nd 2009:

I am going to point out something to which I'm not sure I can explain the reason "why" it happens.  All I know is it just happens.  When there is less than a minute in the half or in the game, there really isn't a better team at scoring than Molinari's.  I'm not just talking about this year either.  It's also not a phenomenon with one quarterback or receiver either.  Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.  In 2004,  we're beating Molinari's 16-13 with 40 seconds left in the game.  They have the ball 3rd and goal from the 34 yard line.  Dan Coonan completes a 34 yard pass over the middle for the winning TD.  In 2006, Molinari's is playing a team from Rhode Island.  They're losing 13-7 with about 20 seconds left.  They're on the 40 yard line.  John Armento is the QB this time and he completes a 40 yard pass for the game winning score.  This year Mario is the QB and against the Wreckin Crew with about 30 seconds left he completes a 35 yard pass for the go ahead score.  These are only three examples but if you watch any of their games you will see this happens on a regular basis and they do it against really good teams not just the crappy ones.  When I talk to the captains of other teams, they all agree, you can not give them the ball with any time left on the clock at the end of a half.  No matter what defense you play, you will give up points.

October 15^th 2009:

Monday night I'm at Crompton watching the Cutler/Imperial Cars game and a couple players have words with each other after a play, just like any other football game you'll go to.  Except in this case the Imperial player throws a couple wild punches and I believe got a piece of the Cutler player with at least one of them.  The whole thing gets broken up and the Imperial player gets ejected.  He goes to his side line and takes off his jersey and starts walking away from his team in the direction of the end zone opposite the street.  The game continues on and those of us on the sideline see the player walk around the back of the end zone and then start walking up the other sideline towards the Cutler bench.  The Cutler players on the sideline see him coming and choose to ignore him.  No one confronts him which was the RIGHT thing to do.  I spoke to him and asked him why he was on their sideline and he stated he was looking for the Cutler player he punched.  This is my opinion but he wasn't there to say sorry.  He was looking to finish the job. There were a couple players from Cutler listening to the whole thing and I'm sure they'll agree he wasn't there to make amends.  This player is very lucky the guys from Cutler were cool headed about the whole thing.  There are a couple teams in this league that if he had pulled that stunt with, I don't think he would have walked away from the field because there would have been a major incident which probably would have required a police presence.  That's the LAST thing the league needs.  At tonights meeting, this event will be discussed and appropriate punishment will be levied.  Each team who has a rep at the meeting will have their say on the matter.  If you're not there, you won't be heard.
 

November 7^th 2008:

The readers have spoken and by request I am going to give them something to read and ponder. Now that Molinari's is officially in the playoffs I am removing my self imposed ban on talking about them. My new legal team has advised me that I need to include a disclaimer on the following comments before I type them out so here goes.

All comments made in this section are based on partial facts, partial rumors, bias' against Molinari's and mostly just for comedic purposes. Anyone without a sense of humor should stop reading now. These statements are not the views of the league, my team, or anyone else but myself. These words can not be reproduced or retransmitted without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball....er...sorry...my legal team is a fairly new but VERY successful firm so bear with me.

Okay, Barack Obama hasn't been the President elect for a week yet and the handouts have already begun. Molinari's is the 1st recipient of a handout. The playoff birth that your team has worked hard for and won is now going to be given to a less deserving team. Molinari's has been awarded your playoff birth. I'm joking. No one is giving up their playoff spot to Molinari's. Here is basically how the meeting went from my perspective. Mac's Diner is unique compared to other diners in the sense that it has a couple of secret back rooms that are only known to regular customers. It's not like a regular caboose type diner. Meeting started at 7pm and 9 teams had representatives present. I usually get to the meeting at 8:15-8:30 so I had someone else there to represent Millbury. When I got there at 8:15 almost everyone was in this backroom discussing who knows what. I sat in a booth outside this room talking with a couple other players about what was going on. Every now and then someone would come out and give us an update on what was happening. For those of you who read the disclaimer above, I would like to introduce my new legal team. The Law Offices of Dan Coonan and Derek Stankus. Not since Johnny Cochran and Bob Shapiro have I seen two individuals do a better job to save an obviously guilty client from the electric chair. They used every method in the book from what I heard. They portrayed themselves as the victims and I think they may have even stated the league was against them because they're Irish. I couldn't substantiate any of that though. Anyway, whatever was said in that room, IT WORKED!!! I think the turning point was when Fran asked Derek to try on the white flag belt and it didn't fit. At that point all the reps agreed that Molinari's should be allowed in the playoffs. The next question was how do we have a fair playoff system. It was suggested that we have a 10 team playoff and everyone thought that the issue was settled. Until I pointed out that there is no way to do a 10 team playoff. The math doesn't work. You can't do a 9 and you can't do an 11. So we decided to do 12 teams. In my opinion it seems ridiculous to play a whole season and then let everyone in the playoffs BUT it seemed to be the only fair way to do it since this year has been all screwed up. So 2 hours after the meeting started, all the back room politics had ended and we reached a decision. These meetings always have a 1920's mob feel to them. I'm dead serious when I say the following: I always have an uneasy feeling in that backroom with no exit in it. One ticked off individual could block the doorway and take us all out like Capone's gang did in the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. And to make things worse, somehow I feel like I'd be the first one shot regardless of who was doing the shooting.

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October 23^rd 2008:

Last Sunday, Center Bar & Grill suffered the worst defeat in the 13 years I've been in the league.  They only had 9 guys show up and lost 54-0.  This week they play Molinari's who arguably has the best offense in the league.  It will be very easy for the guys on the Center Bar & Grill team to say F it we're not showing up just to get our asses kicked.  Maybe that's what they're planning on doing who knows.  All I'm going to say to their coach is a lot of teams in this league have been in your position.   I was there in 1996 & 1998.  (Somehow in 1997 we were 2 plays away from being 5-5.  Don't ask me how that happened.)  More recently though, Cutler was there in 2006.  They were 0-7 and only had 9 players left on the roster.  They could have very easily all have quit and given up but they stuck it out and ended up winning their last 3 games.  When you're winless and down to 9 guys, THAT is when you find out who the winners  on your team are.  Any chump can go join a winning team and reap the rewards other guys have earned for him.  The guys with real metal are the ones who show up every week and go as hard as they can despite knowing the odds are stacked against them.  Those are the type of guys you'd want in a foxhole with you if your life depended on it.  Hopefully on Sunday all 9 of your guys are there.  If not, I commend the guys who do show up to play.  I guarantee every team in the league will be pulling for you this week.  Good luck.

On a different subject.  I heard a couple kids talking about X-Box 360 and how in Madden Football there is a "do over" button.  So if your opponent scores on a last second hail mary pass you can hit the "do over" button and make him replay the down.  Are you kidding me?  I guess we can't let little Johnny lose a game to someone because it might hurt his feelings or he might feel like a loser.  So we better give him a "do over" button to make him feel like a winner.   I'll admit I'm old.  I used to play Atari games.  Asteroids, Pacman, Defender, etc.  Here's a newsflash for you, those games had no end.  Every time you completed a level the game just got faster and harder until you got to the point where you were killed.  It was IMPOSSIBLE to win.   The minute you turned on the game you knew you had no chance of surviving and winning.  And do you know what we did?  We kept playing and trying to beat the game.  That's right, we tried to beat a game that was impossible to beat.  By losing we were becoming winners.  Unlike little Johnny with his X-Box who is being turned into a loser because we keep making it easier for him to win. And just to tie this all in with what I said about Center Bar & Grill above, little Johnny X-Box is NOT someone you'd want in a fox hole with you if your life depended on it.

October 7^th 2008:

Sunday East Side had the ball with a 4th and goal on their 18 yard line with 25 seconds left in the half.  They used a timeout with 22 seconds on the clock.  It's 4th down and they had no kicker so I don't have any issues with them going for it but why would you call the timeout with 22 seconds left?  Why not wait until there are 2 seconds left and then call it?  They threw an incomplete pass and left the Undertakers the ball on their own 18 with about 16 seconds left.  It was unlikely the Undertakers were going to score but why chance it.  Don't even give them a chance to run a play.  Which brings me to my next point.  There is 16 seconds left, they are on their own 18 yard line and it's a 100 yard field.  WHY wouldn't you just take a knee if you're the Undertakers?  I've seen bad things happen in those situations especially in this league.  Molinari's was faced with a similar situation against JDS and Mario wisely took a knee.  Here's my advice to all the new players in this league:  Don't let your ego become bigger than your brain.  There's a time to take chances and there is a time to play it safe.  But no one will listen to this and at some point within the next 5 weeks I'll be saying I told you so to someone who thought I was just full of s--t.

I have a hypothetical question to ask.  If you were suspended by the league and then allowed to come back under the stipulation that one wrong move and you'll be done for good, would you publicly taunt your opponents on the field and call them names in front of everyone?  Wouldn't you just try to lay low and go unnoticed?

Lastly, this is for every team.  If you do something at one of the fields either while you're playing or watching that is unsportsmanlike or obscene, you can be fined or suspended.  Even if a referee doesn't throw a penalty flag for it.  Hitting guys out of bounds, threatening people, vulgar language, etc. is grounds for the league to take action regardless of whether or not it is seen or reported by a referee.   I witnessed all of the above this weekend.  I'll be pushing for a few guys to get fined at this Thursday's meeting.  Luckily for the teams/players involved it's not my decision to make.

September 29^th 2008:

Molinari's, what are you guys doing?  You guys kind of remind me of Marty McFly's brother in the movie "Back to the Future".  Before Marty goes and changes the future his brother Dave is just a goof off working at a fast food place with no real direction, worries or care about anything around him.  Once the future is changed and Marty comes back, his brother Dave is wearing a suit to work and driving a BMW.  You guys have a lot of potential but for some reason you're happy goofing off.  Rumor has it that Coonan intercepted a pass in the Cutler game and in the middle of the play he ran toward the sideline with his hand out yelling "Beer me! Beer me!".  I have to admit, when I heard that I laughed my ass off.  I'm laughing now thinking about it.  I wish I could have been there for that.  And let's not forget last year when one of your opponents was in the process of retuning a punt for a touchdown against you and one of your players came off the sideline to pull his flag.  No one seemed to notice but the monitor of course.  On one hand it is wicked funny but on the other it shouldn't be done in an organized league.   You guys are the step child of this league but for some reason we just can't bear to give you up for adoption.
 
September 11^th 2008:

I realize some of the guys from Molinari's will think having to forfeit because they broke the transfer rule is bogus but the bottom line is there is a rule in place and it was broken.  The teams didn't have a big problem with Mario and Chad playing together, the problem was with Molinari's intent to hide it from the league until the last possible moment.  The league has changed a lot in the past 15 years.  Teams now vote and have their say on actions that happen within the league.  And from what I've seen, the league has been very lenient in most of the cases.  Waving the transfer rule in this case is another example of that leniency.  Had this been brought up to the league prior to Molinari's first game this would have been resolved and a protest would not have been necessary. 

Funky Murphy's is probably thinking I'm an a--hole for protesting the game on Monday night.  And too be honest I'd feel the same way if the role was reversed.  I'm not feeling great about doing it.  My responsibility is to my team first and as such if I think my team was placed at an unfair disadvantage from a misunderstanding of the rule then I need to make it known.  That being said, it was your player who tied his belt in a knot and then proceeded to catch a pass and run into the endzone.  My guess is the player tied it early in the game thinking he would not be going out for passes and in the overtime when sent out on a pass route probably forgot all about the belt being tied.  Nonetheless, the penalty for that was not applied correctly and was ultimately a major factor in us losing the game.   A protest must be filed within 48 hours so I did so before I could discuss it with my team.  If after discussing it with my team they feel we should withdraw the protest then I will gladly do so.   If not, then we'll see you back on the field in October.

October 28^th 2007:

During the game between Jones Delivery and Emerald Isle some words were exchanged and someone from JDS made a comment to Emerald Isle like "you guys aren't good enough for this league".  Emerald Isle may not be that great but if Diego doesn't transfer to JDS there's a good chance JDS would be right next to Emerald at the bottom of the standings looking up.  One other thing, be careful who you taunt.  Many years ago my team heard the same things said about us.  And when we became a legitimate contender in this league we made sure to pay "Mac's Place" back ten fold.  And before you go thinking that Millbury's rise to first was just an isolated case and a worst to first won't happen again, just take a look at the Cutler Chaos.  Guys on their team told me prior to their game this weekend that this was a "payback" game against Molinari's.  Look how that one turned out.  My point to JDS and everyone else in this league (including my team) is be careful who you step on when you're climbing the ladder of success because those are the same people you'll have to pass on your way back down that ladder.   

October 25^th 2007:

Regarding the above incident, there are other teams suspected of also using unregistered players.  You WILL forfeit your games if it is determined that your team is guilty of violating this rule.

October 16^th 2007:

Towards the end of the game Monday night I overheard one of the Jones Delivery players say something like "put that on your website!".  Referring to the fact that they just beat us.  Anyone who comes to this website knows I do write ups when we win and I do them when we lose.  The only time I might not do a write up is after a night game just because putting all this stuff on the web takes a while and sometimes I'd just rather get some sleep.  If someone kicks our ass I have no problem saying it.  As a matter of fact, one of the funniest write ups I thought I ever did came after we got our butts whipped in week 7 2005 by Meola's.   And that might have been one of the toughest losses I've ever been a part of in this league.  It was late October, it was about 35 degrees out that night and the freezing rain was coming down so fierce that Crompton Park was a lake.  The wind was so brutal that our punter actually caught one of his own punts.  The trash talk between the two teams was out of control.  The game was stopped multiple times as both sides argued with the refs and our team could have been mistaken for the Undertakers with the way we were at each others throats.  (without anyone actually getting punched in the face of course).  Man, we hated each other that night.  And yet I still did a write up.  So just because this is the Monsoon team website doesn't mean it's all written one sided in our favor or that I only put stuff out there when we win.  I give props when it's due.  
 
October 11^th 2007:

In this past Sunday's game between Banner and Molinari's, Banner had a 1st down and 3 yards to go from the 23 yard line.  Molinari's intentionally jumped off sides and touched the running back 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage.  The referees awarded Banner a 5 yard penalty and a first down and goal from the 18 yard line.  Essentially Molinari's benefited by the penalty since they would only have to stop Banner 4 times as to opposed to possible 8.  There's one flaw in Molinari's supposedly brilliant play, it's not a 5 yard penalty.  I'm quoting now, it's a "Flagrant Physical Foul that requires an automatic game disqualification for the offending player or players; an automatic 20 yard penalty imposed on the offenders team with no consideration for any half-distance provisions".  I'm sure Molinari's and even some of you reading this will think this is a dumb rule but the rule is there for a good reason.  Any team that breaks the rules should not benefit from that act.  And if you look in the NCAA rule book you will see a similar statement about teams committing penalties not being able to benefit from such actions.   Molinari's clearly benefited from this action.  Luckily for them Banner was not aware of this and neither were the refs.  It has been since brought to the attention of the referees so it shouldn't happen again.

September 30^th 2007:

Is scheduling the use of Worcester parks really that difficult that the city is unable to handle it?  It would seem to me that there are only two things needed to make sure no two groups request the same field at the same time.  One is a pen and in the voice of the late Sam Kineson, "the other is a CALENDAR.   OH OH OHHHHH!!!!!!".  Why is this so freakin hard to do.  It's really sad that there are more organizational skills on the Molinari's football team than there are in the city parks department. 

Speaking of Molinari's, two new referees for their game today.  One supposedly misses an offensive pass interference call.  Molinari's jumps all over him and gives him hell for missing the call.  The ref wasn't trying to give an edge to Cosmopolitan.  He has no grudge against Molinari's.  He doesn't know anyone or anything about either team.  He's just trying to do a good job and he missed the call.  It happens.  Civilly mention something to him and move on!  Next week when he's not on the field because he'd rather not deal with the BS, there will be another referee in his place.  And the referee in his place might throw a flag from 30 yards away from the play, or push a player back onto the field after he is clearly out of bounds or refuse to go talk with the other referees about a call because he knows he is right and the other refs don't know anything.  When this referee makes a call you're unhappy about in your game, you can thank Molinari's.  Give some thanks to Cosmo as well.  They weren't innocent in all this either.


September 24^th 2007:

Undertakers have the ball with under 5 minutes to play and they are up against Molinari's 19-7.  First down they run the ball.  Seems like they're going to run as much time off the clock as possible get a big win.  Next play is a run.....wait....the QB faked the hand off and is now going to throw the ball.  It's intercepted!  Molinari's is going the other way.  He's at the 50, the 40, the 30, the 20, the 10, the five and he gets caught at the 3 yard line.  A play or two on offense and Molinari's scores a touchdown to pull within 5 with 3 minutes to play.  My thought at that moment was why couldn't Terry Walles have been that "risky" when he was in the same situation against the Monsoon the game before.  I'm using the term "risky" because calling it a dumb play just seems mean.  Plus I don't want to get whacked with a bat the next time I go to a game.  Luckily for the Undertakers it didn't cost them the game.  Way to hang in there and get the W.  Nice job.

While I'm on my soap box.  When monitoring the games is it really necessary for the monitor to have a clip board?  The score card is made of light grade card board for pete's sake.  I don't want to mention any names but would someone tell Chris Tornatola to suck it up like every other monitor does.

September 11^th 2007:

Our game with the Undertakers went into overtime Monday night.  The Undertakers won the coin toss and elected to take the ball first.  My only comment here is I think the Undertakers need to watch more college football than pro football.  When both teams get the ball in overtime you generally want to be on defense first.  Not that I'm complaining.

One other thought.  I think the worst sound in all of sports might be the cheers from an opponents sideline after a big play.  The Undertakers had a couple big plays that got their sidelines very excited.  I've been to high school games where the crowd didn't get that loud.  It's not a pleasant sound.

December 10^th 2006:

First, congratulations to the Outlaws on a well deserved win.  Coming into the game we had heard that the Outlaws were a physical team that like to run the ball and that their QB could throw the ball 70 yards without a problem.  I think physically it was an evenly matched game and we were able to contain their running game.  They didn't try any 70 yard passes so that wasn't a factor either.  Their passing offense kind of resembled the Molinari's play calling with a free wheeling Diego McClain from the Undertakers at QB.  (I swear one of those passes Comer threw was a semi-no-look sidearm pass.)  I didn't really expect that out of them.  Their first series was 2 runs and a dropped slant pass and that is about how I thought their play calling would go for most of the game.  Then their next series they started chucking the ball all over the place as if Steve Spurrier was calling their plays.  The bottom line is I think their offense adjusted faster to our defense than our defense could adjust to their offense.

The other thing I regret is midway through the 2nd half we were down 20-12.  Our offense got down to the 19 yard line and was stopped.  On 4th and goal from the 19 yard line we went for the touchdown.  That's my mistake.  I told our kicker to go out to try the FG and then called him back for three reasons.   One, our offense wanted to go for it.  Two, someone convinced me that a field goal would do no good since we would still be down by 5 points and need a touchdown to win.  And three, our kicking game has been atrocious this year and my confidence was low despite the fact the odds of getting the TD were even lower.  Here's why we should have kicked and now I'm kicking myself for not doing it.  One, you should never listen to your offense.  A good offense will always be confident that they can make it on 4th down even if it's 4th and 25 and the percentages are against them.  Second, saying a field goal doesn't help you because you're down by 8 is a dangerous assumption.  It assumes neither team will score again.  I see teams in our league, college and the NFL all make this same assumption only to have it come back to bite them.  With 12 minutes to go in the game, you should never assume how the score will turn out.  You should always take the "sure" points.  Third, we all know there is no such thing as "sure" points.  But the odds of completing a 19 yard touchdown pass on 4th down against a good defense is probably 5-10% while making the field goal is 50%.  We made 50% of our field goals this year.  There's no doubt the distance would be there but the accuracy is a coin flip.  And even though my confidence was low, Wayne made a 47 yard FG earlier in the year to beat Molinari's.  You need to have faith in the guys who got you there.  So why would making the field goal have been such a big deal?  Because with 3 minutes to go the Outlaws kicked a field goal to make it an 11 point lead.  Our offense got down to the Outlaws 21 yard line with a minute to go in the game when they knew even if they scored, the Outlaws would only have to take a knee to win the game.  If it had been an 8 point game instead of 11 we still would have had a chance.  If I had sent Wayne out to try a field goal my team would have hated me but sometimes what is best for the team isn't always popular.  I went with the popular choice instead of the smart choice.  Lesson learned.  

December 6^th 2006:

As bad as the city of Worcester is when it comes to getting fields to play on, at least they will let us have the fields.  Over the past 2 weeks I contacted many high schools and colleges to use their field on Sunday December 10th.  A day in which no one would be using the fields and was turned down time and time again for a variety of reasons.  Some said we needed proof of insurance, others said we needed to be from that town to use the field, some said their fields were already being re-seeded for the next year, some said the field was brand new and they didn't want anyone on it, some said their town fields were closed even though if you go there you can see they clearly aren't, and two just ignored me altogether (Worcester State College & Gillette Stadium).  Yes, I contacted Gillette.   What the hell, if I was going to get turned down I figured I might as well get turned down from somebody more important than the person in charge of Auburn's old practice field that hasn't been used in 18 months.  The next time I hear some of these towns complain about budget cuts I don't think I'll be shedding any tears. 

November 27^th 2006:

The Undertakers are definitely a team to watch out for in the future.  Watching their game against Molinari's there was very little to criticize.  But I'm sure I can find something.  It seemed like every time Molinari's needed to convert a big 3rd down they went on two and the Undertakers defensive line would jump offsides.  

November 19^th 2006:

Down 14-0 the East Side Warriors went for it on 4th and goal from their own 7.  On the sidelines we were thinking maybe they should kick the field goal.  But because GA had seemed to score so easily on their 1st two possessions it was hard to argue with the decision to go for it.  Hindsight is obviously 20/20 but when you think about it the East Side defense was going to need to stop GA's offense eventually if they wanted to win so they probably should have taken the points.  Especially now that we know they lost by 2. 

In the 2nd game, DiStefano's was hit with a pass interference call on 3rd and 22 that gave the Undertakers a 1st and goal with less than 2 minutes to play.  The Undertakers eventually scored and won the game to advance.  Great job to the Undertakers for pulling out an unbelievable victory but I'm not sure if the post game celebration was warranted.  I spoke to members of every team in the league and to some of the Undertakers own fans after the game and EVERY SINGLE PERSON said basically the same thing, Christmas came early for the Undertakers.  I don't know about the rest of you but Santa never came to my house two weeks in a row.  You're going to need to earn your victory next week.

November 12^th 2006:

Where to start.  I guess we'll start with Cutler vs. East Side.  Cutler has the ball on their own 15 yard line.  They are winning 14-6.  It's 4th down and there is less than a minute to play.  They tell the referee they are going to go for it.  They then ask the referee to tell them when there is one second left on the 25 second clock because they want to take their last timeout.  So they call timeout and tell the referee they want to kick now.  The referee does NOT notify East Side that it is now a kick.  The ball is snapped and East Side rushes in towards the punter.  At the same time, the ball is snapped over the punters head.  Cutler argues that they called a kick and therefore there should be a penalty on East Side.  East Side starts yelling that they were never notified that Cutler was going to kick and therefore were within their rights to go rush the punter.  The refs decided to give the ball to East Side and penalize them for rushing the kick and for an unsportsmanlike that was unrelated.  So East Side got the ball around the 30 yard line with about 20 seconds to go in the game.  Any thoughts on how this should have been handled?

The next incident is equally confusing.  Molinari's vs. Distefano's,  Distefano's has the ball with less than 30 seconds in the half.  A pass is caught by a receiver and he runs about 15 yards and runs out of bounds.  About a split second before he runs out of bounds a Distefano's blocker coming from about 10 yards away leaves his feet to make a block on a Molinari's player that is about 4 yards away from the ball carrier.  The player from Molinari's is pretty much knocked out and on the ground for at least 5 minutes.  I was monitoring the game but I was watching the player as he ran out of bounds and could only see the Molinari's player in my peripheral vision.  So I saw him hit the ground but never saw the hit itself.  The refs didn't see anything so the player was not ejected.  Here is what I was told.  Molinari's thought it was a dirty hit because the block was in the back, the player left his feet to make the block, the play was pretty much over, and the player got a 10 yard head of steam before making the hit.  Distefano's sideline told me they thought the block was just inside the front shoulder.  They also told me their player did leave his feet to make the block but that he didn't know it was against the rules to leave your feet when making a block because the player is new to the league this year.  Molinari's wants the Distefano's player punished.  They think he should be ejected from the league since their player was severely hurt and it wasn't a legal hit.  They also feel it was intentional.  The monitor and referees didn't see it.  The league president was at the game but left before the incident occurred to go check on the other games at Chandler.  So he didn't see it either.  A handful of guys on each team did see it and the ONLY thing they agreed on was that the player did leave his feet.   What should be this player's punishment, if any? 

I didn't think it would be possible to top last weeks league meeting but I'm guessing this one just might do that.

November 10^th 2006:

For those of you who missed last nights meeting you missed the most heated meeting of the year.  At one point the league was accused of Gestapo tactics and even criticized that the league was better 5 years ago than it is today.  The main topic of conversation was the 5 game eligibility rule.  Molinari's has a few guys on the cusp of being ineligible for playoffs and they feel the 5 game rule was never enforced in the past and shouldn't be enforced now.  They also didn't think the rule was necessary and should be lessoned.  The argument was that this is a recreational league and not the "NFL" and that guys who pay money should be allowed to play in as many games as they want.  Some guys get hurt, some have personal situations which prevent them from attending games and some are too hung over to make a 9:30 game.  (The hangover comment was an actual point made).  They made some good points other than the hangover comment.  The counter points were that you need to know who is playing in the league.  A name on a piece of paper that you can't put a face to is no good when someone gets punched in the eye or a referee is attacked.  It's also not fair to other teams in the league to not be able to see who is on another teams roster.  Molinari's didn't think that was a big deal but the other teams in the league disagreed (Emerald Isle, East Side, Distefano's, Millbury).  It may not be the "NFL" but we're all competitive and want to make sure there isn't any fast ones pulled.  There may not be anything pulled this year but it doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.  Especially since it was pulled in the past.  Not by Molinari's but by other teams.  It's also not like this rule was just pulled out of the closet last week.  It's been discussed and mentioned for the past 5 weeks that it was going to be enforced.  The rule will stand as written for this year but it will be revisited in the spring when meetings start up again.  If the rule is changed from 5 games to 4 games or whatever, it doesn't matter.  The point is we all need to follow the rules.  Guys are always complaining about refs, fields, game times, etc.  We are slowly adding new referees.  We had 2 new referees this year.  We played almost a full season of Sunday games with a couple exceptions and we managed to get the Chandler Magnet field.  Getting that field saved teams in this league from playing AT LEAST 5 night games each.  And we all know what a headache night games are.  Lights don't come on, some are out, some are just not in good locations and the weather for night games is obviously colder.  Not to mention the inconvenience of having to get out of work on time to make a night game.  Five years ago everyone complained about everything and nothing was being done about it.  Now we meet every week to discuss issues and how to make the league better.  Maybe most of you agree that the league was better 5 years ago.  I don't.  Are our memories that short?  You ALL now have a say in this league as well as an opportunity to help improve it.  You're going to get out of the league exactly what you put into it.  This league is headed in the right direction but it will take time.  Greg Schiano, the head coach at Rutgers, didn't turn that program around overnight.  They were 3-20 in his first two years.  The 6-7 records the prior years all of a sudden didn't look so bad.  But sometimes you need to take a couple steps backwards before you can move forward.   I think OUR league is already starting to move forward.

November 9^th 2006:

I know there are some teams that are unhappy with the referees, some are unhappy with the fields and some unhappy about the eligibility rules. As a monitor I hear all the complaints but complaining to the monitor isn't the right avenue to get your complaints resolved. If you want your opinions heard then you need to speak with Fran. There are meetings every Thursday to discuss the league. We usually go over the previous weeks games to make sure there weren't any issues and then we go over the upcoming week. Who will monitor, who will be at Chandler to help with goal posts, etc. Fran is not unreasonable so if you have a legitimate complaint feel free to show up and voice it. And you don't need to be a team rep to show up at a meeting. If you want to help or have something you think needs to be discussed feel free to show up.

• It's not like my team played a full season without paying the league fees. (I wonder if he was one of the ones who got a free ride this year)
  
• No one on our team played this year under a false name because they were deemed ineligible by the league because of physically attacking refs in the past
• We didn't hand in 30 contracts to the league when 24 is the league maximum
• No one on my team stepped foot on the field without a completed contract.  (Imagine turning in 30 contracts and still playing guys who didn't turn in contracts.  Maybe 24 is a typo and the league maximum number of players is actually 34.)

1. There is a rule that you are not allowed to have more than one transfer from the same team in the same year.  The Undertakers took TWO players from last years Four Seasons squad.  I didn't hear any crying when the league took pity on you and looked the other way and allowed you to keep them.
2. All players who have fines levied against them are supposed to pay the fines in full before being allowed back on the field to play.  The Undertakers have MULTIPLE players with fines that do not pay even though I remind them week after week.  And do they sit on the sideline and watch?  NO, they play every week.
3. Before being allowed to participate in the league, the team fee must be paid in full before the first game.  The Undertakers FAILED in their duty to meet this requirement.
4. The City of Worcester has threatened to fine the league $300 for anyone parking on the grass at Crompton park.  Last night I notified my team, Molinari's, Duke's and the Undertakers of this.  Every car was moved off the field except one, to which no one claimed responsibility.  After almost everyone left, I saw  a player get in the car a drive away.  Would anyone like to guess which team the player was from?  You got it!  THE UNDERTAKERS!