Categories: Division D

Peeze’s Playbook (Div D) – Finals Recap

For comic book lovers Grant Morrison is one of the most established names in the industry.  Most specifically his work on DC’s famed character Batman is truly what brought his name to the status of living legend (Starting with the famed Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth).   His most recent epic is a 13-volume saga, where Bruce Wayne launches a global war against crime as he leads the international franchise into battle. 

 

The Batman Inc. series came to an end in early August.  Throughout the series, Morrison paid tribute to the many Batman writers who came before him as well as his contemporaries.  As this was my first experience playing in the FPF final I can say that I now have a similar appreciation for the league.

 

Arriving at the field, I looked around and for a moment I allowed myself to think of the league’s history, how far it had come and the great teams that suited up to compete for this trophy in years past.  I thought of all the teams and players who had not done so yet and hoped that they would one day enjoy the joyous/stressful-nerve-racking/euphoric feeling.  It is truly something to behold.  As I am writing this article you all know by this point that I am not, in fact and FPF champion.  Checkmate did, in fact, lose to Mongoose and writing this article, has at times proven to be very difficult.

 

Reflecting now upon my experience and the tremendous emotional swing from excitement and despair.  I found myself, thinking of Grant Morrison.  Firstly, I wished that I had an ounce of his writing ability and thus these articles would come to me with greater ease.  Second I realized that in concluding Batman Inc. he, in essence (and on Kevin Smith’s podcast: Fatman on Batman), announced his retirement from writing for Batman.  He talked about how difficult it was to end the series because in reality, Batman never ends.  There is never a moment where Batman is done, never a moment where he could rest on his laurels and ride off into Gotham’s sunset.  Even Superman earned repose after losing a seemingly fatal battle to Doomsday. However, no such solace will ever come to the Dark Knight, for even in death he would not rest.

 

After thinking about this for an extraordinary amount of time I realized that Morrison retired from writing Batman because he felt that he gave everything he could to the character.  I on the other hand felt the plight of the caped crusader.  There would be no time to rest, no time to be somber, because there is still more that I need to accomplish in this league (winning a championship would be nice).  With that in mind I took finger to keystroke and began to write my article. 

 

I apologize for how late this article appears.  Unfortunately my double life caught up to me at the end of the season and had other obligations to tend to.  As the recap is truly meant for us to revel in the glory of the championship team and as Mongoose are a team of gentlemen, I truly did not want to rush this article. Thanks for those who patiently waited for my article.  For those less patient who sarcastically remarked at my articles tardiness, I now know you missed me.  I’m touched.

 

 

The Final Recap

 

The Brave and the Mongoose

 

After the two teams met at mid-field it was decided that the Mongoose would begin with the ball.  Mongoose began much as everyone expected.  They marched the ball down the field and meticulously worked the Checkmate defense.  The drive ended, as they typically do with an Alex Gaudet touchdown pass. When Checkmate got the ball, every kid and his dog in the stands knew where the ball was going. 

 

True to form, Frédéric Morissette stepped back heaved the ball down the field and for a split second we thought this game was going to be the heavy weight battle we all expected.  That moment was fleeting however, as Maxime Théroux caught the ball in front of Checkmate receiver James Floreani.  That one play seemed to set the tone throughout the whole game.

 

For a couple of seasons, Checkmate has been one of those teams that has that ‘intimidation’ factor when they walk onto the field.  Interestingly, from the get go it was Checkmate looked intimidated.  Key drops by players like Alex David and James Floreani, uncharacteristically poorly thrown balls by Fred Morissette and timid play by Joe Mbaya seemed to be the norm. Frustration set in as spectators even witnessed Joe Mbaya walking off the field and out of the complex while the game was still in progress.  On the other hand, the Mongoose were sharp early and they took a 25-12 lead into halftime.  Early on, Gaudet got his recivers involved as Nuckle, Tondreau and Lapointe all got in on the action. 

 

The second half started with a glimmer of hope for Checkmate.  Starting with the ball, Checkmate moved the ball down the field and Morissette hit Lachapelle at the front of the endzone for a touchdown.  Down only one touchdown, Checkmate needed only one stop to get back into the game.  This would not happen however as Mongoose did not look vulnerable at any point this game.  Marching down the field after that scoring drive.  Having taken jabs at the Checkmate defense all night, Gaudet was finally ready to take a shot at the back of the endzone from about midfield and he threw a perfect pass to William Tondreau for a touchdown.  This truly was the dagger for Checkmate as the Mongoose showed that they truly could not be stopped

 

Unfortunately the hole the Dans had dug for themselves was too deep and they were never fully able to recover as Les Maloudes walked away with a huge 43-13 victory.  It is with great pride that I announced that they are now the Winter 2013 Division 5 Champions.

 

Where do they go from here?

 

Mongoose

 

The Mongoose have now won two FPF championships.  They have proven that they are a strong team across the board.  Gaudet is as solid as it gets as an FPF quarterback.  He is intelligent and calls the plays that get players open. That in itself, is an underrated skill in this league.  Moreover, Lapointe, Shallcross, Nuckle and Tondreau are all very good receivers and can do damage at the next level.  They work well as a team and in a league dominated by relative star power; we see it is truly the cohesive teams that see the greatest success.  This is particularly true of the Mongoose defense.  As good as their offense is they have an intelligent defense and players communicate constantly to make sure that everyone is covering the right part of the field.  I can see Mongoose moving up to division 3.  I know that they’ve tried their hand at division 3 and had a really rough season but I think that with all they’ve learned they are ready for a new challenge.

 

Checkmate

 

You’ll see 😉

 

For more information tune in next season! Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

 

By that I mean the FPF website.

 

Reflections Rants and Ravings

 

  • Playing in the finals was a great experience but part of me did miss being up in the booth.
  • Throughout the game I kept goading the Mongoose by insinuating that other than Cedric Nuckle, they did not have talent. My annoying on field persona aside, they are truly a talented team through and through.
  • Rumors have it that the 36 hour midnight madness tournament will return for the second year in a row.  I’m pumped!
  • The recording of the Division D finals be up this week!
  • Alex Gaudet won the MVP and I don’t think there is any dispute as to whether or not it went to the right player.
  • Marc-André Lapointe is a very solid, physical receiver.  He is definitely fun to watch.
  • Now that the DC universe has let go of its continuity and reset time with it’s 52 dimensional multi-verse, I wonder if Batman will ever have stubble after spending days hunting down his prey.
  • We have now had our first meeting working toward implementating a player ratings system and team ‘salary caps’ per division.  This will cause many disputes but it will also result in hours of entertainment for team captains who can now pretend to be real GMs.

 

The Season Wrap-up

 

While I do firmly believe that the trophy would have looked best on my mantle, I am fairly satisfied with the notion that I will not have to wrestle it away from my teammates.  That struggle is now bestowed upon the members of the Mongoose.  They proved to be the best team and I congratulate them for their success.

 

Likewise, it has been my honor to write and appear on Calling the Audible for you on a weekly basis.  Allowing Terry Tam and I to work together is the worst idea in the history of Flag Plus Football.  We are both quite insane, and have the collective attention span of a squirrel in a ball-pit filled with acorns.  Either way, the results were fairly positive and we will, hopefully continue to work to bring you an entertaining show.  Sharing the stage with Justin Blanchard was also fun because making fun of him truly filled my weeks with joy.  His youthful exuberance is often confused with naivety and it should be.  While I’m at it I must admit that Daron was a pleasure to work with as was the Eagle at Master Control.  Sadly, I believe we will be outsourcing Eagle’s job next season so that we can pay someone far less to do his job.  I have heard rumors that he may be migrating to whichever country we outsource this kind of work from so that he could keep his job at severely reduced pay.  For those who’d like to hear Daron and Justin Blanchard reacting to the game live, look for the video of the championship game to be posted shortly. Finally I’d like to thank Mike Addona for filling in for me while I was away n Calling the Audible.

 

While this is technically the off-season please note that I will be answering all FPF related twitter interactions and can be reached @PeezeFPF. Thank you for reading, for listening and most importantly, thank you for letting me be myself.