Thanks Jamal!

Shanghai, China -

Once billed as a cornerstone of the Phreak franchise, Jamal Lewis now finds himself heading out of town, thanks to a blockbuster deal consummated in the wee hours of the morning between the Phreaks and the DiRTeByRDeeZ. The deal finds the Phreaks sending Jamal Lewis, Tony Gonzalez, and a conditional 2005 3rd round pick to the DIRTeByRDeeZ in exchange for Roy Williams, Lee Suggs, and the DIRTeByRDeeZ's 2005 2nd round pick.

"I want to first thank Jamal for giving his all to this franchise. He embodied the true spirit of what it means to be a Philadelphia Phreak. Coming back from injury the way he has, battling through all of the adversity, I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for Jamal. I wish him all the best in his efforts for the DB's. However today is also an incredibly exciting day for us here in Phreakland as we are welcoming a guy who we think will be a top-flight wide receiver for years to come in Roy Williams. Roy is a high-character guy with boundless energy who we see as a great fit for our rebuilding franchise," said Phreaks GM Ping Shen in what could be perceived as a concession speech for the 2004 season.

DIRTeByRDeeZ GM Jon spoke briefly after emerging from the negotiation room just before sunrise Wednesday, "I just want to say that I'm tremendously excited to be able to bring in a guy like Jamal Lewis. He reminds me a lot of the true DIRTeByRD, Jamal Anderson. Jamal is incredibly excited to come in here and lead our young and explosive team. With a proven guy like Jamal in the fold, the sky is the limit for this organization."

While a true analysis of this trade probably won't be possible for at least another year, one league GM weighed in, saying, "You gotta believe the Phreaks are giving up a lot here - a stud running back for an unproven rookie receiver, with, admittedly, loads of potential. Going into next season, the Phreaks will have only one proven back in Portis, and a bunch of "potential" guys. The ByRDeeZ, now, with Jamal leading the way for McGahee, have an incredibly explosive RB core. For a team left for dead earlier in the year, Yang has really done a great job remaking his club - if not a contender this year, they certainly will be in the near future."

Getting Spunky

As the season marches forward, surprises have been plenty and often. What the heck are the Birds doing up in the standings, tied for best record in the league? The Jammers under .500 but the Angels over .500? Say what? So here are we go, a run down of the SMG division and who's hot and who's not.

Green Team (6-3)
Green Team GM, Greg Ng, must be one of the top candidates for GM of the year at this point. Shrewd pickups including Antonio Gates, David Givens, Ruben Droughns, and Ben Roethlisberger have catapulted Green to the top of the division. The team as a whole is gelling well and scoring at a solid clip. A top 3 offense (until the Jammers overtook them last week), Green Team has plenty of young talent on its starting roster and has a deep bench to boot. Thomas Jones and Ruben Droughns have been a solid duo out of the backfield while Hines Ward again leads his receiver pack with 109 pts on the season (good for 5th best WR). The SMG division has traditionally been an easy one to win and if the Green Team can hold on to its production consistency, we see no reason for the team to enter the playoffs as the top rated team in the division.

Battle Angels (5-4)
Outside of the Birds, this is another surprise team that has taken the league by surprise. C-Mart has been lights out while Drew Brees is a solid MVP candidate this year. The receiving core is suspect at best with Moss out but the bottom line, the Angels are 5-4. GM Dinh has done a good job of plugging holes as necessary but a major concern is Moss' leg injury. That is one hole that management will be unable to plug if the injury lingers. In the meantime, Drew and C-Mart are expected to hold down the fort for the team

Flaming Shrapnels (5-4)
While its not surprising that the Shrapnels are once again a solid playoff contender, it is surprising that the team is scoring as such a high rate. 935 total points is good for second overall behind the Monkeys and is proving once again that the passing game should not be taken for granted. While DD and Chris Brown are no slouches, they aren't exactly LT and Shaun Alexander either. However, its the Shrapnel passing game led by Marc Bulger and TO that have taken the Shrapnel offense to new heights. With the return of Anquan Boldin, things only look better for the Shrapnel.

Skool (4-5)
I'm not sure how a team with Daunte Culpepper can be below .500. I know Moss is hurt but when Daunte easily accounts for half of most weekly scores on regular basis, you should be winning on a regular basis as well. However, Skool has been roped with constant injury and disappointing performances. Chad Johnson has not lived up to his motormouth, Deuce has been struggling again with that bad ankle, and Koren just can't seem to overtake DJax out in Seattle. If any of these three decides to step it up and play even up to half of their capabilities on a weekly basis, this would be a team to be reckoned with. Until then, GM Chen and his team might be following the playoffs from the team's clubhouse TV.

Phreaks (3-6)
A 3-1 start followed by a 5 game losing streak. Next week against Bree's 36 point performance carryover isn't gonna help either. What can we say? Curse. The Phreaks, no matter how they try, are simply cursed. The Red Sox took 86 years. Current projections indicate that GM Shen will be 109 before the streak is going to be broken. Joke. But despite the presence of two consensus pre-draft top 5 backs, the Phreaks have managed to turn the season into another debaucherous result. Jamal gets suspended, Clinton, despite being in a run oriented offense, decides to show up every 4th game, and the passing game outside of Donovan and Javon simply doesn't exist on a consistent basis. Rumors are circulating that GM Shen will be looking to completely rebuild this offseason so it'll be interesting to see what the team does in the coming months.

The Drama Kings

CHUNKY MONKEYS (6-3)
Being at the top of the regular season standings is nothing new for the Monkeys. They are constantly a team on in the mix, but like their NFL counterparts, the Eagles, they are always choking in the playoffs. Could this finally be the Monkeys year? With the most points scored in the league (by almost 10pts per game) and the best record, the Monkeys are hoping they can finally reach the promised land. With 6 century games and a week low of 90 pts, this team comes to play.

Armed with the tremendous trio of Peyton Manning (league leading 269 pts), Shaun Alexander (161) and LT (145), the Monkeys feature the best QB and two of the top five RBs. Did we mention Andre Johnson? An emerging stud and the fourth best WR in the game? It's a wonder that the Monkeys ever lose. If Darrell Jackson (89 pts) can keep on improving on his recent hot surge, the Monkeys might finally have the WRs to go with a traditionally strong ground game. Of course, any contender still has holes and it's at the third WR spot that the Monkeys fail to find consistency out of Chris Chambers or Amani Toomer.

DIRTY BIRDS (6-3)
The only team in this division to beat the Monkeys? That's right, the Dirty Birds, who squeaked out a 6pt win against them in WK2. In what has to be the surprise of the year, the Birds are right up there, neck and neck, with the league leaders. Despite being the 2nd lowest scoring team in the league, the Birds have managed to claw and scratch their way to six wins. Maybe it's the league leading PA schedule? Just maybe. But still, this team can be dangerous when it needs to be (two century games, two 99 pt games)and it never lays a goose egg (scoring only under 90pts twice). One of the Bird's losses was a forfeit and one was a loss by one point, so it could be argued that the Birds could be the best team in the league right now, but we won't argue that.

The question is, can these guys keep it up? This team has been devoid of stars, and solid producers (especially since Tiki was cut), but somehow the team manages to keep churning. Aaron Brooks has been top ten QB and he's anchored a rotating backfield of young guns like Rudi Johnson, DeShaun Foster (2 big games before being injured), Lee Suggs and now, mid-season revelation, Willis McGahee. With an up and coming WR corps (Roy Williams, Larry Fitzgerald, Ashely Lelie, Keary Colbert), the Birds can do some high flying too.

From a rebuilding season to a contending season, have the Birds run out of magic or can they keep a flapping?

TIIIIITE END JAMMERS (4-5)
Last year's champion seems destined for a trip to the playoffs, which is more than the previous two champions have been able to accomplish. What started out as a 1-5 record for the Jammers has nicely turned into a 4-5 record with three straight wins. The Jammers are back everybody and they're mad as hell. As evidenced by their back to back 141 and 151 points (season record) in WK7 and WK8.

Sporting the top two RBs in the league (Priest and Tiki, along with Ahman at 7th), the Jammers are primed for a true defense of their title. While QB Michael Vick has been more than sporadic, he remains the piece that could make the Jammers unbeatable. And it's not like Tom Brady or Steve McNair aren't serviceable backups.

Last year's weak (in relation to the QB and RBs) receiving corps is now bursting with weapons. Marvin Harrison (top 3 WR), Jimmy Smith (top 10 WR) and the newly invigorated Plaxico Burress (top 25 and moving up) are looking like the strongest WR duo in the league. Combine the best WR trio with the best RB duo along with Vick and what do you get? The entire Dirty Bird championship roster from two years ago? No. You get a scary looking championship team ready to avenge early season losses.

The Jammers could go undefeated the rest of the way and pull out home field advantage through the playoffs (again) if the players play up to even 75% of their potential.

BUFFY (4-5)
The Jammers have won three, the Buffyians have lost three. Elevator action as the two teams pass each other in the standings. Buffy has been wildly inconsistent, bursting out of the gates with some huge games and then playing down to the level of their competition; as evidenced by their weekly scores: 98-114-131-97-80-110-73-65-108. Why the wild swings of success? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Buffy's fate is directly tied into the fate of the St Louis Rams.

Stalwarts like Marshall Faulk (108 pts), Torry Holt (107) and Isaac Bruce (100) have had their explosive games this year but they've also been erratic, just like the Rams. Even with another top ten WR in Joe Horn (104 pts) -- giving Buffy three of the top dozen receivers -- Buffy has been hard pressed for consistency. Some of this blame has to be spread to Travis Henry, who was a colossal bust. QB Matt Hasselbeck was looking like a bust until recently and even though he leads this team with 145 pts, he will have to really up his game to match his pre-season expectations.

Intriguing Patriot Corey Dillon has had his hot flashes but he's dinged up and hurt so now the onus is on Michael Pittman to match his stellar past few week's of performances. Can he do it? Can the ground game of Faulk, Dillon and Pittman give the Buffy aerial attack some legs? They'll have to otherwise the losing streak will just keep on going.

Strangely, Buffy is 3-1 within their division, with their only loss coming against the Chunky Monkeys in WK1. That means Buffy has been able to dominate the Drama Kings but has been the stomp pad for those Spunky Misunderstood Geniuses.

ANTE UP (2-7)
Ante Up has traditionally been a first half team, but they started off with a 56 point effort in WK1 and it's been only slightly uphill from there. This is one first half of the season that Ante Up fans would certainly rather forget. Four century games and nine weeks into the season, Ante Up only has two wins to show for all of their hard work. In fact, Ante Up hasn't been a true contender since season one, when they started off undefeated in five games but somehow managed to slip to a final record of 5-8. After back to back 5-8 records in 2001 and 2002, last year's 8-7 mark was a spark of hope, but now Ante Up is looking like it'll set a new franchise low for wins.

Can Ante Up ownership turn this franchise around and finally get on track? The roster on hand certainly looks like its got some weapons, but can you really live forever on potential?

RBs Edgerrin James (139 pts, 6th best RB) has become a dependable feature back and looks fully recovered from his ACL tear of two years ago, but the rest of this team has been disappointing. Greater things were expected out of QB Trent Green than 164 pts and only ranking as the eighth best signal caller in the game. The Chiefs have not been the offensive juggernauts they were supposed to be and Green's numbers have suffered.

WRs Derrick Mason, Donte' Stallworth and Laveranous Coles have been unable to duplicate the success they had last year and only the emergence of Reggie Wayne has kept this aerial unit passable. Even the balls busting defense of the Buccanneers have taken a quick slide to mediocrity this year (ranked 16th) and without that bone crushing defensive prescence, it looks like Ante Up is having difficulty winning games.

On the bright side, Ante Up is only two games out of a playoff berth but they're going to really need Trent Green to step up, a weaker schedule (Ante has faced the hardest opponents this year by far), or for old war horse Jerome Bettis to get a whole more carries and TDs. Otherwise it'll be "Ante Suck" for another year.

Calling Mr. Jones

The news for the Phreaks just went from bad to worse. RB Brian Westbrook, originally diagnosed with a bruised rib, is reported to instead have a broken rib and is now expected to miss up to two weeks. With stud RB Jamal Lewis in the middle of a two-game suspension, the injury leaves the Phreaks paper-thin at RB heading into this week’s game against the Chunky Monkeys. Injury-plagued rookie Kevin Jones and 37 year-old Dorsey Levens, just signed to a 7-day contract, are the only two healthy RBs on the roster. It’s safe to say that neither Jones nor Levens, whomever ends up starting on Sunday, will keep defensive coordinators up at night.

“I’m sorry to see Brian get hurt,” said Phreaks GM Ping Shen, “He’ll be back quickly for us, but in the meantime we are a little bit short at RB since Jamal is still out one more game. Dorsey is our veteran security blanket, but we’re going to give Kevin a long, hard look in practice this week to see if he’s ready to crack the starting lineup.”

“B-West was an engine for our team,” said Phreaks captain and resident superstar Donovan McNabb, “But we have some other weapons here who can get the job done in his absence. None of us can lose heart or lose focus right now. We’re too good a team for that. We know we have a job to do and we’re going to go out there and do it. If I have to suck it up and log 15 carries on Sunday I will.”

One CTDB scout summed up the Phreaks options for this coming Sunday like this, “Let’s just say that choosing between a guy who’s nearly eligible for the AARP and a rookie who looks like he’s forgotten how to run at times isn’t going to be fun for the Phreaks. The Monkeys have been somewhat susceptible to the run in past weeks, but heck, I could probably tackle Dorsey Levens. The Phreaks really, really need Portis to step up with a monster game this week.”

One league GM, when asked for comment, replied, “You know what? It might be time to start talking about the Phreak Curse again – you know, guys like Marcus Robinson (season ending), Michael Bennett, DeShaun Foster (season ending), Jerry Porter (season ending), Deion Branch (season ending?), David Boston (season ending) – all these guys having serious or season ending injuries anywhere from a day to a week after being drafted by the Phreaks. Let’s not even talk about their basketball franchise. Something’s up with that.”

Carriage House Rules!

Two of the hottest teams in the league right now both hail from the same apartment in Michigan. Now we know what you're thinking... shenanigans! But no. This duo was just holed up together for no other reason than to study football and play Madden -- and they're sticking with that story. Now, five years after they parted, they are together again, atop the Catch The Damn Ball League standings.

The Green Team proved that it was for real this week, beating the favored Chunky Monkey and dropping them to second behind the Dirty Birds. The Birds returned the favor by beating early season favorite Battle Angels, moving the Green Team up to first.

Both the Green and the Bird's defenses were instrumental in their victories. The Bird's stifled the Curtis Martin / Randy Moss attack (8 combined points) that had been so potent this year. The Baltimore D of the Green Team had 25 points, setting the tone for the rest of the Green Team. These two teams may not be filled with bonafide stars but they're winning with balance. Each week, almost every player is getting 10+ points for these two owneres and Ws have been rolling in.

The Birds are on a season high 4 game winning streak and there looks to be no end in sight, as their young players get better and better. No comments lamenting the loss of Tiki will be said here, since he is too old to be bothered with (but we'll take him back if you want to return him Lei, who has my ENTIRE team from last year). The Green Team has been hurt by the lackluster season turned in by Kevan Barlow, Santana Moss and Chad Pennington but they continue to win behind Brett Favre, Thomas Jones and new find Ruben Droughns.

Critics and jealous team owners are quick to point to the Birds and the Green Men's weak schedules as the reasons for their success. But owners Yang and Ng laugh it off as they swig the bubbly and enjoy the leggy fruits of their labor. "When you're at the top of the world, everyone hates you, but we know we're a good team(s), it's not because our opponents suck. And even if that were true, that would mean that YOU guys suck, since you guys are the opponents and the haters! Woo hoo! Off to Chuck E Cheese!"

The Birds and the Green Team are slated to meet in WK10, and the winner of that game will be crowned "King of the World."

In other Michigan related news, Skool defeated Ante Up this past weekend, extending their winning streak to three. While Green and the Dirties sit atop the football pyramid, Skool and Ante are hanging around at the bottom. But it looks like they're making moves, as Skool is just two games out of first in a very competitive division and Ante Up has a great roster on paper. Ante Up has been hit with a brutal schedule, with opponents averaging over 110 a game against them, but things have to get better, right?

Go Blue!