(S30) Ultimus Week

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Task 6 - Write 800 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 800 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

To: all voters for the ISFL awards

I am writing this to inform you that your votes for awards are requested for the Season 30 ISFL Awards presentation. The awards presentation is a time where we honor the best players in the game of simulation football, and it normally occurs after the Ultimus Bowl every ISFL season. It is that time of year again where every player in the league is gathered under one roof (or on one YouTube stream as some may say), where friends (and frenemies) catch up with each other after a long and grueling season.

While this is normally a cause for celebration and joyous reverence, I must ask that you sincerely think about your votes. You alone have the power to rightfully award the absolute best athlete for each award, or you could succumb to pressure and the awards devolve into a popularity contest.

One of the awards I speak of would be the International Simulation Football League Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The candidates are in the midst of being selected, and while I don't like to toot my own horn, I'm almost positive I will be one of those nominated for the award simply because I was one of the top 5 rookies this season, while other rookies simply had pedestrian seasons. For some positions, a pedestrian season may be enough to sway some voters because a pedestrian season as a rookie might actually be impressive for say, a quarterback, of which we have one. This rookie feels that the award should go to someone who has made the most impact for their team during their rookie season.

I know that I made the biggest impact for my team out of any rookie during Season 30. I managed to produce almost as much as the legend Heath Evans, whom I succeeded when he retired after Season 29. During his final season, he caught 70 passes for 803 yards (11.47 average yards per catch) and 6 touchdowns while pancaking 32 defenders and allowing 2 sacks. During my rookie season, I caught 80 passes for 831 yards (10.3 average yards per catch) and 4 touchdowns while pancaking 46 defenders and allowing only 1 sack.

There seems to be a pretty big difference in some categories, but look at a couple of underlying stats: during Season 29, Evans had an average of 4.4 catches per game for 50.2 yards per game for 24 first downs (good for a 34.3 first down percentage). During Season 30, Zack DiNozzo had an average of 5.1 catches per game for 51.9 yards per game for 36 first downs (good for a 44.4 first down percentage).

Needless to say, I came in clutch for the team on almost half of my targets that would have resulted in a first down while Evans only converted just over a third of those same types of targets. I also watched every Otters game last season, and Evans did not catch a game winning touchdown in overtime to win the game for the Otters. Guess who did? That's right, Zack DiNozzo caught the game winning touchdown during Week 11's win against the Austin Copperheads. While Evans had an overall better season from a receiving production perspective, Zack DiNozzo had an overall bigger impact as a rookie than Heath Evans did in his final season with the Otters.

I mean, let's even go back and compare Evans's rookie season to mine. Heath Evans played for the Arizona Outlaws during his rookie season in Season 22. While starting every game of the season, Evans compiled a stat line of 62 catches for 556 yards (good for an average catch of 8.96 yards) while catching 2 touchdowns. He also pancaked 34 defenders and allowed 2 sacks. Compared to my 80 catches, 831 yards (10.3 average) and 4 touchdowns while pancaking 46 and allowing only 1 sack, my rookie career was just... better. I mean, even for Season 30, I lead all rookies in receiving yards, touchdowns, and (besides a couple of great offensive linemen), and pancakes

While the only rookie quarterback, who I'm sure will get nominated SOLELY because he's a quarterback (heyo @Frick_Nasty, I'll @ you this time bb <3), had a very pedestrian and simply "meh" season. While this quarterback had a fantastic start to the season, he completely fell off a cliff from a production standpoint about 6 or 7 weeks into the season. The only thing he has going for him is a good touchdown to interception ratio, and that's simply because he did NOT take any risks. His main style of attack was dumping the ball off to his two fantastic running backs and maybe little dump offs to his tight end. Any balls he threw barely traveled more than 7 or 8 yards in the air. The bulk of his yardage comes from yards after the catch on these little dump off passes. Unfortunately, even good defenses have a hard time intercepting passes that barely go beyond the line of scrimmage, hence his low interception count. This rookie threw the LEAST amount of passes for the LEAST amount of yards and if you watch that quarterback's every game, I guarantee you that a majority of those yards were after the catch. Even a blind squirrel could probably throw one good pass beyond 15 yards in this league, so I'm sure there will be one. However, this rookie season was set to be game managing from the very beginning.

Is simply not losing games good enough to be Rookie of the Year while there's a player at a completely undervalued position in this league who absolutely made an impact on his team, actually winning games, and had almost 900 yards receiving despite being the FOURTH receiving option on his team at best?