One and done?

Are you kidding me?  The Browns finally get a pro bowler on defense and now he wants out of Cleveland.  Supposedly Rogers was miffed that new coach Eric Mangini snubbed him at two events that  both of them were attending and then a weight requirement was demanded of the nose tackle.  As a die hard Browns fan I hope this report is false but I doubt it.  If players don’t want to be a Brown and get paid millions of dollars to put on the brown and orange they’ve gotta go in my opinion.  My hope now is that the Browns can get at least a late first/ early second rd. draft pick for arguably the second best nose tackle in the entire league.

Growing up in Cleveland, I’ve seen my fair share of NFL draft busts for the Cleveland Browns.  Names like Mike Junkin, Tommy Vardell, Clifford Charlton, William Green, and Gerrard Warren are just a few that will forever haunt Browns fans.  Then you have the two number one overall picks that were taken when the Browns came back to Cleveland, Tim Couch and Courtney Brown-these two belong in the draft busts hall of fame. Now I realize all fans have their horror stories, but Cleveland seems to have the market cornered on how to screw up on draft day-sorry Jets fans.  I’ll admit they got a little better under recently fired GM Phil Savage.  He at least gave the Browns Braylon Edwards and Joe Thomas (2 pro bowls in 2 years).  But now it’s up to Eric Mangini and new GM George Kokinis to show that they know more about drafting players than if I had an old lady throw darts at names pinned to a wall.  The Browns have the #5

"watch out for "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell!"

 overall pick this year and fans are nervously awaiting the calling out of that name that will forever become a part of Browns history. Let’s just say I don’t have much faith.   I’m thinking Mangini should  start scouting some old folks homes that have dart boards.   -DM

Fantasy Hockey Anyone?

Yes, the fantasy hockey trophy has been started and hopefully the sculpting stage will be completed by the end of March.  Then it will move on to the mold making process and be part of the FantasyTrophies.com line shortly thereafter.   An overall release date is hard to predict right now, but keep checking back for regular updates.  This trophy is going scream hockey fanatic so leave a comment and tell me what you’d  like to see become a part of the final design.  Be patient Canada. -DM

The Armchair Ace

"Heidi Klum they are NOT."

Believe it or not, FantasyTrophies.com has been around for nearly 15 years now and many guys have asked me how it came to be. It all started when I sculpted the original Armchair Quarterback while an art major at Kent State University in Kent , OH. At the time I was taking only classes that involved looking at naked people all day- Figure Drawing, Figure Painting, and Figure Sculpture. Unfortunately when you go to art school you realize early on that you won’t be looking at very attractive people on a daily basis. Heidi Klum they are NOT. Anyway, during this time I was in a very competitive fantasy football league with my buddies back in Cleveland and I thought I’d put this art degree I was earning to some use and sculpt a trophy. I knew I had to come up with something good and a trophy that would capture the true essence of the guys in the league. I had seen all of the lame excuses for trophies that were out there and continue to pollute the web and knew they didn’t come close to what I wanted. No, this fantasy football trophy had to be an original. It had to say it was ONLY for fantasy and not be mistaken for the pee wee football trophy you were given in 5th grade. Thus, the Armchair Quarterback was born.

The unveiling took place on draft day in 1993 and the guys went nuts. Our league’s prize money instantly ended up taking a back seat to the trophy, which became know as The Fedele. (story for another blog post) Now the trophy is on it’s 19th year of honoring our past champions and the desire to win it has only grown. Guys that have won it twice have ultimate bragging rights while the ones who are not on it at all continue to experience the unending ridicule that only beer drinking “friends” can dish out. After seeing the reaction of my friends and what the trophy did to the competitive level of our league I knew that other leagues out there could benefit from my creation. Soon FantasyTrophies.com came to be. Since that unveiling I’ve moved to Brooklyn, NY, got married, started a family, and teamed up with two other artists who share my passion for creating the best, most original fantasy sports trophies ever. As you can see on our site, I’ve gone on to sculpt trophies for baseball, basketball, and nascar and will continue to try and put that Art degree to good use for the benefit of fantasy leagues everywhere. After all, having to look at the naked people I did for nearly 8 hrs a day should amount to something in life.-Shouldn’t it? -DM

FantasyTrophies.com

The real losers in all of this steroid talk relating to current players are the players of yesteryear.  Roger Maris lost hair, couldn’t sleep and had death threats against him because he was chasing the most hallowed record in all of sport.  The fact that guys like A-Rod, Giambi, Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, Clemens and more have inflated numbers because they either  took or have been accused of taking drugs to enhance performance is a true disgrace to the legends of the game.  These guys give new definition to the term “fantasy baseball” and should have an asterisk  by all of their names forever.  I guess  the sour grapes that Jose Canseco was supposedly crying over were really  busy fermenting to become his own Cabernet Sauvignon.  -DM                                                                             FantasyTrophies.com

Fantasy baseball season is right around the corner and FantasyTrophies.com will be a member in the FSTA Expert’s League. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association recently held a conference in Florida and Pat and I flew down to be involved. While there we both took part in drafting a fantasy baseball team that is actually still being drafted online. It’s a 14 team, standard 5 X 5 league that consists of 29 draft picks. I’ll go on record right now and throw out my first excuse by saying that I haven’t done a baseball draft in nearly 10 years. Pat and I had NO IDEA who to draft and even though I follow baseball closely the guys we were up against design software for fantasy baseball and fantasy sports in general. While we were busy crossing out names the old school way everyone around us had their magazines and laptops out. Magazines that they helped write I might add. I’ll be posting our team soon so check back and tell us what you think. -DM FantasyTrophies.com

The Fantasy NASCAR season has officially started with Matt Kenseth taking the rain shortened Daytona 500. Even though the rain cut the race short you could definitely see that the crew chiefs were telling the drivers to really go all out once the race became official and it was obvious the weather would be a factor. I went with Jeff Gordon for this race and was disappointed he didn’t have a better finish than 13th. However, I guess I’ll take the 14 laps he led and be partially satisfied. Whoever thought outside the regular NASCAR drivers and actually put Kenseth in victory lane is riding high today. I’m sure though that the number of Fantasy NASCAR players to do that is pretty slim. Oh well, it’s only race number one. -DM FantasyTrophies.com

I’m looking to expand our product line and was wondering what should be the next fantasy trophy.  I’ve received a few suggestions by direct email, but was thinking I’d throw the question up on the blog and see if I get a response.

 The 5 trophies under considerations are: (in no particular order)

 1. Golf   

2. Hockey

 3. a small Throwback  

4. a small Armchair Ace

 5. a small Armchair Crew Chief 

other suggestions are welcome.  What do you think?

-DM

Well, Pat and I recently got back from our first FSTA(Fantasy Sports Trade Association) conference in sunny Tampa and while we only had about 5minutes on the beach we did at least have the chance to meet some really great people and make strong contacts. FantasyTrophies.com is continually trying different ways to get our product out there and having many of the top representatives in the fantasy sports industry see our trophies doesn’t hurt. The response to our product line was very promising and we received feedback and suggestions from several key members. We’re especially proud to announce that the members of the FSTA’s two expert leagues, football and baseball, will now be playing for the rights to a Throwback and Armchair Ace. I use the word “expert” hesitantly in this case because Pat and I are part of the baseball expert league this year. Our team will be announced in the coming days. –A few words of advice are -don’t draft while drinking.-DM