2009 Draft Night Recap

The fourth draft of The League To Be Named Later....has come and gone. As expected, everyone drafted a top notch, winning team this year that will take them to the championship game. Who will come out on top in sixteen weeks is another story.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Rutting Bucks unveils the new drafting gear."][/caption]The event started out with Rutting Bucks unveiling his new drafting gear. It was a Christmas gift he received from his daughter. The hat was made using foam from the same artist that makes many of the Packers foam cheese items. [BigGuyHats.com]. In creating the design a photo of his team logo was used. I am quite impressed with the overall looks and painting. What amazed me the most was seeing Carl wear the hat for the entire duration of the draft.

Shortly after Rutting Bucks arrived, the rest of the owners started filing into the drafting room. The much improved drafting room. If you recall in 2008, the lighting was very poor and I made a few trips into my house to bring out additional lighting. For 2009, I had installed three florescent light fixtures. I had them sitting in my home, tucked away in an unused corner of my utility room. They sat for 11 years, collecting dust. Though the brighter lights did attract a few more mosquitoes.

The other improvement to the garage was the installation of television. With the addition of Brett Favre to the Minnesota Vikings, I had been asked by a few people if they would be able to view the game during the draft. To be honest, I too had an interest in seeing Favre perform. The LCD TV will return for next year. It will be come a permanent fixture in my garage. I'll see what the cost is to have Comcast run cable out to the garage as it would be ideal for me.

[caption id="attachment_362" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Dynasty reveals his new drafting technique"][/caption]

I believe we had every owner at the draft by 6:30 and started shortly after. A big thank you goes to Curtis for being our auctioneer for the big event. Curtis kept the draft moving at a very acceptable pace. Heck, we even had restroom breaks every couple of rounds and we still finished 90 minutes earlier than last year. Though, we may have started an hour later in 2008, than this year. It was by far, our earliest finish to a draft. I will put in a request for 2010 to have Curtis once again be the auctioneer.

As this was the first year players had to return to the general pool, I was really unsure what the values of the players would go for this year. The highest valued player in this years draft was Maurice Jones-Drew at $89 dollars. Crippled Monkeys and surprisingly, Grease Slappers got into a bidding war for the coveted player. In the end, Monkeys drew last blood as the Slappers vowed to not purchase any player at $90 or higher. There was a couple of great values, or at least I thought their values should have been higher than what they actually sold for. Nate Burleson $1, Steve Breaston $3, Tory Holt $6, Felix Jones $7, Kyle Orton $1, scratch that, you over paid for Kyle Orton. Who got the best deal, we wont know seasons end.

[caption id="attachment_364" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A view of the much improved draft room"][/caption]

I'm not sure how much of the Vikings game everyone caught, but I did manage to catch a glimpse or two every now and then. Though, the NFL Network did replay the game later that evening where I watched the final drive of the game by the Kansas City Chiefs. The Vikings Defense stopped them on the goal line. I was surprised to see the close finish to the football game as I totally missed it during our draft.

So another draft has come and gone. I believe I heard seven people say their team will win in the Championship game this year. On the flip side, I heard no one say the team they drafted was terrible. But, I believe as of Sunday, there has been nine or ten roster moves made.  Perhaps there wasn't complete satisfaction, or was it to correct a drafting error? We'll see who was right come Week 16. Only 17 more days until Week 1 kick off!

Keep in mind the Peoples Choice Awards and the categories that you will vote on at the end of the season. The categories are the same as in 2008, plus your best win, worst loss or most memorable game of the season.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="Wow, just wow"]

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Good luck gentleman....you're going to need it.

Cory sleeping

thank you to curtis

draft recalls

vikings game

aftermath

group photo