Weekly Review and High Performance Grinders

by Kevin Cearnal (kcearnal) Last Updated 2011-03-23 21:16:11

High Performance Grinders & the Daily Fantasy World

Christmas Edition

About the Writer: Kevin “kcearnal” Cearnal lives and works in the most dangerous city in the country: St. Louis, MO. He has obtained the nickname ‘KC’ throughout the daily fantasy community due to the confusing nature of his aforementioned screen name and his overall ‘hoodness’. He has no sport of expertise and has the distinction of being the most recognizable loser in the industry. ‘KC’ works as Comm. Coordinator for a not-for-profit foundation and the sports teams which he most enjoys include the St. Louis Cardinals, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Washington Mystics ← not really!

And we begin with a poem…

‘Twas the Week Before Christmas

‘Twas the week before Christmas in the NFL,


with games so competitive, not even a grinder could tell;


What teams would win?,
 what heroes would arise

What stars would falter and be a grinder’s demise?;


Screen passes and dumb punts determine our fate,


While QBs lead drives that could change things so late;
But as you hold your breath and wonder who the winner will be,
please open your ears and learn this lesson from me;
Remember that this game of ours is all in good fun,


Especially for ‘KC’ who just BANKED A TON.

That’s right boys and girls, me, the self-proclaimed most mediocre daily fantasy player in the industry, just took down a huge payday in a large field tourney. The tourney: Sportsgeek’s $11 Challenge, had 548 participants and I banked a cool $1,017.50. I put in 2 entries. It truly is a Christmas Miracle. More contest standings, including one grinder that took home more big tourney dollars than I did, can be seen later in this article.

To continue with the spirit of Christmas the next section highlights a few more of this weekend’s Christmas Miracles:

Desean Jackson – This truly was an amazing punt return… What makes it a miracle is the fact that the Giants even kicked him the ball in that situation. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Look for a squibb punt to emerge in some form or fashion in Week 16. Tom Coughlin’s face truly was a present for all of us.

The Packers’ Onside Kick – This was the start of a competitive night of football that even Tuffled couldn’t have predicted. I turned that game on (14.5 point spread by the way) just to monitor fantasy stats and I was treated with what was arguably, the best game of the weekend. And it began with an astounding onside kick, the likes of which I had never seen. Mike McCarthy deserves to be on the Naughty List for this disgusting, but ultimately effective maneuver.

Brett Favre Playing – It didn’t seem smart. It didn’t last all that long. But it was admirable. Let’s not judge the man on his performance in the recent weeks and months but rather on his heart. Don’t get me wrong, I hate hearing about the guy as much as anybody else, but let’s take this holiday season to take a step back and admire the guy’s career. He is unbelievable. Toughest guy I’ve seen play in my 22 years of life. The memories and highlights he has provided us are a gift that I, and I hope all of you, will not underestimate and ultimately appreciate.

Dan Connolly’s 71-yd Kick Return – This was beyond words. Like the best present you’ve ever gotten in your entire life. It was then immediately followed by one of the biggest laugh’s you’ve ever had in your whole life. LOL, LMAO, and Cam’s profile picture all rolled up into one. He looked like a large, white man who just stole some bread from the convenient store. You will never, ever see a play like this again. I hope you enjoyed this gift.

WEEK 15 AWARDS (for NFL players)

Ryan Leaf Award

(You spent a high draft pick or large amount of money on this player. They amounted to absolutely nothing. Kinda like Cal’s trip to Vegas.

REGGIE WAYNE [5 catches, 34 yds, 0 TDs] – In the beginning of the game it was clear that Collie was Peyton’s first target. But when Collie went down, I, along with others eyes lit up. But it was all for naught. He got 9 targets but they were all for short yardage. It is such a crapshoot on this team as to whose gonna put up the big game. As ‘Zoo’ would say, “Daily Fantasy isn’t gambling” but picking a Colts receiver definitely is. Next week I’m going to play a little game with a single die. It goes like this:

1 = R. Wayne
2 = A. Collie
3 = J. Tamme
4 = P. Garcon
5 = Blair White
6 = None of the Above

• Honorable Mentions – Maurice Jones-Drew, Peyton Hillis, Sam Bradford, Fred Jackson

Tom Brady Award

(6th Round. 199th Overall. An afterthought at the time, but it turns out this player was a steal. This player just happened to fit into the salary cap at a price you could handle or you took in a late round without thinking much about it. You were hoping for an average performance but got a spectacular one. It’s this kind of performer that puts money in your wallet.

DONALD BROWN [14 carries, 124 yds, TD] This guy’s been a teaser ever since Addai went out with injury. He’s in a spot to succeed but thus far he hasn’t done it. Manning had been throwing his shoulder off every game, and to an extend he did again this week. But they did turn and give it to Brown a few times against the Jags and he made the most of it. To those of you who had the stones to take him, Kudos. Merry Christmas.

• Honorable Mentions – Jacoby Ford, Jimmy Graham

Kurt Warner Award

Pretty much self-explanatory. The person who gets this award rises from fantasy obscurity to thrive as top scorer of the week. No one could come as far as Warner himself who was a bag boy at a small Iowa grocer before getting his shot. But this award winner certainly performed their best to live up to his legacy.

TIM TEBOW [8-16, 138 yds, 1 TD, 8 carries, 78 yds, 1 TD] AND REX GROSSMAN [25-43, 322 yds, 4 TD, 2 INT]

I couldn’t choose between the two, so they will share the award for the week. And they are both eligible for different reasons. Rex is quite obvious, he faded to nowhere, got a chance, and put up a great fantasy game. They may have lost on the NFL scoreboard but for those who put him in their lineup they most likely did not. Tim “Jumping Jesus” Tebow is an anomaly. No one gave him a chance to succeed in the NFL… He rushed for a long TD on his very first series. The guy is fun to root for so hopefully this was a sign of things to come. Congrats to both guys for disproving the naysayers, for one week at least.

Bob Sanders Award

The player who is talented but got hurt when you needed him most. This player cost you big $$ this week. He made you want to pull your hair out and break your TV. The most frustrating of all the award winners.

KNOWSHON MORENO [4 carries, 5 yds, 0 TD] – He got lit up early. Not really his fault, but a lot of people played him against a questionable Oakland Defense with a Rookie QB. There were some pretty furious people Sunday Night in FanDuel chat. He and A. Rodgers probably shouldn’t spend much time in public over the next couple weeks.

• Honorable Mentions – Terrell Owens

Randy Moss Award

Quick Question… In his prime what did Randy Moss do? He caught 3 or 4 balls a game, for huge yardage and a couple scores. So this award is in memory of this. This player had very few touches, but made them count. Quality over quantity.

VINCENT JACKSON [5 catches, 112 yds, 3 TDs] – Welcome back VJAX. The first deep ball he caught was a stroke of luck. But it seemed to restore his confidence and he just got beastly as the game progressed. He showed me how dangerous the Chargers can be if they can find a way to get in the playoffs. Big game from a big receiver. Watch out for the Rivers – Jackson combo over the next 2 weeks. Could be one of the biggest 3-week stretches in the history of Daily Fantasy.

• Honorable Mentions – Marcell Reece, Colt McCoy

Large Field NFL Results

(Grinders are in bold)

SportsGeek $11 Challenge

SportsGeek $55 Challenge

SportsGeek $109 Challenge

FanDuel Sunday NFL $4K Blitz

FanDuel $50 buy in, $2500 guarantee

FanDuel $100 buy in, $2k guarantee:

Commentary

VegasMike is going to be buying a small island pretty soon with his winnings on SportsGeek. He took 1st in both the $55 and $109 Challenges and took a mediocre 3rd in the $11 Challenge. That is absolutely sick. I didn’t see it coming because it was due in large part to the huge performance of the Bears D tonight. Congrats to VegasMike on another huge week. As I mentioned earlier I took first in the $11 Challenge and Braskey (Cal) also took a respectable 10th in the $109 Challenge. VegasMike definitely upstaged us all and will be having a Donald Trump Christmas.

Our very own Whits23 took 4th and 17th in the 2nd NFL Blitz tourney on FanDuel. Congrats to him on his performance. This site is where most of our Grinders participate. We need to step it up in this tourney next week. Let’s set a goal of 3 out of the top 10. If we do it, Cam will be forced to change his profile picture to something EVEN MORE homosexual. Like Ricky Martin mixed with Ellen Degeneres homosexual. Who’s with me? Let’s take this thing down boys.

On the Horizon…

The all-knowing one known as “Zoo” has returned from vacation. He has informed me that FanDuel will be running similar contests this week as they did last, including the Blitz, Elite, and Slam competitions. Maybe another grinder can hit a big payday this week too. I am thinking of testing out the new 11Rush site this week and profiling my exploits in next week’s article. So that will be a post-Christmas treat for all of you. There will, like always be a $500 guarantee tourney on Draftzone. And of course, you have the multiple large field football tourneys at Sportsgeek. Let’s continue crushing gang.

Next Week FanDuel Tournies

• NBA Slam – $10 entry, capped total entries, $2500 prize pool – capped at 285
• NFLBlitz – $10 entry, uncapped total entries, $5K prize pool
• NFL Name TBD – $25 entry, capped total entries, $6K prize pool – capped at 265
• NFL Elite – $50 entry, capped total entries, $2500 prize pool – capped at 55

If you would like to submit a player for consideration for next week’s awards. Hell, if you would like to create an award or category, or have some sort of suggestion for a section for me to cover, please let me know. I will be trying to expand my coverage of tourneys to additional sites as time progresses. I also plan to add awards for Grinders in upcoming articles. Anyways, I can be reached on RotoGrinders through the private message function or you can beep me at 867-5309. My screen name on every site is kcearnal or some variation of cincoocho58. I know I got a big win this week… but my motto remains the same. “I don’t give advice, because I don’t know much. I am much more interested in your horror stories than I am in your successes.”

With that said, if we can fill up half a leaderboard (50% or greater) of one of the big tourneys with Grinders for week 16, I will provide the cash-money for a freeroll tourney for the final week of the NFL season (I’m not making any promises on size here, don’t get too excited). This is my proposed Christmas present…but you Grinders will have to put lots of entries in and earn big money on Week 16 if you want to make this happen.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!