The Year in Review - 1998

 

New Owner and Rule Change:  We began our 5th year with one new owner, Steve Durish.  Mary Lopez left after playing for the last three years.  She never made the playoffs, but she finished all three years with an 8-9 record for a total of 24 wins and 27 losses (47.1%).  There was a rule change for 1998.  We added an in-between level for the yardage bonuses.  We had 3 points for 100 yards and 5 points at 150 so it was simple to give 4 points for 125 to 149 yards and so on. 

 

The draft took place in two parts.  The first half was at work in a conference room during lunch.  Don't order these guys pizzas with anything green on it.  The second half was at Legend's Sports Bar two days later.  Mark picked Terrell Davis of the Broncos with the first pick.  The next five were Brett Favre, Barry Sanders, Dorsey Levens, and John Elway. 

 

The Season:  After losing their first game, Martin and Arnold each won their next eight.  Jessie began the season at 7-1.  Bobby set a record by losing his first seven games of the season.  This enabled him to grab the best free agent each week and by the middle of the season, he was a force to be reckoned with.  He averaged 61 ppg over his final 10 while going 7-2-1.  Steve was just the opposite.  Winning 3 of his first 4, he lost 12 of 13 (with a tie) while scoring only 32 ppg. 

 

In the playoffs, Martin won the #1 seed with an 11-3 record with starters Steve Young (240 pts), Randy Moss (120) and the Dolphins (179).  Mark won the other bye while going 9-2 down the stretch.  Jessie won the other division, but lost to the #3 wildcard, Gary in the first round.  After starting the season at 8-1, Arnold lost his next 5 but made the playoffs as a wildcard.  In the first round, Arnold beat Keith, 56-54, with the help of the 3 points for home-field advantage.  Keith had beaten Arnold the week before to barely make the playoffs.  In the second round, Gary became the first wildcard to beat a division champ in 10 tries when he defeated Martin by one point, 43-42.  The other game was almost as close with Arnold beating Mark 53-50.  DangerBowl V would prove to be the most competitive ever.  All 16 starters from Gary's and Arnold's teams scored.  Gary made a costly last minute decision to start Adrian Murrell instead of Emmitt Smith.  Murrell scored 3 points, but Emmitt had a touchdown, allowing Arnold to win the trophy 62-60.  Arnold became the first wildcard team to win the championship and went from worst in 1997 to first in 1998.  We celebrated his title at Los Comales.

 

Loser's Bracket:  Darrell failed to make the playoffs for the first time in five years although he finished the season 8-8-1.  In the loser's bracket, Darrell beat Steve in the second round while Mike narrowly escaped a trip to the CannibalBowl by beating Rob 21-18.  Rob beat Steve 47-31, with the help of John Elway's 22 points, to give Steve his 7th straight loss and his 13th consecutive week without a victory.

 

Milestones:  1998 was the highest scoring season so far by the slimmest of margins.  We averaged 45.93 ppg.  This just barely surpassed the 45.89 in 1995.  Steve Young set a record by scoring 240 points during the season.  Martin finished with the best record at 12-5 although he lost his last two games to finish 4th.  Mark led the league in scoring with 933 points and would have won the championship if he had beaten Arnold.

 

The Year in Review Links for 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004