My first year of my 2^nd decade of doing this Commissioner stuff began with a shock. For the first time ever, 2 teams did not get their lineups in on time. One team called their lineup into Norm’s house (which did everybody a lot of good as Norm was at work until 3:00). The other team missed the deadline by 15 minutes due to over-sleeping. I thought that problem left with Wizards. I will try to make this clear to everyone. Call in your lineup Tuesday or Wednesday. You can always make last minute changes afterwards. Which is worse, having to talk to me more than once a week or getting stuck with a lineup full of players that are injured or have a BYE. It can’t be that bad talking to me. Anyway, if you are going to call in a lineup on Sunday call me, not Norm. I have to have your lineup so that I can give it to the team your playing. Most weeks I will be at Danny Jones’ house. If I’m not there, I will make sure everybody knows where he can call in his lineups.

Now I can proceed with more important matters, you’ll notice that the detailed scoring section has changed slightly. I have shortened the names and added the NFL team abbreviation for each player. I have also added year to date points scored. This should help others evaluate potential trades. It will also give you an idea of how your backups are performing and maybe even help with determining your starting lineup. I also hope to have a web version of the notes up and running in the next couple of weeks. I will let you all know the URL once/if I get it going OK. Also, I am assuming everybody who received US Mail versions of the notes, still wants them delivered that way. Maybe after the web site is going some of you will pass on the stamp money. There will be more in the printed noted that the web notes. The impact of the new scoring rules was relatively small. A few WRs took advantage of the extra 3 pts for every 50 yds. over 100 yds. No RB did so and only Aikman snagged the extra 3 in the QB category. Two RBs took advantage of the Marshall Faulk rule, one of them being Marshall himself. The other was Enis.

Norm vs. Spock will start next week. I went through the trouble of doing that analysis based on last year's points, even though for the 2^nd year in a row, it only picked one money team last year (at least it was the Champions – both years). In the prior 5 years it picked 13 out of the 20 Money Teams, though it is only 2 for 8 recently. As always, this analysis is based on the best possible lineup for each roster based on last year's performance in points per game. If you are depending on a rookie or a comeback player then ignore these results. If you aren't necessarily relying on either of these type players and you’re on the bottom of the list, you might want to consider hitting the transaction wire hard. Here are the results:

There were no games that were technically over by Sunday night. There was really only one game that was more or less over as 11 players were started in Monday Night’s Game. The Dream Team led by Staley and Hollis had the Quiet Storm down by 52 with only the DOLPHINS left. It might have been closer but the Storm lost their Starting QB for the year and like the Jets, the backup situation isn’t great.

The Sharks started off where they left off, scoring a lot of points. The Mac Attack put up over 60 and lost because Mare could not make up the 16 pt. gap on Monday. For the Attack it must be killing them to see teams above the Money Line with less points than them. It’s all in the luck of the draw.

The M. Takers, Terell Davis and a 9 pt. lead were more than the Black Revenge, Elam and the BRONCOS could handle. The Takers win the 1^st battle of these grizzled old vets. Toast, apparently you do not "always" beat the Takers.

The Bull Dogs held a slim 1 pt. lead with Rod Smith against the Hammer Heads and Shannon Sharpe. The Bull Dogs managed to keep their first "W" of the year.

The "Game of the Week" honors go to the contest between the Jelly Beans and the defending Champion Black & Blue Attack. The Attack in their effort to 3-peat, pulled out the win on MOnday as Jabbar, McCaffrey and Tony Martin overtook the Beans, McDuffie and a 10 pt. lead.

CHATTERBOX:(Get Quotes in by Monday Night)
Dream Team (Norm): "Welcome to another Fantasy Football Year. This year it will be the Dream Team’s year to win their 3^rd League Championship. P.S. Kurt Warner who? This who, 319 yards and 3 TDs."