Week 8 finds the Commissioner's office mourning the loss of one of our founding members. Unfortunately, on Tuesday afternoon Joe Smith passed. Joe was one of our most beloved members and truly one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Joe had some of the more "out of the box" ideas for the league. He devised a scoring system that gave a team 10 points for a win and a number of points from 10 to 1 depending on the amount of points scored that week. The idea was to keep the fun of head to head match-ups, yet remove some of the sting that the schedule could inflict (boy do I know abut that one this year). He also (I think with tongue firmly implanted in his cheek) suggested that we start 2 QBs a week. This was to lower the value of the RBs and increase the value of QBs (which s how it really is in the NFL). We never adopted either of these but I know they were good enough ideas that actually retro-actively fit the "Smitty Point System" to one year just see how it changed the results. Despite, the "out of the box" thinking involved in these ideas, Joe was one person you could always ask for reasonable input on a league ideas or a major league decision. He was one of those people that just got it when you said, "We have to make this decision based on the league and not whether it was going to help you out this year". I do know on one of the many occasions that I thought about stepping down, Joe was one of my first choices as a replacement (right up there with my partner).

  Joe won the first Championship of the league with his partner Toast as the original Black Assassins in 1989. A couple of years later Toast decided to semi-retire and Joe formed the Quiet Storm with Kevin Rice. The Storm went on to win 4 more SWFFL championships in 1994, 1996, 2005 & 2006. In 18 years with the Quiet Storm from 1991-2008, Joe led his team to 174 wins (57% winning percentage) and 12 Money Spots (67%). The numbers clearly show that he was a very successful member of this little fantasy league.

  There was much more than the numbers. Joe always had a smile and I hope like the rest of us he truly enjoyed this little hobby of ours. I don't even think it was the actual league and the Fantasy Football that Joe enjoyed the most. Joe just liked getting together with his old friends from the neighborhood. He very rarely missed a pre-draft meeting. He was at every Settle-Up party including last year when he was already feeling the effects of the disease that finally took him. He encouraged us all to get together for an annual football game which regrettably I never made. Joe just wanted as many chances to spend some time with old friends as he could get. It was almost as if he knew he had to cram as many of these "good time" meetings in to the time that he had, which was unfortunately a lot shorter than it should have been.

  It was very nice to see him last month at the Beef and Beer in his honor. I think there was a good chance there was an Occupancy code violation at Maggie O'Neills that night. The turnout was incredible. I want to personally thank everyone involved in giving us all one last chance to see that smile of Smitty's. I am not sure who all was involved, but I think Kevin Rice, Mike "Toast" McLaughlin, John Mumbower, Al "Poodles" Saddic and Billy Ryan were all involved in pulling things together. Norm Staley, Danny Staley, Jack and Larry at Maggie O'Neills did a fantastic job as well. It was nice to see all the people that were truly touched by Joe. It was nice to see Joe's family too, his Mom, brother and sister, his wife Christina, his son Devin and his step-daughter Ashley. I can only offer my prayers to his family, and at Joe's personal request that night I have resumed praying. Kevin Rice has kept most of us up to date with a monthly e-mail on Joe's status. I would like to thank Kevin for those updates. They were very helpful, although I am sure they were extremely difficult to write. According to the e-mail updates from Kevin, Joe looked at every day since his diagnosis on January 29th as a small gift from God. He looked on the outcome as Lord's plan and he was OK with it.

  I know most of you were here to get stats from Week 8 or maybe to check your balance or to see if you were still in the running for a Money Spot. Heck some of you may have opened this to read my weekly drivel. The drivel will be back next week, but I really felt it was necessary to dedicate this week's notes to Smitty's passing. I will still keep track of the helmet each week, but for the rest of the year I will be using the helmet space as a tribute to Joe Smith. I will be using a logo developed by Kevin and Co. for Joe's benefit last month. I saved a bit of space for some of the weekly features. I will miss you Smitty!!

  Spock was 4 of 5 making him 10 of 15 (67%) on the year. He retains top billing. Norm (actually my estimates) was 2 of 5 making him 6 of 15 (40%) on the year. His lines appear below:

CHATTERBOX:(Get Quotes in by Monday Night)
Dream Team (Norm): Suspiciously Absent

BEST & WORST OF WEEK 8

MVP: Chris Johnson (54.9) Good Fellas       Best on Bench: LeSean McCoy (30.2) Black & Blue      High Scorers: Good Fellas (162.3)      Low Scorers: Tsunami Brothers (84.8)    Coaching Efficiency: High: Jelly Beans (95%) Low: Good Fellas (79%)

Top Rostered Players By Position (Rostered Players Only)
QB - Rodgers(199.9),Schaub(191.4),Brees(184.1),Manning(182.3)
RB - Johnson(202.),Jones-Drew(195.0),Peterson(174.4),Rice(157.4)
WR - Wayne(158.9),DJackson(147.6),AJohnson(145.7),Whte(145.3)
TE - Clark(129.1),Daniels(124.9),Davis(111.5),Celek(102.7)
PK - Tynes(80),Longwell(78),Akers(75),Kaeding(71)
ST - SAINTS(102),EAGLES(96),VIKINGS(82),49ERS(74)