Here’s what finishing last in a caddie-only Fantasy Football League gets you
By T.J. Auclair · October 9, 2019
Is there anything better than some fun banter between friends?
Caddie Damian Lopez (Michael Thompson) sent us a text recently about a curious license plate frame he saw in caddie parking:
(EDITOR’S NOTE: In parentheses are the names of the players the caddie named has caddied for most recently.)
The car, plate and frame (for now) belong to caddie JJ Jakovac (Collin Morikawa).
Lopez wanted to know more and so did we.
Here’s what we learned from Mark Urbanek (Peter Uihlein), one of the original members of the fantasy football league:
“The league started in 2012, so this is our eighth year,” Urbanek said. “It was started by Andy Sanders (Kristoffer Ventura), Justin York (Chez Reavie) and another caddie at the time for Kevin Streelman, Mike Christensen. The other members are Mike Bestor (Sangmoon Bae), John Limanti (Adam Scott), JJ Jakovac, Joe Skovron (Rickie Fowler) and Matt Erwin (Stephan Jager). Todd Montoya (Brian Stuard) was in the league the first six years, but bowed out last year, and Ricky Romano (Nate Lashley) has taken his place. We play for money, but because we see each other all of the time it’s mostly for pride.”
The caddies play in a standard, two-quarterback league, with some fun provisions outside of the grand prize, the dollar amount of which they preferred to keep private.
“The previous year’s champion becomes the commissioner for the next year, so if you want any changes to scoring or payout you have to win,” Urbanek explained. “We have recently added a penalty for last — in addition to the standard shame that comes with it — one year of donning a pink license plate cover that says, ‘I finished last in my fantasy football league.’ It’s certainly not the most embarrassing penalty in fantasy football play, but just enough to entice a little more effort to not finish last.”
Right now, it’s Jakovac who is breaking in that license plate cover after sealing his fate in the final week match-up of the league last season. But, as Lopez learned, Jakovac seems eager to turn over ownership. He is currently leading this year’s fantasy league.
In the seven years previous, there have been just two multiple winners. Bestor leads the way with three victories, with Skovron close behind at two.
While a win is great, it now seems more important to simply avoid the cellar… and that license plate cover.
