Sacred Sundays 2025 is here!!

Sacred Sundays 2025 is off and running!  This marks the 9th season with all ten of the same teams, and the 22nd season overall.  Truly impressive run!  We’ll see if my Scottish Rebels can successfully defend the title this season, but if recent history is any indicator, it does not look good.  Looking at the prior four champions before last season (back through 2020), and the defending champ has only made the playoffs once (Joe’s Pats as defending champ in 2022 finished as runner-up in 2023).  The other three defending champs (Attack of Mahomes 2020, Young Guns 2022 and Sofa King Great 2023) finished 7th, 7th and 10th, respectively.  Oof!  The last time my team won (2019), I managed only a 4th place finish the following season.  The road to repeat is a tough one!

Draft stats and notes:

• Wide Receivers were the most selected position with 49 taken.
• Runningbacks were second most selected with 42.
• There were 20 quarterbacks taken this season, which is exactly the same as last year.  Every team took 2, except Timmy who only has 1 and Jason who selected 3.  (Weirdly that is exactly the same as last season.)
• Jason was the only team who took 2 Defenses.
• Rob loaded up on runningbacks… the only team to take 6 of that position.
• John and Shawn loaded up on wide receivers… both were the only teams to take 6 of that position.
• James was the only team to take 2 kickers.  
• Tight Ends were a bit more popular this season with 17 drafted, which was 2 more than last season. 
• All 32 NFL teams had at least 2 players drafted.
• Detroit led the way with 8 players selected.
• Four teams had 7 players selected:  Denver, Kansas City, Minnesota and Philadelphia.
• Carolina and Tennessee each had 2 selected which was the least of any team.
• Five teams had players selected from every position (QB, RB, WR, TE, DEF and K): Detroit, Denver, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Buffalo.

Yahoo Grades and Predictions

The highest grades awarded by Yahoo this season were to John’s Luck of the Irish and James’ Worst to 1st, who both received an A+.  Five teams received D grades (Scottish Rebels, American BadAss, NASCAR Café Honey Mustard, J LUV U LONG TIME and sprouts), and Joe’s Pats received a C- which is practically a D.  So overall, Yahoo did not seem overly impressed with our drafting skills, giving us an average GPA of just 2.2.  

For record predictions, Yahoo has Luck of the Irish finishing with 11 wins, followed by Worst to 1st and Big Sack No TDs with 10.  The bottom four teams it has predicted to miss the playoffs are American BadAss, NASCAR Café Honey Mustard, J LUV U LONG TIME and sprouts.  Yahoo loves to predict tie games, as it is calling for 7 tie games this season, with my Scottish Rebels leading the way with a whopping 4 tie finishes.  This despite the fact no team in Sacred Sundays history has ever had more than 2 ties in a season, and the most total tie games in a season has been 4 (2015 and 2016 seasons).  

Everyone Needs Money, That’s Why They Call It Money

Just a quick recap of the prizes for this season:

Weekly High Score Prize = $50/week for 17 weeks ($850 total awarded)

Champion = $500

2nd Place = $300

3rd Place = $200

4th Place = $150

Okay, that’s all I’ve got as the primer for this season.  

Now, it brings me so much joy to say… ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBAAAAAAAALLLL?!?!?!