2025 Champion is the Worst!!

Worst to 1st are the 2025 Champions!!  This is the second championship for James in the past three seasons, and gives him 4 Sacred Sundays titles overall which ties him for the most with American BadAss and Joe’s Pats!  In the end, Worst to 1st topped sprouts 100-76 thanks to a huge game from Bijan Robinson (37 pts), plus double-digit scores from Jacoby Brissett (16 pts), Steelers D (13 pts), Puka Nacua (10 pts) and Ka’imi Fairbairn (10 pts).  Congratulations Cap’n!  What a great season!

For Russ’ sprouts it marks the 3rd time coming in 2nd place, the last time being in 2020.  Sprouts led the league in Weekly High Score Prizes this season, claiming 4 weeks, plus were the highest scoring team through all 17 weeks (1,717 points).  Well done sir!

In the matchup for 3rd place my Scottish Rebels improved upon my Week 16 score by a crazy 79 points and rang up a 136-80 victory over American BadAss.  In the process I also claimed the final Weekly High Score Prize of the season, giving me 3 total.  My Rebels were led by Derrick Henry who went full monster mode finishing with 48 points!  That was the 2nd highest single week score by any player this season, trailing only Jonathan Taylor’s 49 point masterpiece in Week 10.  For me, it was the first time I’ve finished in 3rd Place, and for American BadAss it is the first time Jason has finished in 4th place.  Jason still leads the league in top four finishes with a total of 12 (4 championships, 4 runner-ups, 3 thirds and 1 4th).

Alright so this week we’ve got to get to the final money tally, plus final season notes, and of course, the final Best Bench.  Let’s do this!

BIG TIME

-Derrick Henry, RB – Scottish Rebels – 48 pts – King Henry ruled over all!  He was unstoppable in the final fantasy game of the season, gaining 216 yards rushing and 4 TD’s!

-Bijan Robinson, RB – Worst to 1st – 37 pts – What a stat line, racking up 229 total yards from scrimmage (195 rushing, 34 receiving) plus adding 2 TD’s.  The bulk of it came on his 93-yard touchdown run, which is the longest touchdown of his career including college.

-Brock Purdy, QB – Meh – 36 pts – In spite of throwing an early pick-6, Purdy had a phenomenal game.  He completed 24 passes for 303 yards and 3 TD’s, plus added 28 yards and 2 TD’s on the ground.

-Drake Maye, QB – Joe’s Pats – 32 pts – The Patriots destroyed the Jets on Sunday...literally the game was basically over in the first quarter.  Maye was a huge part of it, completing an amazing 19 of 21 passes for 256 yards and 5(!!) touchdowns.  MVP??

-Chase Brown, RB – sprouts – 26 pts – Brown tallied 2 TD’s to go along with 101 yards, giving him 54 points scored in just the last two weeks.  This jumped him up the rankings to finish as the 13th highest scoring runningback this season.

COME ON MAN

-Jakobi Meyers, WR – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 1 pt – He caught 6 passes for 39 yards, but coughed up a fumble.  Oof.

-Michael Pittman, WR – Meh – 1 pt – Just 2 catches for 16 yards, which gives him a total of 6 points over the last 3 weeks.  Meh is right.

-Jared Goff, QB – sprouts – 1 pt – His worse game of the season by far and comes at the most critical point of the season.  He was absolutely terrible throwing for only 197 yards and 1 TD, but in the process throwing 2 interceptions plus losing 3 fumbles.  Yuck.

-Tetrairoa McMillan, WR – Unlucky Irish – 0 pts – He caught 1 of 4 passes thrown his way, and took that solo one for all of 5 yards.  Weak.

-Chris Rodriguez Jr., RB – American BadAss – 0 pts – He was declared inactive prior to the game, yet remained in BadAss’ lineup.

-Matt Prater, K – J LUV U LONG TIME – 0 pts – He was declared inactive prior to the game, yet remained in J LUV’s lineup.

SEASON NOTES

Highest Scoring Player = Josh Allen, QB, BUF – 352 points

Highest Scoring Player (non-QB) = Jonathan Taylor, RB, IND – 309 points.  (Ranked 5th overall)

Highest Scoring Team = sprouts – 1,717 points

Highest Scoring Keepers = Joe’s Pats – 636 points (J. Taylor = 309, Drake Maye = 327)

Best Utilization (i.e. fewest Bench Points) = Wyld Ass Monkeys = 89.6%

Unluckiest Team (i.e. most points against) = J LUV U LONG TIME – 1,322 points against

Most Waivers = Worst to 1st – 32 waiver claims this season

Most Best Benches = Joe’s Pats – 5 (weeks 2, 7, 9, 12 and 16)

Fewest Best Benches = Wyld Ass Monkeys & American BadAss = 0.  Jason’s last Best Bench was Week 17-2024, and Rob’s was Week 7-2024.

EVERYONE NEEDS MONEY, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY

Here is the final tally on prizes won this season:

1) James = $650 - Champion ($500), Weekly High Scores (3)

2) Russ = $500 - Runner-up ($300), Weekly High Scores (4)

3) Jerry = $350 - 3rd Place ($200), Weekly High Scores (3)

4) Jason = $200 - 4th Place ($150), Weekly High Score (1)

5) Joe = $100 - Weekly High Scores (2)

6) John = $100 – Weekly High Scores (2)

7) Shawn = $50 – Weekly High Score (1)

8) Rob = $25 – Weekly High Score (0.5)

9) Timmy = $25 – Weekly High Score (0.5)

Congratulations to all the winners!  I’ll reach out to everyone and settle up in the next week.

2026 DRAFT ORDER

The 2026 draft order will be the reverse order of standings from this season, so will be:

1) Shawn

2) Jens

3) Rob

4) Timmy

5) John

6) Joe

7) Jason

8) Jerry

9) Russ

10) James

The same keeper rules will apply – Each team can keep up to two players from this year’s final roster and will count as a draft pick for whatever round they were drafted this season.  Keepers being re-kept will count as a first round pick, and free agent pickups will count as a 15th round pick.  Rosters will be considered final by the end of the NFL regular season, so if there are any players you want to add or drop, get that done this week.  I’ll send out final rosters after the Week 18 NFL games conclude.

TOP FIVES

Here are the top five highest scoring players from each position:

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Josh Allen	QB	Buf	352	Scottish Rebels
Matthew Stafford	QB	LAR	328	Wyld Ass Monkeys
Drake Maye	QB	NE	327	Joe's Pats
Dak Prescott	QB	Dal	310	Unlucky Irish
Trevor Lawrence	QB	Jax	298	American BadAss

Surprises here are no Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson, and seeing Trevor Lawrence on this list.

 

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Jonathan Taylor	RB	Ind	309	Joe's Pats
Christian McCaffrey	RB	SF	295	sprouts
Bijan Robinson	RB	Atl	281	Worst to 1st
Jahmyr Gibbs	RB	Det	262	Unlucky Irish
James Cook	RB	Buf	257	J LUV U LONG TIME

Jonathan Taylor had a fantastic season, and CMC dominated by actually staying healthy.

 

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Puka Nacua	WR	LAR	233	Worst to 1st
Jaxon Smith-Njigba	WR	Sea	231	sprouts
George Pickens	WR	Dal	192	American BadAss
Amon-Ra St. Brown	WR	Det	188	sprouts
Ja'Marr Chase	WR	Cin	174	Wyld Ass Monkeys

Russ dominated in wide receivers having 2 in the top 5.  And how about George Pickens finishing 3^rd?  Who saw that coming?

 

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Trey McBride	TE	Ari	176	Meh
Dallas Goedert	TE	Phi	118	J LUV U LONG TIME
Kyle Pitts Sr.	TE	Atl	111	sprouts
Travis Kelce	TE	KC	108	Wyld Ass Monkeys
Harold Fannin Jr.	TE	Cle	107	W (Dec 31)

Good to see Taylor’s boyfriend still making the top list for TE’s, but who in the hell is this Harold Fannin guy?  I swear pulling this list is the first time I’ve heard that name.

 

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Jason Myers	K	Sea	194	Unlucky Irish
Brandon Aubrey	K	Dal	181	Big Sack No TDs
Ka'imi Fairbairn	K	Hou	168	Worst to 1st
Cameron Dicker	K	LAC	166	sprouts
Cam Little	K	Jax	148	sprouts

Russ hoarding the kickers here with the 4^th and 5^th highest scores on the season.

 

Player	Pos	Team	Pts	Owner
Seattle	DEF	Sea	232	Scottish Rebels
Jacksonville	DEF	Jax	197	sprouts
Houston	DEF	Hou	197	Unlucky Irish
Philadelphia	DEF	Phi	192	W (Dec 31)
Los Angeles Rams	DEF	LAR	185	Joe's Pats

The Seahawks were a crazy surprise, and look at Jacksonville finishing with the 2^nd highest scoring defense.  That has to be the first time in forever.

BEST BENCH

When your starting QB only scores 1 point, that puts you in the driver’s seat to win the Best Bench.  Such was the case this week, as the winning team had a 32-point-improvement-possibility, with half of that coming from the QB position.  Claiming the final Best Bench of 2025 is… sprouts!!

Russ needed only 3 roster moves to get there:  B. Nix for J. Goff +18, C. Little for C. Dicker +11, and Jaguars for Broncos +3.  This was only Russ’ second Best Bench of the season, having also gotten it back in Week 8.

Wow, it is hard to believe another season come and gone in what feels like only a couple weeks.  It’s like when you get the 6-month reminder notice from your dentist, and it feels impossible that 6 months have passed since the last time.  (I was literally just there!!)  Alas, another season in the books.  This marks the 9th season where we have had all of the same 10 owners, truly an impressive streak.  Many thanks to all of you fine gentlemen for sticking with Sacred Sundays all these years!  

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and I’m wishing all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026!  

-Commish