9) While I have very limited experience in this league, when the question of who is the GOAT of their position comes up the first person I think of is always Mo Berry. Ever since I joined the league Mo Berry has been an absolute force of nature and dominated the linebacker position, winning awards left and right. To be perfectly honest, I would be hard pressed to name any other starting linebacker in the league off the top of my head, with the exception of Ugarth the Dissector with whom I shared a locker room with in Tijuana and has already made a splash in his first two seasons in the ISFL. On the topic of awards, just to demonstrate how dominant Berry was during his career, he racked up 8 Pro Bowls, 4 Linebacker of the Year awards, 3 Defensive Player of the year awards, and was named defensive rookie of the year back in S15. In addition to all that, Mo Berry also won his first and only Ultimus in the second to last year of his career against the Orange County Otter, putting up 7 tackles, one for a loss, and a sack in that game. Again, maybe recency bias is clouding my judgment but I find it hard to make an argument against not only that level and amount of personal accolades but also being an Ultimus champion. In terms of career stats, Mo Berry finds himself sneaking into a top 10 position on just about every impactful defensive stat. First off, just landing tied for 9th in forced fumbles with 13. Secondly Mo finds himself ranked eighth in total career sacks at 88, another impressive, high impact stat. Finally, and most importantly, in my opinion, Mo Berry finishes as the all time pass deflection leader among linebackers. While people generally don’t think of pass deflections and linebackers as going together, what I think most impressive about this is that Mo isn’t a one trick pony. He was an absolute force on the field when it comes to disrupting the pass. 8th all time sack leader means that when he did rush, he was able to get into the backfield enough to cause serious problems for opposing quarterbacks while he could also drop back into coverage and act almost as an extra defensive back. While he may not have put up the tackles one generally expects out of a linebacker, I would argue that his versatility and utter dominance over the passing game establishes him as the greatest of all time.
23) For playoffs MVP of the ISFL this season, I think I would go with what might be a bit of an unconventional choice by going with Yellowknife Wraiths offensive lineman Laszlo Forty-Two. Since I only joined during S21, the fair rubs movement was really only just taking off. I think Forty-Two’s performance in the playoffs this season really shows how good the fair rubs movement is going to be for the league and how impactful it can be. As far as individual game stats go in the playoffs, let’s start with the Ultimus itself. For the most part, there were no other real contenders that stood out on either side of the ball. The only statline that really caught my eye was Acura Skyline’s three touchdowns, though that seems to be more due to vulturing goal line carries as he averaged less than 2 yards per carry. Laszlo on the other hand, put up a whopping 13 pancakes in the game, didn’t give up a single sack (along with the rest of the Yellowknife offensive line) and didn’t commit a single penalty. As a matter of fact, he actually had more pancakes on his own than the entire Austin team combined. As I said earlier, in a game with no other clear standouts, Laszlo was the x-factor that really brought the game home for the Wraiths.
25) When it comes to players drafted in the late round of a draft, there really isn’t any better example than Julio Tirtawidjaja in the S21 DSFL draft. Julio was taken in the fourth to last round of that enormous Reddit draft. Generally in that range, you’re just drafting people you figure are going to be inactive or maybe only update the first week of the season before losing interest and falling off the face of the earth. Julio wasn’t even taken into a decent situation, creating a three headed monster with DSFL send down Ed Barker and fellow rookie Richard Gilbert (myself). Nevertheless, Julio stuck with the league despite getting limited carries and by the end of the season hit the DSFL cap of 250 TPE. As a result, Julio ended up absolutely skyrocketing in the ISFL (then NSFL) draft at the end of the season. He moved up from a late 200’s pick in the DSFL to pick 66 in the ISFL draft, even leapfrogging over me. In addition to that, despite seeing limited playing time in the DSFL, Julio was immediately called up to the Chicago Butchers where he was in a much better running situation than he was in Tijuana. His story is proof that draft position means very little, particularly in the DSFL.
23) For playoffs MVP of the ISFL this season, I think I would go with what might be a bit of an unconventional choice by going with Yellowknife Wraiths offensive lineman Laszlo Forty-Two. Since I only joined during S21, the fair rubs movement was really only just taking off. I think Forty-Two’s performance in the playoffs this season really shows how good the fair rubs movement is going to be for the league and how impactful it can be. As far as individual game stats go in the playoffs, let’s start with the Ultimus itself. For the most part, there were no other real contenders that stood out on either side of the ball. The only statline that really caught my eye was Acura Skyline’s three touchdowns, though that seems to be more due to vulturing goal line carries as he averaged less than 2 yards per carry. Laszlo on the other hand, put up a whopping 13 pancakes in the game, didn’t give up a single sack (along with the rest of the Yellowknife offensive line) and didn’t commit a single penalty. As a matter of fact, he actually had more pancakes on his own than the entire Austin team combined. As I said earlier, in a game with no other clear standouts, Laszlo was the x-factor that really brought the game home for the Wraiths.
25) When it comes to players drafted in the late round of a draft, there really isn’t any better example than Julio Tirtawidjaja in the S21 DSFL draft. Julio was taken in the fourth to last round of that enormous Reddit draft. Generally in that range, you’re just drafting people you figure are going to be inactive or maybe only update the first week of the season before losing interest and falling off the face of the earth. Julio wasn’t even taken into a decent situation, creating a three headed monster with DSFL send down Ed Barker and fellow rookie Richard Gilbert (myself). Nevertheless, Julio stuck with the league despite getting limited carries and by the end of the season hit the DSFL cap of 250 TPE. As a result, Julio ended up absolutely skyrocketing in the ISFL (then NSFL) draft at the end of the season. He moved up from a late 200’s pick in the DSFL to pick 66 in the ISFL draft, even leapfrogging over me. In addition to that, despite seeing limited playing time in the DSFL, Julio was immediately called up to the Chicago Butchers where he was in a much better running situation than he was in Tijuana. His story is proof that draft position means very little, particularly in the DSFL.