The Super Bowl Hangover

There’s always been the saying, “The Super Bowl Hangover.” Some say this originated back in 1992 when the Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl and went 4-12 the following year. I will say, regardless of whether you won the championship the previous year, whenever you are a basement bro and are in last place in your main fantasy league, you begin to do a lot of self-reflection. I’ll spare you a large diatribe; I’ve already accepted that I am an estranged corporate slave who is jaded and peaked at 12. Nonetheless, let’s dive into the data. In MMT history, the defending champ won the championship 0 of 12 times and only made the finals 2 times. That’s correct: defending champs are 0-12 when trying to repeat, and this league has never seen a repeat champion. Here is where it gets even more wild. Of the 12 qualified seasons, only two teams have MADE the playoffs coming off a championship. Both of those teams ended up making it all the way to the title game but fell short. The combined record for the defending champs in MMT is 78-95 (~45% win percentage). Those two playoff teams were Anthony in 2025 and myself in 2017. That stat left me flabbergasted and a little comforted, but mostly shocked. The average defending champ finished in roughly 6th place the following year with 6.5-7.9 wins, with one team going from first to worst, Preston back in 2016. See the list below: Year Name Result ______________________________ 2025 Anthony 9-6 - (2nd) 2024 Nicholas 5-10 - (8th)* 2023 Ryan 7-8 - (6th)* 2022 Mitchell 7-8 - (5th)* 2021 Dylan 6-9 - (8th)* 2020 Stephen 6-8 - (7th)* 2019 Anthony 7-7 - (6th)* 2018 Ryan 6-8 - (8th)* 2017 Matthew 11-3 - (2nd) 2016 Preston 4-10 - (10th)* 2015 Mike D 4-10 - (9th)* 2014 Dylan 6-8 - (5th)* *Missed playoffs I have a feeling we might have a repeat of first to worst 10 years later, potentially the inverse. I thought history was supposed to repeat itself? Well, sort of. Based on the data, most teams don’t even make the playoffs, let alone repeat as champions. Is it due to overconfidence, running out of luck, or fantasy god retaliation?? The data suggests it’s likely the former, the latter, and the in-between. For myself, I’m not going to use the excuse of having no keeper in a keeper league because I didn’t have one last year either. Drafting two onesie positions in the first five rounds, taking shots on ambiguous backfields and hitting on none, buying the “dip” on Jefferson and Malik, having DK Midcalf on your team, Mrs. Loveland… should I keep going?? Whether it’s pure ignorance, stupidity, negligence, etc., the roster is in shambles, and this is the first year in a long time I feel as though there are no cards in the deck. Piggybacking off Ryan’s discretionary effort to improve the basement after the place has been absolutely trashed by squatters, I will carry forward the momentum. I’ll have French wine from the Rhône Valley and Beaujolais imported by Kermit Lynch, along with several IPAs on tap, such as Second Fiddle Double IPA and Superscript IPA, plus some Tree House cans in the back of the fridge. If there’s ever company, I’ll cook up some venison chili, and we can watch RedZone while our favorite players obtain soft tissue injuries. I’ll try and work with the landlord on including snow removal in the lease moving forward, although the guy has been stuck in his ways since 2014. Meanwhile, I am a landlord and make my tenants perform snow removal (people must think this about me). Nonetheless, after doing some data research, I am still questioning every life decision I’ve ever made and can’t wait to add and drop every player who is in a waiver article to fight and claw my way out of finishing in the basement. Although I think there is some really compelling data here suggesting that the Super Bowl hangover in MMT might be a curse like the Madden cover. Do you want to win the title to endure pain and suffering the following year having a 16% chance of making the yoffs? Yeah, probably. Form your own conclusions and hypotheses from this data, and feel free to rip apart these cherry-picked data points. To cope with the pain, I will continue to pretend to be a developer and follow the CI/CD approach of updating my HTML code to make the site more aesthetic and fix dead links. Feel free to throw out any suggestions or further optimization to the site. I’ll end with I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Make sure you give your loved ones a hug today. With all the uncertainty ahead, follow God and cherish the time that you have with those closest to you as some are more fortunate than others.