Castle basking in underdog role as fight for respect continues

CANAL FULTON — The disrespect is nothing new for Andrew Castle. It’s been around for his entire fantasy football career.

There’s little doubt Castle has experienced some breakthroughs during his 14-year odyssey inside the Tiger Township Fantasy Football League. However, it’s been the not-so-good moments that seem to have come to define him in the eyes of the league’s 11 other members.

Fair or not, Castle is looking to put an end to all that soon with another big season.

“I feel under-appreciated but I like being underrated,” Castle said this week during an exclusive interview with Chibby’s Corner. “I like being the underdog.”

Castle executed one of the most aggressive draft strategies in TTFFL history last fall and really built up some momentum for himself at the end of the season. But the Ohio State graduate missed the playoffs for the fourth time in seven years, which is the only thing many will remember about his 2016 campaign.

That’s not how Castle looks at the way things went, though.

“I really just looked at last year as an extension of the year before,” Castle said. “I came off a 12-1 season (in 2015), second-most points in the league, a real strong team. … I came back last year with the mindset of to keep things rolling.”

Indeed, Castle’s 2015 season was one for the record books. He set a league record for most regular-season victories, a feat that may never be broken. The top seed in the 2015 playoffs, Castle fell victim to eventual champion Pat Teynor in the semifinals, finishing with the respectable, yet unfulfilling bronze medal.

That led into last season’s up-and-down experience. Castle, who finished 5-8 during the regular season before grabbing seventh place in the final league standings, had plenty of obstacles to get through last fall.

They really all centered around the challenges of his outside-the-box draft strategy, which saw Castle spend at least $73 on two players (Cam Newton, Antonio Brown) and $42 or more on two others (Le’Veon Bell, Rob Gronkowski).

Because of the big spending early on, Castle was forced to draft 10 players for $1, an auction draft record.

Castle's team — and his decision-making — was dissected all year. But the three-term Jackson High class president is already warning the TTFFL that the same type of style may be in effect for his club at this year's draft, which takes place on Aug. 19 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“I don’t regret the basics of the strategy,” Castle said. “I thought it was a working strategy for me. I just made some bets on some players that just didn’t pan out. … I think the strategy works for me; you just have to make the right bets on the right guys.”

What’s more, Bell — one of Castle’s cornerstones — was forced to serve an early-season suspension and Gronkowski missed much of the year due to injury, further testing Castle’s depth — or lack thereof.

His group lost its first four games of the year and seven of its first eight. After that, though, one of Stark County’s most prized young Republican leaders found his footing. Castle won four straight games to jump to 5-7 before a Week 13 loss to Grant Seanor to close out the regular season. That led to a three-game sweep through the consolation bracket, allowing Castle to head into the offseason on somewhat of a positive note.

The team’s performance, especially down the stretch, begs the question: What if Castle just had a few more weeks to play with? To him, though, he’d rather look ahead to what he hopes comes next.

“If I’m looking at the last two years, I’ve been doing well since I started a whole new front office approach,” Castle said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t be a powerhouse this year, despite being ranked 10th in the (owner) power rankings.”

Castle says his biggest disappointment of the year came out of his quarterback, Cam Newton. The 2015 NFL MVP was paid handsomely at the draft, yet finished as just the 18th-best player at the position.

But Castle was able to stop the bleeding thanks to a terrific rookie performance from Dak Prescott, who was picked up out of free agency for free before the season began. Jay Ajayi and Tyrell Williams were two other flyers Castle was able to hit on en route to the fifth-most points scored in 2016.

At the end of the day, though, last season proved to be one that never truly developed for one of the league’s most beautiful minds. Castle, who has battled through multiple unexpected, bitter playoff losses over the years, will be the first to admit he’ll have to win a championship for his reputation in the league to improve with any great consequence.

Certainly, the Lucas County-bound member of "The Canton Boys" has made some strides in his game over the past few years, whether the rest of the TTFFL wants to recognize it or not. While the league veteran continues to make GroupMe headlines on and off the field, he sees 2017 as a great opportunity to close the gap even more toward his elusive first title.

After all, that’s what it’s all about for Castle, not matter how his peers view the way he runs his franchise.

“Until your name is on the trophy, it really doesn’t matter about how good you feel your team is year after year,” Castle said. “A lot of guys like to talk about average place finish and others like to criticize it, but I’ll be honest, when it comes to these rankings and the disrespect I receive from it, I’d rather be an underdog kind of a team. When things do work out for me as a team, I think that’ll make it a little bit sweeter.”