Despite loss in final, Julian labels himself ‘a winner’

EAST CANTON, Ohio — Losing is hard. More specifically, dealing with losing is hard. Such is life in the Tiger Township Fantasy Football League and for commissioner Cee Jay Julian. In a season that couldn’t possibly be summed up in only a word or two, Julian took Stark County’s premier fantasy league for a wild, unpredictable excursion in 2017. He won just six games in the regular season, but somehow, some way, maneuvered his way into the TTFFL Championship Game in late December. While there, Julian fell to Casey Irwin, allowing the now three-time champion to claim his second consecutive title. And while a runner-up finish itself is typically enough to create lasting memories for an organization, Julian’s 2017 campaign gave us so much more. “I’m not heartbroken like people think I am,” Julian told Chibby’s Corner in an exclusive, one-of-a-kind interview. “Second place is very good. We’re happy with that; we put ourselves into position, but it is getting a little old. We have three second-place finishes in this franchise. That’s rough.” Through relentlessness, controversy and pure savvy, Julian spent the bulk of four months perfectly crafting a roster to take into the postseason. Along the way, he ran into a season full of runs, including an 0-2 start, which led to records of 3-2 (three straight wins), 3-5 (two straight losses) and 5-5 (two straight wins) before finishing the regular season at 6-7. Julian let it be known what he thought about his schedule. On what seemed like a weekly basis, the Otterbein University graduate was quite slanted on the situation as he continued to pursue a spot in the playoffs. He eventually got there — barely. “I had the worst schedule ever,” Julian said. “I really do have the worst luck — I’m very lucky when it comes to injury luck, but when it comes to scheduling, I have horrid luck. I play the worst team, and they go off against me. But you have to win games, and somehow, I got into the playoffs, and that was my job.” Despite those comments, Julian did not lead the TTFFL in total points allowed last fall. That distinction belonged to Joe Mitchin, a fellow 6-7 team. However, Julian has preached that his points against came at the worst individual times for him, an argument that has no true winner. Mitchin also played another other giant role in Julian’s 2017 campaign. In Week 12, he fell to Julian, 155.3-151.8, only due to Mitchin’s quiet, yet gigantically significant trade with Dave Devine, which sent the Philadelphia Eagles defense for then-suspended running back Ezekiel Elliott. Had that Thanksgiving Day move not be completed, Mitchin would have defeated Julian, reversing a precious playoff spot for the two franchises. As the league knows, however, that trade wasn’t anywhere near being on the TTFFL radar by the time the season had drawn to a close. Julian’s end-of-season moves were. “I put together a team that I was so proud of, and we came up short,” Julian said. “I went out and hand-picked those guys, I gave up (Todd) Gurley, Tom Brady. I hand-picked my team for the playoffs, and I’ll never regret it.” On the morning of Dec. 3, also known as Sunday of Week 13, Julian manned the phones with the likes of Mitchin, Irwin and Grant Seanor, completing reworking his club to ready itself for the postseason. In one day, he acquired major contributors like quarterback Jared Goff, receivers Antonio Brown and Jarvis Landry and tight end Greg Olsen, while unloading quarterback Tom Brady and running back Todd Gurley, among others. Earlier that week, he also added quarterback Derek Carr and running back Kareem Hunt to the mix. Obviously, each one of those moves was critical in the success, and ultimate demise, of the Commish’s season. But none of that would have been possible, he says, without trading away a specific asset at the 2017 TTFFL Draft, who never ended up taking a single snap. “The beginning of the year was all about luck — Andrew Luck,” Julian said. “If I don’t get him off my team, then I’m dead. Dave Devine took him and he’s dead. I got a (crappy) blazer that I’ll be rocking in Vegas, but that might have cost me my year.” Julian, seeded sixth in the TTFFL Playoffs, topped No. 3-seed Ryan Shaheen and No. 2-seed Stefano Faiella before his championship loss to Irwin. Gurley's 54-point performance in the final immediately became an all-time moment, a memory that’ll long outlive the fact that Brown was injured and did not play in Week 16 for Julian. Despite being scorned by his former centerpiece, though, Julian says it was a deal he'd do "every single time." The Commish enters the 2018 campaign still in search for his first championship since 2006, back when he was a junior-high student who relied on his mother to pick out his clothes for school. Since then, Julian has been accused of living in the past, while stretching his own legacy paper thin. What is envious, however, is Julian’s constant ability to quickly put things into perspective. Simply put, his brain works differently than the owners of the TTFFL’s 11 other franchises. That’s why his so-close-yet-so-far-away season in 2017 is nothing more than another talking point that’ll live on for years to come. As Julian sets his sights on Las Vegas for the 2018 TTFFL Draft, he does so seeming to be ready to finally regain dominance in his league. The TTFFL, however, may not be quite as prepared for such an outcome. “At the end of the day, I’m absolutely cut from a different fabric than these guys,” Julian said. “I’m about winning, and I’m the one that’s consistently winning, and they’re not. I’m as consistent as it gets because I’m always winning. Do I win it all? No. But you don’t see (Tom) Izzo or Coach K winning the tournament every year because there’s a lot of luck to it, just like the TTFFL. That’s why it’s so great.”