Irwin’s next title defense begins with scrappy newcomers

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan Shaheen is one of two Founding Fathers to qualify for the 2018 TTFFL Playoffs, joining Pat Teynor. The number of playoff-bound Founding Fathers was incorrectly reported in Wednesday’s “Devine, Shaheen meet with stark contrasting playoff histories.” CANTON, OHIO — The Era of Irwin has its next challenger. It comes in perhaps the Tiger Township Fantasy Football League’s oddest pairing of all time. Last summer, Kyle Rakotci and Max Julian joined forces, becoming the TTFFL’s first co-owned team since 2003. And, boy, did it (somehow) work out perfectly. Team Rax, seeded fourth in the 2018 TTFFL Playoffs, finished 8-5 on the season and ranked No. 2 in points scored. Indeed, it’s been a special campaign for a duo that had never even met before this calendar year. Certainly all that is enough to consider their debut season a success, right? “Absolutely,” Julian said. “I gained a great, new friend and awesome partner, we finished the season second in points scored, which is obviously great, and we’re in the top-half of league and made the playoffs. I think we did a great job co-managing this team.” Their opponent in this week’s opening round of the 2018 TTFFL playoffs? It’s the two-time defending champion, Casey Irwin. The No. 5 seed in this year’s playoff field, Irwin (8-5) has obviously been in this position before. He went the distance in 2017 to win it all, surviving all three postseason rounds en route to his second consecutive title. Really, there’s been no stopping Irwin of late. In his past five playoff games, he’s averaging 175.2 points per game. And yet, his name still isn’t being brought up as much as he thinks it should going into yet another postseason. “I feel like I’ve been written off,” Irwin said. “Maybe the hype has died down and many don’t want to see this organization win again. But, we’re here, and we have an opportunity to stay at the TTFFL mountaintop.” Irwin’s team starts and ends with his two gun-slinging quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson. The life blood of his new-look franchise, Irwin has used those two to largely overcome many of his roster issues, which has included a revolving door at the wide receiver position. The pair has combined to produce 12 games of 30 or more points scored this season. “It’s been a really special run,” Irwin said of Mahomes and Watson. “Coming from a guy that’s been nagged for mid-season trades to help boost his team, they’ve made it able for us to really fall back on our draft. We were able to make it back to the playoffs, and that’s all you could ever ask for.” Team Rax, meanwhile, has done a great job of taking a page out of Irwin’s book and improving the roster via trade. Big deals have helped them acquire wide receivers Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry, tight end Rob Gronkowski and running back James Connor. That group, combined with the team’s core of quarterbacks Cam Newton and Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, has helped Max and Raks muscle their way to the postseason. “Other than our elite quarterbacks, most of our position players are guys we did not draft,” Rakotci said. “We traded for them. … We went out and got our players.” By doing so, they continue a little-known fact on TTFFL newcomers. Since 2010, only Jake Batcho (2014) has failed to make the playoffs in their debut year — or ‘re-debut’ in Batcho’s case — in the league. Team Rax took down their Round 1 counterpart back in Week 5, to a tune of 160.4-141.4. In the affair, Connor scored 38 points to help the squad reach the finish line. But that won’t be the case in this week’s rematch - Connor has already been ruled out with a sprained ankle. His loss obviously hurts, and it’s something the entire Rax franchise will have in the forefront of their minds this weekend. “Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Miami - wherever our guys are playing, they’re playing for James,” Julian said. Irwin is forced to cheer against his beloved Steelers (Roethlisberger, Smith-Schuster and running back Jaylen Samuels) this week, while Team Rax will endure handling the high-powered Chiefs offense, featuring Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Irwin will again have to find a way to get over a porous group of receivers, while the rookies cross their fingers over running back Dalvin Cook’s usage and the effectiveness of Gronkowski. Variables aside, this one has the future of the TTFFL in the palm of its hand. Can Max and Raks find their way through uncharted waters, or will Irwin’s playoff experience prove to be too tough? We can’t wait to find out. “Right now, the organization is just running business as usual,” Irwin said. “That’s how we’re approaching it. We’ve had great success in this playoff format, and we’ve proven we can win in this element.”