Attention Readers!

Folks,

The YouBeQB blog is moving to a new home! I know there are ten's of people who bookmark this page, so to all of you I say:

Change your bookmark to this: http://www.youbeqb.com/blog

All future postings will be done over there! Come on along...


Come on - there's nothing more to see here. Please follow me.

YouBeQB Madness

Lots of great action on the youbeqb.com site this weekend - and check out the performance of this guy: YouBeQB Chemist blew up with 17,980 points, on the strength of 905 Play Calls (26% correct). This production would rank in the 'Strong' to 'Very Strong' category - and Chemist's QB Rating of 168 is testament to that. Chemist is currently sitting at #6 Overall on the YouBeQB leaderboard (though technically even higher than that because I know several of the QBs ahead of chemist on the leaderboard are the same person using multiple logins. Tsk, tsk.)

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While I'm here, can we touch on the College Football Kookiness for a moment, mmkay?

"The stars at night!
Are big and bright!
Deep in the heart...
of Texas!"

How does Oklahoma lose to Texas Tech?

No really... how?

At least when Oregon lost to Arizona last Thursday, they had an excuse - Dennis Dixon goes down with a knee injury, Oregon is done. Plain and simple. But you'd think Bob Stoops wouldn't let the Sooners take their eyes off the ball against the Red Raiders. But the fans in Lubbock were partying like it's 1999:

I think it's richly ironic that #4 West Virginia - who was rooting so vociferously for Oklahoma to get punked by Texas Tech in that game - when they DO get their wish and the Sooners go down in flames, now they have to turn around and root like crazy for Oklahoma to WIN the Big 12 title. Why? Simple - since #2 Kansas and #3 Missouri play one another this coming weekend, so one of them is going to lose and fall a handful of spots - and the Sooners will face the winner in the December 1 Big 12 championship game.

If Oklahoma can play big brother and give their Big 12 baby brother some noogies, then the Mountaineers would slip-stream right past all of them into position for a shot at the national title game against (presumably) LSU. My head is spinning - I feel more confused than Paris Hilton attempting to complete the 'People' magazine crossword puzzle ("17 Down - Fill in the blank: Talking horse on TV named Mist_r Ed.")



---JohnnyUnitas

We are Not Amused

Howdy, YouBeQB'ers,

Here's hopin' you all had a restful and hug-filled weekend. As your buddy JohnnyU sifts through the ashes of another week of football to bring you the still-smoldering embers of interesting tidbits, I thought I would point something out to you guys who think you're pretty clever...

For the people who have been using multiple YouBeQB logins in an attempt to pull one over on the powers that be, I'm sure you were sitting there, giggling to yourself, and you were all:





Well, don't think that you've gotten over on us! We know what you're up to, and what we have to say is:


So, don't make us take such punitive measures as deleting your accounts for you. Play fair and we'll all be friends.



--JohnnyUnitas

Bonjour, mon amies

Hi, everyone. Did you miss me? It's OK, you can admit it. You missed me, didn'tcha?

Let's take a look to see how things are going on the ol' YouBeQB site, hmm? I thought it might be interesting to highlight some of the real 'power users'. Who are the QBs who are just dedicating blood, sweat, and tears to the site - these are the people who are just *muscling* through a ton of games, calling plays, living and dying with every game.



We love all of these people, and we would like to name our first six children after them:



1) 175 games ( VY10FAN ) - VY10FAN has been featured for his stellar performances previously in Da Blog, and here he is getting some more ink now. VY has strapped on his helmet and quarterbacked a staggering 175 pro & college games - in less than two months. I don't know when Dude sleeps, but he's probably calling plays while he is clocking Z's. All of this play-calling has allowed VY10FAN to rise to the ranking of #2 overall for the entire site - he still trails FOZZIE, who owns the #1 spot. FOZZIE makes me chuckle a little bit, because when you look at his profile, where you can list your favorite teams, he's got like - no lie - 60 teams listed. Your head is going to pop off, bro.

(Quirky note: I see that VY10FAN's user number is #666 (look in the address of the link when you click on his name, and the number at the end of it is the user number). I'm sure this is a *complete* coincidence, and NO EVIDENCE whatsoever that VY10FAN has cut a deal with the devil to allow him to QB like 25 games a week.)


2) 169 games ( vy10fanz ) - OK, what's going on here? Are these first two QB names a prank or something? Is someone playing a joke on poor JohnnyU?! I'm not the smartest guy in the world (though I'm probably not the dumbest, either -- though I could be in the bottom three at any given time.) How could the two QBs who have called the most games both have nearly identical QB names? What the flock is happening?

VY say: "You fellas better stop using my name
before I hit you up for likeness rights royalties, homes."

3) 168 games ( Davidtodahalloffame ) - I'm not sure if David has the longest QB name on YouBeQB, but he's got to be in the conversation there somewhere.



Miscellaneous tidbits (found on FootballGuys):

• The Rams, Bengals and Chiefs have 2 rushing TDs combined. Last year they had 44.

• The Browns had 22 offensive TDs last season. This year they already have 19

• More Browns - They averaged 14.9 points per game in 2006 and currently average 27.8 points in 2007.

• The Rams had 39 total TDs last year. This year they have only 5 TDs so far and are pace for just 13.

• The Eagles and Saints had 48 and 46 total TDs respectively last year. This year they each have 10 TDs so far and are on pace for just 32 TDs.
  

• New England had 43 total TDs last year. This year they already have 29 TDs and are on pace for 77.

Have a great weekend of football action on YouBeQB!

--JohnnyUnitas

Calling All QBs!

Hail to all in the YouBeQB universe. How does it feel to be the smartest person you know? And no, I'm not trying to 'damn you with faint praise', a'la Al Czervik from 'Caddyshack'.

"Don't sell yourself short, Judge. You're a tremendous slouch."

(By the way, my favorite part of that picture is that you can see Mr. Wang in the background snapping a few photos with his Nikon. "Hey, Wang! What's with the pictures?! It's a parking lot... come on!")

Why am I giving you props for being so smart, and letting you know that you're no slouch? Because if you're reading this not only are you part of that rarefied group of early adopters who have discovered YouBeQB in its gestational beginnings, but you're part of an even more exclusive sub-strata of people who have found the YouBeQB Blog! Give yourself a pat on the back.

We're getting cranked up and ready to roll, for another fantastic week of college and pro football action.

So, speaking of action, I've assigning YOU a 'call to action'.

What is the call to action, pray tell, you ask?

I want to start featuring some of the cool leagues, and other creative ideas that are starting to percolate throughout the site. If you're in a cool league, drop us a line and tell us all about it - maybe you'll see an item in the Blog devoted to telling the world how cool YOUR YouBeQB league is.

Don't belong to a league? Then tell me about you - how you're doing with your picks, why you picked your QB name, what you like most about YouBeQB.

Want to be immortalized? Then I want you....

---JohnnyUnitas

The Winds of Change

Shh! Listen... Do you hear that?

Just listen.

Do you hear something?

You're not listening.

It's just a faint whisper brushing through the treetops, like the soft rustle of crinoline petticoats in a Southern belle's skirt as she sashays down a dusty country lane.

What is that noise, you ask?

It's the winds of change.

We've felt this wind before, my friends, gloriously cool upon our cheek.

On a misty November day in 1892, William 'Pudge' Heffelfinger accepted $500 to suit up and play football for the Allegheny Athletic Association club, helping them to a win in their game against their rival, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.

And thus, professional football was born.

The winds of change stirred that day.

In 1961, a Bucknell University math student named Hal Richman had the idea for a tabletop baseball game using cards that had statistics of players in past seasons. He called it Strat-O-Matic, and it became a huge hit. With some rolls of the dice and consulting of cards for various major-leaguers, a stat-obsessed kid could construct season after season. Through the years, Strat-O-Matic fended off hours of summer boredom for countless youngsters.



More winds. More change.

In the summer of 1980, a New York magazine editor named Dan Okrent had the idea to 'draft' various baseball players onto fantasy teams and compete with a group of his friends. They would meet at a Manhattan restaurant for lunch called La Rotisserie Francaise to play. They called their new hobby 'rotisserie baseball'.

And just like that, fantasy sports were born.

The winds of change were blowing mightily that day.

Now, on a recent fall day in 2007, YouBeQB was launched. So if you close your eyes and listen intently, you can hear that same wind -- infused with traces of the voice of Pudge Heffelfinger, the click of Strat-O-Matic dice on a '60s tabletop, and the smells of a Manhattan eatery -- starting to kick up again.

Congratulations to you for being one of the first to recognize a new wave in interactive sports. Enjoy in it; bask in it.

YouBeQB has arrived.

And it's here to stay.