Back in the day I enjoyed it so much because of all the subplots. I miss Mleo's press announcments and constant improvement. I miss SOIS's old excitement in the league and his improvement as well. I miss rooting for Psamurai psycho, the gentleman version of TDO. I miss watching the parrellel's between Hock's Manning and real life Manning (I.e. not able to win the big one).
I miss the annual rivalries with Hock, Me, Rod, and Nos always with a newcomer (ie Soad or Odell) battling for the #1. I don't think I've ever played a more personally meaningful Tecmo game than the season 3 championship with Hock. Preceeding the game were three seasons of smack talk fueled by my controversial defeat of his Bucs in the previous season's playoffs when I blocked a field goal with the 4th man down (made illegal apparently sometime that season). The new STL has some great players and all, Igal and Edge and Fro (congrats on the great season and good luck in the playoffs) but I really don't have an STL history with these people. Beating Edge in the STL playoffs last season didn't bring me nearly as much joy as if I would have beat him in the HSTL playoffs, nor as much joy as say, beating Rod's Raiders to finally extract revenge for his season 2 playoff defeat of my powerhouse stacked Vikings, at the hands of a poorly rated Vinny Testeverde playing for an injured Michael Vick.
Also the changes in the rules continue to be somewhat of an annoyance. When one builds their team around having a high HP fast return man and spends lots of FA money to do so only to have that aspect of the game taken away without a vote is really lame. The added amount of teams (like... twice as many teams as when I last was in this league) mean that I'd be playing the same people half as much, and so the next time I get to play Daboys or Phil I'd probably wouldn't really remember the last time and the rivalries lose alot of their meaning and get built up twice as slow.
I'm sure if I had never had to quit after season four because of graduating and losing my high speed connection this league would still hold my interest due to the history and rivalries I'd have with the new owners combined with the continued fantastic stats, website, and GM aspect of this league. But alas, things are much different now and its just not as interesting to me as it used to be. So today I retire.
I ask that you remember me not as the uninterested poorly motivated owner who didn't play his games on time but as the dominant owner who kicked all of your asses to win three league titles in six seasons
Thanks again Aaron and sorry to have held things up.
