Welcome to the 2022 Season from Luther Lavay
(Editor’s note: The 2021 winner, Luther Lavay, has penned some words of wisdom as we kick off the 2022 season. His message is below.)
Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 2am, we arrive at Mercy Hospital in downtown Baltimore. My wife, Katie, was ready to deliver our second son. As we were preparing to leave the house, I rechecked to ensure that everything was packed prior to leaving for the hospital. A quick drive through the rough streets of Bmore, lasting no longer then 15 minutes, and we were parked and ready to make our way to the delivery room. As we approached our room, it hit me, I had forgotten the all-important snack bag. This may have been even more important than the actual delivery. As I stirred up the courage to admit my mistake, I had a plan to drive home quickly to pick up the bag, assuming that the contractions were far enough apart. After getting Katie checked into the room and checking with the doctor who ensured me that we were ten hours away from delivery, I made a quick run home for the all-important bag of snacks. That would not be the only thing that I forgot that faithfully early morning.
As the Epidural was setting in and the contraction screams died down a bit, I looked at the clock. 11am on Sunday, September 13th. There was a pit in my stomach, It felt like I was still missing something. And then it hit me. I forgot to submit my picks for the Funny Money league. Frantically, I jumped on my computer, ran through the spreads and sent over the picks with an explanation of the soon to be delivery. The response that I got back from The Executive Director was that I would still be assessed a -$100 fine for late picks. Half of me thought how ruthless, but the other half thought mad respect for keeping this rule in place even in this situation. As the clock stuck 1pm, our second son entered the world. What a beautiful sight. The nurse handed him to Katie and asked, have you two decided a name. As I was getting ready to blurt out Luther Lavay Rose, Katie beat me to the punch exclaiming, Brayden Patrick Rose. It was at that moment that I made a plan to win the league in 2021. I would lay low in 2020, spend time with my new son and then completely focus on winning the playoffs the next year. Everything was lined up as planned. Get out slow in the early 2021 season, lose the wild card (when the Raiders gave up a 46 yard pass interference with ten seconds left to put the game into OT and not cover), back into the playoffs as the 10th seed on the last game of the season, ironically a win by the Raiders and then march through the playoffs on the heels of Burrow and the Bengals.
Fast forward to current day, sitting in my house in Marriottsville, Maryland. I reach up to grab the championship plaque and get it ready to bubble wrap and send it back to The Executive Director. One more hug of the plaque and I wrap it up in the box for shipping. Part of me thinks, why pay shipping when I am just going to run through the league again this year? At this point it is simply a fight for 2nd place as the Luther Reign has just begun….
