To celebrate the 50th season of fantasy footballwe will take a look back at some notable and surprising fantasy performances ofthe past 50 fantasy seasons that involved NFL teams playing each other thisweek.
Since the 49ers visit the Vikings Sunday, this week we ventureback to 1995, to Monday Night Football.
December 18, 1995 - the 8-6 Vikings met the defendingchampion and 10-4 49ers at Candle Stick Park in what would be one of JerryRice’s greatest games.
By 1995 fantasy football was starting to gain a footholdwith fans. Street and Smith’s ProFootball Annual Football Magazine was now dedicating a few pages to the gameeach year. More importantly, ESPN’s Sunday Night show Primetime was starting tomake huge gains in Sunday ratings. It was because fantasy players were tryingto get information on touchdowns scored that day. ESPN had not realized it yet,but they were the first part of the media that was feeding our fantasy hunger.Chris Berman still failed to report on late meaningless touchdowns, but as weknow that would change and that there are no meaningless touchdowns anymore. Now you see all the touchdowns twentytimes every Sunday; back then we had to wait for the Monday morning USA Todayto see who actually did all the scoring. Of course all this was before theinternet changed our game forever
Back to 1995….
Most fantasy leagues were still basic scoring, meaning youonly were awarded points for touchdowns scored, field goals, extra points, andsafeties. We know that would bechanged dramatically, but back then touchdowns ruled. Yardage was anafterthought. In 1994 49ersquarterback Steve Young led most of his owners to fantasy championships, with35 passing touchdowns and 7 rushing touchdowns. He was a fantasy monsteraccounting for 42 touchdowns. Based on this, and most leagues still being basicscoring, Young was the overwhelming top choice in most 1995 fantasy drafts.
Not far behind was his top receiver, the almost incomparableJerry Rice (please Google Packer WR Don Hutson - a comparison for anotherarticle another time.)
Back in 1995 most fantasy leagues were still playing throughevery week of the NFL season, and teams had not yet starting sitting players afterclinching playoff berths. In other words, players still played the entireseason.
That brings us to week 16, 1995, which were the semifinalsin most leagues. With having the bye week, it was the15th game forteams, 16th for the league. If you were still in the playoffs, youprobably did not have the first overall choice in your draft. Steve Youngmissed five games in 1995 due to injury, and his touchdown total dropped from42 in 1994 to 23 in 1995. He finished behind such quarterbacks as Jeff Blakeand Eric Kramer in touchdown passes in 1995. If you chose Jerry Rice though,with probably a late first round or second round pick, you most likely werestill in the chase for a title.
Young returned from injury for the Monday night game againstthe Vikings and Rice had continued on with what had been a great year,combining with Young’s back up, the promising Elvis Grbac, in Steve’s absence.
Monday December 18, 1995 Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco49ers
The game that night was a shoot out, and became a duelbetween Young and Vikings quarterback Warren Moon. The attention might have been on the quarterbacks, but thestatistics belonged to Rice. He scored three first half touchdowns, caught 14passes, and gained 289 yards receiving, in a 37-30 49er victory. In today’sfantasy world he tallied 46 points. Back then he probably scored 18 points inmost leagues, but for most who had Rice going that night he propelled hisowners into the fantasy championship the next week – or, if the title game wasthat night, he made a champion.
Rice would finish 1995 with 15 receiving touchdowns, 1,848 yards,while also rushing for score and even throwing a touchdown pass in their lastgame of the year to JJ Stokes.
Although he remained a fantasy relevant player to 2002 whenhe gained 1,211 yards receiving and scored seven touchdowns for the AFCchampion Raiders, 1995 was the last year of Rice’s Hall of Fame career in whichhe scored double-digit touchdowns.
We can argue who the greatest wide receiver of all time was,but in the fantasy era - where statistics rule - Jerry Rice was the mostdominant player, and his Monday night game against the Vikings was one of hisbest fantasy games. Somewhere, a few veteran fantasy players have a dustytrophy from 1995 sitting in their attic or on a shelf in the garage because ofRice’s performance that night and his entire 1995 season - the last of hisdominant fantasy career.


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