It’s that weird end of the week before Christmas in the SPFL Home offices and on campus. Nobody knows what day it is. Calendars are getting filled up for … “next year” … productivity is in the eye of the beholder. Email replies are “let’s circle back to that in January”. Mentally checked out, physically beat, and emotionally bracing for whatever 2026 might hold. That’s ye old commish in late December.
But for four teams, the SPFL is still demanding their full emotional attention. Our two bye week recipients were all too glad to have the weekend off. Another high scoring team survived a fight for its life to move on, as many expected. But we had one well-earned, but surprising upset to keep the bracket interesting.
Just remember what Red said in Shawshank — “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
I know it’s happened before, but the wild card round was wildly satisfying for a non-participating commissioner as I witnessed what were four, obviously well deserving, postseason participants give it their all to try and move onto the SPFL’s Final Four.
In the bigger “upset” of the wild card round, Greased Lightning took a 190-160 decision over the Bright 1s to move into an SPFL semifinal round, and one step closer to their first ever SPFL Super Bowl title. In only his fifth NFL season, Trevor Lawrence (46) finally had his breakout performance to pad the Lightning’s early stats on their way to victory. TreVeyon Henderson (35) added even more comfort with his customary long TD runs, leading the Lightning to outperform their Yahoo predicted score by a whopping 62 points! As had been theorized, the Bright 1s struggled at the QB position (Sam Darnold — 11 points), had a goose egg put up at the TE slot, but still had a little bit of a shot going into Monday night, thanks to the Eagles D (34) and Bijan Robinson’s (32) weekend output. Alas, it was not to be, and another strong season by the Bright 1s came to an unfortunate early end.
The other wild card matchup was even tighter with the Thunder Monkeys coming out on top over Heath’s Heroes, 170-153. Both of these teams also outperformed their Yahoo odds, but the Monkeys relied on, yet again, Trey McBride (37) to lead the way, while Brock Purdy added 27 points. Putting up 170, while getting only 4 points from Justin Jefferson and a quiet 15 from Jonathan Taylor signals that the Monkeys may be a force to be reckoned with this week, too. Heath’s Heroes put up a heck of a fight, thanks to their backfield duo of Travis Etienne (34) and James Cook III (33), but fell just 17+ points shy of pulling the upset as they, too, saw a great season come to an end. I must say, the Heroes franchise struggled for a few years early on in their SPFL lore, but they have definitely found their mojo now and are perennial contenders.
Congrats to two fine teams and owners, who can now breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the Christmas season.
Meanwhile … as I said earlier, four teams are still spending their nights browsing the injury reports and tweaking their lineups, all in the hopes of moving onto the SPFL Super Bowl and picking up the biggest prize pot in SPFL history!
In SPFL Semifinal #1, Higgins and the Ladds will be taking on the Thunder Monkeys. The Monkeys are two time SPFL champions, with the most recent title coming just before Covid in 2019 while Higgins and the Ladds are in search of their second Farley Trophy, but the first since … drumroll please … 2003! Think about it! The last time this squad took home the trophy, iPhones hadn’t been invented! Netflix still used red envelopes! The Curse of the Bambino was still a thing in Boston! Nevertheless, after a few years of distraction and disinterest, the Higgins’ GM has also redisovered his mojo and has been a real contender for a couple consecutive years. Will he be able to break the streak and move on? Early Vegas odds have the Thunder Monkeys as LESS THAN ONE POINT FAVORITES! Here’s hoping for some all weekend drama!
In SPFL Semifinal #2, we have a little bit of David and Goliath going on. Yesterday’s Corn, the overall #1 seed is seeking his fourth SPFL title and to further secure his place as the second winningest franchise in SPFL history while Greased Lightning is hoping to catch themselves in a bottle again and move on toward their first ever SPFL Super Bowl win! Despite the differing regular season marks, oddsmakers also see this one as tighter than ONE POINT right now! Both teams also have a key player on the field tonight in a barnburner of a Thursday night game!
Even with no skin in the game, I LOVE IT!! Best of luck to all four teams and enjoy the rush of SPFL playoff football!
I’m not sure what next week might hold for a blog post, given that Thursday is Christmas Day, so if I don’t talk to you before then, Merry Christmas to each of you and your families. Be safe, enjoy, and take time to reflect.
The Commish