Issue #222: Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em

By Derrick Ernst

October 26, 2025

Cigars

My wife and I have been falling into a routine this fall of drinking our morning coffee to College Gameday every Saturday. A week ago they played a montage of championship winners and of course there were some photos featured with players smoking cigars in the locker room after their win. That got me thinking, I wonder if there was an “official” cigar of the NCAA? Perhaps to no surprise, there is.

Baton Rouge-based news outlet, 225, published this in July:

“Last year, Houston-based cigar company Bocock Brothers made history when it began selling officially licensed LSU cigars. It was the first time a major university had partnered with a cigar brand.

Fast forward to today and the company has significantly broadened its scope.

Bocock Brothers now has eight collegiate partners, most of them in the SEC: LSU, Mississippi State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the University of Mississippi, the University of Missouri and Wake Forest University. And more partnerships are on the way.”

I’m not a cigar smoker myself, but if that’s your thing and you also happen to be a fan of a SEC school, it may be something worth checking out. $280+ for 20 cigars feels a bit hefty to me, but I’m in no position to say. No doubt you’re paying up for the commemorative boxes:

Source: bocockbrothers.com

Are You Darting Kidding Me?!

I’m afraid I may be a week or two late in saying this, but I’m going to do it to get it out in the open and to be held accountable in case it backfires:

Jaxson Dart will be a league winner.

This is another way of me saying if he’s available in your league, do your part to make sure he’s no longer. I said a few weeks ago that it was Skattebo that “the kids” would want to dress up as for Halloween, but Dart isn’t too far behind in fandom. You gotta hand it to the NYG front office, they hit two home runs for personalities and it’s starting to look like two more home runs for their play on the field too.

Source: ESPN

If you’ve ever wondered if I’m practicing what I preach, look no further than this screenshot. Double Leaning Jowler is my team name and you can see that above the Drop button, he’s someone I roster. As I’ve said in prior issues, it’s Dart’s rushing prowess that has impressed most. He hasn’t even played in every game, but has the second most rushing attempts for NYG this season. He’s also rushed for over 50 yards in three of four games as starter and has three rushing TDs to go along with that.

At this point of the fantasy season it’s easy for it to feel a bit monotonous. One thing to get you back to being enthused is to find someone with a bit of swagger you can get behind. I think Dart can be that guy.

Da Bears

I’m in need of a D/ST this week (my starting option is on bye) and was taken aback when I clicked on the Bear D/ST game log. Get a load of this:

Source: ESPN

Take away that week two performance and CHI is averaging 11.2 PPG, which would be best in the league. I gotta be honest, -11 points is probably the lowest total I’ve ever seen a D/ST get hit with, but man all their other games have been gems.

What’s intriguing about these next couple weeks is that CHI plays BAL and CIN. Not bad matchups to keep this streak going. As I’ve said before, don’t be afraid to move on from your D/ST. You should cycle through a handful each season. Keep an eye on waivers and be mindful of future matchups. If you can get high-single digits out of your D/ST by doing this versus keeping your D/ST and getting low-single digits, wouldn’t you feel like the value is worth the effort? I’m mean, five points could be the difference between a win and loss. This is coming from a guy who lost by .2 points earlier this season.

Like Mike

“We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game, we just don't... don't know when that's gonna be. Some of us are told at eighteen, some of us are told at forty, but we're all told.” — Moneyball, 2011

Man, I love that quote. I don’t know why, but Evans’ injury reminded me of Nuke in that they’re both on the tail ends of their careers. It is incredible how steep a drop-off many players have. Nuke hasn’t been relevant for years and when he retires, many will remember him for how long he dragged out his career. I hope that isn’t the route Evans takes. His career up to this point deserves to be preserved for the mastery that it was.