RadGuy

Considered retiring this year, but a rough 2024 performance (=36th place my worst since =41st in 2016 debut, 8/20 hits tied lowest with 2023) motivated me to give it another go. TO KILL A GABOR SISTER 2025 Theo Burrell - JOKER Black Bart Tom Brokaw Graham Caveney Noam Chomsky Jonathan Clements Roberta Flack Mari Grug Toni Hilland Jean-Marie Le Pen Steve McMichael Ludek Miklosko Cecile Richards Prunella Scales Mama Mary Schmucker Nigel Starmer-Smith Michael Tilson Thomas Johnnie Walker Joanne Woodward Peter Yarrow subs: Joe Doering Ian Smith James Whale Doering went in for Walker, of course. I know I'm like the third person to say this, but his death was announced literally 10 minutes after I submitted my team. Chatted with a few title contenders last night who said they weren't planning on picking Walker anyway, so his premature death + James Butts being revealed to have died off the radar (which I expected to happen but was hoping would stay quiet a bit longer so he'd waste space on a few DDP teams) puts me at a disadvantage already, I think. My off-forum research was even worse than usual. No real hope for unique picks but I have hope a few names are only on a few teams. I'm surprised Mari Grug, whose particular metastasis is one of the worst you can have for breast cancer, didn't get more traction (still one of my weaker picks). Also surprised Cecile Richards was never 'revealed' on forum (besides a few people posting her in their public deadpool entries, which, well, started with me with the Windy City pool) and even more surprised she was avoided by so many big teams -- looked terrible at a Medal of Freedom ceremony in November and missed some big event a few weeks ago. I think she's most likely a goner this year. Burrell's a bit of a risky joker compared to your dead-certs like Black Bart (who I thought was a bit of a QO risk). Other than that, though, I feel alright. I put in more frail old types than I normally do to make up for the fact that the cancer picks haven't been cancer-ing like they used to these past couple years. Modern medicine, damn it. Cheers to 2025 and good luck to all. Edit: Oh yeah -- and I submitted a theme team for the first time in years. Brought back my American football team from 2019. TRADED TO THE SAINTS Steve McMichael - JOKER Le'Veon Bell Leeman Bennett Raymond Berry O.J. Brigance Antonio Brown Lee Corso Mike Ditka Steve Gleason Sonny Jurgensen Jim Kelly Marv Levy Pete Medhurst Matt Millen Lenny Moore Randy Moss William 'the Refrigerator' Perry Dick Vermeil Nikhil Webb Walker Sean Wallace subs: Chris Lewis Gene Schroeder Carroll Dale

Just a couple days later, Randy Moss announced he is stepping away from his ESPN analyst role to deal with this health challenge. Certainly sounded like prostate cancer at first, given his message specifically to men to get regular check-ups. But now I'm seeing speculation online that it's pancreatic or liver cancer because of his yellow-ish eyes. To the non-US users here (assuming y'all don't mark this thread as read) who are probably unfamiliar -- Moss is one of the most iconic NFL players of all time. Absolutely will get QOs across the board, not that there should be any doubt given several QO outlets already covered this health situation.

His Hall of Fame induction is tomorrow and this article makes it sound like Misty is finally ready to let go. "I’ve told him to please hang on ’til the 3rd and then, you know, I don’t want to see him suffer anymore. He’s been suffering."

It appears that Joye Lee-McNelis has successfully completed treatment for her THIRD recurrence of lung cancer. DDP unique for me and probably my only chance of making waves this year. Onto 2025....

The post says "It got me again" which implies COVID. Looks okay and probably gonna recover, but definitely a name to watch at this point. Probably dead within a couple years.

Vontae Davis, former NFL cornerback and 2x Pro Bowler, has been found dead aged 35. He was perhaps most famous for abruptly retiring mid-game in 2018. Sort of a proto-Antonio Brown.

Her daughter accepted an award on her behalf Tuesday. This, combined with her refusing to appear on camera the other week, makes me think she may be in her final weeks.

Newcastle councillor and popular deadpool pick Jason Smith has died. TBH, I'm a little worried about obit chances, given the news broke 7 hours ago and I was the first to notice. Surely BBC locals will come through?

Franz Beckenbauer a hit for me and others. Also on my list is recent hospice entrant Brian Barczyk. Yeah, I suck at this pool.

Murmurs on Twitter that Brian Barczyk has died are likely untrue, as his YouTube channel posted a goodbye video just over an hour ago and confirmed in the comments that he's still alive. The video is depressing, so watch at your own risk, but basically, he confirms that chemo stopped working a few months ago and he is now entering hospice. So, still alive, but as is tradition to say 'round these parts, won't be around to see the Royal Rumble.

Subs: Patrick Murray - probably a goner with all his ailments but I couldn't find room. Joe Doering/Dikembe Mutombo - both with unclear stages of cancer, both might be on their way out in 2024 reading between the lines, but I just knew if I only picked one, the other would go, and I didn't have room for both. Final drops: Dario G - probably one of the better 'new' names but still see him making it to 2025. Shannen Doherty - starting to decline but still think she sees 2025. Roy Battersby - dying this year, but I have enough old, low-scoring names already. Richard "Black Bart" Harris - my wrestling ignorance made me unsure of a QO, plus he seems somewhat stable still according to a recent Facebook video. Not worth the risk for a 7-pointer. Toby Keith - still not sold on him dying, would've been a purely defensive pick. Joanne Woodward - Drop 40 for sure but if she's survived 15 years with Alzheimer's, why not another year? Not sure the alleged hospice changes anything. Other drops: Jimmy Zoppi/Erik Jensen - both seem to be relatively stable and responding well to treatment. Sudarshan Maharaj - pancan sounds big and scary always, but reading between the lines, they seem confident it's treatable. Jose "Piculin" Ortiz - another name that wouldn't reveal the stage of their cancer, ffs, why are there so many? But if I understood correctly it was caught during a routine scan so probably early. Vanessa Redgrave - again, too many oldies already, and she's not as likely to die as a Carter or Chomsky. Joe Shannon - not super likely to die and I've seen plenty of household names in Ireland not get a single obit in the UK press so I was worried that would be the case here too. Why can't y'all get along? Richard Scolyer - experimental treatment looks promising. Nigel Starmer-Smith - already carried over SEVEN of my 2023 survivors so no room for him. Adrian Sutton - not a lot of updates and kinda boring. Plus "incurable" to me always sounds like "the cancer is here to stay, but so am I for 4-5 years." Sean Wallace - found him very late. Also, as an American college sports fan, even I think he's too obscure to get a Yahoo obit. Francoise Hardy - already have drama queen Esther Rantzen, didn't need two. Dennis Skinner - Chomsky filled the "forum user claims to have inside knowledge that they're dying" spot. James Fanale - just no way he gets a QO, imo.

TO KILL A GABOR SISTER 2024 Jonnie Irwin - JOKER Brian Barczyk Theo Burrell Rob Burrow Frank Caprio Jimmy Carter Graham Caveney Noam Chomsky Simon Cowell (wildlife) Derek Draper Frank Field Toni Hilland Joye Lee-McNelis Steve McMichael Bruce Murray (Home and Away) Michael Parenti Esther Rantzen Jason Smith (councillor) Michael Tilson Thomas James Whale subs: Patrick Murray Joe Doering Dikembe Mutombo Really wanted to find room for Patrick Murray but I had no shortlist deaths post-Ryan Minor... meanwhile last year when I was struggling to come up with enough good names, a bunch of them died right before the starting line and my team got even shittier. Thought I had good research this year but apparently not as I totally missed Craig Maxwell and a few other obvious names. Michael Parenti probably my only unique possibility, 90-year-old Marxist academic - there've been murmurs on leftist Twitter for years about his dementia. Except I just now realized he actually has been mentioned on the forum once or twice . Still, never picked in the DDP. Besides that, Joye Lee-McNelis probably the only other name on less than 5 teams.

I am reminded of the saying "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" as I vote for Jimmy Carter for the 17th time in a row.

After a relatively slow year for contending teams, I'm going a bit conservative in some regards for 2024. I'm anticipating a much deadlier late winter/spring than this year. Also focused on not having as many Drop 40 names so I can actually pull away from other teams when I get a hit. The biggest debate right now is how many of my survivors are worth carrying over. A few are easy drops, a few might die next year but I'm just getting so bored of them. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve I think/hope. There's a QO cert out there whom I think a lot of people wrote off as a nobody.

RIP to a Bears legend. Must've been pretty sudden, he was at the season opener on September 10th and didn't seem ill. Dick Butkus on X: "Somebody give me some pads and a QB to tackle. @chicagobears https://t.co/DWPq1L3yv1" / X (twitter.com) To be fair, watching the start of this season has made me want to die too.