BackRoom Division

The oldest manager in the TCT, “Diamond” Dave Stephens earned his nickname not through fantasy dominance, but through his Diamond status at Caesars Palace. Dave is an avid gambler, which may explain his occasional draft strategy. Every year there seems to be at least one pick that makes the entire room quietly look at each other and wonder what Dave knows that we don't. Sometimes it hits. Usually the house wins.

Away from fantasy, Dave is genuinely one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. He cares deeply about the people around him and wants everyone to be happy and having a good time. He's also the Commissioner's father-in-law, which means Chris has spent years watching a man he loves and respects occasionally make a draft pick that tests both of those feelings.

Dave is almost completely silent in the group chat, with one exception: every so often he'll mysteriously send a random letter or two. The official explanation is butt texts. Conspiracy theorists believe these messages are coded transmissions. Given the Caesars connection, the investigation remains open.

Commissioner’s Verdict: A TCT original, a genuinely great human being, and a fantasy manager willing to gamble on a draft pick the rest of us wouldn't touch. Diamond Dave has survived eleven seasons, two divisions, multiple relegations and promotions, and 172 career games without a championship. But he's still sitting at the table—and every gambler knows you only need the next hand to hit.

TCT Manager Score: 429

TCT Career

• Champion’s Division: 49–60
• Backroom Division: 34–29
• Overall: 83–89
• Championships: 0

Jared Oldham looks like he should be standing on a Gotham rooftop in the rain contemplating vengeance. In reality, he's one of the nicest guys in the league. The dark, brooding exterior is apparently just packaging for an experienced fantasy manager who actually knows what he's doing.

Jared came to the TCT with plenty of fantasy experience, and it shows. He drafts well, works the waiver wire, makes trades, and generally participates with the kind of knowledge that makes him dangerous without needing some bizarre gimmick. In a league filled with questionable draft reaches, trade sharks, waiver maniacs, and managers communicating through suspected butt-text codes, Jared is annoyingly well-rounded.

He debuted in the Bush League in 2022 as Sexy Time, finished third, and immediately moved into the Backroom. There he became Sleeve of Wizard, finished third again in 2023, and has remained a consistent Backroom presence ever since.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Jared looks like Batman, manages like a veteran, and unfortunately for the purposes of this roast, appears to be a genuinely good dude. He drafts, trades, works waivers, and understands fantasy football. The only major hole in the résumé is the championship—and until he gets one, the Bat-Signal remains lit.

TCT Manager Score: 277

TCT Career

• Backroom Division: 27–22
• Bush League Division: 11–5
• Overall: 38–27
• Championships: 0

Lauren Bettencourt entered the TCT in 2018 having never played fantasy football before, and for the first few years, it showed. She started her career 13–32 over her first three seasons. Fortunately, while Lauren needed some time to learn fantasy football, she required absolutely no development whatsoever in the field of talking shit.

Lauren will go back and forth with anybody unfortunate enough to wander into her crosshairs. Mux Markey has been a recurring target. Josh Fortin irritated her enough to inspire the team name CC fortin is a butthole. She regularly bickers with Nick Downey and, for reasons perhaps known only to Lauren, seems to enjoy picking on Timmy Calvao. She may not always win the matchup, but she has never once conceded the argument.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Lauren started with no fantasy experience, very little success, and enough trash talk for a ten-year veteran. The fantasy knowledge eventually caught up. The mouth never needed to. Eight seasons later, she’s still searching for her first championship—but if championships were awarded for starting unnecessary arguments, the trophy case would already be full.

TCT Manager Score: 280

TCT Career

• Backroom Division: 57–68 
• Overall: 57–68 
• Championships: 0

Mike Medeiros is one of the nicest and quietest managers in the TCT. He shows up to the draft, makes his picks, manages his team, and generally asks very little from the fantasy-football universe. He rarely works the waiver wire, never trades, doesn't talk in the group chat, and has successfully avoided appearing on the podcast. While everyone else spends the season frantically rebuilding their roster, Mike is usually just... there.  And somehow, that approach produced a championship.

Mike won the 2022 Backroom Championship and was given the opportunity to move up to the Champion’s Division. He declined, becoming only the second manager to voluntarily stay behind after winning his division. The fantasy gods apparently considered this disrespectful, because the follow-up season went terribly. Both managers who made that decision suffered the same fate, establishing what should probably now be known as the TCT Promotion Curse.

Mike eventually landed in the Bush League, where his understated approach remained exactly the same. No panic. No blockbuster trades. No 47 waiver claims. Just Mike, his drafted roster, and whatever happens next.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Quiet, kind, and possibly the least frantic fantasy manager alive. Mike won a championship without trading, barely touching waivers, or making enough noise for anyone to notice. Then he declined his promotion and immediately learned an important TCT lesson: when the fantasy gods open the elevator doors, get in.

TCT Manager Score: 570

TCT Career

• Backroom Division: 55–56 | 🏆 2022 Champion 
• Bush League Division: 11–6 
• Overall: 66–62 
• Championships: 1

Nick Downey is one of the original TCT managers and quite possibly the biggest shit talker in league history. Nick always has something to say, but give him a few pops and access to the group chat and you've got yourself an evening. Matt Lincoln and Anthony Caton have both engaged in legendary back-and-forths with Downey, apparently forgetting the most important rule of the TCT: Nick doesn't need to win the argument. He just needs you to keep responding.

The frustrating part is that underneath all that shit stirring is a damn good fantasy manager. Nick prepares diligently, attacks the waiver wire, makes sensible trades, and generally drafts extremely well—provided his blood-alcohol level hasn't begun affecting player evaluation. He’s also a frequent podcast guest, because limiting Nick Downey to the group chat was apparently never going to contain him.

His résumé backs it up. Nick spent the league’s first ten seasons in the Champion’s Division, won the 2016 TCT Championship, and piled up 85 wins at the highest level before finally dropping into the Backroom in 2025.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Excellent fantasy manager. Relentless waiver player. Champion. Professional agitator. Nick Downey loves fantasy football almost as much as he loves finding two people having a peaceful conversation and figuring out how to ruin it. If the group chat has been quiet for too long, don't worry. Downey will fix it.

TCT Manager Score: 929

TCT Career

• Champion’s Division: 85–69 | 🏆 2016 Champion
• Backroom Division: 8–8
• Overall: 93–77
• Championships: 1

Matt “Mux” Markey might be the happiest man in the TCT. Mux is perpetually in a good mood, shows up to just about every league event he can make, and is always entertaining when he gets behind a microphone on The Commissioner’s Desk Podcast. He’s genuinely the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back—although Lauren Bettencourt would presumably find something wrong with the shirt.

The Mux-Lauren rivalry remains one of the league’s great mysteries, primarily because Mux doesn't appear to know he's involved in it. Lauren has repeatedly gone after him, once naming her team Mux Sux Big Cux, while Mux continues greeting her like an old friend. At this point, calling it a rivalry feels unfair. It's more like Lauren declared war and Mux keeps bringing snacks to the battlefield.

As a fantasy manager, Mux is probably best described as average. His career record is literally 40–40. But in 2024, Average Mux briefly disappeared. ToTheTop scored 1,595.04 points, the highest single-season total in five-tier TCT history.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Mux may never be the league's greatest fantasy manager, but he's exactly the kind of guy who makes the TCT better. He shows up, has fun, makes people laugh, and somehow maintains a positive attitude despite Lauren conducting an unexplained personal vendetta against him. And for one glorious season, the jolly .500 manager turned into the most prolific scoring machine the TCT had ever seen.

TCT Manager Score: 182

TCT Career

• Backroom Division: 29–35
• Bush League Division: 11–5
• Overall: 40–40
• Championships: 0

Zach “Eddy” Edwards might be the perfect blue-collar representative of the TCT. He shows up to every event, puts the work into his team, hits the waiver wire when necessary, makes trades when they make sense, and generally goes about his business without needing to make a production out of it. Eddy isn't looking for shortcuts. He just punches the clock and manages his football team.

That mentality was tested immediately. In his 2022 rookie season, Zach reached the Bush League Championship only to lose to Josh Fortin in one of the strangest finishes in TCT history. Instead of spending the next four years filing grievances with the Commissioner, Eddy basically shrugged and said, bad break. He was happy to have earned his promotion. The next season he went to the Backroom and won the damn thing anyway, earning another promotion into the Champion’s Division.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Eddy is the TCT’s blue-collar manager. Show up. Do the work. Make your moves. Take your bad breaks without crying about them. Then come back next year and try again. He may not be the loudest manager in the room, but going from Bush League rookie to Backroom Champion to Champion’s Division manager in three seasons speaks plenty loud enough.

TCT Manager Score: 446

TCT Career

• Champion’s Division: 15–17
• Backroom Division: 10–7 | 🏆 2023 Champion
• Bush League Division: 10–7
• Overall: 35–31
• Championships: 1

Anthony Caton is one of those managers who can fool you if you only see him on draft day. He sits quietly, makes his picks, doesn't cause much commotion, and usually gets out of there. Then the season starts, someone says the wrong thing in the group chat, and apparently the quiet barber clocks in for his second job.

Anthony's battles with Nick Downey have become TCT folklore. Once those two get rolling, the rest of the league becomes unwilling spectators while phones across southeastern Massachusetts vibrate themselves off kitchen counters. Anthony can absolutely stir the pot, but the important part is that he can back it up. He's an active, capable manager who works the wire, looks for trades, and followed four strong Backroom seasons by winning the Champion’s Division Championship in 2022.

Lately, however, Anthony has been suspiciously quiet. The Commissioner refuses to interpret this as maturity. A man with this history does not simply stop stirring the pot. He's either busy cutting hair or planning something.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Anthony is quiet when you expect noise and loud when everyone desperately wants silence. He'll calmly make his draft picks, disappear, manage a good football team, and then spend three hours arguing with Nick Downey about something nobody else remembers starting. The silence this season has been noted. The Commissioner remains concerned.

TCT Manager Score: 798

TCT Career

• Champion’s Division: 31–35 | 🏆 2022 Champion
• Backroom Division: 39–25
• Overall: 70–60
• Championships: 1

James Souza doesn't really do anything quietly. He manages somewhere around 18 fantasy teams, has an opinion on just about everything, and somehow every player selected at the TCT Draft is one of his guys. Pick someone in the fifth round and you'll hear “GOOD PICK!” from across the room, followed by an explanation that James owns him in four other leagues. At this point, we're not entirely sure there are NFL players who aren't James's guys.

Then there's the group chat. James utilizes what the Commissioner has dubbed The Shotgun Method. Most people collect their thoughts and send one message. James fires each thought individually. Five sentences? Five texts. One James opinion can make your phone vibrate off the table. He's boisterous, opinionated, and completely unfiltered—but underneath all of it is a hardworking, genuinely good guy.

Fantasy experience certainly isn't the problem. James reached the Bush League Championship in 2023, fell short, then returned in 2025 as Big Game James and finished the job. Apparently managing enough fantasy teams to require an administrative staff eventually pays off.

Commissioner’s Verdict: James is loud, experienced, aggressive, entertaining, and physically incapable of sending one text when five will do. Every draft pick is his guy, every thought deserves its own notification, and every TCT event is a little louder when he's there. But Big Game James can back up the noise: 37–28 with a championship belt. He'd give you the shirt off his back, too—as long as your name isn't Joe Biden.

TCT Manager Score: 360

TCT Career

• Backroom Division: 14–18
• Bush League Division: 23–10 | 🏆 2025 Champion
• Overall: 37–28
• Championships: 1

For four years, Tommy Rego wasn't simply in the Bush League. He was part of the furniture. A genuinely nice guy, capable fantasy manager, and perhaps the biggest fan of The Commissioner’s Desk Podcast, Tommy embraced the TCT enough to eventually name his own team Bush League Ambassador. At some point, everyone just assumed the position was a lifetime appointment.

And Tommy came painfully close to escaping several times. He finished 4th three consecutive years from 2022 through 2024, seemingly trapped in fantasy-football purgatory. Then 2025 happened. The Ambassador went 11–3, reached the Bush League Championship, finished runner-up, and finally earned his promotion to the Backroom. After four years, the man was granted a visa.

Now comes the difficult part: staying there. Tommy is a good enough manager to make the promotion stick, but the Bush League knows its favorite son. His old office probably hasn't been cleaned out yet.

Commissioner’s Verdict: The Bush League Ambassador has finally crossed the border into the Backroom. Tommy is a great guy, a loyal supporter of everything TCT, and a capable manager who earned his promotion the hard way. We wish him nothing but success in his new home. We have also advised the Bush League to keep his seat warm, just in case.

TCT Manager Score: 247

TCT Career

• Bush League Division: 39–27
• Overall: 39–27
• Championships: 0