Dead-Bottom Division

Maddux Fredericks joined the TCT in 2025 as the youngest manager in league history, entering the Dead-Bottom while still in high school. The son of league member Rob Fredericks, Maddux was brought in when the Commissioner decided the TCT could use some younger blood. Apparently the younger generation was ready, because while some veteran managers have spent years trying to figure out fantasy football, the high school kid showed up and immediately went 12–2 in the regular season.

His rookie season also produced his first legitimate league feud. Maddux and Stu Gilfillen developed a friendly back-and-forth late in the year, culminating in Maddux making the relatively uncontroversial observation that Stu's fantasy team was hopeless. Stu responded by naming his team You're adopted Maddux. It was an impressive escalation from a grown man whose fantasy roster had just been insulted by a high school student. Unfortunately for Stu, changing his team name proved considerably easier than changing the quality of the team.

Maddux's own season ended with a little humility. After dominating the regular season at 12–2 and earning a first-round bye, Here comes mcbride lost both postseason games and finished fourth. It's a brutal ending, but also a pretty remarkable beginning. Maddux stayed active, made 33 roster moves, and immediately demonstrated that despite being the youngest manager in the league, nobody should be treating him like the kid at the table.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Maddux was brought into the TCT because the Commissioner wanted some youth in the league, and after one season that decision looks pretty damn good. He's active, participates whenever he can, isn't afraid to talk a little trash, and already appears to be a capable fantasy manager. Going 12–2 while still in high school is impressive. Getting a grown man to rename his fantasy team because you hurt his feelings might be even better. Maddux still has graduation ahead of him, plenty to learn about fantasy football, and a few years before he can legally have a beer with the rest of us. But after one season, one thing is already clear: the kid belongs.

TCT Manager Score: 26

TCT Career

• Dead-Bottom Division: 12–4
• Overall: 12–4
• Championships: 0

Jeff Sinko didn't need much convincing to join the TCT. The older brother of Tom Sinko, Jeff was already a fan of The Commissioner’s Desk Podcast and particularly loved the league's tier system. So when spots became available during the 2024 expansion, Jeff wanted in. Two seasons later, he has fully experienced the tier system he admired so much—unfortunately, almost entirely in the downward direction.

Jeff is one of the more unique personalities in the league. He's genuinely kind and would probably give you the shirt off his back, but before handing it over he'd make sure to explain exactly why the shirt you're currently wearing looks fucking ridiculous. Jeff says what he thinks, enjoys busting balls, and has mastered the unusual combination of being incredibly nice and completely blunt at the exact same time. You never have to wonder what Jeff is thinking because there is a strong possibility he's already told you.

Outside fantasy football, Jeff spends a huge amount of time as a local youth baseball umpire. He's firm, fair, consistent, and possesses an impressive knowledge of the rule book. Unfortunately, none of those rules appear to cover waiver claims, lineup construction, or how to escape the bottom of the TCT pyramid. Jeff's rookie season ended 5–11 and ninth in the Septic Tank, immediately relegating him to the Dead-Bottom. Year Two showed some improvement at 7–9 overall and fifth place, but his 12–20 career record remains significantly less impressive than his umpiring résumé. If fantasy football had an infield-fly rule, Jeff would undoubtedly know it. Whether it would help Masterson's Misadventures remains unclear.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Jeff is a great guy, a perfect personality for the TCT, and exactly the kind of manager who makes the league more entertaining regardless of his record. He's kind, blunt, funny, opinionated, and knowledgeable enough about baseball to settle an argument before most people have even found the rule book. Fantasy football has been a different story. Jeff loved the TCT tier system so much that he joined the league and immediately began personally exploring its lower levels. The good news is that Year Two showed improvement. The bad news is that with a 12–20 career record, the umpire may eventually have to make the toughest call of his career: Jeff Sinko—OUT.

TCT Manager Score: 7

TCT Career

• Septic Tank Division: 5–11
• Dead-Bottom Division: 7–9
• Overall: 12–20
• Championships: 0

Brent Almeida joined the TCT in 2024 because he wanted a shot in the league and the Commissioner gave him one. Two seasons later, the Commissioner has reached a fascinating conclusion about Brent: he seems perfectly fine. Nice guy. Average fantasy manager. Shows up, manages his team, causes no major problems. In the TCT, this level of normalcy almost feels suspicious.

His fantasy résumé has been equally committed to the middle. Brent went 7–7 in the regular season in 2024. Then, apparently satisfied that he had discovered the ideal amount of winning, he went 7–7 again in 2025. Off Constantly has now produced a 15–17 career record, finishes of eighth and sixth, and absolutely no statistical evidence suggesting Brent is either secretly a fantasy genius or completely incompetent. He is simply hovering around .500 with remarkable dedication.

There are managers in the TCT who provide the Commissioner with endless material. They start arguments, call the podcast, develop ridiculous rivalries, threaten retirement, get relegated through multiple divisions, or create incidents that require entire paragraphs to explain. Brent has chosen another path. He wanted an opportunity to compete, received one, and has spent two seasons quietly playing fantasy football without creating a significant administrative crisis. The Commissioner isn't entirely sure what to do with that.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Brent seems like a genuinely nice guy and, through two seasons, a perfectly average fantasy football manager. That's not an insult. In fact, considering some of the people the Commissioner has invited into this league over the years, being described as "nice and normal" should probably qualify as an achievement. The problem is that Brent has left the Commissioner with very little material to work with. So here's the challenge going forward: win a championship, start a rivalry, call into the podcast, talk some shit, get spectacularly relegated—do something, Brent. I have a fucking bio to write.

TCT Manager Score: 13

TCT Career

• Dead-Bottom Division: 15–17
• Overall: 15–17
• Championships: 0

Mike “Skeeter” DeCotis arrived in the TCT with credentials. Not vague claims about playing fantasy football for a long time, either. Skeeter brought historical documentation—actual pen-and-paper fantasy rosters from more than twenty years ago. This is a man who was playing fantasy football before half the league knew what fantasy football was. Unfortunately, Skeeter is also a salesman, which means the Commissioner probably should have examined those credentials a little more carefully.

Skeeter can best be described as the nicest guy you would ever expect someone in sales to be. He's friendly, personable, experienced, and can undoubtedly explain with complete confidence why whatever he's currently selling is exactly what you've been missing your entire life. His fantasy football pitch was equally convincing: decades of experience, old-school credentials, years of accumulated knowledge. Two seasons into his TCT career, The Peter NorthStars are 17–15 and still firmly camped in the Dead-Bottom. At some point, the Commissioner may need to see the warranty paperwork.

Skeeter's greatest contribution to the TCT, however, has nothing to do with fantasy football. He gifted the Tavern an enlarged photograph from some kind of childhood modeling shoot that, without context, looks disturbingly like a memorial portrait for a child who tragically left this world far too soon. The photo has become known simply as Saint Skeeter. It now watches over the Tavern as we draft, watch football, and record The Commissioner’s Desk Podcast. Managers have come and gone. Divisions have been created. Championships have been won. Through it all, Saint Skeeter remains above us, silently judging our decisions with the peaceful expression of a child who apparently died in 1987 but somehow grew up to sell things and finish seventh in the Dead-Bottom.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Skeeter is a great guy, a true character, and a fantasy football veteran with enough historical evidence to prove he's been doing this longer than most of us. What remains considerably less proven is whether those twenty-plus years actually taught him anything. So far, his impressive résumé has mostly sounded like an excellent sales presentation followed by a product that performs exactly average. But regardless of whether The Peter NorthStars ever escape the Dead-Bottom, Skeeter has already achieved immortality in the TCT. Long after we're gone, Saint Skeeter will still be watching over the Tavern—assuming somebody remembers to dust him.

TCT Manager Score: 24

TCT Career

• Dead-Bottom Division: 17–15
• Overall: 17–15
• Championships: 0

Kenny Almeida is a TCT original, a genuinely great guy, and one of the least reliable recurring characters in league history. Since joining the inaugural Champion’s Division in 2015, Kenny has retired, returned, disappeared, resurfaced, and generally treated league membership less like a commitment and more like a streaming subscription he remembers to reactivate every few years.

His fantasy career has been just as unpredictable. Kenny opened his TCT career with a 2–13 season in 2015, then immediately turned around and reached the 2016 Champion’s Division Championship Game. After another disappearance, he returned in the Backroom, finished dead last in 2018, and then naturally reached another championship game in 2019. This is Kenny Almeida fantasy football: long stretches where absolutely nothing makes sense, interrupted occasionally by evidence that he might actually be good at this.

Unfortunately, Kenny's inconsistency extends beyond results. He is one of the league's most notorious autodrafters, a habit that has helped create a long-running rivalry with Nick Downey. Downey approaches fantasy football with the intensity of a man preparing for a military operation. Kenny occasionally approaches draft day by allowing fate to make the decisions for him. To Nick, this is not merely bad fantasy management. It is a personal insult to the sport. Combine that with Kenny's repeated departures and returns, and Downey has spent years watching a man he considers insufficiently committed repeatedly wander back into the league whenever the mood strikes him.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Kenny is one of the nicest guys in the league and one of the strangest fantasy careers the TCT has ever produced. He has reached two championship games, finished at the bottom multiple times, retired repeatedly, returned repeatedly, autodrafted enough teams to make Nick Downey question the integrity of fantasy football, and somehow remains impossible to dislike. Kenny may never be the league's most dependable manager, but after all these years, the Commissioner has learned to appreciate every Kenny Almeida season for what it is: a limited-time engagement with no guarantee of renewal.

TCT Manager Score: 227

TCT Career

• Champion’s Division: 18–28
• Backroom Division: 16–15
• Dead-Bottom Division: 12–20
• Overall: 46–63
• Championships: 0

Stu Gilfillen joined the TCT in 2024 as part of the wave of managers brought in to fill the league's two newly created divisions. He arrived claiming plenty of fantasy football experience, which sounded believable enough at the time. Stu also has extensive experience on the water with sailboats, so clearly this is a man comfortable navigating difficult conditions. Unfortunately, if Stu sails the way he manages fantasy football, the Coast Guard should probably keep an eye on him.

His first two seasons have been an impressive exercise in finding increasingly creative ways to remain near the bottom. Stu went 4–12 and finished tenth in the Septic Tank in 2024, earning immediate relegation to the Dead-Bottom. In 2025, You're adopted Maddux. improved slightly to 5–11 and ninth place, giving Stu a 9–23 career record through two seasons. To be fair, injuries have played a role, and Stu hasn't simply abandoned ship. He remains active on the waiver wire, makes trades, and continues trying to improve his roster. The problem is that every attempt to repair the vessel somehow ends with more water coming in.

None of this has prevented Stu from talking shit. In fact, Stu produces a remarkable amount of trash talk for a manager with nine career victories. His most notable exchange came with rookie Maddux Fredericks, who made the relatively straightforward observation that Stu's team was hopeless. Stu responded by renaming his team You're adopted Maddux. It was a strong counterattack from a man who was simultaneously losing enough fantasy games to provide considerable supporting evidence for Maddux's original argument.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Stu is a genuinely nice guy, stays active, works the wire, makes trades, and clearly cares about competing. There may even be legitimate bad luck buried somewhere inside these first two injury-filled seasons. But at some point the results have to matter, and 9–23 is becoming difficult to explain entirely through rough seas. Stu arrived claiming years of fantasy experience and plenty of time behind the wheel of a sailboat. After two seasons, the Commissioner has only one piece of nautical advice left: find land.

TCT Manager Score: -5

TCT Career

• Septic Tank Division: 4–12
• Dead-Bottom Division: 5–11
• Overall: 9–23
• Championships: 0

Nick Jacobson joined the TCT in 2024 on the recommendation of Chace Jabotte. Historically, Chace has actually done a pretty good job bringing fun, interesting, and competent fantasy managers into the league. Nick may eventually prove he belongs in that category. At the moment, he is threatening Chace’s scouting reputation.

The confusing part is that Nick appears to do everything a fantasy manager is supposed to do. He drafts his own team, stays active on the waiver wire, makes trades, and actually manages throughout the season. There is no obvious laziness to blame, no autodraft scandal, and no disappearing act. He seems to understand the basic responsibilities of fantasy football. The one area he has struggled with is unfortunately the part where you win games.

His rookie season was at least respectable. Girth Brooks finished 8–8 overall and sixth in the Dead-Bottom in 2024. Year Two was considerably less encouraging. Nick followed that with a 3–13 season and a tenth-place finish in 2025, ending the year by losing the ninth-place game to Stu Gilfillen and officially securing the bottom spot in the lowest division of the TCT. Through two seasons, Nick owns an 11–21 career record. That's not enough evidence to declare him hopeless, but it is enough evidence for the Commissioner to begin keeping Chace's future recommendations under slightly closer review.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Nick remains something of a mystery to the Commissioner personally, but as a fantasy manager the situation is strangely straightforward. He drafts, works waivers, makes trades, and appears to put in the effort. He simply hasn't won very much. Maybe 2025 was just a terrible season and Girth Brooks rebounds. Maybe Nick eventually proves Chace's recommendation was another good one. But for now, Chace Jabotte's recruiting résumé has one suspicious entry on it, and Nick Jacobson is currently highlighted in red.

TCT Manager Score: 4

TCT Career

• Dead-Bottom Division: 11–21
• Overall: 11–21
• Championships: 0

Frank Hill joined the TCT alongside Matt Gill during the league's 2024 expansion, and from the beginning the two have operated as something of a package deal. Matt is Ernie. Frank is Bert. This arrangement has apparently been understood by everyone involved for years and requires no further explanation. Unfortunately, the TCT tier system has no respect for classic children's television partnerships, and for the first time this season Bert and Ernie are being separated.

Frank's fantasy career is also an excellent example of how ridiculously thin the line can be between a completely different reputation and the one you actually get. In the 2024 Septic Tank playoffs, Frank White lost to eventual champion Veda Edwards 121.44–120.84. Six-tenths of a point. If Frank scores 0.61 more, perhaps he advances, makes a championship run, and this bio starts talking about one of the league's promising new managers. Instead, he finished fifth, followed it with a 4–12 season in 2025, and now owns a 12–20 career record. Fantasy football is a cruel business.

What's strange is that Frank doesn't particularly look or act like somebody destined for the bottom of a fantasy football league. He's tall, athletic, good looking, and appears to have at least a reasonable understanding of fantasy football. He drafts his team, manages his roster, and does what needs to be done. That's basically Frank's entire operating philosophy. He rarely talks in the group chat, doesn't create much drama, and doesn't seem interested in becoming one of the league's louder personalities. He shows up, handles his business, and goes home. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Frank is a good guy, a quiet league member, and probably a better fantasy manager than a 12–20 record currently suggests. His entire TCT story may look very different if one football bounces slightly differently and he scores another 0.61 points against Veda in 2024. Instead, Bert enters Year Three without Ernie beside him and with something to prove. Maybe separating the two finally unlocks Frank White. Or maybe we'll discover the uncomfortable truth that Bert really did need Ernie.

TCT Manager Score: 18

TCT Career

• Septic Tank Division: 12–20
• Overall: 12–20
• Championships: 0

Danny Dorgan was one of the more surprising additions during the TCT's massive 2024 expansion. He wasn't new to the league universe—Danny had spent nearly a decade competing in the BlackSheep Division—but a major promotion at work forced him to step away from BlackSheep. With two new TCT divisions opening at exactly the right time, the Commissioner saw an opportunity to find out something he'd been curious about for years: how would Danny's BlackSheep experience translate to the tiered divisions?

There was reason to believe it would translate pretty well. Danny spent nine seasons managing HandslikeWayneMello in BlackSheep and eventually captured the 2022 BlackSheep Championship, finishing his run there with a 69–73 career record. He wasn't some inexperienced expansion manager learning fantasy football for the first time. Danny arrived with a championship, years of experience, and enough evidence to suggest he knew what he was doing.

Two seasons later, the answer remains somewhat unclear. New League Same Hands started reasonably well, going 10–7 overall and finishing fourth in the 2024 Septic Tank. Then came a 5–11 season and ninth-place finish in 2025, leaving Danny at 15–18 in the tiered TCT. He's also become a reliable league member who shows up for events and participates without needing to constantly make himself the center of attention. His trash talk operates the same way. Danny isn't spraying bullets around the group chat hoping something lands. He's more of a sniper—quiet for long stretches, waiting patiently until somebody gives him the perfect opportunity to take one clean shot.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Danny's fantasy résumé speaks for itself. He's experienced, he's won a BlackSheep championship, he shows up, and he's proven capable of competing over a long period of time. What the Commissioner still doesn't know is exactly where Danny belongs in the TCT hierarchy. The first season suggested his BlackSheep experience would translate just fine. The second raised considerably more questions. Maybe New League Same Hands eventually climbs the pyramid and proves the championship pedigree was real. Maybe Danny settles somewhere in the middle. Either way, after two seasons, the Commissioner is still waiting for the shot to land.

TCT Manager Score: 31

TCT Career

• Septic Tank Division: 15–18
• Overall: 15–18
• Championships: 0

BlackSheep Career: 69–73 | 🏆 2022 Champion

Dan Benoit joined the TCT during the 2024 expansion as another recommendation from Chace Jabotte, whose unofficial role as the league's scouting department continues to produce interesting results. Dan was hardly unfamiliar with the TCT before getting the call. The brother of longtime BlackSheep manager Ryan Benoit, Dan was already a fan of both the league and The Commissioner’s Desk Podcast. When the opportunity finally came to stop watching from the outside and actually join the insanity, Dan was ready to stand on business.

And for one season, that's exactly what he did. Standin on Business went 7–7 during the 2024 Dead-Bottom regular season before catching fire in the playoffs, winning two straight games and reaching the Dead-Bottom Championship Game. Dan ultimately lost to Chris Fournier and finished 9–8 overall as the runner-up, but the performance earned him a move into the Septic Tank. That's where the standing—and possibly the business—became considerably more difficult. Dan went 5–11 and finished dead last in 2025, leaving him with a 14–19 career record through two seasons.

Whatever the results, Dan has embraced being part of the TCT. He shows up to events, participates in the podcast, stays extremely active with his roster, and absolutely loves making trades. Whether those trades actually improve his team is a separate discussion. Dan is willing to propose and accept deals that occasionally leave the Commissioner staring at his phone trying to determine which manager involved has lost his fucking mind. But in a league where half the battle is getting managers to actually engage with each other, Dan certainly isn't afraid to do business.

Commissioner’s Verdict: Dan went from TCT fan to manager and immediately became exactly the kind of league member the Commissioner wants around. He shows up, participates, makes moves, joins the podcast, and is willing to trade with basically anyone who answers the phone. The fantasy results have been considerably harder to evaluate. One season produced a championship-game appearance. The next produced dead last in the Septic Tank. Maybe Dan's aggressive management style eventually produces a championship. Maybe one of those wild trades sends him straight to the Dead-Bottom. Either way, Dan will undoubtedly keep making deals. Standin on Business isn't just a team name. Apparently it's a negotiation strategy.

TCT Manager Score: 22

TCT Career

• Septic Tank Division: 5–11
• Dead-Bottom Division: 9–8
• Overall: 14–19
• Championships: 0