Super Bowl VIII

Vowing to make himself a return trip to the Super Bowl after narrowly losing out last season, Matt pulled out all the stops to get his Mandalorian Warriors ready for the 2012 season. He traded for Drew Brees. He traded for Roddy White. He sacrificed chickens to Jobu. He dedicated every Sunday to the NFL. He offered to donate his winnings, and keepers, to the lesser Maize and Blue teams. He just wanted a championship.

Things weren't looking good for Matt's team as the playoffs started. Despite going 10-3 and having one of the best records in the league, the Warriors were working without LeSean McCoy, Rob Gronkowski, and Jordy Nelson. That left the Warriors scrambling to use their depth. Owen Daniels anyone? After dispatching the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in RD1, the Warriors faced a rough matchup against the streaking Pooh Bears team. With grit -- and a lot of Brees -- the Warriors went over that hurdle and managed to make their way back to the championship game. We can only imagine how nervous Matt was as he experienced a sense of deja vu. Could he take the final step toward glory when last year he came up short?

The Warriors opponent would be Oliver's Another Bad Creation, who had basically waltzed into the championship game by making the Ann Arbor Bamfers disappear, almost doubling the Bamfers' score and winning by 47 points. Led by Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, and Andre Johnson, Oliver's team certainly had the horses to upset the Warriors, and Oliver himself also had the decided edge in championship experience, as he's won titles in recent years (2004, 2009). Grabbing another title would certainly put Oliver into the discussion for best Maize and Blue team ever. Over the past five years, ABC has a 71.9% regular season winning percentage, tops in the league -- by a wide margin.

Heading into WK16, ABC made no lineup changes while Mandalorian subbed out Brandon Gibson for LeSean McCoy, a huge boost. The Warriors got off to a huge start Saturday night, behind Roddy White's 150+ yards and two TDs. Still, Matt was restrained in his enthusiasm, saying that there's "a lot of football left." All season long, Matt hasn't wanted to jinx himself by over-celebrating, and that has led to mandated quiet times in Mandalorian Stadium, even as the team has racked up the points and broke records. "Restraint" was standard celebrating procedure for the Warriors. Instead of cheering, an eerie silence was often the way fans paid respect to their team.

For ABC, Aaron Rodgers went four touchdowns crazy, and he had Marshawn Lynch churning right alongside him. The two combined for 56 points, making this sort of a game. However, Andre Johnson, Vincent Jackson, and Martellus Bennett all failed to score, giving the ABC passing attack little teeth. Even with a surprising huge day from Chargers defense, Another Bad Creation was swamped by Sunday afternoon. The final score was closer than the game appeared. (Would Reggie Bush for Darren McFadden have won ABC the game? Yes, but there are no what ifs in fantasy football. Oh wait, sure there are! Bush for McFadden...)

As for the Warriors, a large exhale was heard all over the Midwest as Drew Brees put up 29 points of his own, and every other starter -- save Owen Daniels -- had double digits on the way to an incredible 132 points. The vaunted Bears defense finally came up huge again, as they had two defensive touchdowns on the way to 26 points. In the end however, it was Brees and White, the two newest stars of the Mandalorian Warrior galaxy, that pushed Matt to a first championship. Congratulatons!

Some say that the Warriors mortgaged everything on the 2012 season -- they have no picks in the first three rounds until 2016, and no first round pick until 2019 -- but that's what it's about about right? Championships! We love it when people go all in and the Warriors showed how it should be done this season. GM Matt skillfully constructed a roster that is now the envy of the league, owner Matt opened up the pocket book to sign all those players, and coach Matt led the Warriors the rest of the way. Now the fans on their home planet of Manda'yaim can cheer and celebrate as they've proven themselves on the field. Their little Mandalorian warrior hearts can burst in joy from a season to remember and a huge goal accomplished. *insert battle cry*

"In five millennia, the Mandalorians fought with and against a thousand armies on a thousand worlds. They learned to speak as many languages and absorbed weapons technology and tactics from every war. And yet, despite the overwhelming influence of alien cultures, and the absence of a true homeworld and even species, their own language not only survived but changed little, their way of life and their philosophy remained untouched, and their ideals and sense of family, of identity, of nation, were only strengthened."
-Mandalorians: Identity and Language-