12/23/13
Week
16
Challenger: Matty Ice
(ATL)
Champion: Kaep (SF)
It isn’t every day that such a crazy week in
the NFLWA gets to end with a World Heavyweight Championship match.
The battles between territories to qualify for
the Super Bowl Series are intensifying as the regular season comes to a close.
This week has seen a host of surprising
outcomes from SuperCam defeating Drew Brees in their rematch from Week 14, to
Eli Manning knocking off Matthew Stafford in the main event of NFLWA Detroit to
get the win for New York and knock Detroit out of contention for the Super Bowl
Series, to Andrew Luck proving his worth as Jim Irsay’s franchise player in
Indianapolis by walking into the grueling confines of Arrowhead and knocking
off fellow former #1 overall draft pick Alex Smith to keep Indy in the running
to earn home-field advantage throughout the postseason in the American Conference.
Some may argue that a new World Heavyweight
Champion being crowned would be the most surprising outcome of this weekend
given the recent run of success that NFLWA San Francisco has experienced. But
Matty Ice can’t look at it that way. He has to take this for what it is, a
chance to silence his critics in a lost season for NFLWA Atlanta.
337 days ago, Matty Ice was chosen by NFLWA
Atlanta Head Coach Mike Smith to challenge Kaep for the NFLWA World Heavyweight
Championship in the main event of the Conference Championship round of the Super Bowl
Series and was widely expected to win while bringing Atlanta to their first
Super Bowl since 1999.
A lot of people argued that Mike Smith made the
wrong choice in picking Matty Ice to challenge Kaep for the title instead of
the ageless wonder Tony Gonzalez or physical freak of nature Julio Jones,
which is easy to say in hindsight. But Smith stood behind the decision to stick
with Matty Ice even after he lost the NFLWA World Heavyweight Championship to
Drew Brees ten weeks prior.
There were those who thought that Julio or
Gonzo deserved a chance to become World Heavyweight Champion and lead Atlanta
over the proverbial hump. But Smith stuck with the guy he drafted out of Boston
College in 2009 to be the face of NFLWA Atlanta. He would have been doing a
disservice to Matty Ice by denying him the opportunity to lead Atlanta to the
Super Bowl after a seven-week run with the championship that helped Atlanta end
up with a conference-best record of 13-3.
Unfortunately for Atlanta, Matty Ice ran into a
brick wall of momentum known simply as “Kaep.”
It can be argued that Kaep is the prototype of
what a World Championship-caliber competitor in the NFLWA should look like. He’s
6’4’’, weighs 230 pounds, and carries himself with the kind of swagger and
presence reserved for World Champions.
The kid is a phenom, plain and simple. He
defeated Drew Brees to win his first of three NFLWA World Heavyweight
Championships in only the second main event match of his career. A one-week
reign as champion didn’t deter him and he regained the gold in the Divisional
Championship round of the Super Bowl Series a few short weeks later by
defeating former Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers. And even though he lost the
title to Joe Flacco in the biggest match of his career at the last Super Bowl,
he showed the resolve of a champion by winning it back the next time he was
given a chance.
Kaep is 3-0 in his career as the challenger in
World Heavyweight Championship matches and each of his reigns as champion have
lasted longer than the one previous, regardless of what happens tonight. He has
won the championship three times in the span of 54 weeks, a feat that
is unheard of in the history of the NFLWA.
Since being drafted to NFLWA San Francisco in
the second round of the developmental draft in 2011, Kaep has recorded
victories over the likes of Brees, Rodgers (twice), Tom Brady, Russel Wilson, and
RG3. That’s a World Championship-caliber resume right there.
A win tonight for Kaep, coupled with some help,
could wind up making San Francisco the No. 1 seed in the National Conference
during the Super Bowl Series. But even with all of Kaep’s accolades and the
success that NFLWA San Francisco has had this season, a loss to a Matty Ice
with absolutely nothing to lose could keep them from making it to the
post-season.
If Kaep loses the title tonight, the competitor
Head Coach Jim Harbaugh then chooses to compete in next week’s main event match
in Glendale at NFLWA Arizona has to win their match in order for San Francisco
to make it to the Super Bowl Series.
For all the good press Kaep has received, he
needs to win tonight to solidify his claim as the new face of the NFLWA and
give himself the opportunity to go back to the Super Bowl and finish what he
started last season.
For all the good that Matty Ice has done over
the course of his short career, including two reigns as NFLWA World Heavyweight
Champion and helping to lead Atlanta to two separate No. 1 seeds in the Super
Bowl Series over the last four years, he needs to win tonight to exorcise the demons
from this past January and build some much needed momentum for next season.
While the rest of the NFLWA world looks on
tonight, Matty Ice and Kaep will step into the glare of the spotlight with the
World Heavyweight Championship on the line and attempt to silence their separate
critics and solidify their legacies.
<More NFLWA content to come shortly...>
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