RICHARD BURRIER
Est. 2003
LAST SEASON
Burrier began his 2023 campaign with a week one defeat where he scored only 657 points. It his second lowest point total in his 22-year career. He would go on to lose six of his first seven games. Over the next five weeks, he would win four contests, topping 1,500 once and 1,600 once. At 5-7, there was hope for the playoffs. Unfortunately, scoring remained a challenge, Rich would drop his final two and he would finish 5-9. His 1,187 points per game was the league’s lowest for the season.
CAREER
For the first time ever, Burrier will slip into 11th place in my career rankings, which is the lowest he’s ever been. Harsh considering Rich has never missed the playoffs three seasons in a row and has only finished dead last once. Yet, we have to be honest without ourselves. It’s been nearly two decades since Rich has felt like a threat. Like Eric, he often barely sneaks into the playoffs and doesn’t really do much once he’s there, but at least Eric does it a lot (nine straight years). This has been the case for Rich since Tomlinson left his squad back in 2007.
Back then, after missing the playoffs his first season, Rich would go on a role. Over the next four seasons (2003-2006), Rich would produce four winning season, win four division crowns (back when we had divisions) and earned the three seed all four years. Sure, he struggled to escape the quarterfinals, but he did win it all in 2003, taking down 5-seed Griff for the title.
Yet, since that title, Rich has struggled to find greatness. Hell, he’s struggled to be good. Instead, relying on luck and more luck to just get invites to the postseason. In 2007, Burrier became the first and only team to finish 12th in scoring to make the playoffs. After missing the playoffs the next two seasons, he became the only team to win just five games, yet make it to the playoffs.
Since 2007, he’s made it to the playoffs a not-so-bad 11 times (17 seasons), yet he’s only earned a three-seed once (2022), while earning the 8-seed a total of six times. Worse yet, once in the playoffs, he doesn’t do much. Since going 3-0 in his first playoff trip back in 2003, Rich has lost in the quarterfinals 10 times, reached the semis only four times and made it to one other title game (losing to Bob in 2011).
The simple reality is, his teams don’t score a lot of points. After averaging 1,396 or more in three of his first four seasons, Rich has done that just four times in his last 18 games, producing just four winning seasons since 2007. In his career, he has delivered double digit wins just once (2006).
Anyhow, let’s see the overall digits.
Burrier is 146-168 for his career, which is 9th best. He averages 1,284 points per game, which is the third worst in the league. His average finish in the standings is 6.64, which is 9th and his average finish in points is 7.00, which is also 9th best. He’s made it to the playoffs in 68.2% of his seasons (15 of 22), which is actually fifth best. For his career, he has one top seed, two trips to the finals and that one championship (2003). He’s one of four people to never earn a scoring crown.
In the playoffs, Burrier is 7-13 for his career. His .353 postseason win percentage is just 10th best. He averages only 1,258 points per contest, which is the lowest among active teams in the league. He’s 5-10 in the quarterfinals, 2-1 in the semifinals and 1-1 in the finals. He remains the only person to top 2,000 in the title game (2,011).
He has produced a weekly high score in 8.56% of his games, which is 6th best. He has delivered a weekly low score in 12.33% of his contests, which is the worst percentage in league history. Meanwhile, his opponents have delivered weekly high scores in 7.88% of his games (6th most), while his foes have delivered weekly low scores in 5.48%, which is tied for the second least.
Burrier has failed to top 1,000 in 17.83% of his games, which his third worst in the league. He has topped 1,500 in 26.43% of his contests, which is 8th best. However, his foes are the worst at topping 1,000. In 12.06% of Rich’s games, his opponent has not scored 1,000. Yet, they have topped 1,500 in 28.34% of his games, which is the second most.
Richard once went 41 weeks without a weekly low score (2002-2006), which is tied for the 11th longest streak in league history. However, he once went 51 weeks (2017-2020) without a weekly high score (tied for 8th longest streak). He also once went 20 weeks (2008-2009) without scoring at least 1,500, which is tied for 13th longest streak.
Burrier’s best game was in week four of the 2014 season. He defeated Griff scoring 2,224 points, which is the 11th most ever scored by a team in a game. In that same contest, Griff only scored 930, which means Rich won by 1,294 points. That remains the 7th largest ass-kicking in league history. Of course, Rich once lost to Don by 1,296 points (the 6th largest butt whip in league history).
Burrier and Bob in 2014, while facing each other, both topped 2,000, becoming the first two teams to do that in a game. Their combined 4,206 points remains the second most points ever scored in a game by two teams. And finally, Bob Castrone and Rob Masterson are second in third in most points scored in a defeat. Both of them lost to Burrier. In 2014, Rich beat Bob, 2,117-2,089. In 2021, Rich beat Rob, 2,075-1,770.