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Ladies and Gentlemen of the TSL Universe, after two months of heat, family vacations, weddings, beach days, playing in other football summer leagues that cause you to remember just how much you miss the TSL, having babies, patio beers, sundress seasons, humidity, home improvement projects you finished, home improvement products you got sick of midway through completing them and may never fully finish for years if ever, seeing people you kind of know in public but darting your eyes away from them so you don’t actually have to say hello to them, and other assorted summer fun: THE TSL HAS RETURNED!

Yes, on Saturday, August 29th in the Year of Our Lord 2026, 51 TSL Franchises across 7 divisions will descend upon the Leonard T. Alba III Fields at The Rose Garden at The Angry Buffalo in an effort to once again chase the single most important thing in your lives: Social Co-Ed Touch Football Immortality. 

That’s right! The Race for Social Co-Ed Touch Football Immortality begins for the Fall 2026 season in less than 24 hours (depending on when you read this). While the summer brought us a ton of fun and good times, it’s time to get back to work. So what’s changed in the league for this season? What good storylines should the league be paying extra attention to? 

 

 

• D2/D3 HOUSEKEEPING!

 

Okay, not really. Yes, you can go to the standings page and you will clearly see a “D2” with 6 teams smiling right back at you. A closer look at those teams will tell you that only ONE of those teams (DXYZ) was in D2 last season. So what happened? Buffalo Vice was allowed to go back down to D3, since they only jumped up to D2 last season really to help out the league. Frodo Swaggins won D2 and did the honorable thing and moved up to D1. Can’t Touch This finally said “screw it” and ALSO went up to D1 (shout out to them!). And lastly, the Jabronies went back into TSL hibernation (they’ve disappeared and reappeared numerous times over the years, I can’t really say they folded). This was simmering for quite some time. The TSL is cyclical, and over time the league gets to a point where it needs to be “restructured” a little bit. That can be due to many things like teams going away completely, teams breaking up where half go one way, half go the other, things like that. There have been times where we’ve done a year without a D6, and the last time we had this happen in the D2-D3 range, Topper made a “Super Division” that had mixed together the D2/D3/Some Good D4 teams and they all played each other. It worked out in the end. What Jeff has done was take the remaining D2 team in DXYZ and the D3 champion in BQI (who were moving up anyway) and then he “called up” other top D3 teams. “The System” is an ISH and Jabronies hybrid. Let’s Get Reccked is an LGR and What a Dump hybrid. Bullet Club has picked up some Mavericks. And PWI returns with some of the same old names we remember, but there’s some other former top names on those rosters too. Change is supposed to be a good thing, and the “new” D2 is just D3 on steroids. 

 

 

• BREAKFAST CLUB IS BACK!

 

Maybe this sounds like a confusing scenario to some of you, but in the olden days, Breakfast Club was only played in the Spring. Fall Topper didn’t like to do as much work as Spring “I forgot how much I hate doing extra stuff we aren’t doing this in the fall” Topper did. And then Covid happened and as a way to have more football in our lives we started running a Fall BC for a few years, until last year when Jeff decided it was too much of a pain for him (with all of his life stuff going on) to make it work. Instead, a group of TSLers banded together and worked their tails off to run Breakfast Club for Jeff instead. And lo and behold, they got enough people together and Fall BC is back again. It just goes to show you how much people care about the TSL and what it means to them that they would dedicate their free time to make the TSL a better, more fun place. 

 

 

• D6 GIVES US SOME NEW TEAMS! 

 

D6 was a little bit light on teams last season (considering we had 12 two seasons ago), but now it’s full of life. TMA moved up to D5 after winning it all, and Intentional Clowning isn’t around anymore. For a minute, that left only 4 teams (Irish Giants, Select, the Milkers, and Sticky Laces) left to battle it out. But then Blitzed and Confused, Cat-Tastrophe, and the Bengay Bandits all appeared! Add in SBG doing the league a solid and agreeing to move to D6 (they wanted to stay in D5!), and you’ve got yourself a wide open division. 

 

 

• THE WANDERERS ARE DEAD (FOR NOW?). 

 

For reasons that are still unclear to me, there has been something going on internally with the Wanderers for a bit I guess, and at some point this summer, they decided to cut ties with long time future Social Co-Ed Touch Football Hall of Fame QB Frank and rebrand themselves to the “Skeleton Crew” while dropping down to D4. It appears that after decades of Sal saying he’d do a better job, he’s going to get his chance? Whatever the case may be, if this really is the end, the Wanderers deserve the acknowledgement of what they accomplished over the (many) years of playing winning, fun, championship football. Tip of the cap to them!

 

As it is with ANY TSL season, there are a lot more story lines and other nuances to things that really make the TSL the TSL. It will be a whole lot of fun to see how things unfold and shake out over the next few months. What’s that? You don’t want to wait to see how things work out and just find out the future champs now? Then you’ve come to the right place. 

D1

D1 just keeps getting better and better. After taking the title in the Spring, the rich got richer as Bobby used all of his tricks to sign free agent and arguably the best player in the league right now Charles Emdin from the Jabronies (word is that Bridget may have helped in recruitment here too) in the TSL’s own version of the “Kevin Durant signs with the Warriors” move. Adding him to a championship team that already has players on it like the criminally underrated Nick Voss just seems unfair. It feels like something the Legends would do. Speaking of the Legends, they’re back again, and historically they’re at their best when they don’t win the title the previous season. The rest of D1 is chock full of talent: The Malones and Sticky Bandits remain largely the same and they’ll play into the title chase, but you really can’t count out Frodo Swaggins (fresh off a D2 title winning season) or Can’t Touch This (fresh off another non D2 title season) either. And then of course, you have the Freeballers. We’ll see. 

 

PREDICTION: Eyes Downtown is too stacked. Look for them to repeat with a win over The Malones in the title game. 

 

STICKY BANDITS VS CAN'T TOUCH THIS (+2) - The best part about Can’t Touch This moving up to D1 is that we’ll get all of these really cool matchups. They start off the D1 run against the Sticky Bandits, who consistently have their eyes on the D1 title. It’s a good measuring stick game for CTT. STICKY BANDITS BY 4

THE MALONES VS FREEBALLERS (+5) - The Malones feel like they just keep getting better each season, and if that holds true again this season, it really could be “the year” for them. Rumors about a potential QB Andy injury are growing louder as the season gets closer to starting, which could derail the progress. The Freeballers made progress themselves last year, but now that’s into overdrive if newcomer Jurrien Mitchell is as good as advertised. Give me the team without QB questions. FREEBALLERS BY 7

EYES DOWNTOWN VS LEGENDS (+2) - Nothing wrong with starting D1 off with a few suspensions, right? A big time matchup right out of the gate. How good can the champs be this season? How good can the Legends be this season? Are they toast? Historically when I pick against the Legends they prove me wrong. EYES DOWNTOWN BY 11

 

D2

A brand new D2 from top to bottom (well, and DXYZ) makes for a very interesting season to be had. BQI recruited new people to their roster for the third straight season to keep improving. The System is a killer mesh of players where most have played together in some way for quite some time. PWI has talent all over the place and if they click early on, look out. Bullet Club added some Mavericks who should have good rapport with Jordan at QB. DXYZ is made up of some of the best and smartest football minds (and Travis too) around. LGR basically walked into the What A Dump store and stole most of the best pieces. If they can gel quickly, this division looks to be the most exciting. 

 

PREDICTION: BQI wins a second straight title, pulling out a win over LGR in the title game. 

 

BQI VS BULLET CLUB (+5) - Both teams have a bit of a chip on their shoulders going into this one, which always means we’ll get a good game. Bridget 3X has to be excited to throw to her new toys, while Bullet Club shouldn’t have any early season issues this time around since they’re not breaking in a new QB. The champs start things off right. BQI BY 11

PWI VS LET'S GET RECCKED (+7) - Even though PWI is the “new” team since they took a few seasons off, it almost feels like they have more synchronicity than LGR does. It might take a week or two for LGR to really get going. PWI BY 8

THE SYSTEM VS D-GENERATION X Y AND Z (+10) - The Keller Clan is back again and their reward for hanging out in D2 still is getting to play “The System”. I’m not sure exactly how good The System will be right off the bat, but one has to assume there would be SOME growing pains…right? D-GENERATION X Y AND Z BY 1

BQI VS PWI (+2) - The second game for both of these teams this week, but it could be the best one of the day. PWI has the girls to keep pace with the BQI bonus points for Bridget thrown TDs. But Buddy and crew have a decent idea on how to slow her down, which means things could be quite exciting. PWI BY 7

 

D3

D3, once a pillar of consistency in the TSL with minimal team movement, feels a lot like the TSL’s version of the PAC-12 after realignment started in college football. Gone are the long-time D3 members such as the Wanderers, Bullet Club, LGR, and the Kellers. Now D3 finds itself with two of its better teams from last year: Grey Hair - Don’t Care (who also added Nick Voss back into the fold) and the always dangerous Cunning Stunts. Practice Squad is another team you can never sleep on, B will be the first to tell you that himself. Buffalo Vice returns back into the division after a quick season vacationing in D2, and then we have the very interesting Mike’s Detailing making the jump up to D3, and the even more interesting D3 return of Darryl Carr QB Superstar and Cobblestone! D3 might be different, but it’s still going to be lots of fun. 

 

PREDICTION: Grey Hair - Don’t Care takes the championship with a win over the Cunning Stunts, dont @ me. 

 

GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE VS CUNNING STUNTS (+1) - Well, here's the “Championship Preview” right out of the gate! Both of these teams made it to Championship Saturday last season, and both of them lost close games in the semi-finals. Now they find themselves as “leaders of the pack”, being the hunted instead of the hunters/huntresses? Smart QBs, talented players? This team has everything you could want in a Week 1 matchup. GREY HAIR - DON’T CARE BY 3

BUFFALO VICE VS COBBLESTONE (+5) - After their not so great time in D2, playing Cobblestone is going to feel like someone turned the difficulty down way too much. Maybe. Darryl’s mystery roster apparently has some big time ball players on it. While I truly wish that to be the case, I have to sort of believe it when I see it here. BUFFALO VICE BY 10

GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE VS MIKE'S DETAILING (+6) - MD’s first game in D3 gives them a fun matchup with GHDC on the back end of a double header. They’re a really good team who seems to be thwarted in the playoffs with untimely “oh crap our QB can’t be here this week”-itis, and they seemed destined to move up to D3 at some point anyway. This is a great measuring stick game for them. GREY HAIR - DON’T CARE BY 7

 

D4

D4 is a mixture of good teams from top to bottom. Any team here can win the title and I wouldn’t be surprised. you have the Blue Ballers coming into D4 fresh off back to back titles as they try to go for the back to back to back feat. We haven’t seen that in a minute in the TSL. I’d rather be golfing is the former Call The Doctor, which is the Dave Eickhoff B team. You know that they’re gonna put up a good fight. The Coochie Monsters came up short in their quest for immortality, and word is that they might be switching quarterbacks for this season, which means maybe we shouldn’t expect as much out of them. Not So Sticky returns the usual crew. The Powerpuff Girls are always a tough out and I know they’ll be beginning to get some of their old players back soon. Balls Deep are the defending D4 champions after a magical playoff run in the Spring session, they didn’t have the best season last year so they stayed down to keep improving instead of going up before they’re ready. I respect it. The Great Value Tater Thots are the Tots, but most importantly, they’re actually playing in the Fall Session! That’s a win for the league (and the bar!). The Flying Balls added some players, getting old D1 QB Matt Glowacki to help them out. Then you have the Skeleton Crew, which are the Wanderers without Frank. Last up are the Two Tuddies. They did not have the world‘s greatest season last season in D3 and they knew it. They either did too much too soon and they weren’t quite ready for it or perhaps D4 might just be where they’re supposed to be. It'll be interesting to see how they do this year. I believe in the Tud Buds. You should too.

PREDICTION: Flying Balls rediscover their old magic, upsetting the Blue Ballers in the D4 Finals. 

 

BLUE BALLERS VS BALLS DEEP (+10) - Here’s a marquee matchup if I’ve ever seen one! Week 1 and we get the reigning D4 champions taking on the reigning D5 champions that moved up. We’ll see right away just how the Blue Ballers measure up. With the way they scored last season, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be okay. Balls Deep are going to have their hands full right away here. BLUE BALLERS BY 4

I'D RATHER BE GOLFING VS POWERPUFF GIRLS (+2) - I’m not entirely sure which version of the Powerpuff Girls we’re going to see this season, but if they got some of their original ladies back, then they’re gonna be more dangerous than they were last season. I’d Rather Be Golfing had a pretty good season themselves last season, although metrics show that maybe they outkicked their coverage a little bit. Another season of experience with a good quarterback at the helm can only be a good thing. I believe they will give the PPG a good game but…POWERPUFF GIRLS BY 2

FLYING BALLS VS SKELETON CREW (+1) - To say that last season didn’t go the Flying Balls way would be an understatement. It wasn’t the best of times for the former D6 champions who jumped up two divisions. They just had trouble finding their way on offense while their defense was still pretty good, but they didn’t quite figure out the nuances of D4. They did retool a bit in the off-season so the talent is there and it’ll be interesting to see what year two and D4 brings. They get to play the Skeleton Crew, which nobody is fully sure how things are going to go here, but it’s sure going to be fun to watch. FLYING BALLS BY 3

I'D RATHER BE GOLFING VS NOT SO STICKY (+2) - Golfing gets a double header week one, and after a tough Powerpuff team, they get to play Not So Sticky? Not so fun. NSS remains one of the smartest teams around, and they’ll be hard to knock off. NOT SO STICKY BY 8

POWERPUFF GIRLS VS GREAT VALUE TATER THOTS (+3) - The Tots return and they get to play the PPG, which is never a fun task when you’re just getting back into the groove of things. Luckily, they’re getting them on the backend of a doubleheader (and most likely the girls have played another game or two somewhere), which can only work to the Thots’ advantage. GREAT VALUE TATER THOTS BY 4

 

D5

D5 is in an interesting spot. Blitzkrieg dominated the division last season, but as TSL vets know, Fall Blitzkrieg is a different animal. TMA jumps up from D6 and they’re already a D5 title favorite right away. Victorious Secret is a brand new old gender team (they played a few seasons ago) with Jordan Lawson at QB. CFB is here for the 4,249th straight TSL season. Pit Harade started putting things together at the end of last season, and adding Garrett Beesing to the roster can only help that. The 716ers had a very good first season that they’re looking to improve on, same with the Wet Bandits, who got better as the season went on. Room 40 is a refurbished Mo’ Chicken, so we’ll see if the changes work out for them. 

PREDICTION: Fall Blitzkrieg gets the job done over Victorious Secret. 

 

COME FROM BEHIND VS WET BANDITS (+4) - With the whispers flying around that CFB is dealing with some injuries already, it’s a perfect time for the Wet Bandits to strike. However, CFB has learned how to play in these situations and come out clean on the other side, while the Bandits are still learning. COME FROM BEHIND BY 8

TMA VS ROOM 40 (+10) - TMA is welcomed back to D5 with a battle against Room 40, who struggled a bit last season. If they had to pick who to start against, this would probably be it. TMA BY 14

VICTORIOUS SECRET VS PIT HARADE (+3) - The two pink teams battle Week 1. VS played well in the wine tournament I was told, so they’re not completely brand new to playing together, which is a huge bonus. Jordan put together a pretty good roster of ladies. PH found themselves losing some games they should’ve won last season, and the guys on the team let down QB Jeff and the girls more often than not. That changes with Garrett on the team, and one has to think Q is going to bounce back from a down year. They get a tough draw to start. VICTORIOUS SECRET BY 9

BLITZKRIEG VS 716ERS (+9) - If the 716ers were hoping to knock some rust off Week 1, they weren’t given any favors by the TSL Scheduling Bot. Blitzkrieg presents the toughest challenge they could get, but at least they’ll get them off the schedule right away. BLITZKRIEG BY 15

 

D6

These D6s are the best D6s. They’re the ones that have a great mix of veteran teams, teams that are just on the cusp of making a leap, and brand new team energy all over the place. I don’t know what to expect from BnC, Bengay, and the Trophes (calling them the ‘trophies’ over the Cats just makes sense), but it’ll be fun to see what happens. SBG is basically a brand new team since we didn’t really get to see what they were about very much last season. And then we have our returning teams in the Giants, Laces, Select, and the Milkers. All of them continue to improve, and all of them pose a threat to win the title. D6 is going to be fun. 

 

PREDICTION: The Raw Milkers beat the Irish Giants to win the D6 title.

 

 IRISH GIANTS VS SELECT (+6) - Here we find the Irish Giants looking to prove why they’re the preseason title favorites, taking on a Select team that sure can play defense, but sometimes the offense still struggles. Another season of putting it together could really have them in the mix at season’s end. IRISH GIANTS BY 8

BLITZED AND CONFUSED VS BENGAY BANDITS (+1) - New team takes on other new team. I flipped a coin. BLITZED AND CONFUSED BY 2

STICKY LACES VS CAT-TASTROPHE (+4) - Veteran team takes on brand new team. STICKY LACES BY 16

 

TSC VS THE GODFATHER 

 

THE TSC PICKS: 

DIVISION 1
STICKY BANDITS VS CAN'T TOUCH THIS (+2) ----- CAN'T TOUCH THIS BY 3
THE MALONES VS FREEBALLERS (+5) ----- THE MALONES BY 7
EYES DOWNTOWN VS LEGENDS (+2) ----- LEGENDS BY 3

DIVISION 2
BQI VS BULLET CLUB (+5) ----- BQI BY 3
PWI VS LET'S GET RECCKED (+7) ----- LET'S GET RECCKED BY 1
THE SYSTEM VS D-GENERATION X Y AND Z (+10) ----- THE SYSTEM BY 4
BQI VS PWI (+2) ----- PWI BY 1

DIVISION 3
GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE VS CUNNING STUNTS (+1) ---- GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE BY 1
BUFFALO VICE VS COBBLESTONE (+5) ----- BUFFALO VICE BY 7
GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE VS MIKE'S DETAILING (+6) ---- GREY HAIR - DON'T CARE BY 2

DIVISION 4
BLUE BALLERS VS BALLS DEEP (+10) ----- BLUE BALLERS BY 6
I'D RATHER BE GOLFING VS POWERPUFF GIRLS (+2) ----- I'D RATHER BE GOLFING BY 3
FLYING BALLS VS SKELETON CREW (+1) ----- FLYING BALLS BY 5
I'D RATHER BE GOLFING VS NOT SO STICKY (+2) ----- NOT SO STICKY BY 2
POWERPUFF GIRLS VS GREAT VALUE TATER THOTS (+3) ----- GREAT VALUE TATER THOTS BY 1

DIVISION 5
COME FROM BEHIND VS WET BANDITS (+4) ----- COME FROM BEHIND BY 1
TMA VS ROOM 40 (+10) ----- TMA BY 6
VICTORIOUS SECRET VS PIT HARADE (+3) ----- VICTORIOUS SECRET BY 1
BLITZKRIEG VS 716ERS (+9) ----- BLITZKRIEG BY 4

DIVISION 6
IRISH GIANTS VS SELECT (+6) ----- IRISH GIANTS BY 8
BLITZED AND CONFUSED VS BENGAY BANDITS (+1) ----- BLITZED AND CONFUSED BY 1
STICKY LACES VS CAT-TASTROPHE (+4) ----- STICKY LACES BY 6

 

RECORDS: 

The Godfather: 0-0

The TSC: 0-0

 

 

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR SATURDAY

 

 

• Eyes Downtown are the defending D1 champs and the preseason favorite again — who's your pick to be the team that finally knocks them off the throne? It’s going to be difficult to pick against the defending champs, but if anyone can do it, my pick would be the Legends, who are somehow underdogs for the first time in forever. 

 

 

 

• D2 is stacked at the top with The System, BQI, and PWI all in the mix — which of the three is your early sleeper to run away with it? PWI is a very good team but they haven’t played together enough yet. The System is a very good team, but there’s something about them that just feels off. Both teams are very capable to win the entire thing, but if I have to choose a team to “run away” with the division, it would have to be BQI. They have the points advantage and added a stud in Charles Emdin. Good luck D2. 

 

 

 

• Grey Hair leads a wide-open D3 — is this the year they get over the hump, or does somebody in that jumbled middle steal it? If Grey Hair can survive the challenge from the Cunning Stunts, I don’t see much of a reason that they shouldn’t win D3.

 

 

 

• D4 is ten teams deep and the closest division in the league — outside the favorites, who's your dark horse to crash the top of the standings? I already picked the Flying Balls to win it all, so while I feel like they’d be my answer, I’ll choose another. I think everyone has forgotten just how good the Two Tuddies were before they had a bad season where everything went wrong last spring. Don’t count them out. 

• Three brand-new teams (Blitzed and Confused, Bengay Bandits, Cat-Tastrophe) just dropped into D6 — which newcomer do you think shocks people right out of the gate? I’m going to go with Blitzed and Confused simply because I looked at all of these teams’ rosters and they had the most names that I recognized. 

 

 

TEN FINAL THOUGHTS FOR SATURDAY

 

 

• It’s just good to be back writing this article about the league I so enjoy even if I’m unable to play it anymore. So if it feels that good to me here in Des Moines, I can only imagine the excitement there in Buffalo. 

 

 

 

• My Weather Channel app tells me that we’re all but guaranteed to have a much better Week 1 than we had last season (where we got rained out completely): 79 degrees and mostly sunny. Perfect football weather!

 

 

 

• Games of the Day: 

• 10:00 - Can’t Touch This vs Sticky Bandits

• 11:00 - Bullet Club vs BQI

• 12:00 - Let’s Get Reccked vs PWI

• 1:00 - Flying Balls vs Skeleton Crew

• 2:00 - Cunning Stunts vs Grey Hair Don’t Care

• 3:00 - Eyes Downtown vs Legends 

 

 

 

• REMEMBER: IF YOU ARE A BRAND NEW PLAYER AND DIDN’T PLAY LAST SEASON, YOU NEED TO SIGN THE WAIVER HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NqaQgYi1a2Sr-vlV_Nab-G7gIJhM3fE0O_xWzK0s5P0/edit

 

 

 

• Look! The Bar is going to have weekly specials for the league: 

 

 

 

 

• Please remember that while you’re busy shaking the rust off, so too are the referees. They’re going to miss calls and not see what you’re seeing out there. DON’T lose your mind out there on them! 

 

 

 

• Remember, as a league wide commitment to keeping the fields on time because we’re going to be down to 4 this season: BE TEN MINUTES EARLY TO YOUR GAMES. The league is not going to hold up everyone else an extra 5-10 minutes because your second girl decided to leave for a 12:00 game at 11:57. 

 

 

 

• I can’t help but to think that there was a missed opportunity with the division realignment. Instead of just doing a D2 and D3 with 6 teams each, perhaps we made them 8 and 8 and called up a few more teams? 

 

 

 

• I’m super excited to see how well these new teams are going to fare. Whether they’re brand spankin’ new, merged teams, or bringing teams back from the dead, they all have a lot of intrigue surrounding them. 

 

 

 

• Jeff Krol works tirelessly to make your dreams of Immortality a reality. Between juggling an amazing wife, two kids, and his own “real life” career, he shouldn’t have any free time at all. Yet he still finds a way to carve out more time to take care of the approximate 40 billion things that it takes to run the best Social Co-Ed Touch Football league on the planet. When you see him tomorrow, buy him a beer. Thank you Jeff. You’re more appreciated than you know. 

 

 

Now go out there and achieve your dreams. 

 

-GF OUT

 

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