USA TODAY, November 11, 2025

McCormick, SC

David Markle, Owner and GM of Markdawg and longtime favorite Commissioner of the Rustic Fantasy League, expressed dismay at finally being discovered in Week 10 of the RFL season. 

"I've purposely been playing down my successes in my Commish notes every week, but I think they're on to me. I woke up this morning in South Carolina with a big red circle painted on my back. I'm such a target that Mary accidentally hit me with an errant golf shot a few minutes ago on 13. For a moment I thought [Louisville Losers' owner and GM] Seber was playing with me."

After starting the season slowly at 1-3 in the first month, Markle has quietly put together an impressive 6-game win streak to take over complete control of the highly competitive Brown Division at 7-3. In that 6-week stretch, his team is averaging an impressive 126.25 points a week.

"I'm not sure how I'm doing it honestly," Markle admitted in a phone interview Tuesday morning. "When I was drafting, I just kept going for the guys with really weird names! Rico, Woody, Ceedee, Ladd! Seems to work for the Losers too with Emeka, Ashton, Quinshon, Puka, and Alvin. I wouldn't be surprised if this makes everyone reevaluate their draft strategy for 2026. I can easily see guys like Justin Jefferson or Josh Jacobs slipping to the 8th round or later next year."

While he has been able to blend in nicely the past several weeks by being modest in his report, Commish Dave will no longer be able to hide, especially after putting up a staggering 156 this week.

"I'm not worried about Louisville. He might be 7-3 too, but we all know his team will fold down the stretch as always. I'm much more worried about JTM, the defending champs. They're getting 834 points alone from Taylor and CMac every week. They could rest everyone else and still beat me. It's amazing what new leadership will do. For years under Jim and Theresa, I think they won maybe 2 games a year for about 2 decades. But Matt comes in, and wow! I wonder if he would consider buying the Browns!"