SPECIAL REPORT: Tools of the Trade!       League owners, four weeks have passed since the infamous three-way trade between NGL©, Marshall's Maulers, and Eighty-Eight, Late! Undoubtedly, this was the biggest trade in the league's history -- as it involved several high-quality players, and a few many would deem as "franchise" caliber players. It has also been a trade heavily criticized, and many harsh words were expressed to the owners involved. Now that we've had some time to see how it has worked out, I think it will be worthwhile to judge the merits of the trade based on player performance.     First off, I think it's important we acknowledge that Marshall's Maulers were trading soley for the purpose of bettering their team for the 2002 season (and beyond). They gave up RB Priest Holmes and WR Tony Gonzalez and only received RB LaDainian Tomlinson and WR Shawn Jefferson in return. Clearly Jefferson is a stiff receiver on a bad offensive team. But Tomlinson has a future, and obviously the Maulers wanted to acquire him for "franchise" purposes. At the time of the trade, their squad had a win-loss record of 1-6-1. They knew they weren't going to the playoffs and they knew they only had one quality franchise player. They needed a second.     So for the purposes of this report, we will evaluate the players received by NGL© and Eighty-Eight, Late! At the time of the trade, the most critical comments offered by the other league owners were directed at Eighty-Eight, Late! Here is a sampling of some of the e-mails the commissioner's office was able to obtain:       "You guys might want to call it even and value for value, but everyone knows (and owners in the league are upset and if you don't believe me then just ask) that at the end of the day Kelso went from desperately needing a QB to getting a top 5 QB and improving at WR and staying even at RB."       "Over the last couple of weeks your team has been second highest in scoring and only getting better, so I have a hard time believing you just gave up on them. Good luck with Brooks!!"     "Im not that fired up if one of my franchise players for next year is Tomlinson or Boston."       "There is no arguing though that Kelso's top 5 receivers would be #1 or #2 guys in most rosters in this league and that he came out of this trade with a roster heads and shoulders above everyone else."       "Wow! That trade is unreal... If you guys were on the outside looking in on that trade you would throw a fit! You can rationalize all you want, but that's brutal."      Some of those comments were pretty vicious. Of course, most of them now to look to be utterly foolish. Here is a table that breaks down the scoring of the four players received by Eighty-Eight, Late! and the four players received by NGL©:        Eighty-Eight, Late! Week Nine Week Ten Week Eleven Week Twelve average QB Steve McNair 21 21 33 31 26.5 RB Priest Holmes 7 -bye- 19 18 12.7 WR David Boston 20 16 18 19 18.3 WR Tony Gonzalez 8 -bye- 7 3 6.0 TOTALS 56 37 (2 players) 77 71 17.2 (per player)      NGL© Week Nine Week Ten Week Eleven Week Twelve average QB Jeff Garcia 35 26 18 21 25.0 RB Stephen Davis -bye- 8 8 8 8.0 WR Tim Brown 13 10 22 18 15.8 WR Joe Horn 20 15 10 19 16.0 TOTALS 68 (3 players) 59 58 66 16.7 (per player)   As you can see from the tables above, after four games, Eighty-Eight, Late! has the slight edge in overall player productivity. Priest Holmes has outscored Stephen Davis by almost 5 points per game. And although David Boston has been the best performing receiver of the bunch, Tony Gonzalez has clearly been the worst. The kicker is that QB Steve McNair has outscored QB Jeff Garcia. In the past two weeks, McNair has been about 13 points a game better! Who would have thought it?    OK, so now that we have the hard numbers, let's revisit some of those comments:    "...at the end of the day Kelso went from desperately needing a QB to getting a top 5 QB and improving at WR and staying even at RB..."    Well, I wouldn't say that NGL© has stayed even at running back. And as for getting a top QB, there is no argument that Garcia is definitely one. But how long would it have taken this team to realize McNair is now a viable starter? Probably not long at all considering their only QB at the time, Elivs Grbac, was injured and they would have been forced into playing the suddenly pass-happy Titan gunslinger. The numbers do show they improved at WR, but losing David Boston hurts them going forward. Obviously with Rod Smith ailing, having a Boston would really improve their options come next fall when they have to decide on franchise players.    "Im not that fired up if one of my franchise players for next year is Tomlinson or Boston."    This was my favorite comment of them all! Obviously, Mr. Interception has value as a keeper, but he is not leading the league in yards at his position.    "...Kelso... came out of this trade with a roster heads and shoulders above everyone else."    The only "heads and shoulders" I see is the bottle of shampoo being used by this analyst to keep the dandruff off his hair lip. The numbers don't lie, little Johnny.    "...Good luck with Brooks!!"     Ah, yes, Aaron Brooks. I am glad someone mentioned him. Although Eighty-Eight, Late! did receive McNair in this trade, they already had Brooks on their roster and have opted to start him in the four games since the trade. And in those four games, Brooks has posted point totals of 30, 27, 24, and 30. That's an average of 27.8 points per game! Not only are these numbers better than McNair's, but they are also decidely better than Jeff Garcia's numbers. Good Luck indeed!    So where does all of this analysis take us? Well, it does try to put a much-criticized trade in the proper perspective. It also goes to show how emotions can override individuals' thinking and it does show the variance in player evaluation amongst the differnt owners in the league. After all, some thought the trade was fair and others did not. I would have thought that based on the two main owners involved -- both having won Super Bowl rings in the past and both at the top of the all-time wins and all-time scoring standings -- many would give them the benefit of the doubt. To be honest, I know a few owners did think the trade was remarkably even at the time it was made. (I know because they told me.) And as the numbers above illustrate, the trade as worked out to be about even.    Keep in mind, that in their head-to-head matchup two weeks removed from the deal, Eighty-Eight, Late! emerged with the 126-124 victory. And since the trade back before Week Nine started, Eighty-Eight, Late! has gone from a 3-5 record to a 7-5 record. That's 4 straight wins, with two of those weeks having them post the highest scores in the entire league.    In my opinion, if anyone out there still thinks the trade was one-sided, then they surely must believe it was Eighty-Eight, Late! who did the raping! If you know the number to a good metropolitan S.V.U., send it to me. I'll pass it on to NGL© at the next owners meeting.      -The Commish