Football News of a Different Sort -- S.F., Oakland Mayors Beaten In Fantasy Challenge

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Both San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Oakland's Ron Dellums may have watched the Super Bowl with a wistful eye. After all, the gridiron squads commanded by both chief executives failed to make the Big Game -- and they, accordingly, failed to snare $15,000 for that charity of their choice.

Readers may remember a series of articles we wrote last year about the "Yahoo Mayoral Faceoff" -- a matchup between 11 American mayors. Particularly close readers may even recall how we noted that, amid Newsom's doomed gubernatorial campaign and bizarre jaunts to Hawaii, his "Barbary Coast Bombers" managed to tank and lose three straight.

Well, the final standings are in -- and Newsom managed to pilot his football team in exactly the same manner he does this city: Right when you thought he was ready to crash and burn, he rebounded to post a thoroughly unremarkable showing.

​Newsom finished at 6-6-2 for the year. Interestingly, was trounced in his final game of the year, 121-75, by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak -- who trash-talked both Newsom and Dellums in the comments section of this very Web site. Adding insult to injury, Rybak's campaign for governor is alive and well. 

On the other side of the bay, however, it was a different story -- though Dellums probably could have used that $15,000 charitable prize to pay off his embarrassing back taxes. He finished fourth in the regular season and made the playoffs. His good luck ended there, however, as the Dellums Dynamites fell, 83-72, to the Pittsburgh Proud. The Oakland mayor's squad lost the consolation match, too, ending up on the wrong end of a 102-55 disemboweling from the Orlando Scorchers. Meanwhile, Buffalo's Best bested Pittsburgh in the final, 107-93.

Congratulations to Mayor Byron Brown. This is the first time Buffalo has won at anything, ever.