My uncle is a learned man.  He never went to formal college, but he’s read a lot, learned on the streets, and generally just soaked everything in.  I mean, if you can be the mediator between Chicago street gangs on the North Side, you’ve got to have some type of level-headedness and smarts to, what’s the word I’m looking for here…oh yeah, STAY ALIVE. 

Point is, he’s told me a lot in my lifetime.  But for some reason, the one thing that has stuck more than anything else has been this little tidbit of information: 

The Bears, historically, have always been trading partners with the Denver Broncos. 

I don’t know why that is so branded into my mind, but there it stays, in all its charred, burnt fleshy glory.  And so in the aftermath of my trade with Katarya, it got me thinking.  Our league is going on its fifth year (in its modern form.  I’m not counting the year before Ed).  What trends have we seen in our league in that time?  More specifically, who trades, and who trades with who?

It really wasn’t a difficult thing to look up, but it’s interesting to note nonetheless.  All in all, there have been thirteen trades by eight owners.  Only Jeff and Bryan have never made a trade with anyone in the league.  All eight of the other owners have made at least two trades.  Baron actually was outpacing the league at the beginning of last year, as he was the only owner to make at least one trade in the first three seasons.  Thanks to his being gone during a chunk of the summer though, he didn’t make it four in a row.  He and Tim have the honor of the most famous – or infamous depending on your viewpoint – trade in league history: Ray Rice for who-knows-or-cares. 

Meanwhile, over 53% of the league trades have come from one person: Moi.  Now, this is highly skewed because of the four rapid-fire trades I made last year, but seven of the thirteen have come at my hand.  And in there we find our Chicago/Denver love connection.  Of my seven trades, three have come with Katarya.  So there you have it, the biggest bro fest in the league comes from one-and-a-half of the league’s minority influence.  Brothas stick together.  Meanwhile, does this mean I need to move to Denver ASAP since Katarya is in Chicago? 

Here’s some other interesting factoids –