Since the 2001 season, we have crowned 21 managers as champion, and each of the managers had a team with a whole bunch of guys on it. I wanted to see which players – either as starters or on the bench – find themselves on the final roster for the championship week matchup. Over the course of this run, over 300 players have etched their names in Fantasy History, but there are a relatively small number of players who have done it more than once.
I imagine a few of us could probably guess the names of a few of these guys, but maybe fewer than you think. When I did the QB numbers, we went over the guys who have won multiple championships as starter, like Dak Prescot who was the most recent to do it (2019 & 2021) but who was on a roster where they maybe didn’t start?
Let’s take a look at those with the most glory!
Honorable Mention
I’ll start with the list of the guys who have won twice;
*Denotes still active
| QUARTERBACK | RUNNING BACK | DEFENSE |
| Aaron Rodgers* | David Johnson | Alec Ogletree |
| Andrew Luck | Derrick Henry* | Antoine Bethea |
| Chad Pennington | L. Tomlinson | Bob Sanders |
| Dak Prescott* | Ronnie Brown | Bobby Wagner* |
| Peyton Manning | Shaun Alexander | Darren Sharper |
| Tom Brady* | Thomas Jones | Derrick Brooks |
| Tony Romo | Willis McGahee | Dwight Freeney |
| EJ Henderson | ||
| WIDE RECEIVER | TIGHT END | Eric Weddle |
| Anquan Boldin | Bubba Franks | James Anderson |
| Antonio Bryant | Greg Olsen | Jared Allen |
| Chris Chambers | Jason Witten | Jeremiah Trotter |
| Davante Adams* | Mark Andrews* | Joey Bosa* |
| Eric Moulds | Kyle Van Noy* | |
| Keenan Allen* | KICKER | Lavonte David* |
| Larry Fitzgerald | Robbie Gould* | Luke Kuechly |
| Marques Colston | Sebastian Janikowski | Malcolm Jenkins |
| Mike Wallace | Mario Williams | |
| Odell Beckham Jr.* | Morgan Burnett | |
| Roddy White | Nick Barnett | |
| Stefon Diggs* | Nigel Bradham | |
| TJ Houshmandzadeh | Sean Lee | |
| Wes Welker | Simeon Rice | |
| Terrell Suggs | ||
| Thomas David Sr. |
It’s easy now to forget how dominant Simeon Rice was in the early years, even given how nerfed the IDP scoring was back then. And very few of these players got their two appearances in consecutive years, but Chad Pennington did, working as a final week fill-in two years in a row, after playing backup for most of the year. More recently Mark Andrews won in both 2020 & 2021, but he also dropped 223 points in a losing effort for the Mallrats backing during the 2019 title game. So close to the three-peat. Marques Colston helped carry Kronner to a title his rookie year, when he was listest as a TE, but didn’t get his second title til some years later as a WR3. Shaun Alexander won his second title (along with Reggie Bush and Ronnie Brown) while riding the pine for Ryan in 2007, sitting behind legends Kolby Smith and Aaron Stecker (which was the right call in the end).
Lots of great players on that above chart. The group below, who are the only four players with 3 titles, is more of a mixed bag…
Ronde Barber (2001, 2005, 2007)
The HOF Bucs DB was a mainstay in the early years of the league. It didn’t hurt that most of us grew up watching Tampa Bay when they were in our division, and always on TV, and then as soon as they left, got Super Bowl good. He spent his entire 16-year NFL career in Tampa, but he split hit three title runs here between Kronner, Byrd and Ryan.
During his Hall of Fame Induction speech, he thanked me personally for believing in him.
BEST TITLE GAME: 2001 – 235 points*, 2nd highest-scoring defender on a team that featured Michael Strahan (320*), Charles Woodson, Darren Sharper, Ray Lewis, Junior Seau and James Farrior. (*adjusted to current scoring)
Muhsin Muhammad (2002, 2004, 2005)
This was the most surprising name to me, but he had some decent games. The former Spartan receiver came into the NFL with the Panthers and then eventually played for the Bears as well, before returning to Carolina to finish off his career. In 2004, aside from leading Timmo to his lone title, he was all NFL 1st Team All-Pro, and led the league in both receiving yards and receiving TDs.
His other two titles came with Pete and Byrd, and all three while on the Panthers.
BEST TITLE GAME: 2004 – 219* points (adjusted to current scoring), he was the 2nd highest-scoring player for McLeod behind only Peyton Manning (387*). (*adjusted to current scoring)
Jamaal Charles (2008, 2010, 2013)
Kansas City had a real dominant running game for a long time, from Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson to Jamaal Charles and Kareem Hunt. Now a lot of those guys got their careers cut short by injury, but for Charles, it didn’t happen before he became the most successful RB in our league. Charles was on both of Chris’ title teams (though he was on the bench for the 2008 game) and won for Josh in between.
BEST TITLE GAME: 2010 – While putting up good numbers in 2013 (219*), his best title performance came while on The Blazing Deuce in 2010 with 237* points, which included two touchdowns. (*adjusted to current scoring)
Budda Baker (2017, 2018, 2020)
I bet you didn’t expect to see an article about both Bubba Franks AND Budda Baker! Budda has been a real solid regular-season player, but not a superstar in the title games. The Cardinals Safety tends to show up bing when AZ is on national TV, but in their 2018 title run, the Skippers got only 60 points from their star defender. Still, he won three titles in four years, that’s pretty damn impressive.
Budda is the only active player of the four, and still playing at a high level. This year he’s competing for the Toilet Bowl on Tan’s team, but there is still time for him to found the “Four Timer’s Club.”
BEST TITLE GAME: 2017 – So Budda’s best game come in 2017 when he scored 190* points… on the bench for BE A MAN HOGAN. (*adjusted to current scoring)
MIA – Where Are These Guys?
Some oddities here stem from the players who have never won a title in the league. Take from it what you will, but these are some of the names that surprised me.
| QB | RB | WR | IDP |
| C. Newton | S. Barkley | T. Holt | E. Kendricks |
| E. Manning | Z. Elliot | I. Bruce | B. Urlacher |
| M. Ryan | T. Gurley | T. Owens | A. Donald |
| M. Stafford | C. Martin | M. Harrison | TJ Watt |
| P. Rivers | T. Barber | S. Smith | JJ Watt |
| R. Wilson | J. Taylor | R. Wayne | N. Bowman |
| M. Forte | J. Jones | D. Revis | |
| D. Slay | |||
| TE | K | E. Reed | |
| J. Graham | J. Hanson | T. Polamalu | |
| T. Kelce | A. Vinatieri | V. Miller | |
| T. Gonzalez | J. Tucker | N. Suh | |
| J. Elam |
SC League Forever 