HIGHS AND LOWS

Let’s get right to it…

For those of you confused by the picture, this is former Cowboy Nate Newton (two big wins for the cowboys, fantasy and NFL, so what better picture to use than a renowned Cowboy known for his own "highs" and lows?) From Wikipedia: On November 4, 2001 police in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, found 213 lb of marijuana in Newton's white van. Five weeks later, he was caught with 175 lb of marijuana on Interstate 45. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.)

Highs:

First, let’s give credit where credit is due. COWBOYS has established itself as the early front runner this season. I would be remiss if I did not point out that two of his players contributed a disproportionate amount of his team’s points, but that is the nature of fantasy. Even if you take out the performances of Westbrook and McNabb, Cowboys still would’ve beat a very shaky TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN. McNabb and Westbrook have been inconsistent throughout the year, but if they can consistently put up even half of what they did this week, no team will want to face the COWBOYS. I caution getting too high on either the injury prone Westbrook or McNabb, but maybe this will be the year they finally finish a full season. Additionally, COWBOYS have knocked off two of the more highly ranked teams this season after this week’s win. Next up is another tough opponent as VOLDEMORT will be looking to bounce back.


LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM looks like it will finally get a win this week. This team has been by far the most active on the free agent market and it looks like it will finally pay off. The Jags defense dominated the entire Broncos team this week with the exception of one Brandon Marshall, a player that LVL INFINITY picked up off the wire 3 days ago. Marshall’s production may very well be the difference between victory and defeat. TE Jason Witten also helped make up for the lack of production that LVL INFINITY got from WR Marvin Harrison, Warrick Dunn, and the Minnesota defense. VOLDEMORT still has the Deuce going on Monday Night, but unless he can run for 100 yards and a TD, this one is over.


DUMMY TEAM 3 got HUGE production from its ‘other’ players this week. If you would’ve told me that LDT and Steve Smith would combine for 16 points and DUMMY TEAM 3 would still score more than 140 points I would’ve thought you were on drugs…or that I was. At least one team held up their end of the high scoring match-up were will all looking forward to.


RILEY’S RAIDERS is giving DUMMY TEAM 02 one hell of a fight. Down by a point with TE uber sleeper Bo Scaife still to play, things would seem to look good. The trouble here is that DUMMY TEAM 02 is starting Vince Young. For RILEY’S RAIDERS to pull off the upset, Young will either have to throw exclusively to Scaife (and take advantage of the ratio of passing yards v. receiving yards and passing TD’s v. receiving TDs), or have Young throw a lot of picks, or fumble quite a few times. I’m sure we are all rooting for this, but it does not look promising. Still though, this is a much closer matchup then anyone initially thought. Marion Barber and Lamont Jordan were two outstanding finds in the draft. But, at the end of the day RILEY’S RAIDERS does lose by a point or two, it will likely be supremely frustrating. There are no moral victories in fantasy.


PINK PONIES are just taking care of business, it’s as simple as that. Granted, Reggie Bush will be running on Monday Night, but the Saints offense has been garbage this year and Bush has been a bust. PINK PONIES looks like a genius for drafting Randy Moss. He has been nothing short of outstanding this year.




Lows:

TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN tops this list. MJD continues to be a complete and total bust. QB Bulger actually accumulated NEGATIVE points and Steven Jackson has yet to find the end zone this season. Only 2 players on the team played up to their projected values. You can’t get victories like that in fantasy, especially not against a team that had two players put up 80 points in one half of football. Jackson and Bulger cannot succeed behind that injury depleted O-line in Saint Louis and the MJD could be a total bust. That means 3 of the teams first 5 picks could be garbage. What a disaster for this once vaunted team. The owner will have to dig deep within himself and try to salvage the season. If the PAINTRAIN does make the playoffs it will be a force to be reckoned with, rest assured. However, the playoffs are a long ways away at this point in time. Things don’t get any easier next week against BIG TUNA. The only thing keeping me sane is the fact that the Jags won.

VOLDEMORT’s undefeated season is riding on a big performance from the Deuce; that is certainly not a place I’d want to be (actually, that’s a better place than getting blown out by 50 something points). The team was betrayed by mediocre performances from Calvin Johnson, Bernard Berrian, and Reggie Wayne. Had these players performed even close to their projected values, this one would be a lot closer. Still, even if VOLDEMORT loses, it will have to try and rebound next week against the sole undefeated team.


BIG TUNA got bombed by DUMMY TEAM 3. At one point in time this team was down 101 points. Stellar performances from Addai and Romo kept this one from staying that bad, but this was about as ugly as it gets. And to think, had Steve Smith done anything at all, it could’ve been much worse. For BIG TUNA, this has to be one of those games that you just chalk up to being a fluke, and immediately put it behind you. After all, that is what happens in fantasy from time to time.

DUMMY TEAM 02 should not have been challenged in this game. I can’t wait to see how this will play out on Monday Night

STEELERS OWN COWBOYS gave it a valiant effort. This one was close all the way through the late games before PINK PONIES pulled away in the end. If Hines Ward gave this team something, anything, PINK PONIES would have every reason to be absolutely scared of suffering a loss. As it is, Reggie Bush will have to play out of his mind for STEELERS OWN COWBOYS to pull this one out. It will be a fun game to watch tomorrow.


(The hilarious Nate Newton picture is courtesy of CNNSI.com)

The Packers, Cowboys and 49ers are all 2-0 and O.J. is headed to jail…did I wake up in 1994?

That’s a great line and I surely wish I thought of it myself, but alas, I cannot take the credit for it. You’ve got to love the Juice….well, except for the fact that he murdered two people. I only have one request: Bring back my claim to fame. Bring back Lance! Yeah, that’s just what I need as I finish out my law school career. Alright, enough with the nonsense.



Ladies and Gentleman, your Super Bowl XLII Matchup: Detroit Lions v. Houston Texans

Ah, the danger of jumping to conclusions after 2 weeks of football. You’ve got to love all the chest banging going on this time of year over where certain teams are ranked on the various power polls scattered throughout the internet. Texans fans, you better save a copy of those polls that have you ranked in the top 10, you won’t be there that much longer. But this is what happens when teams like the Lions and Texans start 2-0.

Anyways, the point of all this is, if we are to make conclusions after two weeks of football, then we are wasting our time. This applies to Fantasy as well. The COWBOYS have been touting their position “atop” the leader board for this past week. I certainly respect what the team has done, but not anymore so than the performance of VOLDEMORT who is also 2-0. However, if I was a betting man (and oh, what a coincidence, I am) I certainly would not bet the house that these two teams will face off in the finals. NFL players are still finding their grooves this early in the season (see LDT and Steven Jackson), fantasy trends have yet to be developed (Randy Moss going big), and flukes have yet to be flushed out (MJD a bust? Andre Johnson a 1 week wonder?). Talk to me in 3 weeks and I’ll have a more accurate idea of the level of each team.

All of that being said, this week features 2 big time matchups and several other intriguing ones. Let’s take a look.


Matchup of the Week:

TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN v. COWBOYS: After playing Dummy Teams the first two weeks, the COWBOYS get their first test against a real, live, owner. The Dummy Teams have certainly been formidable, but the COWBOYS caught Tomlinson on an off day in addition to getting two HUGE performances from WR’s Edwards and Johnson, en route to their week 2 win. With Johnson out this week and the sheer impossibility of Edwards having a repeat performance, the COWBOYS will be searching for points in other places. Not an enviable task considering Frank Gore is facing off against the always tough to run against Steelers. Not that TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN will faire much better as MJD is facing off against Denver this week and it does not seem likely that he will get untracked on Sunday. If you couple that with Lee Evans benching this week against New England, Steven Jackson will have to breakout of this mini-slump to have a monster game against Tampa Bay. He will, and TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN will squeak out a victory behind Jackson and the strength of its WR’s.


The Shoot ‘em up Matchup:

BIG TUNA v. DUMMY TEAM 3: It’s the highest scoring team in the league against the preseason number one team. For BIG TUNA, Tony Romo and Travis Henry face early season tests against two stout defenses. Colston should have a big day provided the Saints can re-capture a little bit of last year’s magic, and Torry Holt should produce provided Bulger can get passes off behind that rickety offensive line. On the other side, Dummy Team 3 has been waiting all season for LDT to step up and have a big game, and this should be the week. The San Diego line consists of a bunch of maulers who are far to proud to let this continue to go on. At WR, Boldin might struggle against the Ravens, but Steve Smith is a freak of nature and (if they can get anything at all from Ronnie Brown) he and Tomlinson should carry Dummy Team 3 to a victory in a high scoring affair.


The Manning v. Brady Matchup

LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM v. VOLDEMORT: LVL INFINITY got robbed last week, and continues to be very active in the free agent market, making one sound move after another. However, they need to hope that Dunn can finally get something going this week, otherwise big performances from Brady, Harrison, and the Minnesota Defense (and I mean look for a HUGE performance from the D this week against the woeful Chiefs) will go to waste. VOLDEMORT is the quiet 2-0 team. Manning, Wayne and Gates make this team a formidable one, but the outcome of this matchup lies on the not so risky move of inserting RB Williams into the starting lineup. Normally it would be too early in the season to bench your #2 RB, but the Saints haven’t done anything this year, and the Deuce has been hurt by this. Ultimately, I think the gamble will payoff and VOLDEMORT will be the only remaining undefeated team after three weeks, with a close victory that will push LVL INFINTIY + 1 TEAM to an undeserved 0-3.


The “This is the Kind of Game That Makes You Want to Go Home and Beat Your Wife (or in this case husband)” matchup:

DUMMY TEAM 02 v. RILEY’s RAIDERS: The RAIDERS will get a win one of these weeks, it just won’t be this week. Lamont Jordan should have a stellar game, but with most of the other players on this team having tough matchups, it won’t be enough to overcome DUMMY TEAM 02’s running back combo that face off against each other and should rack up a lot of points against their respective porous defenses. Yahoo predicts a blowout. I won’t go that far, because they are giving far too much credence to Vince Young’s potential matchup. Still though, I think it’ll be DUMMY TEAM 02 by 10.


The Beat Down That Might Not Happen matchup:

PINK PONIES v. STEELERS OWN COWBOYS: On paper, one would think this is a potentially ugly matchup. The second highest scoring team in the league vs. second lowest. It should be a beat down of epic proportions. But take a look at some of the matchups that PINK PONIES’ players face this week. LJ will be facing off against the best run defense in the league from a year ago. TO gets the Bears DB’s. Moss gets a Bills team that gives up tons of points, just not many TD’s. And finally, Shockey has an injured QB throwing to him. Oh, the PINK PONIES will still win, but seeing as how STEELERS OWN COWBOYS has the majority of his team facing off against a 49ers defense that can be scored upon, this one at least has the potential to get interesting.



Apologies for the long downtime between posts. School got in the way. Hopefully that will not happen again, and if it looks like it will I will see about having guest posters come in. We shall see. Good Luck to all this week.

Links and Lessons Learned

Some Lessons learned from the first week of fantasy football:

-You can never count a team out if they have a couple of players going on a Monday night game. Pink Ponies scored nearly 40 points on Monday night.

-The 126 points for BIG TUNA was impressive. Tony Romo and the Addai played lights out. Travis Henry looks awfully good in Denver.

-But not that impressive. Its still week 1. I bet this is the only 5 TD game of the season for Romo. I wouldn’t say this team is the front runner just yet, even after outscoring every other team by at least 26 points.

-Not a good week for stud running backs. Sure LDT accounted for two touchdowns (including a passing TD that only counted for 4 points) but he rushed for only 25 yards. Steven Jackson fumbled twice and scored 1 whole fantasy point. Larry Johnson only managed to rack up 8 fantasy points. Ladies and Gentleman, your top 3 picks of the draft.

-I’m surprised there hasn’t been more free agent pickups. After the first round of games, there is usually a mad dash to the free agent pool.

-That being said, LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM has been doing a nice job in bolstering his roster.

-When your team is stacked with players from the same team, you can do really well (see: STEELERS OWN COWBOYS).

-You can vote on who you think will win each match up by clicking on view match up on the right hand side of our league page. It’s a fun feature that more people should partake in.

-It’s a long season, so if you lost big don’t get too down and if you won big, don’t get too up.

Best sports links of the week:


Football is a violent sport, and after Sunday’s injury and possible paralysis to Bills TE Kevin Everett, you can only hope this miracle is true. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3016159


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfY1H1fqI4 The Haka as performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team (that is their name, not their racial makeup). If the Bears defense did this before a game, the opposing team just might quit. The best pre-game ritual since John Henderson unleashed this all time classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4cXZGkRMCY


Seattle Sports Blog “Enjoy the Enjoyment” has Ichiro smacking around media that ask him stupid questions. http://www.enjoytheenjoyment.com/2007/09/ichiro-calls-out-nonsense.html


Gus Johnson is the greatest announcer alive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcIvgiNWG1g


Rivalries between teams are what make sports great. But when fans go too far, some really really messed up shit can happen. Warning, this is both brutal and unbelievable to read, for guys especially. http://zachls.blogspot.com/2007/09/dont-wear-texas-gear-in-sooner-country.html


Wait, um, since when were we allowed to say “fuck” on TV? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO1i2e6cySw


James Bond stuff going down in the NFL: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3014677

SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY

A recap of this week in football, fantasy and otherwise


Well, I'm pissed. As most of you know, I am a huge Jacksonville Jaguars fan. I became a fan back in 1996, their second year in existence and I’ve loved them more than any sports team. Since I’ve moved out here to California, I rarely get to watch them on TV anymore, so most Sundays I am forced to listen to their games on the radio. Sitting there, trying to imagine the plays unfold as they are being described by the radio announcer can be a maddening experience at times. You become exhilarated when the announcer raises his voice in a high pitch exclamation in anticipation of a score. And you become disconsolate when your team gives up a big play. I'm always hoping for the best but expecting the worst. When the Jags rip off a big play, I don’t know whether to root for the player to keep on running and breaking tackles, or to just fall down and not fumble. If the defense gets a stop on 3rd down (something that rarely happend during this game) I fully expect there to be a flag thrown.Football is such a beautiful and tortuous game, and I was reminded of this once again this Sunday as the Jags lost to the hated Tennessee Titans. I was overjoyed when David Garrard hit John Broussard with a 47 yard bomb for a TD. Yet, when the Jags gave up the lead, I spent the rest of the game lying on back, eyes shut, trying to will a Jags comeback. But alas, the defense kept getting gashed (where did you go Big John Henderson?) by the Titans running backs who eventually ran out the clock. It was a rough loss, as Jacksonville finally got competent QB play, yet the offensive and defensive lines, the two things that the Jags always could count on every year, let them down. The loss crushed me and its only week one. Listening to them play is such a bitter-sweet experience. I’m looking forward to next week, yet dreading it at the same time.



Now for a recap on fantasy:


VOLDEMORT-100
TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN- 65.

Analysis: It shouldn’t even be this close. If it wasn’t for a monster performance from Plaxico Burress (140+ yards and 3 TD’s…32 fantasy points), TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN would not have even cracked 40 points. When your running backs (including the number 2 pick in the draft) combine for a total of 4 points, you really don’t deserve to win….VOLDEMORT demonstrated the clear cut advantages to having an Indianapolis Colt, or two, on your fantasy team. TE Antonio Gates also contributed with a huge game (16 fantasy points), which allowed VOLDEMORT to overcome mediocre performances from its running backs….Despite all that, if Chad Johnson can duplicate Burress’ performance and add a few more yards, VOLDEMORT could still lose. It’s a long shot, but he’s done it before.


DUMMY TEAM 3- 80
LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM- 78

This matchup is tantalizingly close. Both team’s QB’s performed better than expected, however LVL INFINITY was let down by its WR corp and running backs. It was bolstered by a surprisingly strong performance by TE Jason Witten who contributed a whopping 17 fantasy points. On the other side, LDT had a horrible game running the ball, yet still managed to throw a touchdown pass and contribute 17 fantasy points. With WR Anquon Boldin yet to play for DUMMY TEAM 3, the only chance LVL INFINITY has to win is if Boldin fumbles the ball a couple of times, or somehow manages to throw an INT. To make matters worse, LVL INFINITY’S RB Brandon Jacobs may be injured, so the team will have to look at putting him on the injured list if necessary. If he is injured, they should definitely not cut him though because he will likely be back later in the year.


COWBOYS-70
DUMMY TEAM TWO- 38

The COWBOYS will likely rack up a lot more points tomorrow night as they have their first round pick, Frank Gore, running the ball tomorrow night. He tore up Arizona last year, and I look for him to do the same again this year. The COWBOYS got inspired performances out of their top two WR’s, whom I ripped in my previews, yet were let down by their QB and defense (which totaled negative 1 fantasy points)….This matchup could still become intriguing though as DUMMY TEAM TWO still has RB Rudi Johnson, and its top two receivers going on Monday Night. If Johnson can keep pace with Gore, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Fitzgerald and Houshmenzedah can close the gap fantasy points wise.


BIG TUNA- 124
PINK PONIES- 59







STEELERS OWN COWBOYS- 82

RILEY'S RAIDERS- 66





Due to technical difficulties (i.e. Yahoo taking down the fantasy points scored today just as I was beginning my writeup of the BIG TUNA/PINK PONIES clash) I was not able to complete a writeup for the last two matchups. Hopefully yahoo will have the points up again soon and I can get the writeups posted. For now, thank you for your patience....

More Expertise, Hot Air, and Know it All Attitude...Plus Some Outstanding Team Logos

Welcome to part two of two of the fantasy preview...

Draft Ideas and Ideals: Everyone, well most everyone, goes into a fantasy draft with certain goals in mind. I for one, am a firm believer in drafting Running backs with the first two picks unless you can pick up Manning somewhere after the 8th pick. The logic behind this is fairly simple: 32 starting running backs and we each have to start two…there are at least 64 starting Wide Receivers, and if a team lines up in a singleback formation with a slot receiver, there is even more. Additionally, running backs are the only players on the field outside of the QB to touch the ball more than 10 times per game, so they inherently have more value than a WR who is a similar level player. Kickers and defenses are crapshoots in my opinion (last year Robbie Gould went undrafted yet led all Kickers in fantasy points) and I always wait until the last two rounds to grab them.

All that being said, there is no right or wrong way to draft. My theory has won me quite a few leagues, but I’ve been beaten by people who employ an entirely different strategy. Some people refuse to draft people they don’t like no matter how great of a value he might represent. I for one had the opportunity to draft Terrell Owens and passed him up. I don’t like the guy, plain and simple. Other times, people draft players based on who they like. We had two teams do that for this league and though I was initially shocked at some of the picks, their teams turned out to be at least decent. Do I think they’ll win it all? No. But they’ll at least have fun rooting for the players they picked.


Steal(s) of the Draft: Runner up goes to Deuce McCallister who drafted in Round 7 by VOLDEMORT. ESPN has The Deuce ranked as their 16th best running back and the 22nd best player overall. His value was depressed somewhat because he shares the carries with Reggie Bush, and lacks the flash that his partner exhibits but that won’t stop him from becoming the workhorse back for an 11 win team. He’ll get the goal line carries and probably score 8 or 9 TD’s. Not bad for a guy who went in the 7th round.

Winner- Chester Taylor, drafted by RILEY’S RAIDERS in the 12th round. Sure he’ll be splitting carries with the other Adrian Peterson, but Peterson has a knack for getting hurt, and until he can prove he can stay healthy Taylor is the only offense Minnesota has got. They’ll pound the rock early and often. ESPN has him ranked as the 26th best RB and 39th overall, a whopping 76 spots higher than where he went in this draft.


Reach of the Draft: Plain and simple, any kicker who was drafted before the rest of a team’s starting lineup was filled.


Deep Sleeper of the Draft: Bo Scaife to RILEY’S RAIDERS. Since we have so many first timers in the league I should probably explain what a sleeper is. A sleeper is a player who not many people know about, or who is going under a lot of people’s radars but has high upside. Clearly, a sleeper can never have had a big season the prior year, but perhaps he showed flashes of skill when given the opportunity. A deep sleeper is someone who is even further under the radar. Bo Scaife fits these qualities perfectly. ESPN shows that he is currently owned in only 8.1% of their leagues. But, if you look at the Titans roster it is pretty clear that Vince Young is lacking in quality weapons around him. The Titans let last year’s top running back and receiver go for no compensation in return. Its safe to say Young will be looking for some familiar faces out there, and what better guy to look for than your 6 foot 3, 250 pound former teammate in college. Big potential here.

The Playoffs: The general thought in fantasy is that it takes skill to make it to the playoffs but only luck to win the whole thing. The reasoning behind this is that the playoffs consist of two head to head matchups in week 15 followed by a final matchup in week 16. Having your whole season determined by how your team does in one week can be a tough pill to swallow, but then again that’s how the NFL season works as well. Additionally, by the end of the season, a lot of teams tend to rest their starters which often leaves fantasy players scrambling to fill roster spots, or hoping that their star player suits up…only to find out he didn’t.



And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Here is a ranking of the teams, as they stand of today, in order from last to first. Do I think they’ll finish this way? Probably not. But I guess you can consider this the worst to best drafts, if nothing else. In coming up with these rankings I looked at ESPN.com’s fantasy projections for each player this year. I added the totals up for each of the starters (with the exception of K and Def) for each of the teams to give myself a good idea of where each team was. I then looked at the benches to figure out if they would make a difference one way or another in the rankings. Most of the time, they did not. Let’s get started:




10. RILEY’S RAIDERS. This team is loaded with darkhorse sleepers and high potential guys. However, you need more than that to be in contention in this league. The strengths here clearly lie in the quarterbacks. Drew Brees is either the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th best QB in the league depending on who you talk to. However, some of RILEY’S RAIDERS roster could be upgraded simply by picking up guys from the free agent pool and dropping the backup kicker and defense. There are some serious players still out there, and if you combine them with a potential stats monster like Drew Brees this team may play the spoiler role for someone before too long.

9. STEELERS OWN COWBOYS. Much like RILEY’S RAIDERS, it was clear from the start that this team valued players the owner liked more than players that would’ve helped the team win. Fantasy Football is about having fun, and if this is the way this team wants to go about it, then who am I to judge? The strength of STEELERS OWN COWBOYS is its Running backs and defense. Chicago will dominate most of the year, Reggie Bush will show flashes of brilliance, and if Clinton Portis can stay healthy he’ll have some big games. This trio, along with Hines Ward, should carry STEELERS OWN COWBOYS to at least a couple of wins.


8. LVL INFINITY + 1. This team’s draft was all over the place. It drafted at top 3 QB at the perfect time, yet reached for a wide receiver in round 1. The two Running backs on the team are both question marks, but in a somewhat good way. At least as good a way as a connotation like that can have. Maroney has the potential to be very good but all indications point to a running back by committee. That doesn’t necessarily mean bad things, but New England has never been known for having stud fantasy RB’s. Jacobs on the other hand was the Giant’s primary goal line back last year. There is no question he can get it done inside the 20’s, but can he produce at midfield? If he can cure his fumble problems, he’ll go along way towards answering those questions. Look, Marvin Harrison and Tom Brady will be great like they are every season, and the RB’s we just talked about; the real problem with this team lies in its remaining Wide Receivers. I’m just not sold on Reggie Brown, and Deion Branch has never lived up to his reputation. This team has an opening on its roster after having dropped a backup Def, and perhaps should look into picking up another Receiver from the free agent pool. Wes Welker comes to mind. It also might not be a bad idea to drop Isaac Bruce and pickup a good solid backup running back who is currently starting somewhere in the NFL. Someone like Warrick Dunn would be an outstanding pickup and could pay huge dividends in the long run.


7. COWBOYS. I know the owner of this team is going to be pissed when he sees his team ranked here. I know I was surprised when I first ran the numbers, but after taking a closer look at this team’s roster, I have to say that this seems to be the right place for them. Let’s start with strength’s first. The true lynchpins of fantasy football are the running backs, and this team has a pair of solid ones. Frank Gore was projected to go as high as 4th in the draft and should have an outstanding season. Brian Westbrook is always a back who flies under the radar but usually ends up having great per game numbers. His health, however, is his Achilles heal, and until he can prove that staying healthy last season was not a fluke, most fantasy owners will never be able to rest easy. Not that COWBOYS will be lacking for a replacement should Westbrook revert back to his ailing ways, as they have three solid running backs sitting on the bench. It is these three bench running backs that are part of the problem with this team though. It seems that the COWBOYS were intent on grabbing value with every pick in the draft, which is a strategy that is usually commendable. However, no matter how great a value some of those running backs represented in later round, those picks might have been better spent grabbing better wide receivers. Andre Johnson is a reach as a number one receiver even with new QB Matt Schaub in Houston. Laverneous Coles has only scored a total of 12 touchdowns in the last three years, and Braylon Edwards is an up and down type player with absolute crap throwing him the ball at QB. Jason Elam, Tony Gonzalez (who will struggle more than people realize now that he has to stay in and block more thanks to an aging O-line), and Donovan McNabb were undoubtedly solid pickups, but unless one or two of those running backs can be moved for a true number one receiver, this team will have a roller coaster season. A recipe for the playoffs it is not.


6. BIG TUNA. Another team that I thought did better in the draft until I looked at it closely. The strength of BIGTUNA is all about the Wide Receivers. You could make an argument for all 3 of the starters as number 1 options. Torry Holt is always good for a big year, Colsten is out to prove that last year was no fluke, and Walker had a teammate die in his arms over the summer; he’ll be motivated and focused this season. People forget that just 3 seasons ago he had 89 catches for 1382 yards and 12 Touchdowns. Joseph Addai has also been a trendy draft pick as of late and has been going as high as 3rd in some drafts. He’ll be carrying the load for the Colts for the first time in his career and that leaves quite a few pundits expecting Edgerrin James circa 2000 type numbers. I don’t know if I’ll go that far, but he should have a very good year. Travis Henry at RB-2 is a talented back playing for a team that makes even mediocre backs look good. If Henry can stay healthy he should have a very nice season in Denver….I said it in my draft write up but I’ll say it again, Todd Heap will catch more touch downs that Gonzalez this year at TE….Despite all these strengths, there is one glaring weakness on this team: The QB position. This will be the first time in Tony Romo’s career that he will be the full-time starter entering the season. No one is quite sure how he’ll handle this, or how he’ll get over the botched hold on the field goal in last year’s playoffs. Dallas isn’t sold on him yet either, as they have not offered him a contract beyond this year….backing up Tony Romo is the snitch Matt Leinart. He’ll be playing in a nice offense this year with a couple of big time receivers, but he’s a sell out and its hard to imagine his teammates rallying around him. Perhaps he’ll have a good year, but he’s even more of a question mark than Romo. This team is better than the COWBOYS, but not by much.


5. DUMMY TEAM 2. Your classic middle of the road auto-drafted team. Solid at every position but a questionable bench. No one owns this team so I won’t say too much about them except this: the running backs on this team are both very solid and they have an underrated set of wideouts. If Alexander is all the way back from his injury and two of the three WR have breakout years, this team will move up in the standings. They do, however, have Vince Young; he of he Madden Curse. That will be with them, wreaking havoc on their season all year long and causing them to just miss the playoffs.

4. PINK PONIES. The absolute biggest surprise after I ran all the numbers. The owner at times seemed lost during the draft, yet here her team is, in the top 4. This shows you the power of having a top 3 pick in Fantasy Football. I initially had the PINK PONIES in the top 3, but the primary reason this team is so highly ranked is because of Larry Johnson. The more and more I thought about it, the less comfortable I felt with placing a team relying heavily on LJ in the top 3. History has shown time and time again that a running back who racked up more than 370 “touches” in his previous season has a higher risk of some kind of catastrophic injury or awful season the following year. Let’s run down the list, shall we: 2003 Jamal Lewis carries the ball 387 times, gains 2077 yards and scores 14 TD’s. The next year, he gets hurt, plays in 12 games, carries the ball 235 times for about a thousand yards and scores only half as many touchdowns; Eddie George in 2000 carried the ball 407 times and had a monster year, the next year he didn’t even crack a thousand yards; Edgerrin James had 400 plus touches in 2000 and the next year blew out his knew and played in only 6 games; 2004 Priest Holmes, a consensus top 5 pick every year in fantasy; missed half the season with an injury after getting 394 touches the year before. The list goes on and on. Surely there have been exceptions, but LJ had a whopping 457 touches last year and a pretty significant 360 + the year before. This year he is missing both Willie Roaf and Will Shields (two hall of fame offensive lineman who retired) which means Tony Gonzalez has to stay in and block, limiting his effectiveness as receiver (and eliminating him as a threat for the defense). Oh KC has two GOD-AWFUL choices at QB (the immortal Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard). The Chiefs traded Dante Hall in the offseason, and their top wide receiver retired during the middle of a season three years ago, only to come back that same season to a different team. A true winner. With defenses not fearing any passing game, it’ll be interesting to see how LJ fares against 8 and 9 man fronts…..The rest of PINK PONIES is well put together. Carson Palmer is the surefire number 2 QB in the league. Benson should be a good, respectable number 2 back even if most of his teammates don’t really like him. Shockey will have a good year as usual. The potential at WR with Moss, Owens, and Jackson is absolutely ridiculous. And the defense is one of the 2 or 3 that you can start every week with no worries and with the very good chance that it will actually win you some games. IF LJ can stay healthy there is no doubt that this team will be very, very good.

3. VOLDEMORT. This is about where I expected them to finish up after the draft. This team might’ve had the best first and second round combinations in the draft. Manning is already proving his worth, and there are some people saying Willie Parker will top 2000 yards. Granted, those people are in the minority, but any time those words are being discussed anywhere, you know you have arrived. Fast Willie will be a borderline top 5 back this year. Deuce McCallister, as I have said before, was an inspired choice that late in the draft. He’ll have a good year and should be a solid number 2 back all season long. Throw Antonio Gates into the mix and you have the makings of a monster team, with two players the clear cut number one at their position in the entire league and another in the top 7 at the lowest. So what’s the downfall? There is precious little depth at wide receiver after Reggie Wayne. Wayne is clearly a true number 1 this year, and by having Manning on the team as well, every time Wayne scores on a TD pass it’ll be like getting double the points. However, the opposite is also true. If Manning does not have a big game, neither will Wayne. Santana Moss is an enigma, and so is the QB who will be throwing him the ball in Washington. Calvin Johnson is even more of an unknown. Not since Randy Moss, and maybe Michael Clayton, has a highly touted rookie receiver had any impact whatsoever in fantasy (please note that Marques Colston was not highly touted—he was a 7th round pick). VOLDEMORT has an outstanding backup QB who he could maybe peddle to BIGTUNA for some help at receiver. All in all, where this team’s strengths lie is in the sheer greatness of its best players. That star power alone should be enough to carry VOLDEMORT to the playoffs, and once there, anything can happen. Bonus points for picking Big John Henderson and the Jacksonville D—a must start against Tennessee.


2. TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN. This team was able to overcome a stupidly handled turn between the 2nd and third rounds where it could’ve obtained Steve Smith as well as Maurice Jones-Drew, instead of the Chad Johnson/Jones-Drew combo that it ended up with. Still though, not a bad consolation prize. This is perhaps the most well-rounded of all the teams in the draft. The QB is one of the 6 top tier QB’s in the league. Steven Jackson actually had more total yards from scrimmage last year than LaDanian Tomlinson. Maurice Jones-Drew is a homerun threat playing behind a ferocious offensive line in Jacksonville. Lee Evans is a borderline number 1 receiver and Plaxico Burress is a borderline number 2 receiver. Evans caught the most deep passes of any receiver last year as the only threat in Buffalo, and Burres is a TD catching machine and Eli’s saftely blanket. They will be filling the WR2 and WR3 roles, respectively. Crumpler is bit of a mystery with Vick out, but thanks to having a QB who will actually stay in the pocket this year, he should get more passes thrown his way on the goal line. TRIPLE T’S PAINTRAIN built its bench exactly the way you would want to in fantasy football. There is a good mixture of solid vets who you can count on (Joey Galloway, L.J. Smith, and The Edge) and high upside young players (Vincent Jackson, Brandon Jackson, and J.P Losman) who could end up in the top 10 at their positions if everything breaks just right. As the clear cut veteran in this league, there is little doubt that I would’ve ended up this high, but to get beaten by the computer is quite a bit sobering.

1. DUMMY TEAM 03. The epitome of a perfect draft, at least with respect to starters. Of course, anyone who can draft LT is way ahead of the game already. However, this team also ended up with the top WR as well. The top two players at the two most premium of positions makes DUMMY TEAM 03 a bitch of a team to deal with. The rest of its team is pretty damn good as well. Ronnie Brown played well in stretches last year and now has LT’s offensive coordinator from last year as his coach. John Kitna is playing for a coach who turned former grocery bagger and arena leaguer, Kurt Warner, into a star, surely after two years of tutelage under Mike Martz John Kitna can excel as well (even if he does play for the Lions). WR Roy Williams plays in that offense as well and is a true number 1 receiver filling the number 2 role for DUMMY TEAM 03. Almost every team in this league would like to have Anquon Boldin as its number two receiver, yet this team has him slotted to be their number 3. Chris Cooley has averaged more than 6 TD catches per year the last three years, a phenomenal number for a TE. The only suspect thing about this team is its lack of a deep bench. Should a starter go down, it could blow this competition wide open.

It Has Begun...

Let me start off by saying that I love fantasy football. I’ve played in all kinds of leagues over the last 8 or 9 years and have had my fair share of success in them. My love for it can border on obsession, which frankly, is sad. That being said, if I get really into writing this post I could probably spend a good ten pages rehashing the draft itself. In order to prevent myself from doing this, I’ll break my analysis down into several parts, and if I still haven’t said everything I want to say then I’ll post later in the week. Please keep in mind that I am an arrogant bastard when it comes to fantasy football, so please don’t take my comments personally.

Alright, let’s get to it…

A round by round analysis of the draft:

Round 1:

Best Pick: Shaun Alexander to DUMMY TEAM 2 with the 9th pick overall. I know Alexander is coming off a bad year in which he was injured for a good deal of time AND he has to deal with an aging offensive line, but this man set the NFL record for most touchdowns in a season 2 years ago and he is still in the prime of his career. Its hard to imagine that he would’ve lasted to the 9th pick.

Worst Pick: I understand the mentality of picking players you like, but the Pittsburgh Defense drafted by RILEY’s RAIDERS in the first round has to be the worst pick of the round. Marvin Harrison to LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM wasn’t a sound pick either, but it was only a round too early so was somewhat excusable.

Analysis: We have a lot of first time players this year so mistakes like this are bound to happen. Both teams mentioned in the worst pick category still ended up with decent teams, and in truth in a 10 team league like this with three teams autodrafting, an early mistake is not necessarily a crippling one….Reggie Bush is a fan favorite and I would say he went too early, but if he lives up to his potential, the 5th pick might’ve been too low for him…If Alexander would’ve fallen one more pick VOLDEMORT would’ve been a monster of a team to deal with….the first 4 picks went as expected, though I suspect PINK PONIES would’ve drafted Addai instead of Larry Johnson. She was in the unenviable position of drafting 3rd, the spot I least wanted in the entire draft. Too much risk involved in that pick.


Round 2:

Best Pick: Peyton Manning to VOLDEMORT with the first pick in the second round. VOLDEMORT eschewed the usually strategy of RB-RB with your first two picks and it paid off in a big way. Manning represented much better value than any of the next tier of RB’s that went off the board behind Manning and he was able to find a quality number two back much later in the draft. Factor in the run on QB’s that occurred in rounds 2 and 3 and the Manning pick looks that much better.

Worst Pick: Jeff Reed to STEELERS OWN COWBOYS. Kickers in the second round are generally not a good idea.

Analysis: Outside of the Reed pick its hard to argue with any of the players chosen in this round. Half of the teams went RB-RB and it all paid off for them. DUMMY TEAM 2 might have the best RB tandem in terms of consistency, but TRIPLE T’s PAINTRAIN and COWBOYS seem to potentially have the most explosive tandems. BIGTUNA’s RB are potential filled but Henry is playing in a new system this year (though Denver RB’s are always good) and Addai will be carrying the full load in Indy for the first time.


Round 3:

Best Pick: Tom Brady to LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM. Brady was the last sure thing at QB (health plus stats wise). He’s had big seasons before with a less than inspiring set of Wide Receivers and this year he has Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker to throw to. Be ready for a monster year from the father of Bridget Moynahan’s baby.

Worst Pick: Chad Johnson to TRIPLE T’s PAINTRAIN. Its not a horrible pick by any means, but I just had no idea who to pick here. I wasn’t sold on Holt and his gimpy knee and aging WR partner (Isaac Bruce). It was too early for a QB (or so I thought) or TE, so I talked myself into Senor Ocho Cinco. He seemed like he would be a fun player to own so I pulled the trigger. But he’s never had double digit TD’s with Palmer as his QB and he is inconsistent as hell, so needless to say I’m still not thrilled with this pick.

Analysis: This was the round of receivers, and a return to normalcy. RILEY’s RAIDERS got a RB with great potential who had a pretty big season last season for Dallas. TE Gates went off the board a full two rounds before the next TE, showing how truly valuable he is at his position. The difference between Gates and Gonzalez is quite a large gap. With Manning and Gates VOLDEMORT has the two players which are far and away better than anyone else at their position. It’ll be interesting to see how this strategy plays out. In the big scheme of things, Houshmandzadeh is underrated and Steve Smith might be slightly overrated, but in this draft they went right where they should’ve gone.


Round 4:

Best Pick: Marc Bulger to TRIPLE T’s PAINTRAIN. There are 6 starting QB’s who represent the top two tiers in fantasy (Manning, Palmer, Brady, Brees, McNabb, and Bulger). Bulger and McNabb both have some lingering health issues, but the fall after these two guys to the next level is a precipitous one.

Worst Pick: Olindo Mare. I’m not a fan of Kickers going this early.

Analysis: All of the players drafted after Reggie Wayne, with the exception of the two QB’s, are similar in value to their counterparts drafted a round later. Value wise, this was the absolute best time to grab a QB….Randy Moss is an intriguing upside pick…LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM is slowly building a very intriguing team under the radar.


Round 5:

Best Pick (Tie): I love the picks of Cedric Benson going to PINK PONIES and Clinton Portis going to STEELERS OWN COWBOYS. Both represent phenomenal value this late in the draft. If Portis stays healthy he has the potential to be a top 10 back, and Benson plays on a team with a run first, smash mouth mentality. They’ll pound it at the goal line to avoid costly QB mistakes and Bensons should see most of those carries.

Worst Pick: Reggie Brown to LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM. I’m just not entirely sold on him and the rest of the picks in this round were really well done.

Analysis: More receivers and more value…Walker will likely have a huge year due to the traumatic experiences of the past offseason…you gotta love Driver as the number one target for aging Brett Farve…Boldin is a beast and Lee Evans might be the best deep threat in the game.


Round 6:

Best Pick: Todd Heap to BIG TUNA. Steve McNair loves his Tight Ends (insert your own homo-erotic joke right here). If he stays healthy he’ll catch more TD’s than Tony Gonzalez. Mark it down.

Worst Pick: Adam Vinatieri to VOLDEMORT. Still too early for a kicker, especially when you are doing a live draft. Zero points for clutch kicks.

Analysis: Vince Young comes off the board here. He has a ton of potential, but also a lack of weapons, a weaker arm than most people think, and the dreaded Madden Curse hanging around his neck. An intriguing pick but I wouldn’t touch him (especially since he’ll be facing the Jags twice this year)….The first two defenses went off the board in this round. If there are going to be two units that will win you some games, these are the two….The Edge is a good back up for me in case of injury to one of my top backs as Arizona should have an improved offensive line under new O-line coach Russ Grimm…Kitna is a scary sleeper QB under the Mad Hatter Mike Martz and his crazy offensive schemes. No team under Martz has ever finished out of the top 5 in passing.

Round 7:

Best Pick: Deuce McCallister by VOLDEMORT at the tail end of the round. He needed a number two back and got one that rushed for over a thousand yards and scored 10 TD’s last year. Not bad at all.

Worst Pick: Nate Kaeding. TOO EARLY FOR KICKERS!

Analysis: This round saw a run on Tight Ends as some very good ones came off the board here. Vernon Davis, Jeremy Shockey, and Kellen Winslow you know about, but two guys who are flying under the radar are Chris Cooley and Bo Scaife. Cooley had 6 TD’s last year, and with a young QB coming in this year, that trend should continue. Scaife was a teammate of Vince Young’s in college and their connection should continue to payoff well at the next level. Throw in the fact that Titans OC Norm Chow loves to utilize the TE position and we have a bonafide sleeper pick on our hands here.


Round 8:

Best Pick: Braylon Edwards to The COWBOYS. His upside his huge, but he comes with a lot of red flags not the least of which is an unsettled (at best) QB situation. He has speed, size, decent hands…and fights with coaches, pouts when he doesn’t get the ball and takes helicopters to the stadium on Sundays. All in all, a perfect pick for The COWBOYS.

Worst Pick: Shayne Graham to the PINK PONIES. Not a bad pick, its just that it wasn’t better than anyone else’s and I can’t fault the computer for filling its starting positions (that’s what its required to do). If you are going to reach for a kicker, than you might as well do it with one of the best and the PINK PONIES did that. This is still too early, but at least it’s after the team filled most of its other major holes.

Analysis: Good value across the board for anyone who did not pick a kicker or defense. The most intriguing rookie went to VOLDEMORT in this round. The best wide receiver to come out of the draft since Randy Moss is going to play for a team that does nothing but throw the ball. The potential is scary.


Round 9:

Best Pick: Jason Witten to LVL INFINITY + 1 TEAM. Talk about good value. The run on TE’s basically ended two rounds ago, yet this team was able to pick up a good one here in round 9. The only reservation I have is that Owens will likely steal most of the goal line looks in passing situations.

Worst Pick: Lance Moore. I could be wrong, but I just don’t know who he is.

Analysis: RILEY’S RAIDERS has a knack for picking deep sleepers. Santonio Holmes will benefit from the coaching change in Pittsburgh and a healthy Big Ben. I’m looking for big things out of him. If Darrell Jackson could ever get over his case of the “drops” he’d be a top 20 WR. Even still, he is excellent value in this round and so is Joey Galloway….John Henderson and the Jags D go to VOLDEMORT who will attempt to make blood come out the mouth.


Round 10:

Best Pick (Tie): Carnell Williams to BIGTUNA, Thomas Jones to DUMMY TEAM TWO, Marshawn Lynch to The COWBOYS, Jamal Lewis to PINK PONIES, and Jerious Norwood to DUMMY TEAM 03. Anytime you can grab a starting RB this late, you have done something right.

Worst Pick: J.P. Losman to TRIPLE T’s PAINTRAIN. Sure he has sleeper written all over him, and he has an outstanding wide receiver but this is the same guy who the Bills were ready to ditch before last season started. Is this really someone you want to count on when your starting QB has a messed up knee? Not exactly.

Analysis: Matt Hasselback by VOLDEMORT was a very smart pick. Let’s get this straight right off the bat, the only time Hasselback will play for VOLDEMORT is when Manning is on his bye week. However, by drafting Hasselback here, he prevents all the other teams who have shaky QB situations from a chance at drafting a valuable backup. Losman’s owner for one was looking at drafting Hasselback in this round….Joey Harrington could surprise some people.


Round 11:

Best Pick: Bernard Berrian to VOLDEMORT. The lone deep threat on a team whose QB can only throw the deep ball. You do the math.

Worst Pick: None.

Analysis: Potential-laden wide receivers went in this round. Vincent Jackson is 6’5 and can leap over people. Clayton came up with a number of huge catches for the Ravens last year and is still very young. Cotchery always seemed to be catching deep passes a year ago and Chris Chambers was consistently picked in the top 5 rounds last year….Normally Adrian Peterson would’ve won the best pick award here, but the COWBOYS seem to have this odd fascination with Running Backs. Eventually you need to draft other positions, no matter how good the value is. Still though, Peterson does have lightning in a bottle potential so long as he doesn’t get hurt. Bonus points for taking him just before VOLDEMORT was going to….I’d normally get on someone for drafting a backup K, but those of us who still haven’t drafted a kicker yet (me) were hurt by this move, so bonus points for that.


Round 12:

Best Pick: Chester Taylor to RILEY’s RAIDERS. This is the pick of the draft. I don’t know how he fell this far. The Vikings cannot throw the ball for their lives but have a strong defense. That means running. Lots and lots of running.

Worst Pick: Terry Glenn to The COWBOYS. Old. Washed Up. No longer has his coach. Done.

Analysis: The Anthony Gonzalez pick by PINK PONIES is truly an inspired pick. If not for the tremendous value RILEY’s RAIDERS got with her pick, this pick would easily win the best pick for this round. The number three receiver in the Colts offense ALWAYS thrives. Last year was a fluke because Stokley was hurt, but if you look at his numbers from a few years ago, you can approximate what Gonzalez will bring to the table. Manning likes smart players who run crisp routes when coming out of the slot. Gonzalez represents those qualities to a T. Oh, plus he did some goofy thing with his house while he was in college so that it was like he was living at high altitudes.


Round 13:

Best Pick: Jay Cutler to DUMMY TEAM 03. Good solid backup.

Worst Pick: L.J. Smith to TRIPLE T’s PAINTRAIN. A backup Tight End? Really? In the words of Mark Jackson, “You’re better than that.”

Analysis: Good QB value here.


Round 14:

Best Pick: Joe Horn to RILEY’s RAIDERS. I think he has one last decent year in him, even if it’s Joey Harrington throwing him the ball.

Worst Pick: Stephen Gostkowski to VOLDEMORT. When you reach early for a kicker he better be your kicker for the year. In other words, why the hell did you draft a backup?

Analysis: Rex Grossman offers a ton of upside this late in the draft, but only PINK PONIES had enough guts to even consider taking him especially after last year when he scored negative points in a Monday night game and actually cost some owners a victory (meaning they would’ve been better off taking a giant goose egg for the QB position that week). Still though, the upside is there.


Round 15:
Best Pick: Josh Brown to TRIPLE T’s PAIN TRAIN. Even though the odds of me finding another kicker are high, this is where you draft a kicker.

Worst Pick: Anyone who drafted an additional defense. You’re only excuse is if you plan on playing matchups the whole year, or you drafted two AFC West defenses with the hopes of starting them against Oakland 4 times this year.

Analysis: Nice job by those of you who took flyers on high risk high reward players this round. It basically costs you nothing to do it, but the payoff could be enormous. Last year there were quite a few people who selected Maurice Jones-Drew as a last round pick. I think we can all agree that paid off pretty well.



So that’s it. On Thursday I will have more on the upcoming fantasy season with my steals of the draft, the reaches, who I think the top teams are, and my predictions for the year. Please comment below if you disagree.

Here We Go Again...

So this is it. I had to abandon the old site as it lacked focus and direction. Its name didn’t exactly match the contents of the blog. Why have a site called “Hating Kobe Bryant” yet only bring his name up once or twice in three months of posting? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that I think about it, its like titling a book, “Love is Forever” and then ultimately writing about people massacring each other. Okay, so maybe it’s not really like that, but I like the analogy anyways. Back to the point, when I decided to create a new blog I wanted it to have a name that better represented its material. So is the writing going to be mediocre? Well, I’d like to think it won’t be but that’s for you to decide. In reality the title of the blog reflects the state of sports in general. Mediocrity seems to be widely accepted in sports these days. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it is embraced. Every NFL team thinks it has a chance to be this year’s St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints, or Chicago Bears, therefore most front offices don’t see the need to take a gamble. After all, it’s better to do nothing and finish 8-8 (i.e. not finish with a losing record) than go for broke and come up short. In the NBA there are the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, and everyone else. Rashard Lewis was just given a max contract by the Orlando Magic for averaging 20 points on a team that couldn’t even crack the 40 win mark last year. In today’s NBA 20 point scorers are a dime a dozen. Sure, Lewis will help the Magic win a few more games, maybe they’ll even advance a round or two in the playoffs one day. But the cap space they had been saving for 5 years is now non-existent—spent on a second tier player who they bid against themselves to get. Brilliant. Look, in the NBA you should either be building a core group of young guys to contend in a few years or you should be a team with a legitimate shot to win a championship, or are maybe one piece away (Boston went from one category to the other…interesting summer for them). Anything else and you are wasting time. All these idiotic teams who are content to finish 7th or 8th in the conference every year only to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs and then end up with a draft pick in the low teens need to get their act together. The incompetence in sports in general can be infuriating at times. I long for the days of greatness. When there were rivalries and hatred that caused teams and players to rise to the challenge. Not for money, or the fans, but for pride. But now, in this politically correct world run by guaranteed contracts and driven by advertising dollars, its better to be in the middle of the pack and go unnoticed than to be noticed at all. The end result? The players, the fans, and sports in general…we are all Mired in Mediocrity.

I’ll link to the older site at the bottom of this post, but for now just know that it’s good to have a fresh start. So how will this site be any different than before? Well for starters I’m going to try and adhere to a semi-regular schedule. I’ll also try and throw in more entertaining posts, similar to the “This is Sportscenter” post from the previous blog. Finally, at least in the beginning, this site will be directly tied into the precious few readers of this blog. Should my readership ever expand, well its likely these early posts will still be fairly entertaining. Anyways, here is the potential schedule:

Monday: I plan to have a running segment updating how the fantasy season is going. I’ll be analyzing the upsets, big games, and let downs that will undoubtedly occur during the season. I’ll also highlight any potential match ups in Monday Night Football that may swing a fantasy game either way. I did this type of analysis with some mixed success for last year’s pick ‘em league and will try and implement the lessons learned to this year’s posts.

Thursday: There will be a “this week in sports” segment for all of you non-sports junkies out there. I’ll do my best to compile a series of links to articles and clips about any big games, upsets, milestones, or outlandish moments that occurred in the past week of sports. I know Thursday is kind of an odd day for this, but I’ve got a full load of classes on Wednesday and Thursday so this will be all I have time for.

Saturday: This will be the miscellaneous post day. Random thoughts, a preview of the upcoming fantasy match ups, a discussion of the actual games being played on Sunday and a word or two about the college football season as well.

I hope to have some guest posters from time to time, and hopefully a return of Bestever, but we’ll see how it plays out. Most of the posts will be pretty football intensive but I’ll keep the material as light as possible. I’ll be back on Monday for a recap of the draft.

Thanks for reading.


Hating Kobe Bryant Blog