There's nothing more boring than listening to someone jabber on about their Fantasy Football team, but I have to get this off my chest. In "The Other League", here's a recap of what happened to my team last weekend: My #1 RB was on a bye week; As a replacement, I inserted a player who was reported to get the start. Instead, the guy he was reportedly replacing turned out to be OK, and my guy played 3 snaps all game; My #2 RB was nicked up, and was inactivated at game time; My #3 RB/"Flex" gained 47 yards, then suffered a career-ending knee injury; My QB was sacked 11 times; My#2 wide receiver caught 3 balls for 17 yards from the QB who ...
 The Packers finished up OK last season, but they've got a tough, tough schedule ahead of them this year. Philadelphia Eagles @ New York Giants San Diego Chargers @ Minnesota Vikings Chicago Bears Washington Redskins @ Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs Minnesota Vikings Carolina Panthers @ Detroit Lions @ Dallas Cowboys Oakland Raiders @ St. Louis Rams @ Chicago Bears Detroit Lions I see them opening the season 0-3, then maybe 1-4 if they can win at Minnesota. Looks like a 6-10 schedule to me. But hey, at least we get Oakland at home!
First off, I'm glad that the Colts won the Super Bowl last night. Heck, I'm more than glad. And relieved - I don't think I could live with a full year knowing that the Bears were the best team in football. But Peyton Manning was the MVP of that game? Ridiculous. He had a barely average game. Look at his final stats: 25/38, 248 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT On the other hand, look the Colts running game: Rhodes: 21 carries, 113 yards, 1 TD Addai: 19 carries, 77 yards; 10 catches, 66 yards So the two running backs accounted for 256 yards of offense. But it's Peyton Frickin' Manning's big game, and they won, so he must be the MVP. Wrong.
"In other football news, trailing 17-10, with 4:47 remaining, the Packers reached first-and-goal at the Bills' 1. Green Bay had rushed for an average of 4.9 yards per carry, against one of the league's weakest rush defenses. Thus if the Packers simply slammed the ball forward once or twice, the tying touchdown was nearly certain. Instead pass, interception run 76 yards the other way and the Bills scored the game-icing touchdown a few snaps later. What was going on? Brett Favre at that point needed 14 touchdown passes to take the NFL career record away from Dan Marino. Rather than make the high-percentage call to tie the game, the Packers' coaches seemingly made a call calculated to help Favre get ...
First and goal at the one-yard line, and you call a quick slant? Oh, by the way, the running game was ripping of CHUNKS of yardage against a tired defense the whole drive. Did McCarthy lose a bet to Favre this week? Unreal. The fact that I have Ahman Green - who should have had two touchdowns today - has nothing to do with the intense rage I am feeling right now.
Spare me the usual "OMG! A NEW POST" comments. Yesterday in Fantasy Football action, The Angry Beavers (my team) were down early against It's Go Time! (Chris Ahrens) by a score of 31 to -6. That's negative six points. That score more or less was the same until close to halftime. This was an important game for me, as I am the #1 team in the league, and it was a divisional matchup. So things were not looking well. Fast-forward a few hours, and I'm leading by a score of 108-89. Greatest. Comeback. Ever. A very special thank you goes out to Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Gates, Mr. Green, and Mr. Moss.
For the first time in a long time, I took part in two Fantasy Football leagues this year. In the Chuckfest league, which is commonly referred to as "The Masters League" because of the quality of competition, I finished out of the playoffs for the second straight year. (Which makes me 2-for-5 with a 2nd place in the last 5 years). Back in August, I received a frantic phone call from Chris Ahrens asking if I wanted to join his work league - they were 1 guy short. I hemmed and hawwed for a moment, but then he told me that I'd be getting the 2nd pick in the draft, so I agreed. The format was more or less the same ...
The far-and-away best game on the NFL schedule today is the Indianapolis Colts vs the San Diego Chargers. 95% of the American public will get to see that game. Here in Milwaukee ? We get the frickin' Minnesotta Vikings game. Apparently, that's our "market". Bullshit! Congress wants to get involved in sports (steroids, BCS...)? Here's something for you - step in and do something about the unfair monopoly the NFL has given DirecTV with their "Sunday Ticket" package. Extend that to cable operators, either on a subscription or Pay-Per-View basis.
Fantasy Football, for the uneducated, is a relatively simple game. You and anywere from 9 to 13 of your friends take turns "drafting" NFL players. Each week, you play one of your friends' teams head-to-head. You score points based on your draftees' performance: Brett Farve is on your team, and he throws a touchdown pass? That's 3 points for you. Farve thows an interception? You lose 2. In short, fantasy football changes the way you watch the game. Forever. When you're watching a game on TV, the most important thing on the screen isn't the action, it's the ticker. (Washington just scored a touchdown? Was it my running back?) This has been my 10th year of fantasy football. I've been incredibly fortunate ...
Redskins ball, 3rd and 10. Brunell throws a 40+ yard touchdown to Clinton Portis. Packers are about to go down by 1 with about 2 minutes remaining. The first thing that goes through my head as Clinton Portis is rumbling into the end zone is "Yes!!!". Then I realize Green Bay is about to lose the game. After a penalty on Washington, the touchdown is called back. And I'm not sure how I feel about it. After taking a look at the score of my game, I decide that the 10 points on that play wouldn't have made that much of a difference, and resign myself to cheering for the Packers' victory. This is what Fantasy Football does to you.
I received an e-mail yesterday from ESPN regarding the renewal of our Fantasy Football League service (related posts). Let me sum up our collective experience with ESPN last season: "crap". The previous season, based on the recommendations of Dan, we went with RT Sports. All in all, that went pretty well. Occassionally, their real-time scoring was a little slow, but other than that, they were very reliable. Before the start of the 2002/2003 season, I got an e-mail from ESPN announcing their new service. I thought about it for a while, and assumed that the application would be as tight as the rest of their site. And, I thought that ...
This past Friday night, I participated in the latest of Craig's Video Game Day tournaments. The game, once again, was Madden 2004. The twist was, the rosters were updated (by hand) to reflect the free-agent signings that have occured since the end of the season. Eariler last week, names were drawn at random to determine the picking order, and I was lucky enough to draw the #1 seed. In addition to picking first, that also meant that I was assured a seat at the Big TV (42" Hi-Def), instead of playing on a 15-incher. After giving it about 45 seconds of thought, I decided to go with the Eagles (Redskins were my next choice). I ...