Day: August 10, 2006

Ok… most of you won’t give two shits about this post. However, a couple of you (I’m looking at you Adam and George) might find it interesting. Besides, this is my deal. If you don’t like it… well, you get what you pay for.

Base rules for our league. We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 Def. and have 5 Bench players of any position. Pretty standard. We’re also a keeper league, meaning we had to keep 3 players from our last year’s team. This means that right off get go, the top 30 players are already gone (we have 10 owners). So, this makes it a little more interesting (and difficult). I had 2 guys that were easy keepers, Tom Brady and Marvin Harrison. After that it was a little dicey. I had to decide between Willis McGahee or Brian Westbrook. All of the top ten running backs were ‘kept’ so getting a somewhat top RB was imparative. I don’t think Westbrook will survive the season, so I went with McGahee. I’ll probably regret that.

Adam, when we started drafting, all of the players you told me about were kept, Ronnie Brown, Chambers and Culpepper.

My first pick, which was fourth pick in what was essentially the 4th round, I took Willie Parker. Best running back available. I’m not terribily thrilled with that pick either.

Next round: Darrell Jackson. Decent pickup for the 5th round. Provided he can stay healthy. I owned Hasselbeck 2 years ago when Jackson dropped probably 5 touchdown passes. Killed me. Time for him to pay me back.
6th round: Joseph Addai. Went with Adam’s advice on that one. Go rookie running back!

7th: Jeremy Shockey. I’m really surprised he fell that far. Ranked #2 TE on my sheets.

8th: Carolina D. I like that pick. They’re supposed to be good.

9th: Donte’ Stallworth. Could have a big year with Brees in town. Especially if Horn is double covered.

10th: David Carr as my backup QB. Only need him for one week, but if Kubiak can get him in the right direction, might be interesting in the keeper league.

11th: David Givens now in Tennessee. Pretty decent pick at this point

12th: Lawrence Maroney, rookie running back in New England playing behind 2 well worn backs who probably won’t stay healthy. Might be another good keeper pick.

13th: Brandon Lloyd. Did well in SF on a terrible team last year. Wash. should be able to boost his stats a little.

14th: Kicker time… Jason Elam.

15th: Flyer on Greg Jones. Probably won’t see much of the field, but he’s mainly a place filler.

All in all, I’m not horribily disappointed. I would much rather have had a top 10 running back. Somehow, Commisioner Hedges has 2 top 4 running backs, Tiki Barber and Larry Johnson. He’ll probably win again. Bastard.

One thing you always like to hear when you’re drafting is after you make a pick, is a guy or two giving a dissapointed grunt. Meaning, they were sitting on that guy planning on drafting him. So, its just a little confirmation that you’re NOT crazy for taking him. Plus, its always good to get the “that is a strong pick” comments when they’re being serious. We’re pretty friendly, so there isn’t a whole lot of backstabbing or anything.

So, we’re done drafting. Everyone thinks their team can win if they catch a few breaks. Optimism is at an all time high. Of course, after week one and you get 2 players injured, and 3 others do absolutely nothing you’re damn near hari kari.

If anyone wants to see the other teams makeups you can go to our league homepage.
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/255026

Commish said he’d have the teams entered either tonight or tomorrow.

Feel free to critique my complete lack of knowledge of the NFL if you so desire. I’m just happy football is back around.

On a completely unrelated note, there was a huge windstorm that blew through town this evening. Apparently, 16,000 homes in the North End are have no power and there is no estimate of when they’ll be back up. Is it wrong that I take just a slight bit of glee in this? It’s not that I wish hardship on anyone, but power outages is just an inconveinece. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people( /sarcasm ) Stupid and petty I know, but still…

Ugh… it happens tonight. I cannot tell you how UNprepared I am. We ususally do it later in the month, but our commissioner had to do it today to fit all 10 guys schedules. He informed us of this 2 days ago. I just really haven’t had enough time to get into the nitty gritty of what’s predicted and so on.

Then again, it could well be argued that I don’t really know what I’m doing even when I have plenty of time to prepare. And to those people I say…. well… you’re right. In 7 years I’ve never won. One year I lead most of the season, only to be bounced in the first round of the playoffs. That was my one flirtation with glory.

The rest of the time, I’ve been ending careers. Hence, my team name has been CareerEndingInjuries. It all began back in the first season we were playing. I had drafted Vinny Testeverde as my #1 quarterback. (This was back when he was supposed to have a huge season for the Jets). Week one. First quarter. He drops back to pass… nobody touches him… and ruptures his achillies tendon. Done for the year. Since that time, I have decimated guys. It has gotten to the point that the other guys in the league beg me not to draft players from their favorite teams. I wish I had kept a list of all the players that went down for the season when I had them. There are usually at least 2 or 3 on my team every year. I got Marshall Faulk a couple years ago… I think he ended up playing like 5 games. I’ve had ‘fragile’ Freddie Taylor (twice) and he got hurt both years. I had the Carolina backfield the season that both Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster had their seasons ended.

I’ve had ACL’s, I’ve had Turf Toe. I’ve had broken collar bones. I’ve had drug suspensions. You name a way to lose a guy for the season, I’ve managed to own those very guys. I’ve had guys get injured, then the guy I replace him with get injured. I’m the NFL’s grim reaper.

So, if there are any teams or players you specifically want to see gone for the year, just let me know. Maybe I’ll draft them and put my curse on them.

I’ll write up a post-mortem of my draft when its finished. Not that anyone really cares about your fantasy team, but dammit, this is my space and I’ll use it how I see fit.

“I’m going to go get directions to our next huge embarassing failure” – Richard Hayden, Tommy Boy