About 10 years ago, I got into Fantasy Football. No one knows this, but I actually invented fantasy sports at a church lock-in in the early 90’s. We called it “card basketball” where we would pick players cards and see who could come up with the best team statistically. If I had stuck with it….well, that’s a story for another day. Anyway, I spent my bachelor party participating in our first(maybe second) fantasy football draft. All I know is Kenny Hanna took Warrick Dunn, a rookie at the time, with the fourth overall pick. Ironically, rookie Peyton Manning wasn’t even drafted, but I did pick him up late in the season and he lead me to the title. The next season I had to pick between him and Kurt Warner on who to keep. Let’s just say, I made a poor decision and compounded it by trading Randy Moss for David Boston and a kicker. All the seasons are running together so I’m not sure if both these horrendous decisions were made in the same season or not. I rarely finish in the middle. I’m either first, second, or last. I guess I got a little Ricky Bobby in me. This year, I’m participating in 6 fantasy football leagues. 2 are with strangers on ESPN, and the other 4 are with people I know. Laugh all you want, but I know a guy who had to report over $15,000 in fantasy football income one year on his taxes. Granted, I’m not in any “money leagues” because all the guys still owe me from year one. Most of the time you can’t tell how good a team is gonna be by their draft(especially if your top 2 RB’s and first 2 picks go down with injuries within the first 3 weeks not that I’m still bitter, Larry Johnson and Deuce McCalister) so any hopeful feelings must be kept in check. After the first 4 drafts I am fairly pleased. When you somehow get Adrian Petersen with the third pick then maybe it’s okay to starta hoping. I can honestly say I have followed my gameplan in each one to a T. I’ve got two more drafts coming up. I actually have 4 spots left in a keeper league I’m doing on ESPN. If you have no clue what that last sentence means then please don’t respond. I won’t take the time to explain how Fantasy Football works, but I will close with an illustration of how it affects the way you watch the game. In season 1 of the former SWU Flukes League, my roommate, Clark Camp, and I ordered Sunday Ticket from DirectTV so we could follow our fantasy players. During week 1 we found ourselves watching the Seattle Seahawks beat someone 30-0. I think we watched the whole 4th quarter of that game because if they got the shutout then Matt Rampey was going to win his matchup that week. I will say I don’t miss doing all the scoring on a spreadsheet while reading the box scores from USA Today. Two computer crashes wiped out the history of our league, but now, thanks to the internet, I can relive every heart wrenching moment from my online leagues. If not for Patrick Jeffers, I would have been a back to back champion those first 2 years. He scored 3 TD’s for the Panthers to give Aaron Rampey the title and then never scored another TD in his career due to injury. Not that anyone is keeping score.
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That brings back memories. I looked up that Seattle game you referenced and it was between them and Philadelphia. Seattle was already winning 38-0 and their defense had totally destroyed Philly’s offense, led by Bobby Hoying. They had racked up 9 sacks and 3 turnovers, and a return TD. We gave 10 points for a shutout so Aaron, who had Seattle’s D and just happened to be playing against me that week, was racking up huge points. Meanwhile, I had Philly’s kicker, who had gotten me nothing so far. With seconds remaining, Philly lined up for a “meaningless” (only if you weren’t playing fantasy football) 50+ yard field goal. Not only did he miss it, which meant a possible 5 points for me was gone, but Seattle blocked it, thus ensuring that Aaron got the 10 points for the shutout, but also some points for a block. It was something like a 17 point swing.
Thanks to Matt for clearing up the details on what was an exciting day of fantasy football viewing. He proves my point on how it changes the way you watch games and how big a part of you life it becomes. Matt, just let me know if this trip down memory lane gave you the FF itch again.