A Fantasy Come True

January 14, 2004

For the first time in five years of competition, I have finally won a Fantasy Football league. Pejman and Roger made quite a run in the last few weeks, but, when it counted, my team overcame their charge. I had a simple yet effective strategy: draft the best running back, quarterback, and wide receiver in the league, and have no injuries throughout the entire season. It may not be as risky as other strategies (e.g., Brandon’s: leaving injured players in for weeks at a time; Ryan: letting the computer pick your team during the draft; Brian/Josh: only drafting players on the Pittsburgh Steelers or who went to University of Pittsburgh), but in the end, I’m happy with my team’s performance. I found it refreshing to see Richard place 4th this year, well above his usual reserved spot at the bottom of the standings, but I must say I was disappointed to find Steve and Jen in the middle of the pack. Pejman started the year off horribly but made his now famous mid-season trade with Brian/Josh to get Marshall Faulk and turn his season around. Overall, it was a very competitive season and I look forward to more fantasy wars in the future.

Here are the final statistics and my championship team:

1. Wally 1639.44 (Me)
2. ANQUAN BOLDIN! 1604.74 (Pejman)
3. Kobe+ZenMaster=3some 1588.03 (Roger)
4. Cards want Eli 1583. (Richard)
5. PejsMaddenBitch 1527.09 (Greg)
6. Un-Buh-Lievable. 1511.15 (Jen)
7. Pejman choking? 1494.19 (Steve)
8. kekich 1420.32 (Kekich)
9. Macular Degeneration 1419.03 (Brian/Josh)
10. Flutie flakes 1367.56 (uknown)
11. Jets = #1 picK 1235.72 (Ryan Q.)
12. KnockKneedNumbSkulls 1078.79 (Brandon)

Offense
QB Manning, PeytonP (QB-Ind)
WR Holt, Torry (WR-StL)
WR Smith, Steve (WR-Car)
WR Kennison, Eddie (WR-KC)
RB Williams, Moe (RB-Min)
RB Holmes, Priest (RB-KC)
TE Becht, Anthony (TE-NYJ)
K Stover, Matt (K-Bal) K Pit
Bench Johnson, Kevin (WR-Jac)
Bench Brown, TimP (WR-Oak)
Bench Bettis, JeromeP (RB-Pit)
Bench Kitna, Jon (QB-Cin)

Defense Players
D Winfield, Antoine (DB-Buf)
DL Farrior, James (DL-Pit)
DL Nguyen, Dat (DL-Dal)
DB Jackson, Dexter (DB-Ari)
DB Warfield, EricD (DB-KC)
Bench Urlacher, Brian (DL-Chi)
Bench Trufant, Marcus (DB-Sea)

There was a variety of random sports stuff that I wanted to talk about today, but then I thought to myself: why wouldn’t you just go to ESPN.com if you really wanted to know this information? (notice the use of italics to infer thought…clever, no?) Well, anyhow, I thought this stuff was interesting enough to mention, and since my opinion is generally regarded as fact, we can end this discussion here.

ESPN football analyst Sean Salisbury has been offered the job of quarterback coach of the Cardinals under new head coach Dennis Green. This is a frightening prospect given Mr. Salisbury’s inability to articulate or comprehend rational thought.

Philadelphia Flyer Jeremy Roenick will be suspended one game for throwing a bottle at a referee before Tuesday night’s game.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Greg Robinson resigned two days after failing to come close to stopping Peyton Manning and the Colts in a playoff game. “It’s tough to say goodbye to Greg,” coach Dick Vermeil said Tuesday while fighting back tears. Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.

it was reported on ESPN that Luke Walton did not play for the Lakers last night for what was listed as a “Coach’s Decision”. It was unclear what this “decision” was based on, but then I viewed Mr. Walton’s statistics and found the reasoning to be fairly clear: PPG 1.8, RPG 0.9, APG 1.1