Beginner's Luck

So there are a few people that are just going to cringe when they see this post--if they see this post. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Byron and Sammy. Also, fair warning that this is not one of my normal "photo album" type blog entries. Just a couple pictures of a cute football player I know and a lot of words.

This is the overdue Fantasy Football post. Now, growing up my Dad watched a lot of sports. Really--probably every televised sport. I don't remember soccer--but maybe it wasn't televised back then. So, I liked watching sports with my Dad, especially baseball, the World Series and all that. Basketball was a favorite because we actually have the Trailblazers and they even won a Championship when I was a kid. I also liked watching tennis and golf. There were two sports, however, that I really didn't care for, and those were boxing and football. Boxing is horrible (and I still think so) and I just never could understand the intrigue of football. One year when Michael was in Law School studying 24/7, I was SO BORED I decided to watch the Super Bowl. Oh yeah, that was a good three hours totally wasted. What a horribly boring game and I'm sure they didn't have cool commercials every 5 minutes like they do now. I actually called my Dad and said what a stupid, boring game and he said "well, you can't judge football by the Super Bowl--that is usually the most mismatched worthless game of the year" and I thought: How good can this sport be if the culmination of the entire season is the worst game of the year--what is the point?

When Joey was born, my Dad gave him a stuffed football and I said: (and here is where words come back to bite you in the ass)... "no kid of mine will EVER play football".

Anyway, years passed and, of course, Joey never did play football, but as EVERYONE knows Sammy adores the sport and he begged to play from the minute he found out that when he got to 3rd grade he could play tackle football. We were told by friends that football has the best conditioning and that with all the pads and helmet and everything (and at 3rd grade) it was actually safer than baseball--and Sammy REALLY wanted to play, so I gave in.

Apparently tough football players aren't allowed to smile

Sammy played football for five years. Why did he stop? Six foot, 250 pound 7th grade linemen-- on the other team--of course. In the end, Sammy is a self preservationist and we are very happy that he is.

Meanwhile, football started to grow on me... a little. When I started watching football on TV with Sammy, I started to enjoy it a little more. Then, Andy got a GTT Fantasy Football Team up and running this past Fall. I, actually and ironically, did not make the cut of those at GTT that were invited to manage their own team (and its not like we are a big company or anything, but I digress). Sammy (The Killa Beasts) and Michael (Patent Justice) had their own teams. I quickly became interested in how the whole Fantasy Football phenomenon worked. I, of course, was rooting for Sammy. Anyway, Michael could see my growing interest in Fantasy Football and about 3 weeks into the 16 week season he asked me to help him co-Manage his team. Well, just like everything else around here, once I got involved, Michael decided I could do all the work and he would just sit back and be the silent partner. For the first couple weeks I relied heavily on Michael and Sammy to help me manage the team, but then, I realized, the whole thing is about 90% luck (Byron says 50% luck, 50% skill) but I stand firm with my 90% luck, 10% skill. And guess what.... well, we won (and its not like we had a really awesome team or anything)! So, I, someone who barely tolerated football most of my life, and who has absolutely no knowledge or background regarding football players or positions or teams was able to beat 9 full grown football loving Men (well, 7 full grown men and a couple of 15 year olds). How does that happen? LUCK, that's how. And, yes, I bask in the glory of "my" win.