Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby

Here is the much anticipated return of Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby to Sports As Life:


The playoffs are here… well in 2 of my leagues anyway. Yahoo and espn start their playoffs in Week 14, yahoo has 8 teams in the hunt espn only 4.

My Espn league was an autodraft, was free and I didn’t know anyone in it so I paid little attention to it… I had Boldin as my #2 wr…oops. Also had kolby smith start instead of 3 other starting rb’s.. oops. I was really surprised it was playoffs, but even more surprised when I came away with the W.

This guy had Westbrook, T.O. Adrain Peterson. Those 3 players can win weeks by themselves..but not this week. It was close and if it weren’t for the fact that GB was playing the lowly raiders I would have lost but the 26 points by the DEF gave me a 5 point victory. On paper he had the better team and probably 6-7 times out of 10 he would win, but it’s not a huge upset. He went 10-3, I went 9-4-1 (stupid ties)

My other league it was a different case…..It’s a keeper league that costs money… I was the favorite to win... he beat me early on because of a monster performance by Rocky Mcintosh. I played him in week 13 won 144 to 96, I had high hopes. I’m sitting at work (only place I could at least log on) and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

He got great performances from Kevin Jones, and Andre Johnson... even his defense (Ernie Simms) lit it up. What was worse he had Rivers, who when I got here had thrown 2 int’s and Collins was taking snaps…"Yes" was my reaction, then later I find out rivers comes back in…oh oh….but he throws a pick…. I’m already thinking of ways to harass this guy over Rivers performance….. then I watched the screen to see rivers complete long touchdown drives and rack up the points…"damn you Rivers, somebody cover Chambers or Gates or something", screams could be heard through the hallways.

My team or certain players like Housh, Gore, Cribbs, my top notch D... with names like Morrison, Tatupu, Witherspoon, Willis all stunk it up. Another 1st round defeat leaves me questioning why do I participate in fantasy football. I started writing this before the Sunday night game, then sitting in some bar watching the game I suddenly loved football again, I watched Addai get 3 td’s and Wayne also get 1 to put me ahead by 15 points…. Thank you Baltimore!

Which brings me to the format of play. I’m not sure what is the best.. I’m in one league that there is no head to head, it’s just points: team with the most points at the end of the year wins.

This eliminates having the 2nd highest score in your league but still getting the L. Or not being the lucky guy who plays the loser of the group twice (loser either because of injuries or bad trades or starting people on byes).

Now in this league it is skewed because the top player has Randy Moss and Brady and after 14 weeks is like 300 points ahead of everyone. At first I didn’t like the idea too much but it is starting to grow on me, you really have to pick the right players/match-ups. Case in point #2-#5 are within 40 points of each other… If I had started Kevin Jones this past week, I’d be 8 points behind 2nd….. not bad after starting out dead last with Brees, Leinart tossing up negative points. However KJ has a reputation now of next to 0, 20 points, 0 , 20, ?? I’m guessing 0 this week but without Merriman who knows.

The yahoo league is alright, the final game will be played week 16 which is good. 8 of the 12 teams make the playoffs though. As the #2 in the league I don’t like this one but, I had a 11-2 record, the guy I was playing 7-6. He may have had some close games, but really he squeaked in and if I didn’t have Addai get 22 points I lose the week because of his usual mediocre players did better than expected, and my top players didn’t do anything.

This format also rewards the bad teams because they are at the top of the waiver list, so now Reggie Bush is out the Stecker sweeps begin. Well some guy at the bottom will pick him up and knock off a top team who probably has a very similar line up to when he started. If I’m at the bottom I love this format, upset special right.

Our NFL.com league is not bad 12 teams and 4 make the playoffs and it’s played week 15-16…. It may be the only thing good about that league. It would be better if I made the playoffs but being the 11th ranked coach doesn’t help.

Part 2 of this starts tues afternoon, just after going to the above mentioned ESPN site to see if the guy I defeated was crying or not. Turns out there’s a new twist, a European football twist. It looks like I play him again this week, then the 2 weeks are combined and a winner decided that way. I think this is stupid! Mostly cause I now will lose. Also 2 week playoff game… come on… then the final is based on week 16-17…I hate the idea of having playoff games determined on the 17th week... performances can be skewed so easily.

So for next year the format that I would like to see … I think money should also be involved, makes my format easier to understand.

6 teams make the playoffs. #1 and #2 get byes… have to rest their players after all. Chances are #3 and #6 are fairly close so it should be a good match up, if 6 comes out with a win probably no whining.

Then for that team who has a horrible draft or horrible luck…. Have a loser bowl. Another league I’m in does this. So 12 teams in the league 1-6 play for 80% of the cash, 7-12 play for 20%. That way even if your at the bottom you still have something to go for.

Good luck to CH this week, I hope you beat the Crushers. You may not need this advice but…. Don’t start Norwood….don’t own Norwood….until Dunn retires he’s not going to be worth anything. I’d also consider benching Bowe…. He had a good stretch but with Haynesworth going after Brodie or whoever is QB, Bowe may not see many touches. I have no clue why but Jabar is still available.