Fantasy Football is Fantastic
Every Sunday, I flip open my laptop and track my game within the NFL’s games.
Photo: kcondemand.com
On Mondays, I usually watch the primetime stragglers that will decide who gets the “W” that will make the week’s preparations a success.
On Tuesday, I comb Yahoo’s list of who got thrown to how many times to see if anyone on the waiver wire is worth picking up. The rest of the week is spent exchanging e-mails and keeping my trade rumors from the other owners in my league while I tinker with my roster before Sunday’s kickoff at noon.
I play in four fantasy football leagues.
Hi, my name is David. I have a problem.
In case you don’t play, the concept is fairly simple. Before the season begins, I bring my sealed manila envelope filled with my notes from, quite literally, weeks of preparation and reading and get together with 11 of my friends. The 12 of us draft a team with 15 players, and based on the on-field production of our best nine or so players, our teams get points. The most points for that week’s game between the two teams wins.
It gets more complex, but if you aren’t already playing, I’m sure you don’t care.
July has arrived. It’s time to read and assess who I like and don’t like in relation to where most “experts” believe players should be drafted this season. More importantly, it’s time to devise a snarky, semi-offensive name for my team and league.
I’ve been able to do this without guilt and self-loathing for a little more than 24 hours. It didn’t take much of that time to figure out that this will be a unique season.
I serve as commissioner for a league composed of some friends from high school. My other three leagues are made up of owners from two distinct social groups at Missouri.
Since the majority of the owners in my leagues at Missouri have graduated, it’s doubtful we’ll be able to meet up and draft without the help of the Internet. My league at home’s offline draft is still up in the air.
Unlike the passive social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, which just chronicle our existence, fantasy football forces me to keep in contact with people I might not get a chance to see until one of us dies or gets married. (This is the point in the post where someone makes a dated joke about the two not being much different.) My leagues can get intensely competitive at times. It’s not unusual to wake up to ten e-mails when a late-night lopsided trade comes across our league wire. That won’t go away. That competition used to be the best part. This year, I’m not so sure.
I’d heard of the phenomenon before, but never really thought about it until now. I’m excited to finally experience it for myself, and be glad I have a competitive outlet, to give me chances to interact with the people who have made the last seven years of my life so memorable. A league bulletin board post making me laugh out loud is a daily occurrence in almost every one of those leagues. I don’t see that changing.
Rarely do trade negotiations begin without a little small talk. I bet that small talk is a little bigger this season.
Something amazing to do on July 3
The Oklahoma City Museum of Arts is showing “In a Dream.” It’s a captivating documentary about artist Isaiah Zagar, who made a 50,000-square foot mural out of glass and tile. Basically, the film is an honest and artsy freakout. See for yourself below.
The film is showing at 5:30 p.m and 8 p.m. on Friday, July 3.
IN A DREAM: Extended Trailer from Herzliya Films on Vimeo.
TRAILER WATCH: “The Informant”
Matt Damon joins director Steven Soderbergh (Oceans Trilogy) to play a spy that’s the opposite of Jason Bourne. Give it a look.
Beck posts free DJ set
AP PHOTO
“(It’s) a laminated miasma colliding on the bavarian trans expressway with american analog and voicemail emeritus… alabama nukes, rhineland jukes, pony tailed arch dukes, and the anatomically correct scapegoat…”
Al Franken wins Minnesota Senate seat
AP PHOTO
I remember Franken from his run as Stuart Smalley on SNL. I hope his political career fares better than his political ads. Click here for more info.
TRAILER WATCH: “Spread”
Nikki (Ashton Kutcher) plays a Hollywood playboy with a voice that sounds so incredibly stuck up that I needed valet parking to merely watch the trailer below.
MGMT and Karen O join the Flaming Lips
Photo by: Nathan Poppe
“I think you have to be willing just to completely destroy yourself and just see what comes out of the dirt.”
TOP FIVE most interesting ways Billy Mays pitched items
Pitchman Billy Mays died yesterday, but his entertaining commercials will live on in my brain forever. It’s mostly because he yelled at me so loudly, but also because his commercials were always creative. Here are five examples of how Billy Mays made his products more interesting than the stuff in your house.
5. Using an American flag in a wind tunnel (35 seconds into commercial)
4. Using a gardening tool to mix paint (1:12 into commercial)
3. Driving a drill straight into tile (36 seconds into commericial)
2. Embarrassing the same toilet brush twice (beginning and end of commercial)
1. Turning into a human washing machine (46 seconds into commercial)
Michael Jackson, you will be missed
I definitely can say no one expected Michael Jackson would die today. When the news began to flood once doctors announced Jackson died of cardiac arrest, I was surprised to see how many people seemed to be affected by it. He truly was a beloved performer, even though he was slightly off.
He may have been a little eccentric but you can’t deny he was a hit maker. The best music of the 80’s came out of this man, and we all know how I feel about the 80’s. Plus, he was completely adorable when he was in the Jackson 5, as you can see below.
Today was a sad day in Hollywood. RIP Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
Coyote Ugly Opening Night
A girl dances in high heels during the opening of Coyote Ugly in Oklahoma City Wednesday, June 24, 2009. Photo by Ashley McKee, The Oklahoman
Christina Clark, a bartender, smiles at a customer during the opening of Coyote Ugly in Oklahoma City Wednesday, June 24, 2009. Photo by Ashley McKee, The Oklahoman
