This year is my 15th in my fantasy football league, which means that I've been playing fantasy football longer than some of my readers have been alive. And yes, this disturbs me as much as you might think.
Still, I press on, even as I part of me thinks it might be time to move on. Believe me, there have been more than a few occassions in the past several years when I thought about giving it up. But then I get the same email I've been getting since around 1996, and I think of what it might be like to actually miss draft night.
Of course, FF isn't quite the social outlet it used to be. When I started with the league, already in its third season at the time, we actually published a weekly newsletter filled with plenty of smack talk. And because not everyone in the league had email, we'd call in our add/drops and lineups on the commissioner's answering machine, and usually be calling all day Tuesday for "da commish" to compile all the scores. Just hit #1 and you'd get the recording.
This meant timing your calls correctly when nobody was home -- but that didn't always work out, which is how I got to know the commissioner's wife. Heck, I even got a blind date out of it once (and no, I won't be writing about it tonight, or any other for that matter).
Now that everything is done online, those social binds have begun to fray. Two owners who used to be local relocated to New York and L.A., so they and another local who couldn't get out of his house actually drafted online while the rest of us got together at the commissioner's house. Of course, this just presaged the day when we were all drafting online -- something that's a little sad given that draft day is the only time when we get together anymore.
Did I neglect to mention that I'm the only owner in the league who hasn't been married yet, and I'm one of three who have yet to have any kids yet?
To some of you, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm complaining. Then again, I'm wondering.
In any case, here's the 2006 lineup for my Farragut Square Torpedoes. I'm pretty happy with the way things shook out this year:
E. Manning QB
M. Vick QB
R. Brown RB
C. Taylor RB
T. Bell RB
T. Jones RB
S. Smith WR
T. Glenn WR
S. Moss WR
M. Jones WR
R. Smith WR
K. Winslow TE
D. Akers K
R. Longwell K
D. Colts DST
Normally, I like to carry two defenses and two tight ends, but I was able to grab Winslow so late in the draft that I feel comfortable just grabbing somebody off the waiver wire to fill in for a week. Ditto with the team defense. I wrapped up an easy win in Week One, which was actually pretty lucky as Steve Smith, my top draft pick at #10 in the first round, was out with a hamstring injury and I started Thomas Jones instead of Chester Taylor at running back.
It's been eight years since I won a title, and I feel like I'm due. We'll see.
