One Out of Three: the Ultimate Fantasy

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

My fourth round pick was a result of me hitting the panic button with the QB run that was happening.  With Brady, Brees, Romo, Manning, Palmer, and Roethlisberger already gone, I was determined not to get stuck with the likes of Brett “The Jet” Favre or David Garrad, and with Jay Cutler the furthest name from my head and apparently, MY MAGAZINE, I selected Donovan McNabb. 

I then, of course, talked myself into the pick, even gloated about it.  “He can’t be as bad as last year, right?”  As it turned out he wasn’t and he was actually pretty serviceable most weeks, it’s just that Phillip Rivers, Cutler, Rodgers, and Warner all outperformed him and were all taken significantly later. 

As the draft continued, I selected Antonio Gates, Ronnie Brown, Jonathon Stewart, Lendale White, Bears Defense, etc. 

Bottom line, I was pleased with myself and I thought this is a winning team, if reasonably healthy and Darren McFadden doesn’t completely crap the bed. 

I didn’t count on Brady getting injured in week one, Tony Romo pretending Terrell Owens didn’t exist, McFadden’s lingering turf toe injury, combined with him playing for a franchise that’s run like a stale buffet, Ronnie Brown looking like Barry Sanders one week and Barry Pepper the next, and Devin Hester pulling a Houdini in the Bears special teams. 

What burns me the most is that I wasn’t at all wrong about rookie running backs; I just took the wrong ones.  Matt Forte, Steve Slaton, and Chris Johnson all performed for their owners on a consistent basis.  The season ended with the two seed (top seed gets bye) in my division, fist pumping that I made the playoffs so he could play/murder me in the first round.

 BASKETBALL-$100.00

I had just come off my first basketball championship the prior year, headlined by Lebron James and Josh Smith and being that it’s probably my best of the three fantasy sports that I play, I went into the draft feeling like a million bucks. 

I left the draft feeling like a billion, but mostly due to the inordinate amount of Maker’s Mark I had consumed.  I drafted eighth overall and took Dirk Nowitzki.

I followed that pick up with Caron Butler, Kevin Martin, Carmelo Anthony, Ray Allen, Corey Maggette, Emeka Okafor, Greg Oden, Marvin Williams, Shaquille O’ Neal, Jeff Green, Nene, and Russell Westbrook. 

Once again, I felt that my team, barring serious injuries, was getting me to payday. 

Like football, I was able to eventually climb into the playoffs, but lost in the second round.  I can only rationalize my loss with injuries that were constant and oddly enough happening in a weird rotation, where I never actually had a fully healthy team—ever. 

In a Nine Category Yahoo Basketball League health is everything, considering you essentially play everybody on your team throughout the course of a week. 

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