Fantasy Football Draft Day: Where Fantasy Ends and Reality Begins

After months of nervous anticipation and careful planning, it has finally arrived.

Draft day!

The day that has become one of the greatest joys of your life, rivaled only by "Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition" day and "All You Can Eat Chili Chalupa" day, but without all the napkins.

You have an overflowing stack of fantasy football magazines by your side, each one dog-eared and stained with various condiments. Or perhaps vomit.

You have your favorite beverage, coincidentally labeled "Genuine Draft".

You have a full bladder. (Unfortunately, you really enjoy your favorite beverage.)

And you have the heart of a winner, the will of a master, and the confidence of a champion.

Oh you poor fool...you are so going down in flames again this year.

Because as any veteran fantasy football owner will tell you, you can dream all you want about your drafting skills, and grace under pressure, and good fortune—but come fantasy football draft day, well...reality bites.

Here's how.

"Fantasy" Football—You take a vacation day, block out your calendar, and pack all the items you will need weeks in advance in order to be on time and prepared for your fantasy football draft.

"Reality" Football—On the day of the draft, you wait over three hours to begin drafting because one owner overslept, one had the wrong day written down and two decided that they didn't want to play this year but forgot to tell anyone.

"Fantasy" Football—You spend four months pouring over fantasy football magazines and websites in an effort to be more prepared than the other owners in your league.

"Reality" Football—In the heat of the moment, you mistakenly blow the second overall pick in the draft when you shout out gleefully, "Adrian Peterson, Chicago Bears!" then spend the rest of the draft desperately trying to scoop up third-tier running backs while ignoring the cackles and laughter of the other owners in your league.

"Fantasy" Football—You agonize over the merits of the RB-RB drafting method versus the Value-Based drafting method and decide at the very last minute that VBD is the way to go.

"Reality" Football—You can't believe your good fortune when Tony Gonzalez, a player with an incredible 181 VBD score, falls to you in the third round. That is until you realize that the first "1" in his VBD score is actually an eyelash on your cheat sheet, which blows off as the owner to your left falls all over himself drafting Tony Romo.

"Fantasy" Football—You surreptitiously enjoy the furtive looks and shaking heads of the other owners in your league after selecting Steven Jackson, who has miraculously fallen to you in the third round.

"Reality" Football—On the drive home, you tune the radio to your favorite sports station and hear a day old report announcing that the St. Louis Rams were concerned about Jackson's latest knee troubles, and that amputation hadn't been ruled out.

"Fantasy" Football—You know that getting stuck with the 12th pick for the last three years in a row means that the odds of getting into the top half of the first round with a chance to nab Tom Brady this year are pretty reasonable.

"Reality" Football—With the 12th pick in the draft, you select Larry Johnson.

Yep, draft day is one of the greatest days of the year.

Just remember, it's not called "fantasy" football for nothing.