During the past pro football season, I played Fantasy Football for the first time. An old friend, Ryan, whom I've known since seventh grade, invited me to join the league for which he serves as commissioner, FootballFever! I am always so busy, but it sounded like fun and I thought it might spice up the season, a bit, so I accepted the invitation and joined.
I'm not like some people, who operate a dozen or more fantasy teams at a time. I mean, I'm a sports fanatic, but I'm not crazy! I went with just one team. For a team name, I chose Coleman Isms, which is a reference to sports broadcaster (and former New York Yankee second baseman) Jerry Coleman... no relation to me! You see, the junior high school where I met Ryan is in San Diego. Jerry Coleman, the longtime voice of the San Diego Padres, has a tendency to form memorable malaprops... slips of the tongue while he's trying to inform his audience. Some of his quotes ("Winfield hits his head against the wall!... It's rolling towards second base!!!") have become legendary, and are known to San Diegans as Colemanisms. I first used the name Coleman Isms for a tabletop baseball league (Pursue the Pennant) that I was in many years ago. I even created a logo and had it transferred onto a button, back then. So, I dug out the button, scanned it, and I had a pretty credible-looking logo for my new venture!
The first step was to rate the players at each position. The computer program for NFL Fantasy Football would then use these ratings, along with the draft order determined by the commissioner, to draft a roster of 15 players (or defenses) for each team in the league. I would play with 15 other guys and gals. The league was arranged into four divisions. My team was in Division 1. Each team owner would play a game in a given NFL week against another team, choosing 9 "players" (1 QB, 2 RBs, 2WRs, 1 TE, 1 Utility player (WR or RB), 1 K, and 1 Team Defense) as starters for that week.
I was pretty much satisfied with my initial roster, except for one very big thing: There were no San Diego Chargers on it! FootballFever, as you might have gathered, is a San Diego-based league, where Chargers are valued above all. (Chargers QB Philip Rivers was the #1 overall pick in the draft. Need I say more?) Each round in the draft was reversed, so while I picked 14th in Round 1 of the draft, I picked third in Round 2. It alternated like that for the rest of the draft.
With Rivers, as much as I love him, being over-valued in our league, I got stuck with the fifth QB selected, overall, as my top pick. With Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Michael Vick already taken, that fella named Tom Brady fell to me! Brady was the last QB taken in the first round. He was the player I rated first overall, and that really saved me. I know you're curious, so I'll tell you, the 11 other first-round choices were Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Arian Foster, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Matt Forte, LeSean McCoy, Rashard Mendenhall, Mike Wallace, Darren McFadden, and Maurice Jones-Drew. (Perennial first-round pick Peyton Manning was already known to be injured and likely out for the year.)
With my second-rounder (# 19, overall), I got WR Larry Fitzgerald, so I wound up with the top quarterback and top receiver on my board, both of whom are "undroppable" players - players whose value is so high that for them to be released might upset the balance of the league. Not bad, so far! The third pick, TE Dallas Clark, would normally have been fine, except he would be without his star QB on the Colts, Peyton Manning. As it turned out, Clark would be of little use, having by far the worst year of his career!
The next three spots were all taken by running backs. There were no premium backs left by then, so I wound up with Beanie Wells, Fred Jackson, and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. I figured I would have running back-by-committee, and hoped for the best. The seventh-rounder, WR Braylon Edwards, did not impress me at all. He was moving to a new team and I just had a sense he would not be good for much. (I was right.) Choice # 8, though, turned out to be the steal of the draft, as I got the opportunistic New York Jets defense, which turned out to be the top defense in the league. My kicker came next, Nick Folk, also of the Jets. I would have much preferred the Chargers' Nate Kaeding, but the Jets have a good offense and I figured Folk would have his opportunities. (As it turned out, Kaeding was injured on the season's opening kickoff and was lost for the year, so it was good I didn't get him.)
Numbers 10-13 didn't do much for me: RB Ronnie Brown, WR Davone Bess (I hoped he might be my other starting WR, over Braylon Edwards), RB Jason Snelling, and RB Deji Karim. The last two picks were my backup QB and Team Defense, Jason Campbell and the Tennessee Titans, respectively. I thought both of these selections might pay off for me.
As I mentioned, overall I was happy with my team, but I just had to find a way to get some Chargers onto it! Since I thought my running backs were just okay, and I also needed a good receiver, I proposed trades for Ryan Mathews, Mike Tolbert, Vincent Jackson, and Malcom Floyd. There were absolutely no takers! Like I said, this was a San Diego-based league. My biggest trading play, though, showed my absolute loyalty to the Chargers. (I had previouisly spent 14 years of my life cheering them on from season tickets at San Diego Stadium.) I offered a guy Tom Brady and Dallas Clark for Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates! This was a steal for the guy I proposed it to, or so I thought. No one knew Clark was going to be as bad (and injured) as he was, but Gates was hobbling around on one foot, too. Brady certainly outperformed Rivers during the year, but no one knew it would be by that much, as Rivers had by far his worst statistical year as a starter. If the other guy had made the trade, he might have won our league!
As it was, the season kicked off. It would be a very interesting and very entertaining year...
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