Fantasy Football Regular Season Recap

I'm a pretty serious pro-football fan and have been participating in fantasy football for about 6 years now...After trying both Fox Sports and ESPN's fantasy leagues last season, I decided to stick with the tried and true NFL.com, while also getting into a pay league with my friends for the first time on Fanball.com...So, I thought I might take a moment to look back on this season and recap my successes and failures to this point...

Firstly, most of the guys that I thought would take off this season, have tanked (Thanks Santonio Holmes) but that's the way it goes sometimes...Secondly, injuries, and even suspensions, have hampered my Running Backs and QB's almost the entire season (Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Carson Palmer)...Thirdly, outlandish luck on the behalf of my opponents have killed me too...now, I know full well that fantasy is highly luck-based, but the luck I'm disgusted with is the guy that goes out on the waiver wire and picks up a guy that had the 'out of nowhere' game the week before and is lucky enough to have it continue in the following weeks...(Hello Antonio Bryant, Isaac Bruce, Tim Hightower, Steve Breaston and Lance Moore)...in previous seasons, that logic never worked, but again...that's the way it goes...and lastly...the biggest trend I've noticed this year is that teams have really incorporated two-back running games that reward highly, the goal-line RB (Hello LeRon McClain and Lendale White)...Oh, and one last thing I learned the hard way...LT is no longer a viable #1 Running Back and SHOULD NOT BE DRAFTED AS THE NUMBER ONE PICK IN THE DRAFT! Plus, we've also seen the emergence of rookie RB's like Chris Johnson, Steve Slaton, and Matt Forte, so the next crop of great guys appears to be developing before our eyes...Plus, what's finally gotten into DeAngelo Williams...man, he was on many waiver wires in the early parts of the year...So, here's the recap of my teams this season:

Alternate Douglas (Fanball.com): Finished 6-7, made the playoffs (Won last week in Rd. 1)
Ari's Puppets: Finished 10-4, first in my division, made the playoffs
Donald's Destroyers: Finished 7-7, second in my division, made the playoffs
Jeff Query's Mullet: Finished 9-5, first in my division, made the playoffs
NPH All-Stars: Finished 9-5, second in my division, made the playoffs
Team McPoyle: Finished 8-6, first in my division, made the playoffs
Turd Ferguson: Finished 7-7, third in my division, missed the playoffs

Not bad...7 teams, 6 made the playoffs...and to this point in the year...No teams below .500...pretty nice. Seven teams is a bit excessive, but I forgot that I'd created a second username on CBS Sportsline during the college basketball tournament, so I figured I'd go ahead and do three extra teams on NFL.com since they're free...Another interesting thing to note, is that my only Auto-Picked team, Ari's Puppets, turned out to be the team with the best record...figures...Fantasy is a total crap shoot and sometimes success is parlayed from in-season free agent acquisitions. The only trade I made in any of the leagues was for Turd Ferguson...I lost Tom Brady and Nate Burleson in Week 1 and got off to a 1-5 start...I traded Matt Forte to acquire Aaron Rodgers, so it worked out as I was able to scratch and claw my way back to the .500 mark. Another win in that league may have gotten me a playoff clean sweep...

We'll see how the rest of the playoffs pan out, but it's been a tough year. I made a nice comeback in several leagues to make the playoffs. So, overall I'm pretty satisfied, regardless of what happens this weekend...It's been a fun year and I'm already looking forward to next season as well.

Our Worst Fears Come True...

Packer Nation is numb today...Our Quarterback...Our 3-time NFL MVP...Our Super Bowl-Winning, 16-year Quarterback...Our hero...Our leader...The epitome of a guy that gave you all the blood, sweat, tears, effort, and ability he had every week...The guy that is in many ways, the true embodiment of Wisconsin and our hard-working, dedicated morals and mentality...today was allowed to walk away...Dealt by the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets for a 4th-Round Draft Pick?...Absolutely unthinkable...

As a Packer fan, it's been tough during the past couple of months watching this ESPN soap opera drama play out on a daily time line...While I can certainly understand that both sides are guilty of botching this situation, I found myself increasingly more supportive of Brett as this saga unfolded...I guess I'm guilty of flip-flopping too...I realize Brett waffled, changing his mind after retiring twice...blah, blah, blah...I get it. I also realize that the team drafted two Quarterbacks in the NFL Draft based largely on the expectation that Brett was gone for good...Trust me...I understand.

But the fact of the matter is that my team and the 'Conductors' of this 'Football Train' left Brett at the station without the option of purchasing a ticket...Stop already with the lies McCarthy, Ted Thompson, and Mark Murphy...You've all tried to spin it (I'm sure based on the council and advice of Ari Fleisher who knows more than a bit about using words to manipulate and deceive the American public...aka the 'Sheep') as this being solely Brett's fault...with McCarthy claiming he "Wasn't in the right mindset to be a part of this football team" and "I was looking for him to tell me he was ready to play football for the Green Bay Packers...and we just never got to that point in our conversation"...They also tried their best to pay him to stay retired with some lame 'Marketing Package', even after Brett had said that all he wanted to do was come back and play football.



What a bunch of crap! You expect us to believe that Brett went through all the trouble of reinstating himself with the NFL so he could go to the Jets? Nice line fellas, but this is a bunch of bull...Who knows what really went down in their behind the scenes meetings, but if McCarthy told Brett he could legitimately come back and compete for his job, as he told us in two press conferences...you really think Brett would say..."Nah, I'm good...send me to another team...I'm just too bent over how you guys treated me the past few months...so trade me to a team where I'll have to learn a completely new system in two weeks and build rapport with players who are completely unfamiliar to me..." Nice try, but only the truly Redneck element of the Packer fan base is going to take this line of logic hook, line, and sinker...Why not just come clean and tell us you guys were bent on Rodgers as the starter and Brett had no chance to come back to the team as the starter...?

The standard line we're always fed as fans is that the management of professional sports teams are always looking to "Put the best players on the field that give our team the best chance to win." Uh, so you're telling us that Aaron Rodgers, who hasn't started a single game in the NFL gives us a better chance to win than a guy who led us to a 13-3 record and the NFC Championship Game last season? A guy, who at 38-years old, finished second in the MVP balloting??? A guy who holds all of the major NFL passing records (Wins, TD's, Attempts, Completions, and Yards) was told he doesn't have a place on the team? A guy that probably secured the long-term job security of McCarthy and Thompson, based on his play last season...You're gonna work a guy over that's done all this for his family, team, and fans and you guys? That's how you want to be remembered as a management team? As the clowns who allowed our Hall of Fame Quarterback to go to the Jets? You guys have got some stones, I'll give you that...

I'm certainly not bashing Rodgers here either - Hell, he's handled himself with the utmost class and dignity during this mess, and in my opinion, has shown he's ready to be the leader of this team...(despite his 7-20, 1-INT performance during the Family Night Scrimmage)...and thanks by the way...for finally chopping off that horrendous mullet and Selleck mustache you briefly rocked during your years of obscurity on the bench...I'm grateful you've decided to trim your lettuce now that the spotlight's on you...But, I've got to be honest...If you don't come out and set the field on fire with your play and lead this team to at least a Wild Card berth...Packer Nation will be asking for your head...and killing 'The Conductors' in the media for letting Brett go...It's the risk that they're apparently ready to take. (Reminder...We play the Vikings, Cowboys, Bucs, Seahawks, and Colts...all playoff teams last season...prior to the team's Bye in Week 8...We could legitimately be a sub .500 football team)



I'm sure what really went down was that these guys got together and decided...we've all got to be on the same page here...Rodgers is our guy and this is now 'Our Team'...but we need to find a way to manipulate the media to make this look like this debacle is all Brett's fault..."Ari, you got some advice?"
After all, this was the guy that stood up in front of the media for years and flat out lied to all of us about Saddam Hussein, WMD's, and the real truth behind our intentions for the War in Iraq...A true puppet of the Bush regime indeed...and now he's coached our guys on the finer points of media truth bending...



Oddly enough, this situation may have been predicted years earlier by one of my favorite bands...Incubus...in their song "A Certain Shade Of Green"...Maybe Ted Thompson is an Incubus fan? Who knows, but maybe this was Brandon Boyd's Nostradamus moment...you be the judge...

A certain shade of green,



tell me, is that what you need?
All signs around say move ahead.
Could someone please explain to me your ever present
lack of speed?

Are your muscles bound by ropes?
Or do grudges cloud your day?
My sources say the road is clear,
and street signs point the way.



CHORUS
Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.?
What are you waiting for,
A certain shade of green?
I think I grew a gray watching you procrastinate.



What are you waiting for,
A certain shade of green?

Would a written invitation
signed, "Choose now or lose it all,"
sedate your hesitation?
Or inflame and make you stall?
You've been raised in limitation,
but that glove never fit quite right.
The time has past for hand-me-downs,
choose a new, please evolve, take flight.



CHORUS

Green...



What are you waiting for?

A written invitation?

A public declaration?

A perfect consolation?

Remember when you procrastinate you choose last...



I think I grew a gray watching you procrastinate.

Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.?
What are you waiting for,
A certain shade of green?
I think I grew a gray watching you procrastinate.

What are you waiting for...

As a die hard Packer fan, this is truly an unthinkable outcome and a completely surreal reality. I never thought I'd see the day that Brett would play for another team in a different uniform. Thanks for the memories Brett. You'll always be a Packer in my mind...and best of luck being 'Off-Broadway Brett' with the New York Jets...You gave us the most incredible 16 years that any NFL fan could have hoped for...and in the end...you did not deserve to be broken off like this...