fantasy football

i have a new addiction and it's fantasy football. you've probably heard of fantasy sport leagues. it's a virtual league in which players, called "owners", each draft a team of real-life NFL players and then score points based on the players' statistical performance in the real-life games. our league pits two competitors against each other in a head-to-head format and ranks the participants by their win-loss record.

this is the first fantasy sports league i've played in of any kind, but i'm quickly getting the hang of it. i'm constantly flipping through the team injury reports to see if i have to drop any of my players due to injury, and hoping the blue chip prospect i picked up plays a big statistical game for me. it's an addictive game of chess played on a virtual sports field. and it makes every football game on sunday interesting, because i have 10 players on various teams to watch out for. plus, i have to see how the players on my oppponents' team are fairing.

it literally puts you as the general manager of a sports team, and now i can see how rewarding and disapointing that job could be. you have to do a lot of research to judge if a running back, for instance, might fair well against a team that has a poor defence. or make adjustments to your quarterback situation because that particular qb might be suffering from injury. i'm constantly tinkering with my lineup.

i play with a bunch of guys i used to play intramural flag football with at carleton. but next year i hope to start up my own league with some of my best friends. oh, and it should be noted, that i've incorporated the rock steady crew as my team name.

for those interested, here is my roster:

rock steady crew
qb - mark bulger, st. louis rams
qb - matt leinart, arizona cardinals
wr - jerricho cotchery, new york jets
wr - reggie brown, philiadelphia eagles
wr - hank baskett, philadelphia eagles
rb - warrick dunn, atlanta falcons
rb - fred taylor, jacksonville jaguars
rb - deangelo williams, carolina panthers
rb - jerious norwood, atlanta falcons
te - jeremy shockey, new york giants
k - jay feely, new york giants
team def - dallas cowboys
lb - scott fujita, new orleans saints
dl - scott kampman, green bay packers
cb - richard marshall, carolina panthers

currently we sit in 12th place out of 16 teams with a record of 2-3.