I Lost To My Son In Fantasy Football

My nine year old is obsessed with sports and particularly fantasy football. I know this is my fault. Therefore, although I was disappointed and a little upset that The Moose made two transactions in our league IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS SCHOOL DAY, I wasn't really surprised. When I mentioned this to a few friends, they asked me if I ever made fantasy football transactions during work. I changed the subject.

Anyway, I'm in a fantasy football league that's made up of a lot of kids, either by themselves or with their parents. While The Moose has his own team, I have a team with my six year old Pedro Tulo. Last week, we faced off against each other. With our team having multiple players injured or on a bye (and being run by a six year old who really doesn't really know what he's doing), I knew our chances weren't that good. I was right. We got crushed.

For this match, The Moose and I made a bet. The loser would have to wear silly socks for a day. I lost, so here are my silly socks. 

I had a striped "dress" sock on my left foot while my right foot featured a sock that I got from the hospital when I had surgery on my wrist. The Moose didn't think it was silly enough, so he added a tissue sticking out of my right sock.

Is it mean of me as a dad to hope that we face The Moose again in the playoffs and defeat him?

Stick To Sports

I feel bad for my friends who are sports bloggers. It goes without saying that I feel bad for a lot of people right now, but this is a sports related post. Sort of. While there have been times over the years when I considered making Sean’s Ramblings exclusively a Pittsburgh sports blog, I always found this limiting. I like writing about my kids or entertainment or just what’s going on in my life. So while I still write about sports, I have never been a traditional sports blogger. So while I can write about various topics, it’s going to be tough for sports bloggers to come up with content over the next few weeks, months, etc. (Unless you have a blog about football and you can spend months writing about Tom Brady.)

Since we're in a country without sporting events taking place, I thought I would share a few things. First, the XFL announced last week that the league won't be playing its regular season games. I assume that means that there won't be a postseason either. You know what this means? I'm the XFL fantasy football league champion!

ESPN has a game called Streak for Cash. It's a monthly contest where you pick various props such as who will win NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, soccer, and college games. There might also be individual props such as points scored or goals per game. Anyway, whoever gets the most picks correct in a row per month wins $25,000. I've played for years and never come close to winning. Anyway, with no major sports going on, the props have been quite interesting. There's a Singaporean Premier soccer league match. The Russian Super basketball league game. The other night featured whether the first Mega Millions lottery ball would be odd or even. There's even been "The Masked Singer" and "Survivor" props. I'm all for seeing what props appear next!

And now is where this blog post turns dramatically. Want to know one positive thing about the NCAA cancelling the men's and women's basketball tournaments? Liberty University's men's team, who earned an automatic birth, will not get to play. I'm sure that most of the students, faculty, and staff at Liberty University are good people. The problem is the school's president, Jerry Falwell Jr. I wrote about Falwell being a sore loser after the Virginia elections in 2017. Less than two months ago, Falwell tried to get some Virginia counties to secede and join West Virginia (and he's still working on this). This is completely absurd, but I guess it's politics by someone who is supposed to be spiritual leader and educator. He's all for free speech...except when it comes to people at his own school. Oh, Liberty University also owns Freedom Aviation who sells jet fuel to the Pentagon. I'm not sure how that fits into the school's mission.

Now, Falwell is being dangerous. Last Friday, he went on "Fox & Friends" and said, "You know, impeachment didn’t work, and the Mueller report didn’t work, and Article 25 didn’t work and so maybe now this is their next attempt to get Trump,” he said. This meaning the coronavirus.



You can even hear the anger about the school having to cancel residential classes.

University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., said, “We originally believed it was safest to return our students following their spring break instead of having them return following greater exposure opportunities from leaving them in different parts of the country for longer periods. But, the Governor’s recent decision to limit certain gatherings has left us no practical choice because we have so many classes of more than 100 students. We want to provide for the continuity of our students’ education while doing what makes sense to help slow the spread of the coronavirus to our university family and local community.” The school has one of the largest online student populations in the world, so they can of all places can handle social distancing better than most.

The whole point is that Liberty University, meaning specifically Falwell Jr., doesn't need any type of positive exposure from the basketball team. He's the worst.

I'm going to end this post with something good. Here's Will Ferrell being a soccer referee a few weeks ago.

This isn't a movie. Apparently, all of the parents in this league need to volunteer, and he's a parent. The uniform is legit, so it's possible that he really is a certified soccer ref. Just another thing that me and Will have in common!

Play Survival Football

The headline makes it sounds like this is the Hunger Games! In reality, all you do is pick one NFL team who you think will win each week. If you choose correctly, you have chosen wisely!

You also get to advance to the next week. The catch is that you can't pick the same team twice. Get it wrong and you're out. In that case, you have chosen poorly.

The gold cup looks nice, but DON'T DRINK OUT OF IT!

Anyway, there might even be a prize for a winner. I don't know what the prize will be or even if there will be a prize, but there could be a prize. Let me just type prize again to let you think that you could win a prize. Which might happen. Prize!

To enter, follow this link and enter this information:

Group ID Number: 31101
Password: 123abc

Good luck!

The End of a Fantasy Football League?

I've been in several (okay, many) fantasy football leagues over the years, but there's one I've been in for nearly a decade that may not return in 2018. Although he's not the Commissioner, there's one individual who is pretty much the main person since he's the only one that knows everyone in the league. The league wouldn't have started without him. I also like and respect this person very much.

Back in November, he posted this on the league message board:

As a Vietnam Vet, [I have] lost all interest in the NFL until Roger Goodell and the NFL learn and start complying with American Flag protocol. I regret that this will be my last year in Fantasy unless such protocol is enforced. This has nothing to do with my standings but standing up for my beliefs. I am only participating this year so as not to affect the outcome of this years competition.

There were only a few comments, some in support and others sharing thoughts about freedom of speech, the Constitution, and the reason why NFL players kneeled which had nothing to do about disrespecting the flag and the military.

On Wednesday, NFL owners "unanimously approved a new national anthem policy that requires players to stand if they are on the field during the performance but gives them the option to remain in the locker room if they prefer." I'm trying not to get political here, but the NFL set this policy clearly because of political pressure and it doesn't hurt that the league receives millions of dollars each year from the Department of Defense for all of the pre-game flag displays and activities.

President Trump doubled-down on Thursday agreeing with the policy but then said "You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing, you shouldn't be there. Maybe you shouldn't be in the country."

That's not how this country works. Again, I don't want to be too political here, but this tweet from former NFL QB Sage Rosenfels is perfect.

I hope the NFL decides to completely stop all concession stand sales during the anthem as well. We wouldn’t want people buying a $10 beer and an $8 hot dog during our sacred anthem.
All TV camera crews must stop filming and direct attention at the flag too.
Just seems fair.

— Sage Rosenfels (@SageRosenfels18) May 23, 2018

Now, I'm curious to see if the policy is enough to get the fantasy football league back for another season.

Photo by Getty Images

Fantasy Football

I've written about fantasy sports many times over the course of this blog's history. I went more than 20 years before winning a fantasy/rotisserie baseball title, and I had a long run of disappointing fantasy football seasons until fairly recently. I won't even mention the fantasy league I created based on VH1's Rock of Love with Bret Michaels (though I guess I did just mention it). Regarding fantasy football, I first started in 1991. There were no online drafts or automatic scoring. The draft was at someone's house, and we figured out who won by looking at the box scores the day after the game. With the #5 draft pick, I selected Jerry Rice, only the greatest wide receiver in NFL history. Unfortunately, it seemed like you needed a good quarterback to win the league, and John Friesz of the San Diego Chargers was did not meet this description. 

There was a time not so long ago that I was obsessed with fantasy football. I was in six leagues at once and was even part of a CNN article about fantasy football. (You can find it via a Google search.) Now, with kids, I don't have nearly the time or energy to devote to fantasy football. I mean, I'm still in 3 leagues, and I won all 3 leagues last year, so fantasy football is still part of my life, but not as much as it used to be. Fantasy football is big business, and there are daily, weekly, and season-long leagues, so you can participate in a Fantasy Draft right now. I just suggest not drafting John Friesz..

Good luck to everyone playing!

24 Hours

On Monday evening after the kids went to sleep, I got the mail which included a rather significant check from all of the games I worked as a soccer referee this fall. Wooooo! Then, I took the 2016 soccer referee recertification test online. (Please note that the next portion of this blog post is about soccer ref stuff, but there's non-ref stuff below.) This 100-question, multiple-choice test is painful. Some of the questions are poorly worded, and there are plenty of others where they are trying to fool you. Here are some questions:

#1: A player, while in an offside position, is guilty of interfering with the opponent and therefore guilty of offside if he does the following:

A) blocking an opponent’s view of the ball but not involved in challenging for the ballherefore guilty of offside if he does the following:
B) running beside the opponent towards the ball without making contact with the opponent
C) making gesture of not playing the ball obvious to everyone
D) none of the above

Does no one proofread this? Although the answer is A, I answered none of the above since I had no idea what the wording in A was supposed to be.

#2 True or false. The ball is in play on a corner kick when the ball is kicked, moves, and leaves the corner arc.

Fortunately, I've taken the recertification exam enough to know some of the quirks. While it's true that the ball is in play on a corner kick when the ball is kicked, moves, and leaves the corner arc, they are asking if the ball is required to leave the arc to be in play. Therefore, the answer is false.

#3 Red #20 is ready to take a throw-in. White #31 pushes a Red attacker down inside the penalty area while jostling for position. You stop the throw-in and caution White #31 for unsporting behavior. The restart is

A) Dropped Ball
B) Thrwo-In
C) Kick-Off
D) Corner Kick
E) Gaol Kick

Is it too much to ask to spell throw and goal correctly?

It took me nearly two hours to take this exam, but I passed with a score of 87%. I don't feel bad about this score either. After the exam, I watched the end of the Detroit Lions-New Orleans Saints Monday Night Football game almost entirely for fantasy football purposes. In a semi-final match, one guy (we'll call him Mike) had a slim lead late in the fourth quarter. His opponent (we'll call him Michael) still had Saints RB Tim Hightower and Lions WR Calvin Johnson. On the last play of the game with victory certain for the Lions, Hightower caught a meaningless 18-yard pass. However, with a half-point per reception and .1 points per yard, this play gave Michael a victory by .1 points. Oh, this play happened just a minute after this rant by Michael:

I *#(@ing don't make the finals because some fat &*^% can't rember to tell the official he's eligible on second down after he remembers to do it on first down. That's the biggest bull &$*# ever in the history of fantasy football.

I feel like the fantasy gods will (or at least should) look poorly at Michael in the championship. Of course, now that I shared this, perhaps the fantasy gods will look poorly at me for the two leagues where I'm still in contention.

On Tuesday morning, I had my regular dentist appointment. I'm sure that I've mentioned this before, but I have a great relationship with my dentist. She knows that I don't floss and never says anything about it. (She also got me an electric toothbrush as a wedding gift.) However, the dental hygienist apparently doesn't know this deal. She asked how often I floss. I replied about once every 6 months which basically corresponds to when the hygienist does it during my appointment. So the hygienist made sure to give the spiel that I need to floss. I'm still not going to floss. If flossing was so important, the dentist should include some with the free toothbrush & toothpaste bag. On a different topic, I need a filling though this is nothing that flossing would have prevented.

This is turning into a very long post. Thanks for staying with me. After the dentist, I took my car to my mechanic for the required state inspection. I've been dreading this since I knew my car wouldn't pass due to an always on airbag light and my driver's side window not working. My 2003 Honda Civic only has 118,000 miles, and I only drive it about 5,000 miles per year. While I definitely need a car, I don't want to put too much money into it or start with a new car payment.

It turned out that the air bag light wasn't a problem. However, my headlights were. Another Honda was there, and I could see how clear they were in the other car compared to my foggy lights. Then, I needed a new window regulator and motor driver. I'm just happy that Warren G is involved with my car.

So my car is now fixed and passed inspection but the soccer referee money is gone.

Finally, I had my soccer referee recertification class. With the class scheduled for 3:30-8:30, I brought snacks and hoped they would provide pizza like they did in previous years. No pizza. I was hungry when I got home but I knew I couldn't eat too much so late. Therefore, my dinner consisted of a cheese stick, clementine, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Dinner of champions!

My Busy Life

This is a very busy time of year. There is much to do to prepare for the start of the school year with my family and deadlines at work. There are other things that rank just as high in importance though.

1. Preparing for Fantasy Football

I think I'm in 4 or 5 leagues again this year, but I don't even know. I do know that I can't find a draft time that works for everyone in the league where I'm the Commissioner. This is a problem. Oh, my current draft plan consists of getting Willie Parker as a sleeper pick.

2. The Ted Marshall Open Television Death Pool

I've had a really good run in this contest to select 10 TV shows that won't make it to the next TV season. I won in 2011 and 2013 and finished near the top in 2012 and 2014. This may be my calling. Unfortunately, I really don't have a feel yet for the new shows or what shows are ending after this season like Parks & Rec, Glee and Two and a Half Men last season. While I'll probably have another blog post about the 2015-2016 Ted Marshall Open, you can enter now until Labor Day.

3. The LearnedLeague

This is supposedly the trivia league of all trivia leagues. It's an invitation-only league that was even featured in The Washington Post. After seeing the difficulty of the sample questions, I predicted that I would finish last. I mean, there's lots of useless knowledge in my head, but less useless knowledge than the people I expect to be in this league.

After three days, my prediction isn't that far off as I'm in 28th place out of 30 teams in my rookie division. However, I rank first in Correct Answers Allowed, meaning the total number of questions answered correctly by opponents in all matches. Basically, I've played the hardest schedule of the 30 teams. I'm also tied for first in the Most Common Wrong Answers category, so although I'm answering a lot of questions incorrectly, I'm at least providing some very good educated guesses!

4. My DVR

We're probably switching our TV provider meaning that we're going to get a new DVR. Now, I have about two weeks to go through as much on my DVR as possible. I should be able to watch the entire first season of Fargo, but I don't think I'm going to get to Silver Linings Playbook, The LEGO Movie, Captain Phillips, 42 and so many other movies.

Yes, this entire post could be part of The Steel Trap's next First World Problems post.

Fantasy Football Update

I know that you don't care about my fantasy football teams, but I wanted to share this anyway. Going into Monday night's San Francisco-St. Louis game, I needed a good night from the 49ers defense to win. When I fell asleep on the couch sometime during the 3rd quarter, things didn't look very good. With about 1 minute remaining in the game, Yahoo declared my opponent a 100% favorite.

Then, Dontae Johnson of the 49ers intercepted a pass, returned it for a touchdown, and made Yahoo change its mind.

While I'm very happy with the result, I would have been ecstatic if I was awake and watching this live.

Meanwhile, in the Pittsburgh Bloggers Fantasy Football League, I had a chance to avenge my championship tie defeat from last season in the craziest ending in fantasy football history. The result, another freakin' tie!

In my five leagues (that's less than last year!), I'm now 5-1, 4-2, 3-3, 2-3-1 & 0-6. I don't want to talk about that last league.

Brand New Random Ramblings

- Being a parent, you sometimes catch yourself saying ridiculous things. For example, I said "if you light this place on fire, I am not going to be happy" to my three year old recently. He was playing with a feathered-cat toy not far from a lit candle. (Does this entire scenario sound better if I explain that this did not occur at our home?)

- We are in full potty training mode in our house. There have been plenty of successes and also plenty of, well, not successes. If he has a good run of potty success, his reward will be taking a ride with me on the Metro. Yes, he is extremely excited about the prospect of taking public transportation that thousands of people use daily and love to complain about.

- We order food from a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood every few months. The food is delicious, but the restaurant is nearly empty every time I go there. Actually, I have only ordered take-out from the restaurant. It's in an odd location in the same shopping center as a Costco and Home Depot, so I wonder how they stay open. The theory is that they must do a strong take out and delivery business.

- At a restaurant recently, my son entertained himself by playing my wallet. Then he decided to take my drivers license, credit cards, Metro card and insurance card and throw them in the air like LeBron James with chalk.



- Although I am and will always be a Steelers fan, I would not be disappointed by a Miami Dolphins-Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl this season. Yes, there may be some money involved.

- Over Labor Day weekend, my neighbors pulled weeds and covered our "back yard" with mulch since they had extra. I have awesome neighbors.

- We're now more than two-thirds of the way through 2014, and I have still not seen any movies in the theater.

- No one cares about my fantasy football teams, but in one league, I had to auto-draft since I was not available during the draft time. I did not edit any of the pre-rankings, and as a result, I ended up with 4 kickers on my roster. Amazingly, I actually won in that league in week one.

---

While this post and most of my other posts are designed to be humorous, I'm fully aware that I'm posting this on a national day of remembrance. Please take some time today to remember the victims of 9/11 and to thank first responders for all of their service.

Crazy Fantasy Football Championship Finish

I'm in 6 fantasy football leagues this year. In hindsight, this is too many leagues. Actually, I realized that this is too many leagues by week 3. Anyway, perhaps due to being in too many leagues, I had a terrible fantasy football season. I only made the playoffs in 2 of the 6 leagues and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in one of those leagues. However, I reached the championship in the Pittsburgh Bloggers fantasy football league only to see one of the weirdest and wildest endings in fantasy history. Well, at least my extensive football history.

Going into Monday night, Sean's Team (yes, that's my actual team name) led Shrimp Shack Shooters ("SSS") by 4 points. I had the 49ers defense while SSS had Tony Gonzalez starting. Here's your fantastic finish:

With 2 minutes and 10 seconds remaining, I had a 5 point lead.

2:09 - Tony Gonzalez with a TD catch, but there are two flags on the play...both on SF. The TD catch gave SSS 6 points while causing my DEF to lose points. Instantly, SSS took a 4 point lead.

Atlanta recovers an onside kick. Tony Gonzalez makes another catch or two increasing SSS' receiving yards (& fantasy points).

1:10 - NaVorro Bowman of the SF intercepts a Matt Ryan pass and returns it 89 yards for a TD. The 8 points (6 for the TD & 2 for the INT) gives me a 2 point lead. Woo!

:21 - Gonzalez with an 11 yard catch reduces my lead to 1.

:05 - Gonzalez with a 9 yard catch. While I believe that we're tied, all of a sudden, I'm down 2. I get very confused. (I later discover that Gonzalez's catch gives Atlanta 402 total yards. In the league you get -1 points if your defense allows 350-399 yards but -3 when your defense gives up 400-449 yards. We need to change this next year.)

Last play of the game - SF intercepts the Hail Mary pass. We're tied!

Go to the league rules for tie-breakers, but there are none. Who is the Commissioner of this league? (It's me. Crap.) Well, I'm blaming Alex since he created the league and the rules last year.

So we have a tie and no tie-breaker. I can't say that I'm a fan of a co-champions. Am I the Miami Hurricanes while SSS is the Washington Huskies? One possible solution is to use bench points as a tie-breaker. In this scenario, SSS would win. While I'm fine with giving SSS the title, but we can't really make a new rule on Christmas Eve, right? Christmas spirit or fantasy integrity or something?

Regardless, this was an exciting ending!


Update: For some reason, ESPN determined that SSS won the league. Maybe because he had a better regular season record than me?

Catching Up

In case you were wondering, here is what’s going on in my life. My child recently turned 18 months (more on this soon), and I’m spending way too much time with fantasy sports. I’ve written about this several times, but I have been in one fantasy baseball league for 20 years, or more than half of my life, and in that time, I’ve never won this league. At approximately 9:00 PM Eastern time, I was in position to earn my first championship via a tie-breaker; however, Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers pitched an incredible game causing me to fall into second place. This is an auction league with keepers, salary caps and minor league drafts, so the fact that I finished 2nd place two years in a row in a 12-team league is pretty impressive. With that written, winning this league is on my bucket list!

Now I can turn my attention to fantasy football where I am in 6 leagues this year. My records are 3-1; 3-1; 2-2; 2-2; 1-3; and 0-4. I might be in too many leagues, but I have a hard time saying no when someone asks me to join a league.

In other news, Teddy finally won the Presidents race that occurs at every Nationals home game. Back in 2007, I wrote the following:

Anyway, the big story is that Teddy Roosevelt has never won a race. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln always win. My guess is that the Nats are saving a Teddy win for a big moment, either the last game at RFK, the first game at the new stadium, or if the Nationals ever sell-out a game, which could happen this weekend against the Baltimore Orioles.

Or when the Nationals make the playoffs. Anyway, the DC media is treating Teddy’s win as a major story. Enjoy information about the race in The Washington Post which includes a quote from an 8-year-old kid who played hooky from school in case Teddy won the race. Boo to the parents for letting this happen. I’m fine with a kid missing school for a playoff game, but missing school to see a mascot race is absurd.

After numerous Express Fail posts by me, an Express Fail went national! [Deadspin]

Finally, since the baseball regular season is over, let's look at how I did with my 2012 Pirates predictions:

1. Over/under wins: 72.5 Correct - 79 wins
I'll go over. It's March, so of course I'm optimistic now.

2. Andrew McCutchen batting average in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under .280 Correct - .327

I'll go over on this one too. I think McCutchen will have an amazing season.

3. Andrew McCutchen - Total HR's in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 25.5 Incorrect - 31

While I do think McCutchen will have an amazing season, I think 20-25 home runs is realistic.

4. Andrew McCutchen - Total Stolen Bases in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 25.5 Incorrect - 21

Over.

5. Neil Walker - BA in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under .275 Incorrect - .280

I'll go under on this one. No real reason why.

6. Pedro Alvarez - Total HR's in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 17.5 Correct - 30

The big money deserves to go on the under, but I'm one of the few remaining Pedro supporters. I'll go over.

7. Garrett Jones - Total HR's in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 15.5 Incorrect - 27

I'll go under only because I'm banking on Pedro playing well meaning less playing time for Jones with McGahee getting significant at-bats at 1st.

8. Jose Tabata - BA in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under .280 Incorrect - .243

Over. I think Tabata will hit around .300.

9. Joel Hanrahan - Total Saves in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 35.5 Incorrect - 36

Under. There will be fewer save opportunities for Hanrahan since the Pirates will constantly win games 10-2!

10. Erik Bedard - Total Wins in the 2012 Regular Season: Over/Under 8 Incorrect - 7

Over. I predict more wins for Bedard in 2012 than Correia in 2011.

11. Josh Harrison walks: Over/Under 9 Incorrect - 10

This is the toughest prop on the board! I'll predict under, but barely.

12. Team bunting attempts: Over/Under 1000 Correct, but I didn’t actually count this.

Over, but I'm not going to actually count this during the season.

Shockingly (based on my record picking NFL games), I went 4-8.

Random Ramblings

Trivia Tuesday will return next week, but I hope you enjoy this post which is all over the place.

On the final play of Sunday’s Steelers-Jaguars game, Jacksonville QB Blaine Gabbert did a play-action fake to his running back even though everyone in the stadium and watching the game knew that the only option was a Hail Mary pass attempt. Why even pretend that you’re going to run?

At a birthday party this weekend, a two year-old kid walked up to my 6 month-old son and slapped him on the head. I was stunned and really had no idea how to react. I think my son had no idea how to react either though he was unfazed. The mother of the kid ran over to scold her child but didn’t offer nearly the apology that I thought was necessary. To paraphrase Larry David, I thought it was a S*!t apology.



I’m not going to identify this person by name, but I need to call out an individual in one of my fantasy football leagues. This guy started Titans RB Chris Johnson and the Kansas City defense this week even though both teams were on a bye. When I asked this person who I have known for 33 years why he started these players, he said that he didn’t have time to visit the league website this week. He also didn’t even know that his team won last week (beating me). Why even play fantasy football (in a pay league no less) if you don’t have three minutes to change your line-up each week?

Speaking of fantasy football, I went 0-4 this week meaning that my teams are now 3-3, 2-4, 1-5 & 1-5. This is by far the worst I have ever done in my 12+ years of fantasy football. Fortunately, I finished 2nd in my 12 team fantasy baseball league this year, tied for my best finish in approximately 20 years in that league.

I planned on writing more, but this is all that I have right now. It's difficult to write when you fall asleep in the middle of typing.

Fantasy Football Songs

Are you like me and preparing for the fantasy football season? If you answered yes, here are three songs to (maybe?) get you pumped up for the year.

This is probably my favorite of the three just because of the Bobby Wade reference.



Hey, it's that Arlington rap guy rapping about fantasy football. By the way, the draft kit board is awesome!



This last video has a few naughty words, so it may be NSFW.



Good luck to all you fantasy football players everywhere!

Random Ramblings & Questions

I’m currently reading the Life of Pi about a shipwrecked teenager who gets stuck alone on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a tiger, wounded zebra, orangutan and hyena. It’s a fascinating story that I will likely finish later today. Has anyone else read it? If so, is there any chance this is a true story? I don’t want to search online for an answer in case I read how the book ends somewhere.

The NBA locked out its players. Meanwhile, the WNBA, owned and operated by the NBA, is still active. Why hasn’t the NBA locked out the female players? Shouldn’t the WNBA players strike to support their male counterparts against the same owners?

When will there be a new Harry and the Hendersons film?



I’m not ready to think about fantasy football yet, but most of my leagues have started setting draft dates. Is Adrian Peterson still good and a likely top three draft pick?

Fidelity Fires Employees For Playing Fantasy Football

This story comes from Yahoo via the Fort Worth Star Telegram in which four Fidelity employees were fired for playing fantasy football.

I have a small account with Fidelity and am seriously considering closing it because of this incident.

Just Venting

I’m kind of down today.* I have a lot of things on my mind, and I feel like sharing.

- Over the last week or two, I noticed an occasional rattling sound coming from my car. It wasn’t constant and didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason as to when it would make noise and when the noise would stop. I took my car into the shop for an oil change and emissions test and also asked them to take a look. It turns out that the noise was caused by metal on metal in the brake pad. Therefore, I am a proud owner of new brake pads, new brake rotors and a brake system flush. All of this for the low price of $438. Ugh. In case you’re wondering, I got two estimates with the same diagnosis and prices that were similar.

- Our home officially went on the market on Friday afternoon. Through Monday afternoon at 5:00, we have received exactly zero calls from realtors wanting to bring their clients over for a visit. I realize that this is a holiday weekend, but no calls? Do you know how difficult it is for me to make sure all my clothes are off of the dresser and papers are away? It would be worth it if someone stopped by, but I seem to be wasting a lot of time making sure the home is spotless before leaving for seemingly nothing.

- My fantasy football teams are 3-2, 2-3, 2-3 and 2-3. I’m not happy with any of these teams.

- It seems like every home in our price range and perfect in terms of size is on a short sale. Maybe that’s why these homes are in our price range. Oh, I now need to subtract $438 from our price range.

Trivia Tuesday, which is much more uplifting than this post, will be here later today.


* I’m writing this on Monday afternoon, so by the time you and I are reading this, I’ll probably be fine.

Steelers-Bears Recap

I’m still trying to figure out how the Steelers lost on Sunday. The offensive line played much better than week one as Roethlisberger was sacked only twice (once because he held on to the ball too long) and the team rushed for 105 yards on 22 carries (4.8 yards per carry). The defense held the Bears’ Matt Forte, one of the best running backs in the league, to 62 total yards and Devin Hester had only 21 yards receiving and did little on special teams. So how did the team lose? I didn’t wear my Louis Lipps jersey or have my Terrible Towel with me. My bad. Wearing my Heinz pickle watch wasn’t enough, but I won’t let it happen again.

On the serious side, the Steelers played okay, but not good enough to win. As I mentioned, the running game and line were fine and Roethlisberger played good enough to win. However, he did throw an interception and the receivers (Santonio Holmes comes to mind) dropped several passes. Defensively, I mentioned the positives above, but the team only had one sack and did not force any turnovers. Plus, Jay Cutler was solid completing 27 of 38 passes for 236 yards, 2 touchdowns and no picks. Although the team went three and out on their first two series, the Bears ended up going 7 of 14 on third down conversions. The special teams was the big negative though. Mr. Automatic Jeff Reed missed both field goal attempts and Stefan Logan fumbled at the end of the game. Plus, Ike Taylor and Patrick Bailey had costly penalties on kick returns putting the Steelers in poor starting field position.

Back to the non-serious side.

* Where can I get a pair of Estrada sunglasses?



* When Bears' Jeffrey Knox made his first catch, I thought the announcer referred to the WR as Cox. Cox was covered by William Gay on the play. The inner-immature-7th grader in me chuckled.

* Afalava: Best last name ever. Sepulveda is a close second (he had another good game).

* During the telecast, there was an advertisement for free fantasy football on NFL.com. However, the text stated except in California and Puerto Rico. So if you live in CA or PR, do you have to pay to play fantasy football on NFL.com? If so, wouldn't you just try a free league on Yahoo or ESPN? Can someone explain how this works?

Big picture: The Steelers are 1-1 and a game behind the Ravens in the division. This loss is not going to make or break the season. It was a road game against an NFC team, so there are no concerns about the conference tie-breaks. Next week's game against the 1-1 Bengals is much more important.

Fantasy Football Question

It's question day here at Sean's Ramblings! As a hypothetical, let’s say that someone has the #3 pick in an upcoming fantasy football draft. Who should this brilliant and fascinating person select with this pick? Maybe a better question is this: who would you rank as your top three fantasy players to start this season?

The scoring for this league is fairly standard: 6 points per TD (passing, receiving, and rushing) and 1 point per 15 yards rushing or receiving. This is not a point per reception league.

As a side note, why does every fantasy football magazine create their top 200 list based on 4 points per passing TD? I have never participated in or even known anyone in this type of league.



(Carson Palmer is not a top 3 pick.)

Fantasy Football Champion

I remember my very first fantasy football league. I was a junior in high school, and we really didn’t know what we were doing. There were no fantasy football magazines or websites. I don’t even think there were any websites back then. All of the stats were done by hand. With the #5 pick in the first round, I selected Jerry Rice. The only other players I remember on my team was Wilbur Marshall (we had an individual defensive player) and my starting quarterback, John Friesz of the San Diego Chargers. As you can guess, a team starting Friesz did not win the title. The league was done after one year as half of the participants went off to college. I didn’t play fantasy football again until 2001.



Meanwhile, I have been in one fantasy baseball league consistently since 1992 and joined another league over the past few years. This year, I was in three fantasy football leagues, losing in the quarterfinals in my 16-team league after going 10-3 in the regular season and falling in the semi-finals in the second league. By my estimate, I have participated in around 40 seasons of fantasy baseball and football. Throughout that time, I have never won a championship. I wrote about my fantasy football frustrations each of the past Decembers (2007 and 2006) and even thought about quitting. However, my perseverance has paid off as I am now a fantasy football champion.

I know most people don’t care about my championship team, but this is my blog, so I’m going to write about this magical season. If you don’t want to read about it, feel free to answer the trivia Tuesday questions below. Anyway, of all of my fantasy football teams over the years, this may be one of my worst. My top three running backs, Joseph Addai, Reggie Bush and Earnest Graham all missed significant time with injuries, with the last two now on IR. In addition, my first quarterback drafted was Derek Anderson of the Browns. He didn’t work out well this year for me or the Browns. In fact, I’m convinced that my team is the worst team ever to go 13-3 (including playoffs) and possibly the worst team ever to win a championship.

Take a look at my starting line-up this week:

QB: Chad Pennington (I made a last-minute decision to bench Matt Cassel)
RB: Joseph Addai (even though he was active, he didn’t even play this week!)
RB: DeShaun Foster (yes really)
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: Greg Jennings
Flex: Kevin Walter
TE: John Carlson
D/ST: Pittsburgh (The team’s worst performance of the year)
K: Jason Elam

How the hell did I win? Well, I need to give credit to the Oakland Raiders defense who shut down Matt Schaub, Steve Slaton and Andre Johnson. I also need to thank the Giants defense for containing Steve Smith but doing nothing else. I guess I should also express some gratitude to the Redskins defense for holding Brian Westbrook to only 11 points. In fact, only Brandon Jacobs showed up for my opponent. (Sorry Gobo.)

I also should send some flowers or donuts to the real hero, Philadelphia Eagles’ coach Andy Reid. In my semi-final match-up, I was up 5 going against DeSean Jackson on Monday night. Although Jackson scored 7 points for having 70+ receiving yards, he earned a -2 for throwing an interception. Yes, Andy Reid had Jackson, a wide receiver, throw the ball on 3rd and goal. I won the tie-breaker. (Sorry Messiah.)



However, I don’t think I have fully explained just how bad my team was this year. In this 12-team league, I faced the team who had the lowest score of the week 7 times, including the championship. In two of those weeks, I finished 11th in points scored, but earned the ugly victory. For the championship game, I finished 10th in points scored, worse than all but one of the teams in the consolation brackets. I think there's a saying that it's better to be lucky than good. I'd rather be good, but for this year, I'll take lucky.

I guess I can check winning a fantasy league off of my list of things to accomplish in my life. Is a fantasy baseball title next?

2009 Fantasy Football Question

Since I’ve been spending way too much time with my fantasy football leagues lately, I thought I would ask a question to anyone else who is also obsessed.

For the 2009 fantasy football league season, who would be the top 5 picks?

Does the consensus 2008 #1 pick, LaDainian Tomlinson, make the list? How about Michael Turner? Feel free to include (or not include) an explanation of your top 5 in the comments. At the very least, enjoy the following Pearls Before Swine strip: