That Time Of Year

Yep. Football season's right around the corner. How do I know this? Because TMQ is back. I have to say that TMQ is pretty much required reading for folks who like football, but are also curious about other happenings around the world. Essentially, I get my current events entire from Gregg Easterbrook and The Daily Show. As an aside, I wonder what Craig Kilborn is doing nowadays, other than being self-satisfied.

At some point, I'll have to give my 2007 NFL predictions. Probably after my fantasy football drafts, just so that I don't give away any trade secrets. Of course, I'm not very good with football predictions. But that doesn't keep me from being pretentious enough to believe that everyone in my fantasy league is scouring my blog to pick up little hints for the upcoming season. You hear that, C-Lauff? Greg? Westy? Nothing for you until after the draft. Just like my Erik Bedard prediction this year :-)

The fun part is that like a couple times in the past, I'm entering the football season on the precipice of something great: The Roland Slam. Essentially, this is what I have dubbed the achievement of winning all three fantasy sport seasons in a row (basketball, baseball, and football). I've only done this once (in a magical season we now know as "2003"). No one else has come close to this in the past. So, lacking any form of modesty, I've seen fit to name this accomplishment after myself.

We have a little group of guys who always play fantasy sports, called the UPL. We're a bunch of guys who all met back in college, and includes a few new folks that we've met along the way. I don't know how true this is for everyone else, but at least a couple of the guys (including myself) actually care more about his league (which we play solely for bragging rights) than they do for the leagues that they have money riding on. And it makes sense. We're all still relatively close, despite not really seeing each other that often in real-life. But, we always stay in touch at least a few times a year during our league drafts, and of course when we throw trash talk around the message boards in our league. It's sort of funny how much our fantasy sports persona have taken hold over time. One of the funniest things that has evolved is what we call "Westy's Pawn Shop." I can't remember if it was me of C-Lauff that come up with this, but one of our buds always lowballs people with trade offers, sometimes to the point where people refuse to deal with him. I don't know if it's actually true or not, but I always mock C-Lauff for being afraid to trade with me, even when the trade is fair and that he's more worried about not giving a player that wins me the league than trying to win the league himself. Greg is usually very competitive in the league, and offers some hilarious posts on a variety of subjects. One of the guys, Rupert is usually not very competitive (except for a mystifying 2006 baseball season when he rode a number of career years to the title), very opinionated, and doesn't use much evidence to back up his arguments, much to my amusement. One of the guys, Schultzie, commented to me a couple months ago that he loves playing fantasy football with us, but he's amazed at how competitive his teams are, yet have never made the playoffs (bear in mind, we typically have a 12 team league, in which 8 teams make the playoffs). Olthoff is very up and down in football, having had some teams that were scary good (but just fell short in the playoffs) and some teams that were scary bad. Mikey is more or less a silent football savant, having won 4 out of 5 seasons in which he's played, and not hardly ever saying anything on the message boards. Me? I'm sort of a smartass, though I use an intriguing mix of pompus and self-deprecating humor. I typically have some sarcastic comment for whatever's posted on the board, whether or not I was the original target. But over the years, just like with everyone else, I've become a caricature of myself.

Which is what makes this fun. We jive with these images, and have fun with other people in the league based on their images. I think that this is a nice little way to get away from our real-life stresses, and be able to talk some smack and be competitive with our friends from the life-imposed distance that exists.

This year, I pretty much dominated the basketball league to the point that I declared victory around halfway through the season, and pretty much everyone agreed with me. Baseball's been much more interesting, with my team currently in 1st, but in the middle of a 3-team battle down the stretch, along with Greg and C-Lauff. The fun part of this one is that I was actually in 10th (out of 11) teams as late as early May, but was still trash talking as though I was in first, telling anyone who would listen (and some who tried to not hear) that I was going to win this league, going so far as trying to bet (albeit, only a single dollar) anyone in the league that I would finish ahead of them. Only C-Lauff was foolish enough to take the offer, and he's a little behind in 3rd. Of course, I think that he was in 1st at that point, and I was in 10th, so it really wasn't that bad of a bet for him to take. But after a couple months, I'm awfully close to setting the stage for my 2nd Roland Slam.

Which would make football awfully intriguing. Because we're ready to talk some more trash.

-Chairman