SubscribeMy 2010 fantasy football squad is no dream team
Sunday evening I met seven of my former co-workers at a local restaurant for dinner and drinks and – our annual fantasy football draft! We take our draft very serious. To keep abreast of the NFL players and their performances, I’ve become an avid reader of sports magazines, watch ESPN’s football shows religiously, check NFL.com frequently and subscribe to the Bleacher Report, a newsletter that tells the good, bad and ugly about the players and their coaches.
It was good spending time with my former co-workers because a couple of them I had not seen since I took early retirement in late 2008 because they played in our league’s other division last year. We ordered drinks and meals and exchanged a few pleasantries and then it was time to get down to serious business.
A week or so ago, a drawing was held to determine our positions in the drafts and which one of the league’s divisions the owners and their teams would be a member of this season. For the first time in more than eight years, I did not have 7th, 8th or 9th draft pick. I was number 3 – whoopee!
The meals were pushed aside to make room for our notes, magazines and cheat sheets. And then the battle for the best players began. In the past, everyone in the draft had selected a running back during the first round. This year, my strategy was to select a quarterback in the first round if my favorite running back, Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans, was snapped up before my turn. So I was floored when Harold, who had first pick, selected quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and then Beth, who was second, took Johnson with a big grin on her face.
So, I selected quarterback Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints even though earlier Ron had said Brees had been in a terrible car accident early Sunday morning. He thought we’d forego Brees and he’s snap him up and laugh about it. Well, the joke was on him. We went through 15 rounds of the draft while the commissioner recorded our picks on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then at the end of the draft, he read off each of our picks to make sure he had recorded them correctly.
My 2010 team – DBOSSES – include the following players:
- Quarterbacks: Drew Brees/New Orleans Saints and Ben Roethlisberger/Pittsburgh Steelers
- Running Backs: Chris Wells/Arizona Cardinals, Ryan Grant/Green Bay Packers, Ronnie Brown/Miami Dolphins and Carnell Williams/Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Wide Receivers: Larry Fitzgerald/Arizona Cardinals and Chad Ochocinco/Cincinnati Bengals
- Tight Ends: Tony Gonzalez/Atlanta Falcons and Visanthe Shiancoe/Minnesota Vikings
- Kickers: Lawrence Tynes/New York Giants and Adam Vinatieri/Indianapolis Colts
- Defenses: Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants
In late July, I wrote about being “ready for some football” and revealed my picks for a dream team that would take me to the Super Bowl. My picks were as follow:
- Quarterbacks: Drew Brees/New Orleans Saints and Aaron Rodgers/Green Bay Packers
- Running Backs: Chris Johnson/Tennessee Titans, Adrian Peterson/Minnesota Vikings and Maurice Jones-Drew/Jacksonville Jaguars
- Wide Receivers: Andre Johnson/Houston Texans, Larry Fitzgerald/Arizona Cardinals and Randy Moss/New England Patriot
- Tight Ends: Antonio Gates/San Diego Chargers and Dallas Clark/Indianapolis Colts
- Kickers: Nate Kaeding/San Diego Chargers and Stephen Gostkowski/New England Patriots
- Defenses: New York Jets and Green Bay Packers
My reality team has only two players from my dream team. During the season, I’ll check the waiver wires daily in hopes that a few rookies will become top performers and maybe I can snatch one up and add a lot of zest to my team. Who knows, I may have a winning combination since points are earned based on the players’ performance in each game. I just may have the hardest working men in the NFL. Well, I hope so because I’m focused on winning the Super Bowl trophy.
Each of the other 15 members in the league will go all out to win the Super Bowl and take home that awesome no-name trophy. The trophy is an empty beer can that’s nailed to a strip of wood. I want it and so do they.
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When I was an 18-month-old plump and very mischievous toddler, I was stricken with polio. Paralysis stole my mobility and I was only able to move my head from side to side. Then, when I was 2 years old, my mother was killed in a tornado. A year later, my father married and began a life that excluded me.
