So Jonesing for Football!

Hey guys!  It's almost football season!  Yes, I know it's technically not almost football season, but it's closer than it was this time last week...

Thanks to Sue for giving us a place to get together and play Fantasy.  I am glad to be on ESPN for this season, the interface is good.  My only complaint is the logo function, I have never been able to get my own logo up!  But that is so not important.

What is important is the draft.  So I went through and ranked the players for my draft, even did the autodraft rules (this is a very cool new feature with ESPN).  Spent a fair amount of time looking at players, byes, my preferences, etc.  I got this thing NAILED!  Then I started cruising around the league tabs and looked at the keeper page.  Um, I shoulda looked at that first.  Cuz now I have to re-rank my players.  Unless you guys want to trade your keepers to me. 

No big deal, really (she tells herself, shaking her head).  I usually go throught the draft list at least three times before "the day".  What do you do to prepare for the draft?

Coming Clean...

Ok, I just have to get this off my chest.  A couple of weeks ago, bowing to the crushing pressure of the bye weeks and such a thin waiver wire, I, um, well I picked up Alex Smith and started him on two of my fantasy teams.

There, I said it.  I still don't believe that he is a good quarterback.  But he's come through for me (and my Niners) and I will give credit where it's due.  So here goes:  Thank you Coach Harbaugh for helping a marginal player do well.  And thank you for a record of 8-1!!!!!

Ok, now that I've cleared the air (I feel so much better now) let's talk.  We are well over halfway through the fantasy season and my teams are just awful.  I don't have even close to a .500 record on any of the three teams.  How can this be?

Is it because the Internet Gestapo at my company won't let me research football while I am at work?  These IT guys seem to equate ESPN with perverted dog on cat porn and block all my best attempts to get around their domain approvals.  I've even gone so far as to complain to my company's board of directors.  They all agree with me, but the IT squirrels still prevail.  Gah!!!  And please don't tell them I am blogging from my work laptop, that might just cause a meltdown.

Maybe it's because I don't have a lot of time at home at night to delve into the ins and outs of what the heck is happening in the NFL (which, by the way, stands for No Frikkin Logic)?  I mean, who in the heck is letting the Rams win?  And what happened to Buffalo?

Which brings me to my third, and most likely excuse possible explanation:  Is it because the league is just not behaving the way it is supposed to?  I mean, seriously. Miami has a better record than Indy.  (I miss you Peyton.  I REALLY miss you...).  The entire NFC West won this week.  How does that happen?  I am a long time Niners fan but those of you who've read my posts know I am pretty objective about my team.  San Francisco has a better record than New England (doing a happy schadenfreude dance here).  Actually the only team in the NFL (again, refer to the definition above) that has a better record than SF is Green Bay.  Boo-yah!!!

What it comes down to is having the time to really take care of my teams.  And I don't. But I will still play because I truly enjoy it, and enjoy all of you.  So when your teams are matched up against mine (for this season at least) you can pull the infield in and pretty much notch a win.  Cuz my teams STINK!!!

How are your teams doing?  And why do you think your teams are doing how they are?  What are your excuses reasons?

I want to give a huge thank you to Sue, who makes sure we all have a place to play Fantasy Football and cool people to play with.  I know it's frustrating trying to herd all us cats sometimes, but you do a great job Sue, and I truly appreciate your time and effort!

Oh, The Bye Weeks...

So, the bye weeks are here.  Yay (this is dripping with sarcasm).  I am not so cool as Rusty, who can take bye weeks into account during the draft.  I am lucky if I can pick players who aren't in jail or out for the season...

Which brings me to Peyton Manning.  Actually, it brings me to Curtis Painter, but bear with me for a second.  I miss Peyton.  The Peyton of old, always the smartest man on the field.  Always able to pull a victory from the jaws of defeat.  Now that he's on the bench for a season, it's a toss-up if he'll be able to come back to form.  I hope so.

But in the interim there is Curtis Painter.  For such a young guy (he's younger than my sons!) he is showing some real big-boy poise in the pocket, and has made some pinpoint passes.  And what an arm!!!  Not sure if he has what it takes to be a stellar QB, but he's better now than Collins ever was.  But Indy is 0-6.  Just typing that is causing my physical pain...I am near tears.

And, just in case you were wondering why I hadn't brought it up...THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS ARE 5-1.  Really.  I know, it reads like a typo or the delusion of an old granny that can't face the harsh reality that her team sucks. That still doesn't mean that Alex Smith can play football, but I think Harbaugh is able to get a bit out of the dry well that is Smith's talent.  Feel free to prove me wrong Alex.  Please...

And who else is shocked (shocked, I tell you!) that 6 weeks are gone already?  I am kinda bummed.  Actually I am really bummed, because I haven't been able to catch as many games as I'd like.  But the heart of the season is coming up and hopefully my pitiful fantasy teams can hang in there so I don't drag down the stretch in last place.

The bye weeks are killers.  Are you haunting the waiver wire and FA lists, picking up dreck to fill a slot too?  No, you're picking up the decent players on waivers before I can get to them! 

What are the bye weeks doing to you?

I am SO Ready for Some FOOTBALL!!!

Wow, after a long off-season (don't they seem to be getting longer?) and the drama of the lockout  my first Fantasty Draft is tonight.  I'm playing in only three leagues this year, all with mostly the same great group of people, and I'm looking forward to a lot of fun!

I was sooo happy when Harbaugh was named the 49er's head coach.  Not to dis Singletary, (my respect for him as a Christian man and a total beast of a middle linebacker is well documented) but he was way too invested in Alex Smith.  So this afternoon I read an article quoting Harbaugh as saying that the starting QB job is Smith's to lose.  WHAT???????

Note to the 49er coaching staff, front office and ownership:  ALEX SMITH CAN'T PLAY FOOTBALL.  Cut your considerable losses and move on, hopefully to a good QB.  Heck, talk to Kurt Warner.  He may be long in the tooth, but at least he's a quarterback!

So I sit here, waiting for the draft to start, excited and happy and anticipating all the highs and lows football brings.  But, having been a Niners fan for 35 years, I am anticipating some serious lows...

What are you most excited about???

Long Live Drew Brees!

It was a thing of beauty to see Drew Brees lead the Saints to such a decisive victory over the hated (yes, hated) Patriots!  The perfect passer rating was just icing on the cake.  I enjoyed that game more than any game I've seen lately ('cause we don't get the Niner games here, and they lose when I watch anyway, so...).

And what's up with Brady sitting out the last 5 minutes?  Takin his ball and goin' home?  Looked like a temper tantrum move to me...quitter...

Sports reporters tend to make me a little nuts in post game press conferences.  The stupidest questions, over and over...let me do that job, I'll get it right!  I'll ask the questions everyone wants to ask but doesn't have the hoo-hoo's to do it!  Like, "hey Coach Bellicek, do you have a pulse?" or "so, Coach Singletary, have you actually killed and eaten any of your players this year?"

I do have to give Brady kudos for hanging in the pocket as long as he does.  A year of rehab on a new knee can't be pleasant, and probably involved a lot of pain...

And hats off to the baby 3rd stringer for the Steelers!  He did a heck of a job.  Too bad about that pick in OT but still, he ran on the Ravens defense.  Good for him!

Bye Week Hell Part Deux

Ok, you've read my rant on bye weeks.  Now that they are over (thank you!!!) I'll whine just a little bit more about how frikkin AWFUL the past few weeks have been for my teams!

Running back - settling for all of y 'alls castoffs on Friday mornings when I finally have a chance to take a look at my teams (Monday and Friday mornings are usually just killed with back to back to back teleconferences).  Running backs have been the bane of my existence on the byes.

Quarter Backs - Now, I paid attention to bye weeks when I picked my QB's!  And there I was, actually starting ALEX SMITH (just sit with that a minute).  Again, it just sucked.

Needless to say, my win-loss records took a serious hit!  How did yours do?

Finally, Football!

Ok, lots has happened since I last posted. Lots on the family side (son and daughter-in-law got married 8 years and 2 kids later, princess turned a year old, RA is finally managed, yes!!!), lots on the work side (won $5 million in contracts, yes!!!) and, finally, FOOTBALL!!!

It's been a long, dry six months but so much has happened so fast. Since I last posted (I know it's been a month and a half, trust me) Michael Vick was reinstated and got picked up by the Eagles (imagine that locker room drama!), Plaxico is going to jail for being stupid and, wait for it, BRETT FAVRE CAME OUT OF RETIREMENT!!! I know!!! Who in the heck could have predicted such a thing???? And signed with the Vikes!!! I can just hear the Cheeseheads bleeding internally behind this one.

I mean, c'mon Brett. Yeah, you felt screwed over by the Green Bay front office. You weren't getting paid to mentor Aaron Rodgers. You didn't want to give up the glory yet. We get that. So you hold a press conference and have every football fan sobbing along with you.

But you have "more to give to the game". So you go to the Jets while stepping all over your legacy in the process because you exhibited NO class. And suck. BAD. And retire yet again (not so many tears this time, though). And then spend the entire spring, OTA's and early camp in the "will he won't he" mode. Playing with the emotions of the die hards who aren't thoroughly disgusted (yet) with your behavior.

But the VIKES?? Dude, that doesn't stick it to the front office, that cuts the hearts out of the FANS. The people who paid a lot of hard earned money to sit in the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau, cheering you on. Believing in you. Mourning your father and praying for you and your family. Cheering you on during the Monday Night game immediately following his funeral (and not just the Packers fans, Brett. ALL of us) and crying right along with you. THESE are the people that you've taken a giant dump on by signing with a hated division rival.

Yeah yeah yeah. They offered x and you promised y. It's just business. We get it. But I don't think YOU get it. In the span of 3 years you've gone from revered football god to a total a-hole out for the bucks. Our bucks.

And, here's the bottom line, Brett. You aren't (a) as good and (b) as marketable as you were even last season. So enjoy your season, or as much of it as you can manage to play. Instead of Brett Favre, Football Legend, you are now 'that a-hole, has-been Favre'. Don't underestimate the ire of the fans, dude.

Wow, this post turned into a rant, huh? I guess that's why I have this blog!!! Check back and see what I rant about next time. And I promise it won't be six weeks!

Fantasy Football Begins!

One of the reasons I started this blog is because everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) I know is way, way tired of hearing about my fanstasy football teams.

And not just the teams. My draft drama, player ups and downs, lineup woes, bye-week bitches, and the list goes on and on (and on and on and...).

I love football and I love fantasy football. I don't play live fantasy (refer back to how EVERYONE I know is tired of my fantasy football). It's not like those hilarious nfl.com commercials (I'll take Housemazilli!) (You'll take who we give you!). I played one season in a public league on-line and have been lucky to be invited to play in private on-line leagues with a very fun group of people for the past two seasons.

Now, I've never met these folks and most probably never will, but we do have fun during the season. Jibes and jokes pass back and forth on the sites and it's all in good fun. No one takes it seriously (at least I hope not!) and it doesn't get out of hand.

This blog will be my place to whine and cheer and anything else I need to do to get the fanstasy football out of my system before I talk to actual live people.

I'm in 3 leagues on nfl.com so far and my join another at ESPN. It doesn't take a lot of time but I live and die on the waiver wire.

The drafts are in August. I've never participated in a 'live' draft (where you pick your own players one at a time in turn) but will try to do it this season.

So check back. This will be a fun (at least for me) place to talk about my teams without watching my friends eyes glaze over...

It's just not FAIR!

I know, I know! I've told my kids a hundred times (each) that life isn't fair blah blah blah...but geez!

The RA always gets it's own way. ALWAYS. And there is no 'mom' to mediate the issue. I have lots of people on my side, from my wonderful husband to my oh-so-patient-with-this-patient rheumatologist, but that doesn't matter. RA -100 / Beth - 0!

That's not to say I don't push it and gain some yards. I do. Ya gotta live, right? But sometimes, without warning or even any real provocation, the RA comes pushing back with a vengeance and not only takes back all my hard won semblance of normalcy but sacks me like a bad quarterback with no front line! (I am jonesing for football, can you tell?)

I am taking up golf (my rheumatologist doesn't know this yet, so don't tell him before I see him, ok?). Lots of business done on the course, etc. etc. So I join a women's networking/golf organization and a few of my clients registered us as a foursome for an event on the 21st. I can't wait. I just got a set of clubs yesterday and planned to hit the driving range this afternoon and play a few holes over the weekend.

The RA has other ideas. I am exhausted. My wrists, hands, knees and feet hurt terribly. I feel like a truck hit me. I want to go home and nap for a long, long time. AND I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO DESERVE THIS!!! Nothing! Just went to work and came home.

Had a CMAA dinner meeting last night but left early and was home and in bed long before I normally would be. And why did I go to bed early? So I wouldn't be overtired and would feel good to hit the darn driving range today!

IT'S NOT FAIR