SportsGirl

My alarm goes off at 5:15 every morning. And each day begins the same way; with a painful rubbing of the tired eyes. For a split second, my brain wonders (ok, desperately hopes) if it’s the weekend. But alas, I must rise from bed and begin the day. That, my friends, is the daily reality check.

I started playing fantasy football this year and I’m finding that I need another reality check. Rooting for your fantasy team takes watching football to a new level and puts a whole new spin on it. If you’ve read my posts, you know I’m not a big Philip Rivers fan. However, he’s my fantasy quarterback so I find myself actively rooting him on. And I feel like a traitor the whole time, but I’m competitive enough that I’d rather win my week in fantasy, albeit with a player I despise. One of the pluses that has come from my foray into fantasy football? I now watch games I wouldn’t have cared about before. And because Rivers is my QB, I’m watching him more closely and realizing that he’s got some talent. Still hate the attitude, but he’s got some talent.

So, I’ve been criticized for caring more about my fantasy team than my reality teams. This season in particular, I’m grateful for the distraction. Had Tom Brady gone down last year, I would have been devastated. It would have been the horror to end all horrors. I’m not going to say I barely noticed when it happened this year, but the level to which it crushed me was lessened by the focus on the fantasy team. And while I watch games with a different perspective, I haven’t abandoned my first love, the Patriots. Now, I still root for them to win but if one of my guys is playing against them, I root for my guy to also have a good game. I believe the two interests can co-exist. Just don’t let me make the playoffs and have Phildelphia play NE in the Super Bowl. I have Philly Defense. I’d have to root for the final score to be NE 3, Philly 0…

It seems as though I’m not the only one in need of a reality check already at this point in the season. Brett Favre appears to need someone to remind him that he’s almost 39 and that he probably should have stayed retired. And the San Diego defense seems to be all-too-willing to serve as that reminder. Favre has made some terrible throws tonight and has gotten sacked a few times. I literally watched him botch a 2-point conversion after benefitting from 4 SD penalties that actually placed the ball on the 1/2 yard-line!! As if I needed more of an argument against those who feel he had plenty left in the tank. Favre needs to remember that, while he will occasionally throw a frozen rope that will land neatly in the hands of his receiver, ever so slightly in front of the defender who has his hands all up in the receivers face, the reality this season is that this throw will most likely be a pick. 

As I write this, I’m watching my fantasy team wrap up the week with a W. Rivers got me almost 20 points and, more importantly, LDT and Vincent Jackson helped one of my friends win their week by beating a guy who was 2-0 on the season. My friend was 0-2 so while he picks up his first victory, he’s also prevented this other guy from being 3-0. Fantastic for me since I’m 2-1 (well, technically in 1:48 I’ll be 2-1). So the Patriots lost their game this week. To the Dolphins. By a large margin. With Ronnie Brown scoring 4 times and actually throwing for a touchdown. And to borrow the title from a great Gen-X movie–reality bites. But with fantasy this good? Who needs reality?

Today may be the best day of my life. Or maybe just of the year…on second thought, maybe just the best day of the week. But you get the point. That’s right. The football season has officially started and I am one happy camper. Last weekend the college season kicked off. I tuned in, only to watch Michigan repeat history and look terrible in their season opener. They lost to Utah and the Rodriguez Era didn’t earn any confidence from me. Even Rice won their first game! This week, they won, not by much over an unranked MAC team, but still, they won. And today we get the first full day of NFL football. Who could ask for anything more?

The regular season technically kicked off on Thursday with the Giants-Redskins game.  I couldn’t tune in for the kickoff and when I picked up the game, it was 16-7. And that didn’t change for the rest of the game. Not exactly the blockbuster match-up I’d be hoping for as the season opener but hey, it was football. I’m not complaining too much! Especially since I have Brandon Jacobs on my fantasy team. He rushed for 116 yards, though he didn’t score any touchdowns. Stupid Eli Manning. That kid is bound and determined to screw me over, season after season! He couldn’t have handed off to Jacobs for the only TD of the game, could he? No, Eli’s Coming had to run it in for the 1-yard score. And my dislike for him continues to grow, no matter how many Manning brothers commercials they run on TV.

So now’s a good time to mention that I’m playing fantasy football for the first time. I certainly watch enough football, I figured I may as well put that attention span to good use and join a league. My league was supposed to do a live draft (which I pushed for), which then got cancelled, and we then had an auto-draft at 5 in the morning the other day. I wasn’t happy. I got my quarterback in the very last round (round 15) and the computer drafted me Trent Edwards. Really? The computer thinks I wouldn’t have drafted a QB until the very last round? I mean, I know I’m a girl, but even I would have known to draft a QB by, oh I don’t know, the 3rd or 4th round!! Who waits til the last round to draft a QB? Apparently, ESPN’s auto-draft, that’s who. I made a trade for Phil Rivers, since I had about 12 RB’s to deal, and I now have to root for a quarterback that I despise. I know he’s got the question mark of the knee injury but you know, Luis Castillo certainly thought Rivers was brave and who I am to disagree with that?! He’ll be fine. 

So not only does the NFL season really get going in a matter of minutes, but so does my first fantasy football match-up. It’s a big day! Some may say I take these games too seriously, but I say pooh-pooh to that notion. You can never take football too seriously. And if any of my neighbors ask you that question, just back me up because I’m sure they get tired of listening to me yell at my TV. Football baby!! I’m a happy girl.