It’s the best time of year… Fantasy baseball is coming to a close as teams make their stretch runs and young players on failing teams get a lot of playing time. At the same time, fantasy football is just beginning. It couldn’t have happened at a better time. I’m leading my fantasy baseball league by some 500 points (it’s like being 6 laps ahead in a race); so there isn’t a lot of concern there. Right as it’s starting to get boring, the NFL comes to the rescue. I’m running my own league for the 3rd straight year. Have 10 teams, most of them have played the past 2 seasons. I made a lot of format/rule changes this year and it looks like competition should be more fierce. I’m hoping to run away with it… I managed the #1 draft pick (with no cheating!) and took Larry Johnson. Can’t fail right? So many people would say Shaun Alexander is the way to go, but he’s getting old, has always avoided hits (can’t dodge traffic forever) and is on the cover of the new Madden game. I’m guessing he’ll have a season-ending injury by week 6. Don’t deny the power of the Madden curse. Michael Vick was on the cover in ‘03, the year he broke his leg in the preseason. Donnavan McNabb was on 2 years later, when he missed a lot of time to a groin injury. Alexander is next!
Anyway, I also picked up Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, Reggie Wayne, Mike Bell, Javon Walker, Thomas Jones, Nate Burleson, Jake Plummer, Keenan McCardell, Some worthless kicker, Reggie Bush, Chris Cooley and the Cincinatti Defense (tons of turnovers = mega fantasy points). I think I’ll go undefeated… but maybe I’ll start all tight ends one week to make it fair.