All Part of My Fantasy: A Diplobrat Throwdown

Out of all my league-mates, I met my Week 4 opponent first. We met the first night of freshman orientation. We ate together in the dining hall that night because, oddly enough, our parents knew each other in the diplomatic service. We were both born diplobrats. My folks moved to the DC area permanently when I was 3 but his stayed in the foreign service much longer. Their paths had crossed in Japan once upon a time.

Score for the week: Roppongi Moose 81.53, Squid 66.77
My MVP: Philip Rivers (QB, San Diego) with 21 completions, 254 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 yard rushing, 3 sacks and 1 lost fumble
Melodrama: Plenty of it this week. I'll pick watching Derrick Mason (WR, Baltimore) take a couple of hard hits during his otherwise outstanding game. One was on his touchdown catch. He didn't get up for a little while and I had visions of McNabb's broken ribs from Week 1. After another hit later in the game, he got up limping. I've had ridiculous injury problems to this point. I'm thinking of changing my team name to The Walking Wounded. Luckily, Mason lived to fight another day.

This one was a tough loss to take. My point total was the third highest in the league for the week and I still lost. I suppose the good news is that my team is really pretty good and should win one of these days. The bad news is that I'm 0-4, the only team in the league without a win.

Fantasy football throws my rooting interests completely out of whack. It was informative to watch the Patriots/Ravens game on Sunday. The Pats are my AFC team so, ideally, I wanted them to win. But I wanted the Ravens to score lots of passing touchdowns as I have both of their starting receivers on my team. For once, I actually got what I wanted. Pats won 27-21 and my guys had pretty good games. I have to admit, though, I was more disappointed that my receivers didn't do better than I was relieved that the Patriots won. It appears I am more emotionally attached to my fantasy team than I am to an actual NFL team which I generally favor. I have yet to see if fantasy football could lead me to root against the Redskins, the team I grew up watching. That would be the true test.