My Football Fantasy: Feast or Famine

College League: Squid loses, 114.15-76.72 (1-1 overall record)
Vermont League: Squid wins, 102.34-52.46 (2-0)

My MVP: Frank Gore (Running Back, 49ers) with 20 rush attempts for 112 yards and 1 touchdown and 7 receptions for 56 yards and 1 touchdown


Photo via Midwest Sports Fans

It was a very strange week, as you can see from the scores above. Each week, Yahoo! designates a Toyota Greatest Fantasy Victor for the league. In my Vermont league, I was on the winning end. In my college league, I was on the losing end. I can definitely say that losing feels bad more than winning feels good.

Gore was a monster against the Saints, albeit in a losing effort. He is one of what seems like dozens of University of Miami tailbacks who have made it big in the NFL. That had to have been a frustrating loss for the Niners - for the defense, especially, who were magnificent. One can see that with a more dynamic offense (i.e., one that goes beyond Gore and tight end Vernon Davis), San Fran could be a dangerous team - but not yet. The Saints have to be happy, though. The defending champs begin the season with two ugly wins, but wins nonetheless. They'll lose Reggie Bush for a while, but that's not as devestating as it would be for most teams. In a Drew Brees-led offense, everybody eats.

I'll wait until the end of baseball season for a more complete discussion of fantasy football vs. fantasy baseball. But for now, the biggest difference for me is that fantasy football encourages me to watch more games than fantasy baseball does. In fact, I can watch an Orioles game and completely forget that Nick Markakis is on my fantasy team. I can think of a couple of reasons for this. First, my love for baseball as a sport exceeds my love for football. As such, I'd rather watch teams I care about than players in whom I have an interest. Also, I think there's something about the head-to-head nature of a typical football fantasy league that makes individual games more vital. Our baseball league is a rotisserie league, the most common setup. I think it better suits the nature of the baseball season but it does make individual games less important. If one were to do a head-to-head league in baseball, that Sunday night game might take on a significance similar to the Monday night game in football.