Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My Football Fantasy: Friendly Fire

College League: Squid loses, 71.60-65.48 (3-7 overall record)
Vermont League: Squid wins, 109.44-105.84 (6-4)
My MVP: Matt Ryan (Quarterback, Falcons) with 316 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown and 5 rushing yards


Photo via BC's View from the Cheap Seats

Both of my Week 10 opponents are highly important people in my life. Mock, my opponent in the Vermont league, is my valued friend, colleague and fellow blogger (Stay on target...). We shall call my college league opponent The Best Man as he performed that role in our wedding. My Wife and I each had a best man and a maid of honor. The Best Man was hers. In fact, I would never have met My Wife if he hadn't been friends with her first.

Once again, the scores were close in both leagues with everything coming down to Monday night. I had no one left in the college league whereas The Best Man had Ryan Torain (RB) and London Fletcher (LB) - two Redskins. Torain was a non-factor but Fletcher was a beast: 9 solo tackles plus 4 assisted tackles, more than enough to cement The Best Man's victory.

Mock may take a while to forgive me for my late comeback in our matchup. I was nine points behind heading into Monday night. I had LeSean McCoy (RB, Eagles). He had Santana Moss (WR, Redskins). As you may have heard, Eagles QB Michael Vick had the game of his life and McCoy was one of many fantasy beneficiaries. Moss? Not so much. Squid wins.

My week started off quite well in the Vermont league with Matt Ryan's performance on Thursday. I'd completely forgotten that there was a Thursday night game (it feels like there are more every year) and that I had my starting quarterback going. He had the best game of his young career, taking down the mighty Ravens and cementing Atlanta's place atop the current NFC standings. Matt Ryan is credited on Wikipedia with creating the game folleyball for NFL Play 60.

My record in the college league now stands at 3-7. Last week's loss became a win after the stats were adjusted for the week - lucky me! I am still two games out of the playoffs and still have a chance at a .500 regular season record, but no better. My situation in the Vermont league is much better. I am now in playoff position and I'm very happy with the current state of my team. 109 points is a great weekly score, win or lose.

As discussed previously, fantasy sports can play wicked games with your rooting interests. All else being equal, the Redskins are my favorite NFL team and the Eagles are one of their most bitter rivals. But it was hard not to root for Philadelphia last night. The writing was on the wall early in the college league so I didn't have much of a chance to root against London Fletcher. And really, how can you root against any middle linebacker: among the more thankless yet vital positions in football? But I really wanted a big game from McCoy (nothing personal, Mock) and it's difficult to root for a lead running back and not for his team.

And so, it appears that I care more about my fantasy team than I do about the Skins. I'm only a little surprised by this revelation. After all, I've suspected all along that I prefer fantasy football to the real thing. Not so with baseball, I found this summer. However, I might feel differently in a head-to-head baseball league. I'll find out next year.

1 comment:

  1. That is a good blog post...almost makes me feel bad about swearing at you on the phone this morning...almost.

    ReplyDelete