The Ten-Four, Good Buddy Fantasy League!

Hey everyone.

I'm starting a Fantasy Football league this year, and some of the frequent commenters on this site - Jonathan and Assistant Village Idiot - will be joining.

It's a pretty laid-back league in which the majority of people will have never played fantasy sports before, and it should be a fun experiment in how competitive we get in trying to beat each other, either through the league or through outrageously overaggressive emails issued during these battles.

Anyway, there's still a few spots open in the league, so if you've never know the joy of watching your running back break free for a forty-yard score, or your opponent's QB going down with a bruised shoulder in the first quarter, or just unnecessarily trash-talking over the awesome skills your wide receiver has, a receiver you have never seen play, probably never will, and could not pick out of a crowd (Seriously. The best player on my fantasy baseball team is Ben Zobrist, who I just discovered this week is a white guy. Who knew?), then you're free to join in.

No experience necessary (and possibly, quite inadvisable), and don't feel like you've got to be a frequent commenter in order to ask to join. Send me an email at 10fourgoodbuddy@gmail.com if you'd like to be a part of it.

I hear the love theme from a Zeffirelli film in my head...

I am smitten. I am obsessed. I can't sleep nights. I keep hitting refresh on my inbox, waiting for replies. I never want to lose this feeling. I love fantasy football.

I thought I would, of course. I'm a numbers guy, I like looking at stats and making predictions, I like competing in things that don't involve running. But I never knew how much it would take me over, like a werewolf bite. It's fantastic.

Understand, first of all, that while I like football, and I like the NFL, I have no great affection for either. I watch maybe an hour or so, idly, on a Sunday afternoon after church. I root for the Pats, though that's hard to do down here in Houston. I watch the playoffs if I can, and of course the Super Bowl (but then, watching the Super Bowl is to being a football fan as... going to a museum is to being a paleontologist. There's a lot more of the former than the latter).

But suddenly... I care deeply about J.P. Losman's uncertain start in Buffalo. I worry about Chad Pennington's ankle injury. I skip around cheerfully at the waiver wire addition of Josh McCown, and I don't even know who Josh McCown is. I rejoice that my Chad Johnson-Reggie Williams-Vernand Morency for Tatum Bell trade, which I had faith in even though it looked mediocre on paper, turned in to such a lopsided stunner (Johnson, Williams, and Morency - two of whom started for his fantasy team - combined for 16 fantasy points. Bell had 29 points all on his own). I still don't seem to know jack about the NFL, and yet all of sudden I feel deep pain that Frank Gore's hand injury disabled him enough that he only ran for 55 yards, which ended up costing me my first game.

Oh, yeah, that's right, I lost my first game. By just 4 points, 279-275. And you want to know why it happened? Because I benched Randy Moss for the first game, figuring he was probably still hurt and wouldn't be any help. Instead, this happened. Yaaay.

My goal, this season, is to learn how to be a fantastic fantasy owner. To make the moves necessary to win, week after week. Honestly, I want to win a fantasy championship my first year out. In fact, I'm going to win a fantasy championship my first year out. And I want you to come along for the ride.

Each week, I'm going to make little updates on this blog, documenting everything happening with my team. And I know, I know, you're not interested, I hear you. But you will be. It's addictive. It's like a virus. You, too, will debate my decision to bench Roy Williams and Shaun McDonald, since they're facing such a tough pair of cornerbacks this week. You, too, will wonder how much Steve McNair's groin injury will impair him in the coming weeks. You think you won't, but you will.

I'll give you a full Week One update in a day or two. Prepare to start caring.