I never realized I wrote some of this, saved it as a draft and never finished or published it. Well here you go, a little late, but better late than never.

Every week somebody’s team has to have that big stinker, that one player who single handedly tries to submarine your entire effort. This week, that cruel fate belonged to my team in one, Rex Grossman. I didn’t expect much from him this week, I never really do. I just ask for 10-15 points and let Aaron Rodgers pick up the slack. This week, Grossman’s -0.98 points brought my QB average down to 13.61. Negative points. You have to love seeing that on the scoreboard. The only thing I’m more shocked at is how it was only -0.98. With his play today, I’m shocked it wasn’t -10. And that crap only brought down Santana Moss as well. Oh well, what can you do?

Even with that horrible mess that cost Rex Grossman his job, I still got the W with a little help from my friends. This week, my friend started Joseph Addai despite him being listed as Questionable and clearly not even traveling with the team as well as my friend losing Jason Campbell very early in his game. If those 2 things don’t happen, I probably lose. I have Vincent Jackson and Beanie Wells on byes and got a whole 0 points from the Saints Def. The Saints Def is awful. They can’t stop a thing and never get the turnovers they got me consistently last year. They showed promise Week 1 when I thought Sproles may run one back a few times this year but that hasn’t come to fruition and they’re only averaging me 5.5 points a week. Besides that, it was Aaron Rodgers and Michael Turner’s stellar 139/2 that carried me to victory. I’ll take it. The next few weeks are going to be ugly.

What I’m watching: NFL Football: Atlanta Falcons at Detroit Lions

It didn’t take me this long to write this wrap up post not because I didn’t want to push Caprica Six further down the page but just because I didn’t feel like it. It was a pretty uneventful week in fantasy land. Bye weeks are starting… I played an 0-4 team… I thought I was going to lose… I won. I honestly thought I was going to lose but that’s why you play the games. It was a little too close for comfort though as I only won by 12 points. When you think you’re going to lose, you go down approximately 50 points and trail all day, that’s just too close. My team is pretty stable right now but I still have some constantly questionable players, weak WRs, again, we’re starting the bye weeks plus there are some pretty good teams out there. Honestly it’s any given Sunday out there. Minus all the male nudity. Well I can only vouch for myself there. I don’t know about you weirdos. For sure though, I’m going to lose next week. It’s as much of a fact as bears eating beats and bears beating Battlestar Galactica. C’mon now? What is this page turning into? A BSG fan site?

What I’m watching: Big Bang Theory

“213 points. I can’t believe I was beat by the single greatest Fantasy Football day of all time. 213 points. ::smh::”

That’s what Matt would be typing if this was his blog… but it’s not. It’s mine. And I did, in fact, score 213.81 points this week. It started like any normal day. Woke up to another week of multiple Questionable players in the late games. “Oh boy this is fun”, I was thinking. One of the names was Beanie Wells again but this week we also get Vincent Jackson joining the injury game. I pick up a 4pm RB just in case and head to the bar. If Beanie’s out, I’ll start Reggie Bush. If Jackson’s out, I’ll drop Bush and get a WR. If both are out… well Jackson’s getting me 0.

So the morning games started and just kind of went. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Rex Grossman put up another stinker, 9.92 points, but at least he connected with Santana Moss so he got 9.85. Steven Jackson was playing solid. I was just happy he was playing so as long as he got me double digit points I’d be content. The TD towards the end was just icing on the cake. 16.17 points. Jimmy Graham. Every week with this guy. Another TD, this time with 132 yards, and he comes up with 17.3. My kickers got me 22 combined and the Saints Def eeked out 9 points. 84.24 total points from the morning games. Like I said, nothing to write home about. I drove home from the bar thinking that it was going to be a long shot winning this week with that total. “Show Me Your TDs” had 6 guys still to go, 2 of which were QBs, and I only had 4, 2 of which were Questionable.

I guess that’s when everything changed. Aaron Rodgers, 52.52 points, Beanie Wells, 37.2 points, Michael Turner, 25.9 points and Vincent Jackson, 13.95 points, just lit up the scoreboard all afternoon. VJackson did all his damage in the first half, 3/108/1, and didn’t return due to an injury in the 2nd. That should be fun again next week. Michael Turner decided to show up this week after last week’s disgraceful performance with 70 yards on the ground and 2 TDs. Beanie Wells shrugged off the Questionable tag with 138 rushing yards and 3… 3 TDs and then the real show happened; Aaron Rodgers missed Vick’s “greatest fantasy QB performance ever” from last year’s Redskins game by 2.4 points. 29 completions for 408 yards and 4 TDs in the air AND THEN 9 rushes for 36 yards and 2 TDs on the ground.

This is head to head so none of this really matters. It would have been way, way better last year. And I know, I know, records are made to be broken. The only thing they can’t take from you is the gold trophy and with the constantly injured players, that’s going to be really tough to do. Just watch how disappointing next week’s fantasy rant will be. I can see it already. It won’t be anything like this week’s 101.08 point victory. Yeah, you read that right. And again, that’s nice and all but it means nothing in H2H. The fact is though this day sure was incredible to watch. It wasn’t as much fun as you think it would have been as it all happened so fast, but it’s still kind of unbelievable considering this same team barely got me 110 points last week. You’ll always wonder “what if” though. What if I started Donovan McNabb instead of Grossman? I woulda had 220 points. Eh, we’ll save that for another day.

What I’m watching: Football Night in America

In the end all I really needed was 1 TD from Santana Moss on Monday night. After the horrible Sunday I had, all I needed was 1 TD from Sexy Rexy to the Cowboy killer, Santana Moss, whom I had to pick up because of Manningham’s feeble concussion. Regardless, the TD just wasn’t in the cards. In all my time playing Fantasy Football, I can’t recall being in a position like I was in this week. 2 of my 3 RBs were questionable, game time decisions, and in the afternoon games. 1 of the guy’s backups was also on my team but Questionable as well and playing a tough Def to boot. Another one of my players is already completely Out. There just aren’t enough bench spots in the world. Add some more bench spots. No. And drop that W/R spot. Again, no. I had to drop a kicker just so I could pick up another RB and contemplate over who to start for an hour before the game. Fantasy Football… you are not my friend. You’re challenging but not my friend. 2 of my RBs got me a combined 7.3 points. All 3 combined didn’t even get me 20. Nothing good happened aside from my new kicker getting me 18 of my 110 total, feeble, points. This has to be the bottom right? It can’t possibly get any worse. In week 3, I guess that’s a good thing.

Oh, by the way, this is the first week where the Turner over McFadden autodraft completely cost me one. Crappy Internet 1 – Me 0.

What I’m watching: MLB Baseball: Phillies at Braves

I wasn’t even supposed to have to watch the game on Monday night. It wasn’t supposed to be close. He had an injured Hackeem Nicks and I had a 3 point lead, Mario Manningham AND Cadillac Williams. Meanwhile into the 2nd quarter, Nicks had a TD, I was only up by 1 point and was waiting for the 2nd shoe to drop. At the half I had a putrid 5 point lead.

Through 3 and I have a 6 point lead meaning any Nicks TD puts me down. That’s because Manningham never made it out of the locker room after the half and Cadillac Williams left all he had back in St. Louis against Philadelphia last week. I have a RB and a WR through 3 and just over 10 points. Why do fantasy sports need to come to this? I’m not supposed to be live blogging this. I’m supposed to be watching something other than the Giants whooping on the Rams. Something way better. Anything.

Somehow I managed to squeeze by but c’mon… a RB and a WR should have easily netted me 20 points. Not 11.7. Oh well. A win’s a win and I’ll take it. But if total points come into play at the end of the year and I somehow get screwed by 9 points, I’ll know where to look. On to the rest.

The week, overall, was alright. Points wise my 159 total really got me caught up from the measly 119 last week. Nobody was spectacular, just steady. We’ll leave it at that. I’m starting Rex Grossman now though so that can’t be good. He started the game with just over 100 yards and 2 picks. That was fun. Rebounded though to get the 20 points that I wasn’t expecting. Bradford on my bench did that as well. Aaron Rodgers? Don’t get me started. It took him until the last second to get me 25 points. Sure, he got me the 25 points that I expect each week but I don’t like sweating it. Oh well. Again a win’s a win. I don’t expect another one next week though. Boy, this head to head thing sure is fun.

What I’m watching: The Comedy Central Roast – Charlie Sheen

Well that didn’t go so well. The season started on Thursday with my #1 pick Aaron Rodgers going up against my Saints defense. I also had Jimmy Graham. Rodgers came out scorching but the Pack went up so big so fast they took their foot off the gas and let Drew Brees and the Saints come back like mad. I got a TD from Jimmy Graham but my Def got beat bad. I expected it though and I even got the Def TD that I was counting on but it wasn’t enough. Drew Brees was forced to throw and that he did. I knew the week was over at that point.

Have I mentioned before that I’m relying heavily on the Rams offense? Sunday started off good with Steven Jackson busting out a 47 yard TD on the first touch of the game. He never even got touched. 1 play later and he was out of the game. 12 points on 2 carries. Sam Bradford made it through most of the game but it was a sad display as far as QB’ing goes. Then he came out of the game injured. 5.62 points. The Eagles may have single handedly ended my fantasy season.

Not much else to write home about. The Falcons got trounced; Michael Turner got 100 yards but no TDs. Beanie Wells came out hot with 16 points in the first half but the Cardinals were throwing the rest of the way and he only ended with 20.4.

I got absolutely no production from my WRs. I didn’t see the Chargers game but it looks like Philip Rivers was content dumping the ball off to Mike Tolbert rather than throw to Vincent Jackson. Mario Manningham has utterly worthless Eli Manning throwing to him so that may be a lost cause right there. Eli looked as sad as ever this week. I know he won’t lay down against the Eagles like he did today against the Skins. I don’t like him very much.

In the end, it was a thorough trouncing. I lost by 23.37 points. I expected it though going up against what I originally thought was the best team in the league. I ended with 119.79 points which I never would have been too disappointed with in year’s past. It would have been a solid week, especially after losing 2 players to injuries during the week. So goes head to head I guess. I made a mistake!

Next week is another week. Lets just see if I’ll actually have Jackson and Bradford back in the mix. If not, things may be dicey. I should have a favorable matchup to bring my record back to .500 at least. We shall see.

What I’m watching: NFL Football: New York Giants at Washington Redskins

The anticipation was killing me as usual. You wait around all day Saturday just waiting until that draft room opens up and you get to finally find out your draft spot. I got 5; same as last year. I rather enjoy picking in the middle though as you don’t have to wait too long in between picks. You don’t completely miss runs but you do tend to hit the back end of them. It’s a very doable spot though. Now that I had my spot I was ready to see how this thing played out. 30 minutes prior to the draft, the room opens so here I am sitting around waiting. 30 seconds before the draft starts… my Internet dies. Holy hand grenades. You have got to be kidding me. You wait practically 6 months for this and 30 seconds before the draft starts my Internet dies? My Internet has died a couple times over the last 5 years but it now picked the worst possible time in the history of Internet outages. Seriously… can you think of a worse time?

20 minutes later and I’m finally back in the room. I already had 2 picks under my belt. I was furious. The Aaron Rodgers pick I loved. I was ready to take him at #3. I got him at #5. Luckily Jamaal Charles and Michael Vick went #3 and #4. I had Charles at #3 until about this week. Then I decided the depth at QB just wasn’t there and changed to Rodgers. I had Vick ahead of Rodgers back and forth all month but finally decided to play it a bit safer with Rodgers. Both players will probably miss time… they always do… but Rodgers is a little safer to miss less time while still putting up a consistent 25 points a week regardless of who he’s playing. Vick will do that even on bad days but again, he’ll probably miss an extra game or 2.

So I have Rodgers at #5 and apparently a crazy QB run then ensued. By pick #12, Tony Romo was off the board and so were all the stud QBs. It’s the first time in our league that the draft went similar to my plans. I don’t think this was a draft where you necessarily wanted the top pick. So anyway, I’m still not back in the room yet and Michael Turner gets auto drafted for me at #16. At first I was pretty furious but I have since calmed down. My first two picks both share the same bye week but when I looked at what was left on the board afterwards, the only guy I would have taken ahead of Turner was McFadden. That would have been a coin flip and they both have the same bye week anyway. It was just an unfortunate way the draft went. I guess I was mostly just livid that I missed all the excitement of the first few rounds and had 0.0% idea what was going on. And hey, if McFadden blows his knee out in week 1 and Turner goes on to a have a good season, then someone was looking out for me. If McFadden goes on to blow Turner out of the water, then I hate you Cox cable.

The draft didn’t get any easier after that. All the stud QBs were gone at this point so for my 3rd pick at #25, I picked up my #2RB, Steven Jackson. He could have been a 2nd round pick, heck, last year it would have been tough to get Turner/Jackson in 1/2 let alone after I already had Rodgers, so maybe they’ll grow on me. I just hope that the St. Louis offense starts playing a little better than it has been the last few years. I’m gonna need more than Jackson’s 6 TDs from a year ago. More on that later.

With a QB and a 2 RBs on the roster, it was about time to try and get a WR. I selected Vincent Jackson. On my stat chart, he was the 7th WR. On my personal chart he was 9. I took him as the 9th WR off the board. It was between him and Miles Austin whom I hate to say I actually wanted more but I just couldn’t root for Miles Austin. Please don’t let me down Vincent. I have a feeling I’m going to hate Antonio Gates more than anyone this year.

My final big piece came in the 5th round. It’s a 2 QB league and I needed a 2nd QB. Pickings were getting slim though. I had a hard line set after 15 QBs (Eli Manning) and 14 had been taken. Actually 15 had already been taken but I wasn’t interested in Matt Cassel who luckily went a few picks before me. In all, 5 QBs were taken since my last pick so I had to reach a little farther than I wanted but I selected Sam Bradford. Not optimal, ESPECIALLY with Steven Jackson but there is quite a bit of upside. McDaniels worked wonders with Kyle Orton last year so hopefully now that he’s in St. Louis, he’ll be able to help Bradford come along. I missed Joe Flacco, whom I vowed to never draft again, by 2 picks but I would have taken him if given the choice. I have a lot vested in this St. Louis offense. Too much for my liking.

Now it was time to relax a little and draft best available the rest of the way. Beanie Wells for my W/R spot? Sure thing. Hightower's no longer around, Ryan Williams was injured badly last week... Everyone is out of the way and Beanie is the man in Arizona now. Not bad for your #3RB. In the 7th, I got my 2nd WR, another guy I was pretty high on... Mario Manningham. Nicks will have all the attention on him and with Steve Smith on the Eagles now, Manningham should be able to consistently reap the benefits. Sure I don't want to root for any NFC East rivals but the Giants #2 is more bearable than the Cowboys #1. My round 8 pick is one I'm still pretty iffy on. It's a high risk, high reward #3WR, Austin Collie. If he can stay healthy for once, he's a 3rd year receiver who has proven to have a good connection with Peyton Manning. My WR corp is looking to give me headaches this year deciding who's playing week in and week out but we'll worry about that during my weekly fantasy rants.

In round 9 I took David Garrard; another pick I’m really not happy with. I had to reach for a QB yet again but he was pretty much the last QB left that didn’t have the same bye week as my 2 starting QBs. I couldn’t risk it. I just have to hope he still has his job for Aaron Rodgers’ week 8 bye. Round 10 I picked my final empty spot and I’m pretty happy with it. I really thought this was the year I was going to get a stud TE but it wasn’t working out. I really wanted to get Owen Daniels this year but missed him as well. The TE run was pretty much over by round 9 but this is where something actually worked out for me. I had 1 TE left that I liked that wouldn’t give me more bye week problems but he was the top rated TE left, close to the top of the overall list and I had 1 team, Rob, that needed a TE. I crossed my fingers and luckily Rob’s lack of depth at the WR position allowed me to snag Jimmy Graham. I’m just hoping this guy builds on last year’s numbers. The Saints let Shockey go for a reason.

At this point I was pretty much done so I went on autopilot. Took the Saints Def next followed by Pierre Thomas in the 12th. 3 Saints in a row. You love the Saints. Your FACE loves the Saints. YOUR face loves the Saints. YOUR FACE! C’mon now. Is Thomas starting? Maybe, I’m not sure, but he’s my 12th round, #4RB. I’ll allow it. With injuries and a rookie RB breaking down over the course of the season, Thomas may be someone to watch.

I finished up with another Thomas… Mike Thomas. Who is Mike Thomas, Sucka? A #1 WR going into his 3rd year and is my 4th WR. I think my team has options. I then got Good As Gould who I seem to draft every year and Ryan Longwell who, as I’ve previously said, could be the new David Akers for when Donovan McNabb stalls on drives.

There she is. The 2011 Galapagos Tortoises. Didn’t turn out too bad. I don’t think it’s anything to write home about but after looking at everyone’s teams, no one has much to write home about. Everyone seemed to struggle this year. And my players’ strength of schedules do not look to make things easier; the week in and week out match ups plus the bye week fills look tough. The only team that looks pretty good is Tim’s team because he has 2 stud QBs in Drew Brees and Philip Rivers. That’s something that can lead you to the promised land. He somehow managed to get 2 good RBs in Blount and Bradshaw as well as some really good depth. I’m pretty worried. Good thing I play Fat Jesus in week 1. It don’t matter what’s on paper though. It’s why we play the games.

…Sucks. I can’t wait until this piece of crap draft is over and done with. That’s why there have been no posts in nearly a month. I spend every day wondering if we’re actually going to have a league this year. I’m tired of worrying if people are going to join, if people can make the draft, if people even care at this point. This league is now 8 or 9 years old and we’ve never had problems like this. People used to join the league within a week and let us know up front if they couldn’t make the draft. If 1 or 2 people couldn’t make the draft, or didn’t speak up, they’d set their Autodraft the best they could and we’d move on.

Maybe stopping Fantasy Baseball weakened the league a bit as it forced people to look elsewhere for fantasy sports 50% of the year. Maybe people are just older now, have other things to worry about, and don’t care about fantasy sports. I find that hard to believe though because everyone has multiple leagues. Maybe that’s the problem. People care too much about their other leagues. I’m fairly confident that for most people though, we were the first league so I’m just not sure what happened to drive them away. Maybe Kristin’s right? We have a challenging league that I don’t see a reason to make easier and it takes the fun out of it? People just want to play in leauges where you draft a whole 20 QBs and everyone’s starting an elite QB and elite players overall. A league where they only need to check the waiver wire when they have injuries? Where they know the competition is minimal and have a better chance of winning? I don’t know. All I do know is I can’t wait until this draft is over.

These are the days I miss the old Terententen Sportstalk discussion board. I was busy at work since lunch around 1PM PST and couldn’t get on the Internet or Twitter. I get home at 8PM and was just blown away. Young I expected, Pence a little less so but without Dom Brown I thought it was impossible and then after they got DRC yesterday, I completely stopped thinking about Asomugha. I’m floored. Just floored. No Sportstalk? Use the comments instead. Discuss!

Just finished watching The League: Season 1 on Netflix. Only 6 episodes but ridiculously hilarious. I don’t know why I never watched it before or why none of my “friends” recommended it. Apparently I have no friends. The 6 episodes are only about 2 hours combined. I suggest you go watch it.

And I can’t wait for Fantasy Football. Only 43 days until the draft.

What I’m watching: The League