Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Nothin' but Fun League

It's not even the end of the first quarter yet, but can I drop a personal message to the Cheeseheads on the Interweb today?

If this is the most talented team that Brett Favre has ever played with, we're boned.

I'll wait until at least Week 4 to post the "Brett Favre should have retired two years ago" chatter, but if the first quarter is any indication, it's going to be a long season again this year.

On the plus side for Bears fans, they're looking pretty solid already. With all due respect, the Bears spent the past few seasons looking like they scored accidentally whenever it happened. The first drive looked really solid for them, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy seeing Rex Grossman get knocked around a little bit.

For the good of pork chop inhaling, Ditka-blowing Bears fans everywhere, the collective cardiac health of the franchise's faithful can't stand to see him sucking dirt for more that a second or two.

In any event, football is back, along with gambling, fantasy football and pick 'em leagues.

Can you think of a better time to be a football fan?

Yeah, me either. I know, Travis, I know. You, love it, too.

(Bonus points for a quiet house, the first cold days of the year and a light drizzle to officially make this perfect storm of laziness here in Minneapolis).

***

I can't begin to fathom why women a.) don't understand the appeal of fantasy leagues or b.) have chosen this benign activity to supplant golf as the stereotypical male activity that they see as a waste of time and indictment of the gender's stupidity as a whole.

Maybe it's because more women are golfing now, who knows?

In an effort to combat the thousands of confrontations that are happening as I write this, men need to remember one short phrase when asked why they care so passionately about their fantasy team; "Because I have a bundle of cash riding in this league."

That's it. Simple enough, huh?

It might not be the best answer, but at least it's moderately rational.

***

Can anyone explain how the Cardinals are ripping through the game right now (21-7 at the end of the first quarter, with Kurt Warner already sitting pretty with 2 TDs). Oh, wait. The 49ers are fucking horrible, that's right.

***

Wait, there are two Monday night games this week? Really? For me? Really?

Awesome...

***

Finally, my buddy Mic and I used to cheer ourselves up with the "Any given Sunday..." theory that with the nature of football, any team can beat any team on any Sunday.

Not so much that you could fake your way through a whole season - for instance, the Packers will not have a winning record this year, but it wouldn't be so surprising to have them jump up and bite someone in the ass from week to week.

That's why it was so strange when they kept making the playoffs for years straight until last year's collapse. Whether it was Chicago's ineptitude and injuries or Minnesota's choke jobs in back to back seasons (my favorite was the Arizona game and I napped through it, but that's another story) the Packers kept backing into the playoffs.

I think this is the single biggest factor in Favre's "sudden" decline that anyone who watched more than 15 minutes of a Packer game could see coming years ago. This is not Favre-bashing, it's simple facts.

Anyways, I was thinking of that last night as I was going over my final picks for the Pick 'Em league I'm in. I'm not sure if it's just my comparative familiarity with baseball or what, but trying to make educated guesses was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

Some of it is Week 1 stuff and some of it is just stupidity, but personally, I'll chalk it up to Mic's favorite cop out for an underperforming team - On any given Sunday, any team can win and any team can lose.

It's not until Week 2 that you can really start to get that sinking feeling in your gut.

(Image from Photobucket.com / PackerPalace.com)

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