Football and fantasy football are back in session, much to my glee.
In past years as a fantasy football manager, I spent many, many hours pouring over player and NFL team stats, adding and dropping players, changing my lineup several times each week, and watching hours (days!) of TV coverage. This year I’m more laid-back. I have made a few judicious free agent pickups, but I’ve adjusted lineups only a few times, and I haven’t watched more than a few minutes of analysis on TV.
It’s only week three, but so far this laisse-faire approach is working for me. I’m 1-1-0 in the LFM League (with my fellow grad school alumns) and 2-0-0 in the Pittsburgh Celebrity Bloggers League.
Of the two leagues, the PCBL is the more interesting. More teams mean tougher competition for players and closer games, plus much more trash talk so far. And the fact that I’m undefeated makes it more fun as well, of course.
My opponent last week was Justin Kownacki, Pittsburgh-based social media consultant and the force behind Something To Be Desired, a web sitcom also based in Pittsburgh.
(Please do check out STBD: It’s currently in season 4, but you can start watching from any point in the series. You’ll miss out on some of the ironies and jokes but you’ll catch on to the characters and situations quite quickly. It’s a bit bawdy and very funny.)
I’ve worked with Justin on PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 and the intro-level social media Bootcamp we ran earlier this year, plus on-going PodCamp Pittsburgh stuff, and he’s an all-around great fellow.
However, last week I put aside all that and whupped Justin in fantasy football, 145.27 to 94.07. My main weapon was Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, who brought me a gorgeous 43.30 points even as his team lost to Houston. Twenty-five points from the Minnesota defense helped as well.
Lush Life (my team)
|
Points
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pos
|
Player
|
Opp
|
Status
|
Projected
|
Actual
|
| QB |
(Sea – QB)
|
@Ari | L, 23-20 | 14.50 | 13.17 |
| WR |
(Car – WR)
 |
Hou | L, 34-21 | 14.07 | 43.30 |
| WR |
(StL – WR)
|
SF | L, 17-16 | 12.09 | 11.40 |
| WR |
(Ari – WR)
|
Sea | W, 23-20 | 9.75 | 8.30 |
| RB |
(KC – RB)
|
@Chi | L, 20-10 | 12.90 | 8.70 |
| RB |
(Atl – RB)
|
@Jac | L, 13-7 | 6.74 | 4.30 |
| TE |
(NE – TE)
|
SD | W, 38-14 | 5.55 | 10.90 |
| W/R |
(Den – WR)
|
Oak | W, 23-20 | 7.78 | 8.20 |
| K |
(StL – K)
|
SF | L, 17-16 | 8.67 | 12.00 |
| DEF |
(Min – DEF)
|
@Det | L, 20-17 | 11.09 | 25.00 |
| Total | 103.14 | 145.27 | |||
STBD Gets Sporty (Justin Kownacki)
|
Points
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pos
|
Player
|
Opp
|
Status
|
Projected
|
Actual
|
| QB |
(Det – QB)
|
Min | W, 20-17 | 19.43 | 14.87 |
| WR |
(StL – WR)
|
SF | L, 17-16 | 6.30 | 19.20 |
| WR |
(Chi – WR)
|
KC | W, 20-10 | 5.37 | 0.70 |
| WR |
(NE – WR)
|
SD | W, 38-14 | 4.11 | 9.70 |
| RB |
(SD – RB)
|
@NE | L, 38-14 | 26.34 | 5.80 |
| RB |
(Car – RB)
|
Hou | L, 34-21 | 8.51 | 5.10 |
| TE |
(Bal – TE)
|
NYJ | W, 20-13 | 7.07 | 13.60 |
| W/R |
(Det – WR)
|
Min | W, 20-17 | 5.23 | 7.10 |
| K |
(Ind – K)
|
@Ten | W, 22-20 | 8.91 | 7.00 |
| DEF |
(Pit – DEF)
|
Buf | W, 26-3 | 12.24 | 11.00 |
| Total | 103.51 | 94.07 | |||
Images note: Both of these fantabulous helmets were created by Norm Huelsman, another member of the PCBL and my opponent this week. I offer him all kinds of kudos and thanks.
The helmets’ sheer wonderfulness will not prevent my team from pounding his into a whimpering mess, by the way.
I take solace in the fact that I could have played EVERY player on my entire team, bench and all, and still lost this game. Smith is a monster. But I’ll have my day in the sun, indeed…