Chicks Like Sports Too

Again, a blog post title which sounds like I’m going to be reviewing a movie, but again, that would be incorrect.

This is a very appropriate title for today though.  I went out with some coworkers last night to a work event in the city.  Needless to say, it went on for much longer than necessary, shots were had, drinks were drank, no food was eaten, cigars were smoked, and bravo, you have the perfect recipe for a Thursday morning hangover.  But you would also be incorrect.  I woke up and had no hangover (I TOLD everyone that bourbon wasn’t a real drink).  However, I have a feeling that come fantasy football season, my hangover will be the death of me.

You know that sometimes people say they’re “drunk on love”?  Well, I have that problem, with my 2009 season fantasy football team.  We were the underdogs.  We were victorious.  It was a relationship that, I hoped, would never end.  But is that any way for me to look prospectively towards the 2010 season?  I had such stars as Randy Moss, such sleepers-come-break out stars as Sidney Rice.  They weren’t a pretty team, but they did the job week after week.  Fantasy football draft is only a month or so away, time to start thinking about my team.  But I’m afraid that my love hangover of my ‘09 team will interfere with the potential a fresh start could bring. 

Randy Moss was a crybaby for the second half of the season, and quite frankly, didn’t put up the numbers people expected him to.  He was my first round draft pick, and to get him again, I may have to use up another first round pick to do it, foregoing getting a superstar running back this year (which is my plan).  Plus, with Welker on again off again with his injury, I’m not sure I want to risk Brady’s inconsistency and Moss’ moodiness when he is under double coverage and still expects the ball.

Sidney Rice is young, he’s talented, he’s 6’4” and lean, athletic and has catcher-mitt hands that seem like they have superglue on them.  He has a knack for beating coverage and for red zone touchdowns.  But because Rice has very few stats to rely on besides the last 2/3ds of last season, the most important variable to Rice’s success is Favre.  There was a bromance developing, and I saw it early.  Another team dropped him to accomodate a bye week pick up, and I snatched him up just in time for him to make a few touchdowns and solidify himself as a key player in the Viking offense.  But everyone knows that a receiver is only as good as his QB, and the chemistry he has with his QB.  So if Favre doesn’t come back, or hurts his aging shoulder, or something, Rice might not be as valuable.

The love hangover is bad.  It gives you false confidence in your team.  All the while, I can look back at my team and see them for the rag-tag motley crew they really are: Slaton and Maroney (fumble kings in teams that do not tolerate such sloppiness), Ted Ginn Jr. (stone hands), Flacco (young and unrefined), Rberger (alleged rapist), Vince Young (young and unrefined), Portis (aging and concussed), Donald Driver (old dude), Sproles (I actually really like Sproles, but because of his size, and LT’s ego, he never got the playing time he deserved).  Why can’t I see my team for what it really is: a team that could have lost on any given Sunday (or Monday) BUT FOR my superior managing skills. 

Breaking up is hard to do, but I think it’s time for us both to move on and go our separate ways.  You’re going to make another fantasy team very lucky one day, honestly, I just think I can do better.

In college, my hangover cure was gingerale with fresh lime juice.  My friend Melissa used to eat scrambled eggs.  It all used to be so simple.  Now it looks like only a dose of reality can cure what ails me.  And I’m not just talking about football.