Counting down fantasy football

It may seem like a mediocre week by NFL standards with the NFC North clinched for the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers likely rolling to a wild card spot.

But this is the time of year where fantasy football championships are won or lost. And, the difference between hoisting the fantasy trophy or being the butt of jokes can come down to as little as a first down or a field goal.

This year, my fantasy football league — comprised of numerous Jamestown Sun employees — goes by the title: Rae Carruth All Stars.

Yes, the same Rae Carruth who was a major first-round bust at wide out for the Carolina Panthers. He was also later found hiding in the trunk of a car with bottles of urine after assisting in murdering his pregnant girlfriend in 1999.

But I digress.

I’m writing this because I am one of four teams in the hunt for a bid into next week’s championship finale. “He Hate Me,” named after Rod Smart — the only XFL player to make it to the show — is against “What The Favre,” a friend’s team based out of Madison, Wis.

It’s the No. 1 seed vs. the No. 5 seed, with my He Hate Me seeded fifth. And, a ride to the title tilt for me could largely depend on Redskins tight end Fred Davis.

Football never used to be this way before fantasy sports. But here I am, anxiously awaiting a meaningless-to-me game so I can find out if Tony Romo hooks up with Miles Austin, or if Davis snags a TD to send me one week away from hoisting our beautifully disfigured Jamestown Sun fantasy sports trophy.

But it’s been a pretty good run, considering St. Louis running back Steven Jackson — my first round pick (13th overall) — has only found pay dirt four times. I just found out, however, Jackson is on the bench against Arizona, which might have all but thwarted my chance at fantasy football glory this season.

Woe is me, but not since Marshall Faulk have I given any attention to the Rams. So at least St. Louis has that going for them.

Let’s look at the other matchup: Sun sports writer Mike Savaloja’s “Super Sackers” (No. 3) vs. “rocky mtn. monsters” (No. 7).

Sav has a fighting chance, but his fantasy dark horse, Miami running back Ricky Williams, failed to find the end zone. Now his chance at a title shot relies heavily on Minnesota’s Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe showing up to play tonight against the Chicago Bears.

I got nothing but mad love for the rocky mtn. monsters, after the team was all but eliminated and walked into the playoffs after one upset and pulled off another. But starting Buffalo’s Terrell Owens was a dagger in his back this week that netted just 3.5 points.

Granted, the TO Show is somewhat a national spectacle but I feel for the guy for having to keep a tab on it, which brings me to my point.

Fantasy sports take the fun out of the game by forcing managers to pay attention to meaningless games and/or players, so you know whether or not to start Fred Davis or Chicago’s Greg Olsen. It also leaves managers trying to decode such things as New England’s three-back approach to running the ball.

Watching the end of a blowout just to make sure the Patriots’ Kevin Faulk keeps his hands off the football is not as fun as switching to a barn burner like Pittsburgh and Baltimore because of the pure sport. But these are the choices the dedicated members of “Rae Carruth All Stars” are faced with every week.

Still I ride it out, hoping for a win for two reasons.

The first is the copious amount of smack talk I will reign down on my co-workers until next year’s opening kickoff. The other reason is to win it all, and proudly display the Throlson Trophy on my desk until being told to take it down or throw it out.

So I will be paying attention to tonight’s game hoping Adrian Peterson runs into a brick wall, or else He Hate Me is history.

Tags: fantasy football, sports, other