DRAFT WEEKEND

I look forward to FF draft weeeknd from the moment that the NFL draft ends in April.

I flew back to Minnesota from Massachusetss for my league's drafts last weekend.

For my 3 readers who aren't in the league/aren't married to someone in the league, I run two leagues. My Yahoo league is in it's 6th or 7th year and features Individual Defensive Players (IDP). I won it for the first time last year, the first time we had payed an entry fee for the league. Last year I also started a keeper auction league. If you don't understand, pick up a copy of Mark St. Amant's book "Committed".

Thursday morning I couldn't sleep when I got off of work, I wound up falling asleep some time after noon. I was up at 6 p.m. I went to work at 10 p.m., and got someone to relieve me at 5 a.m. At 5:05, the king picked me up and we were off to the airport. I got on the plane and read "Committed" and paged through a couple of FF magazines until it landed. No sleepy.

I hopped the light rail and my parents picked me up. We went out to lunch, and then back to Mora. In Mora I finished my pre-rankings and waited for Casey to pick me up. He swung by, we grabbed a couple of Vaults at Tom Thumb, and we were off to Brainerd. In Brainerd we milled about Pat's house until Dan showed up, and then we went to the Cabin. We played a little bit of catch on the beach, waiting for the other guys to show up.

After some frusterating chats on the phone, where I repeatedly told Curtis and Craig "Take a right on Ojibwae Park Road" about 5 times, we met two other cars at Pirates Cove for some hot minigolf action. DooHow and I won a 2 v. 2 match against Curtis and Craig. It was then back to the Cabin for beer and poker and fire.

DooHow knocked me out on the second hand. I had pocket jacks, and two pairs on the turn, then DooHow landed a flush on the river, and I was done.

I hung out by the fire for a while, and wound up going to bed about 3 a.m.

At 6 a.m., I wake up to "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Stuccato. Repeated over and over again. I get out of bed, put my shoes on, go over to the tent and calmly say "You guys want to knock it off with the grab ass."

Helgy's reply?

"I PISSED IN THE TENT!"

Then his roommate Dave started with the laugh again. I was furious. 6 a.m. and they are drunk enough to have Helgy piss on the air mattress, and then they just put their heads the other way and went to sleep.

I was up again at 9 a.m. for our Yahoo draft.

It went well, but everyone likes their team right after the draft.

My brother Jake came up and cooked for us while we were drafting, and made us some killer pork chops.

After the draft and lunch, we went out to the football field.

I played the worst game of my life. Pat and I have been preparing for this game since December. WE had an offense. We had matching jerseys. We had talked about our defensive strategy. Oh yeah, Chuck also had to come out of the game to throw up then pass out on the sidelines.

There is no way we should have lost the game.

And we got our asses kicked.

Worst game I've ever played. I threw maybe 4 good passes, and had only 1 run, which Chuck caught me from behind on the one play he tried to get back in the game.

We lost 10-8, or 10-7. I don't remember which.

From there, we picked up the keg, dropped it at the cabin, and hit the golf course. I golfed pretty well.

After golf, we hit Arby's. Then back to the cabin. I chatted for a while, but was in bed, sober by 11 p.m.

I woke up somewhere in the 7 a.m.'s and just managed to get on the boat before Casey and my brother went off fishing. We didn't catch anything. We didn't even have any action.

We then had out auction, and I managed to rape Helgy in a couple of trades. Pretty sweet.

Then everyone went home.

Now it's time to start planning next years.

Fantasy Football, GREAT for the game

I love fantasy football.

I love it.

Fantasy football is GREAT for the NFL. It makes fans appreciate great players more. As much as I hate Tory Holt, I know that he is an ELITE wide reciever, and I have a great deal of respect for him.

If not for FF, who the hell would know who Anquan Boldin is? Or Randy McMicheal?

FF makes a good fan great.

Would anyone give a damn about NFL Sunday Ticket if not for FF? Would people in Washington be buying Chad Johnson jerseys? Would people in Seattle be wering Peyton jerseys?

FF makes a profitable league a goldmine.

I think the most important point DooHow brought up was the hometown factor. How he was starting to care more for FF wins then for Vikings wins. There is something that he failed to realize:

The Vikings blow ass.

And they probably will for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, the Vikings are my favorite team, and whatever games I may be following (all of them) will only make my laptop and commercial breaks of the Vikings games. FF is generally a second-favorite team. And while the Vikings struggled under the Mike Tice regime, our FF teams had a much greater chance of winning than the purple. If the Vikings ever become a legitimate team again, then FF will be pushed further back in our minds.

I mean, really, no fan would wish for Kevin Jones to run for a touchdown on the last play of the game, to beat the Vikings but icing a FF win.