Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It's not cooler yet, at least here in the South, but can you feel the Fall winds blowing?

That can mean only one thing, and that is Football and yes indeed we are so very close to making the women we love and the children we adore weekend widows. I know a lot of guys (and some women) are college football people and others are Pro football people and this befuddles me as I am clearly both.

On the college side we are just 10 days away from my beloved Florida Gators open with Hawaii. Amongst our very difficult schedule I am very excited about our 2nd game against the University of Miami Hurricanes. What was once an annual rivalry has been changed to a once every 6-7 year thing. With that we have not beaten the 'Canes since my Senior year in High School. Interestingly enough one of the cable channels has been playing that game every night for the last few days. It brought back a lot of good memories at the Orange Bowl and has gotten me completely psyched for September 6th when we finally putting a hurting on the boys down south.

Equally as important for me is the NFL. From a team perspective I am a born and bred Philadelphian and that will never leave me no matter where I call home. I have lived and mostly dies with the Eagles over the last 39 years but hope always springs eternal this time of year. Additionally, as many of you know I am not just a fantasy football player but I also co-host a web video show on the topic

www.thefflguru.com

(shameless plug). In my own league tonight is one of those 3 or 4 great nights. The best night of all is draft night. Tonight is the lead up to the draft where we will find out what order we pick in the draft. In most leagues there are 10-12 teams, this is where my league begins to differ. We have remained an 8 team league throughout or 20+ year history. The other major draft day difference is how we choose draft order. Again, most leagues do what is called a 'snake draft' where it serpentines back and forth, so if you draft 2nd in a 12 team league then you would have the then you would pick 23rd in the 2nd round and so forth. Well, we differ and it works for us because we are only an 8 team league. We have what is called 'the picking of the cards' which to me sounds like, 'the running of the bulls' but I digress. Essentially we have a RANDOM draw for all 23 rounds of our draft! So yes, it is conceivable that you could have the number 1 pick or the number 8 pick, if you are a pessimist) for multiple rounds in a row! What we have always seen is that it evens itself out over time and certainly allows for a fun event this evening. Once tonight is over I go into full prep mode where I will overlay my projections with where guys draft and try to determine who will be available for me when I draft. As I have said before, I am not the most detail oriented guy on this so I'll do it a few times just to get a sense for things.

Picking of the cards is at 6:30 tonight. I imagine I will have every one 'seeded' into my excel spreadsheet by 9:00 and I'll probably mock draft the first 3 rounds tonight. Some of you are reading this, or stopped reading awhile ago, but for me it makes for a fun few days as I get ready for the draft

1 comment:

markopat said...

Do you think it is possible that there is someone in the "world" that is faster than Usain? Just not fortunate enough to be at the Olympics? So I think it is safe to say he was the "Fastest Human at the Olympics." hmmmm?

:-)