Sweet, Sweet Fantasy

Frank Gore, on his way to breaking every bone in his body and fucking up my fantasy season.

This season marks the first time I've ever dabbled in the mystical world of fantasy football. Despite being an NFL fanatic for pretty much all of my life, the cyber aspect of fandom never reached me until I started joining NCAA pick 'em leagues and filling out March Madness brackets last year. At that point, I figured I may as well get a fantasy league together with my friends for this season.

Fast-forward to this season, and that became a reality when 13 friends and I joined forces and formed the Bropartment Lives On (don't ask) league. I gotta say, I'm pretty excited. With the luck of landing the 5th pick in the draft and the blissful stupidity of my former roommate picking Maurice Jones-Drew with the 2nd overall pick, I was able to land my boy Frank Gore with my first pick.

Rounding out the roster of Real Bropartment (again, don't ask) includes the likes of Donovan McNabb, Hines Ward, Edgerrin James (rebound year!), and the roided-up, Lights-Out defense of the city of San Diego. Hopefully my top two picks (Gore and McNabb) don't both end up breaking their legs like they usually do and send my season into a tailspin. Regardless, I'm looking at a top 5 finish for my team.

With the 7th overall pick, Glenn was a total homer like me and went with LSU alum Joseph "Joey, Live and Let" Addai. The rest of The Judges include Clinton "Coach Janky Broken Right Hand" Portis, Marc Bulger (who has a really funny name to me), Plaxico Burress, and Vincent Jackson.

Objectively, I'd give my team the slight edge. The Judges have reliable points in the high scoring offenses of the the Rams (Bulger), Colts (Addai), and Chargers (Jackson), but Real Bropartment has star power with Frank Gore, McNabb and Edgerrin James. The conventional wisdom is go for the stats, not the name, but these names have the numbers to back up the stature and I expect a return to form for Edgerrin James this year. If not for my sake, then at least for the Cardinals' sake.

Week 8 is the scheduled matchup of these two superpowers, and Yahoo!'s projection shows a 4 point advantage to Glenn's crew... with Edgerrin James on a bye week. With the cronies on Real Bropartment playing cupcake teams and the weak New Orleans defense, I expect large returns and, of course, the win.

May the best (fantasy) team win.

- Carman