Fantasy Sports

Everyone loves fantasy sports. If you don't well, then there's probably something wrong with you (for the purposes of that statement, being over the age of 50 counts as something wrong, sorry Dad). That said, there's a different take on the term "fantasy" that I think is worth a thought experiment at the least, and many a conversation during the lulls of a sporting event at the best. This version of fantasy sports operates on the following premise - "what is the greatest team you can make using players from any era, assuming they play at their best (i.e. Bulls Jordan, not Wizards version, Bird before his back went, 9ers Montana/Rice, not the Chiefs/Seahawks versions, etc.)" As I alluded to in previous posts, I've been playing this game a bit, and have not failed in having a great time doing it. Here are rundowns of the most recent NFL and NBA fantasy drafts I've done.

Both of these took place during my recent beach vacation, and both took place several hours into the evening's festivities. My opponents in each draft are free to claim that these "festivities" harmed their thinking process, but I was more "festive" than both, so bah and humbug to those excuses. To protect the innocent (and incompetent), I've changed the names of players.

The NFL draft was first, and tailed off rather quickly. It was against someone we'll call Mikel V Bront or MVB for short. The draft started based on the ludicrous statement by MVB that if you were picking an all time team you'd take Adam Vinatieri first because, "you'd never lose a close game". Ok, first pick, Vinatieri to MVB. Calmly, coolly and collectedly I took Joe Montana as my QB. For those scoring at home, first blood to WTH3, not MVB.

Sensing I think that he was digging himself an early hole he took Peyton Manning as his QB. Fine pick, though I could easily make the case for Elway, Marino or even Brady over Manning. Elway and Brady both have more superbowls, and Marino (at the moment) still has quite a few statistical marks over Manning. Still, if you like the cereberal, coordinator-on-the-field approach, Manning is a fine pick. Second pick I went with Jim Brown. Again, for those scoring at home, a top 5-7 all time QB, or the greatest running back of all time? Right, WTH3 - 2, MVB - 0.

Ok, so things might not have been going so well for MVB at this point. Knowing, correctly, that a solid line on both sides is key to any successful team, MVB went with Orlando Pace as his 3rd pick. A good pick. However, we had stipulated that you had to place line players at their spot, not just pick the top 5 left tackles of all time for your line. I could come up with more than 3 other good tackles, so I figured I'd let him determine who the top two were, and then just take 3 and 4 (for the record, I got Jonathan Ogden pretty late in the draft). At this point I had the best QB of all time and the best RB of all time, why not add the best WR as well? Jerry Rice, come on down! WTH3 - 3, MVB - 0.

Teams at this point:
MVB: P. Manning, O.Pace, A. Vinatieri
WTH3: J. Montana, J. Brown, J.Rice
(I win, and btw, it seems if you want your son to be good at football, have his name start with a J)

Once more, bandwagoning on my WR pick, MVB went with Marvin Harrison. A totally fine pick, and could be argued that he fits the Rice mold as well as anyone since. However, since I had the best three offensive skill position players of all time I figured I'd jump over to the D side of the ball and take Lawerence Taylor, probably the best defensive player of all time... WTH3 - 4, MVB - 0.

At this point things started to fall apart quickly. The team MVB put together before we called it quits was: QB - P. Manning, RB - W. Peyton (probably his best pick), WR - M. Harrison and C. Carter, TE- S. Sharpe, T - O. Pace, R. Grimm, G - J. Hutchinson, LB - Jack Lambert, CB - C. Bailey, D. Green, S - S. Taylor, K - A. Vinatieri. Pretty much all of those guys are hall of famers, but a few, Hutchinson, Bailey and Taylor are probably just good pro bowlers. Also, his team shows a propensity for the Redskins that while understandable given his loyalties, is just not the way to go in this game.

On the other side, my team was - QB - J. Montana, RB - J. Brown, WR - J. Rice, R. Moss, T- J. Ogden, DE - R. White, D. Jones, LB - L. Taylor, D. Butkus, CB - D. Sanders, S - R. Lott, E. Reed. Every single one of those guys aside from Reed, Moss and Ogden are probably best ever at their position, and those three are also likely first ballot hall of famers. We called it quits once I started putting his team together for him, but wow, that's just a beating.

Overall, football is a fun game for this, although given the fact that you have to go 44 players deep, it does demand a pretty good historical understanding of the game. If anyone ever wants to play this with me please let me know, its a great time.

I had planned on doing the basketball draft in the same post, but this is already probably way too long so I'll save it for another post.

For the record, I still want to do basketball fantasy draft and have a discussion of movies this summer in the next few days, so expect more increadibly long posts in the next few days.