Tuesday Morning Hangovers

Dan: “Just in case we got ripped off, you still owe me $50 bucks…” #weekfour

Rave of the Week

My football weekend started a day early when Dan showed up at my door an hour before kickoff with tickets to the Husker game. We’ve all lived in Nebraska, so I don’t need to explain their craze of football. I've never been to a college game so I was eager for the experience. There’s no way you get Huskers tickets at face value, but Dan explained this would be his first game and the Craig’s list hustler showed him some Midwest compassion. We parked in my office’s parking lot and then ran to the stadium.    

College and NFL games are not the same, but football is still football. Here are some of my observations:

•          Alum, faculty, students: the sea of red was incredible; the college band plays after everything.    
•        Memorial stadium releases red balloons when the Huskers score their first touchdown.   
•        A gun shot a hot dog 100 feet into the air and it came down in front of us, but Dan dropped it.
•        Victory songs like, “We will Rock You” are chanted (only main stream music is played in NFL)
•        The entire stadium did like four versions of the wave (regular, slow motion, fast & super-fast)

It was a great game and somehow it being night made it better: Huskers 45, Illinois 14. I was already scouting who I’d draft if they make it to the NFL. There’s no better time of year than football season.   

Rant of the Week

There are 13 weeks of regular season fantasy football in the Elite season and of all 13 weeks, I hate week 4 the most. This morning concludes the first quarter of the season and you’re either waking up in bed next to the team you envisioned or rolling over next to a nightmare. I blame draft, but not for the obvious reasons.  

Immediately after draft, everyone experiences the honeymoon phase at the start of the season. “My team is perfect.”  “What could possibly go wrong?” “These 15 players complete me.” Do players have dud weeks? All the time. Can a player kill you for 2 straight weeks? Absolutely. What about four weeks? Well…there might be trouble in paradise. Suddenly, everything is very much viewed as black and white.  

After one month, we start to see our fantasy team for what they really are…a coach-blocking, injury-riddled, media-hyped, offense-challenged, schedule-hating, underachieving team. This doesn’t apply to the entire team, but certainly there are players on your roster who have worn out their honeymoon. “One of these days, Alice…” (Ironically a show that would never make it past the pilot in today’s society)

You’ve got some tough decisions to make this week, Ralph. Even a winning record early in the season can be deceiving. Did you pick the wrong player or has it just been the most flummoxing start to the NFL season that we've seen in a long time? Last year, I knew I had a great team (they just didn’t show up till the start of week 8). However, can you afford to wait that long? We’ve still got a lot of football left to be played, make sure you’re putting out a hit show each week instead of being the comedy.

I’m out like, “Bang, Zoom, straight to the moon…”

HBK