The Final State of All the Babies

CHAMPION!

Tom Brady's Babies won the Going Deep Championship by a score of 72 to 72 over The Smithereens. Steve Smith led the team in scoring in the championship round and Drew Brees led the team in scoring for the season. Congrats once again to Tom Brady's Babies on a terrific Fantasy football Season. Hope to see you all next year!  Yes indeed my dear readers, this was the headline on my Dad's league page this morning.  Your very own Tom Brady's Babies won!!!!!!! I'm going to take a minute to gloat.  I kind of rock.  I beat my own Dad, who made it to the playoffs this year and lost in the first round and who has won his leagues the last two years.  And I beat a whole bunch of random boys.  I didn't know any of these people, it was a public league, but I was pretty sure they were all men.  I'm proud of myself.  The last day was utterly torturous.  The Eagles happened to be playing the Saints so I didn't particularly want the Saints to win, but I was expecting my boys Brees and Colston to put up their usual monster numbers.  A couple hours later the game is over, the Eagles had won, and Drew Brees hadn't thrown a touchdown pass in the entire game.  Colston had left the game in the first half with some strange injury (apparently he was coughing up blood...not good).  So at this point I think I am toast.  My savior was Steve Smith, who I had stopped even playing every week because of Carolina's painful quarterback situation.  Low and behold Smith had basically his best game of the season and caught for over 100 yards.   Luckily, I watched excitedly as most of my opponents players punked out on him as well.  Plaxico Burress laid a goose egg, as did his tight end Heath Miller.  That was helpful.  Ryan Grant was the only bit of light from that horrible Packers game and was my only other single player to get me double-digit points.  Going into the afternoon games I was ahead by only about 3 points, with both of us still having significant players left to play.  I began to panic when Kurt Warner's numbers kept growing.  This guy had switched last minute from Favre to Warner and boy was that the right decision.  If only I'd gone with my gut and put Marshawn Lynch in over Earnest Graham.  When the night game began I was a few points behind, with his team completely done and only Chris Cooley left for me.  I was sure Cooley could lock it up for me, he'd been awesome all season.  Early in the first half he catches a 33 yard touchdown pass and that ties the game 72-72.  All I need is for Cooley to get 7 more receiving yards and I've got it, but for some reason I decide to not watch the game.  A little while later my dad appears from his bedroom screaming, "Lisa oh my god!"  What what??  Cooley drops a 2-point conversion pass in the end zone.  That would have won it for me.  The Redskins lead by double digits in the second half and I know I am through - there is no way they are going to do anything but run the ball the rest of the half.  The game ends and we're left with the same score - tied.   I try in vain to find the rules on a tied championship game.  Are we co-champs (unacceptable), or is there a tie-breaker?  I check the standings.  I'd beaten him in the regular season, so I've got that tie-breaker.  I also had more total points than him - there's the second possible tie-breaker.  I've won!!!! Now you might be asking, what about the Boys' league game?  What happened there?  Well, it was over before it began.  My main man Willie Parker broke his stupid leg in the first quarter at St. Louis on freaking Thursday night!  There is no way to win a championship with only production from one running back. Not only did Willie not get me anything, he left me with a lovely NEGATIVE .10 POINTS.  Thanks, Will.  So I basically gave it up there.  I got spanked, particularly after my second running back, Willis Mcgahee, also decided to get hurt in his game and leave quickly.  It was so disappointing - these guys were two of the top running backs in the entire NFL the whole season!  They got me to the end and then they lost it for me.  Poetic, isn't it?  I admit, though, I think I'm happy to not have won that league.  I fear what would have happened to me when I got back to LA and the Boys realized they'd created a monster.  I'd have probably come back to many "sarcastic" barbs, and I wouldn't have been given an ounce of room to gloat.  I'd get upset and then the Boys would try to tell me that they weren't really being serious and I shouldn't be so sensitive, and I'd say fine, even though I wouldn't really believe that they weren't.  I'm plenty proud of a second and a first! I'm a bit sad that its over.  Fantasy football was such a nice little side distraction for a few months.  And it inspired this blog (yay)!   This Week's Favorite Things About the NFL 1.  Philadelphia is pretty amazing.  I've been at home this week and the press is pretty hypocritical (though I know I am about to hear crap for this).  All season they are calling for Reid and McNabb's heads, and suddenly a couple wins have everyone talking about how great they are. Suddenly the same people who wanted Reid to quit mid-season are talking about how much of a stand up guy he is.  Interesting. 2.  You knew I wouldn't go a week without talking about the Patriots.  First team to ever go 15-0 consecutively!  Saturday is it!  Not only could they be the first team to go 16-0, Tom and Randy Moss could both break their respective positions' touchdown records.  I can't wait!!! 3.  I really hate the Redskins and would rather them not get into the playoffs, but the Todd Collins story is one of those that I just love.  The guy has ten full years pass since his last start and wins every game he plays.  Now the Redskins only have a second-string Cowboys team in the way of their playoff hopes.  Its just incredible that things like that can happen in this league.  People can step up out of nowhere. 4.  While it was very disappointing to see Cleveland beat themselves into a hole at the worst possible moment, I was a little happy to see the Bengals finally step up and win an important game.  They have nothing to play for but they didn't just roll over to their division rivals.  Maybe its a glimmer of hope for next year from the one of the league's most disappointing teams this season.   5.  I know I go on and on about Brett Favre but there was a really adorable article about Favre and Greg Jennings on ESPN.com this week, discussing their relationship.  For those more sentimental fans, like me, its a good read. Random Thought of the Week You know what I really don't care about?  College bowl games.  I know they are tradition, and maybe I just can't get into it because I didn't go to a school with a football team (a fact that our Boston College rivals loved to constantly point out to us, yet I never really understood why, that's not really an insult).  But they just seem so pointless.  Half the kids get suspended after their semester grades come out and suddenly we're supposed to be shocked that they didn't really study.  Then the majority of the teams play meaningless games with titles like the Papajohns.com Bowl, or the San Diego Credit Union Bowl.  I guess the BCS bowls are supposed to have meaning but I'm really not sure what that is beyond the national championship.  I like Ohio State so I guess I'll watch that game but otherwise, I could not be more bored by a sport right now.  Well, I guess except the NBA.  I won't be rolling this blog over to basketball anytime soon. I hope you all had wonderful Christmases and Hannukahs!  See you next week!