The Father-Daughter Matchup

Work was painfully boring this week. My office is in a weird lull period where we just finished up a busy time and are about to go into another busy time, so I spent a lot of time watching TV, baseball games, and surfing the internet. Therefore my head is in all sorts of places this week.

I think I watched too much ESPN. I have a television with cable at my desk at work (you know, because I work in TV) and a couple of months ago I realized that on the west coast, NFL Live airs at 1pm, which happens to be when I take lunch. I started just watching that while I ate and then got into the habit of leaving it on for a while afterward in the background. Then earlier this week I had a dream that I went out on a date with this guy I really liked, who randomly had a baby that also came on the date. I think the mother had died. I woke up thinking, who was that guy, I think it was someone I know. I later figured out it was Tony Reali - the guy who hosts Around the Horn and makes occasional appearance on PTI. Like I said, I think I watch too much ESPN.

I know that in an earlier post I kind of bashed the NFL's new line of women's apparel, but I did make one disovery this week that quite excited me - that Reebok is now making a women's size Bill Belichick grey Patriots hoodie! Anyone who knows the NFL knows that Coach Belichick wears this hoodie almost every week and last season several of the boys purchased them. I am so tempted. Now I just need the Writer's Guild to not go on strike so that I can actually continue to have a job to go to every day.

Luckily, with all this time I had last week, I had the chance to really watch this ALCS series, which was a complete emotional rollercoaster. The Sox can be so torturous, though luckily I am new to really being interested in baseball and haven't had to suffer this for my whole life unlike some of my other friends. But man, I get it. Every game was a challenge and I really was doubting it would happen, but my friends, the Red Sox are going to the World Series! It sucks that the games start at 5pm here, because now I will be forced to watch game one and two in the office while I embarrass myself incoherently screaming at the TV. I try to stop but its hard! I can't decide how I feel about the Rockies. Part of me thinks that they have been lucky and haven't had to match up against a team like the Red Sox yet in the playoffs (apologies to the Diamondbacks and Phillies but I think its true), and the other part is completely frightened of them and their destiny-filled postseason. We all know that Boston fans also know a lot about that fate and destiny stuff.


The State of the Babies

It was a big week this week - the first time my dad and I played each other in fantasy. To say he was excited would be a massive understatement, considering the text I got midday Friday:

"I am favored and u r going down. Reading your blog when u get
trashed by the old man will be a hoot. By the way I now have a
Blackberry so it will be easier to text smack to you. Love Dad"

Now that is a throwdown challenge if I have ever heard one! I was happy though because I text my dad many times on Sundays and then usually don't hear back until I get woken up at 5am by my cell phone, which means he isn't responding until the next day at 8am. I had no doubt that this week we'd text-war all of Sunday.

It is true that according to our website preview, my dad was favored, but only slightly, by something like 8 total points. That basically meant it was wide open. Here is the roster comparison, with my team first and the edge player in bold:

• QB - Drew Brees vs. Matt Hasselbeck
• WRs - Kevin Curtis, Marques Colston, & Dwayne Bowe vs. Reggie Wayne, Jericho Cotchery, & Donte Stallworth
• RBs - Larry Johnson & Brandon Jacobs vs. Marion Barber & Frank Gore
• TE - Chris Cooley vs. Eric Johnson
• K - Kris Brown vs. David Akers
• D - Redskins vs. Jaguars

So yeah, I could see where my dad would have a slight statistical edge but really, any of those players can have an up week or down week easily. The morning started out quite pleasantly. At about 10:30 I got a text from my dad - "U r going to kill me." I hadn't even checked yet but at the time, I was up on him 36-1, mostly due to the Redskins defense! But I am smart enough to know that nothing is close to decided that early. Through the day I was leading by 6-12 points. Drew Brees had a great game, and Brandon Jacobs, replacing my beloved hurt Sammy Morris, ran for over 100 yards and 2 TDs. But again my Achilles heel was my stupid receivers. Completely mediocre days for Kevin Curtis and Marques Colston (who I think I'm close to dropping - thoughts?) and a decent-ish day for Dwayne Bowe. To top it off I got no production from Chris Cooley, who before now had been on a great run. We really didn't watch much of the Pittsburgh-Denver game at night due to baseball, so I didn't look at what had happened until the end. And the score was 94-93, favoring my dad, with my players done and his defense yet to play.

Final score after the Monday night game - 111 to 93. Congrats, Dad. The student has yet to overcome the teacher.


This week's NOT AT ALL Favorite Things About the NFL (I hate to be negative, but a lot of things are bothering me):

1. The deafening silence that the Eagles' heartbreaking loss has caused. The game that the Eagles played was flat-out depressing. Do they not understand how to score a touchdown??? Three drives ending in field goals is not ok. You don't win games like that in this league. The officiating was also incredibly suspect, even though usually Ed Hochuli is one of the best, but there were some weird calls. But if you ask me, you should never put your team in a position to have a game come down to referrees. Score points. The season is over for them, considering the strength of their division. I just watched a full several minute highlights package on NFL Primetime and they didn't even talk about the Eagles, they only talked about how awesome the Bears are. Barf.

2. That the rest of the NFC East all won on Sunday, and all have winning records. Every team I just despise.

3. There are too many injuries this year and its scary. Maybe we say this every year but the number of relatively severe injuries to marquee players is getting out of control. This weekend Matt Schaub and Ronnie Brown among others got hurt enough to leave games permanently.

4. People getting pissy at the Patriots for scoring more 2nd half points in Miami. Give me a freaking break. They are a football team and they are there to play, not sit around waiting for the game to end. Everyone knows that crazy things can happen at any time - I mean look at the way Houston scored all those points in the 4th quarter with their 2nd stringer! Its not their fault that no one can stop them. You don't want them to score more points, then make them stop.

Random Thought of the Week

Considering that this blog is mostly read by people who know me already (I'm not quite egotistical enough to think that strangers are checking it out), I had to put this video clip in. Many of you have seen it, but many of you have not. I have a twin, and she's a French pop star.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ceSxEjwXHcM