WILKES-BARRE — This could be the funnest time of the Fantasy Football year — picking your teams.
You gather with your pals, toting the latest computer printouts of rankings and projections and injury reports.
You have spent the previous two weeks scouring the Internet, reading report after report about who to take and when.
You are ready to conquer your Fantasy league. You will be crowned champion.
And then you still pick your favorite players from your favorite teams.
It happens all the time. It happened at the official Times Leader Fantasy League draft last Saturday.
Ed Lewis, our awesome police reporter, had second pick. He took Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks quarterback.
Ed is a Seahawks’ fan. So this move surprised nobody. The reality is, Ed could have gotten Wilson in the fourth round, yet he wasted the second overall pick to take his favorite team’s QB.
I wanted Andrew Luck, Colts’ QB, but he went fourth overall. I’m relatively certain that our league will be the only league where Russel Wilson went before Andrew Luck. Or before Aaron Rodgers, Packers’ QB, for that matter.
But that is the essence of Fantasy Football. It would take a team of psychiatrists an entire year to figure out the logic in fantasy picking. And then they could write a textbook and it would be a best seller.
But it can’t be done. Because there is no way to understand the thinking of a Fantasy Football mind.
How else do you explain selecting Julio Jones at tenth by Joe Dolinsky, Consumer Watchdog reporter, instead of Demaryius Thomas, a far better wide receiver for a far better team and QB. The irony here is that Dolinsky came to his senses and got Thomas in the second round, which speaks to the brilliance of all of the others in the league.
Once again, I am relatively certain that we are the only league where this will have happened.
And I was not without stupidity on this day. I managed to snare Dez Bryant and Calvin Johnson and Jimmy Graham. I also got Tony Romo and Tom Brady at quarterback. I did all of this before realizing I had no running backs. By the sixth round, you can imagine who was left.
I took Todd Gurley, a rookie with the Rams. I also took Isaiah Crowell of the Browns, giving me two Browns on my roster. The other is receiver Dwayne Bowe.
I probably will be the only Fantasy owner anywhere in the unverse with two Browns on my roster — a rather distinctive honor, yet one that will make my friend Dave Roberts, a Cleveland fan, very happy.
But having two Browns is not where I showed true stupidity, although that can be argued. It was when I announced my selection of RB Bishop Sankey.
I proudly pronounced that he will be the starter while Arian Foster is out.
OK, Foster plays for the Houston Texans and Sankey is on the Tennessee Titans. Do you see the stupidity now?
I also selected a kicker who was on a different team than I thought, but the league guru allowed me to take the kicker who was on the team I thought my pick was on, so it kind of worked out.
This weekend I will choose my team in the Neighborhood Franchise Football League — the NFFL — which is in its 33rd year. If I perform anything at all like I did at the newsroom draft, I will be bludgeoned with sarcastic remarks. This league is not for the thin-skinned.
And to be honest, if I do make some dumb picks, I deserve the ridicule. That’s part of the Fantasy experience.
Even though you may leave with a roster that you feel is unbeatable, chances are you will have discarded half of them by Week 5. Rookies, surprise performers, unexpected dominant teams can change your mind in a hurry.
So prepare, if you must, but the reality is that no matter how ready you think you are, you are never really be prepared for what the season will bring.
