Anatomy of a Fantasy Football Championship

Despite a lifelong passion for watching, following, and discussing major sports (particularly with constructed paramaters like pools and predictions, often featuring gambling), I had never been involved in any sort of fantasy team or league until this year. In September I finally made the jump, joining the Macalester-based "Da Zak Jonzon Xperienz" fantasy football league under the name "GoodnightMoon", receiving some mild input from co-owner Paul.

Rookie mistakes were plentiful throughout GoodnightMoon's maiden voyage. The initial strategy was to rely upon the Jake Delhomme/Steve Smith "Carolina Combo" as my starting QB and top WR. This dangerous "synergy" strategy was contingent upon continuous good health from both, and particularly risky considering the petite Smith began the season on the bench with a troublesome hamstring. The Carolina Combo serviced as the crack addiction I've never had: When both were healthy, Delhomme to Smith touchdown bombs provided an incomparable game-mutating fantasy football jolt on a near-weekly and occasionally twice-weekly schedule. When Smith or Delhomme was injured, which was about half the time, I found myself casting about with the likes of Jake Plummer and Eric Moulds. This past week, with Delhomme sidelined by a nagging thumb injury, Smith posted a negative score and I was forced to rely on an untested rookie quarterback (more on this later).

A classic rookie draft miscue occurred when, flummoxed by disorganization and lack of preparation, I failed to make a pick within the allotted time and had Giants kicker Jay Feely auto-drafted by Yahoo. After a few failed attempts at trading Feely for Jeff Wilkins, I eventually dumped him during his bye week and snagged Bears booter Robbie Gould (the sort of intelligent choice that led to GoodnightMoon's success). The normal recipe for skilled fantasy owners is to coordinate the swapping of two kickers based on their respective bye weeks. This strategy never occurred to me, and I wound up wasting a move on Josh Scobee for Gould's bye week which took place after Feely's.

Another wasted move came from the "Best Available Talent" theory early in the season. GoodnightMoon had useless players like Santonio Holmes and Keenan McCardell riding the pine and I figured I might as well pick up a decent player (Chad Pennington) with some trade and emergency value. The BAT theory failed miserably, as I found no takers for Pennington and no reason to keep him on the team, and ultimately released him without receiving a gram of compensation.

I was not as unlucky as some when it came to injuries. Losers! (pointing) never recovered from #1 overall pick Shaun Alexander's foot injury. Hoedyhatesthissquad - despite some brilliant moves - was unable to overcome fantasy god Donovan McNabb's season-ending injury. But I had to deal with a barrage of injuries that ripped through GoodnightMoon's roster like a contagious disease: Smith had his hamstring, Delhomme his thumb, Santana Moss was hurt earlier in the season, Joe Horn was never a safe bet to play and Willis McGahee went down in crunch time.

It was a frustrating season. It seemed like I was always trying to put out some fire and the team was about to fall apart. A passage from a recent IM conversation I had with another fantasy owner:

ThomMarsFull (11:48:44 PM): my team is filled with cancers, underachievers, chokers, and cripples
ThomMarsFull (11:48:46 PM): only one player has been solid for us all season
ThomMarsFull (11:48:47 PM): only one
ThomMarsFull (11:48:55 PM): the rest has been mishmash and patchwork

GoodnightMoon stole a few wins here and there, taking advantage of the weaker members of Da Experienz. A freak three-touchdown game from Santana Moss led to an incredibly epic, season-defining victory over the hard-luck Losers! (pointing) in week 6. The Carolina Combo was able to pull out a few games by themselves. Nate Burleson's inability to pick up a measly 2.5 points (and his owner's inability to manage a servicable squad) gave GoodnightMoon a crucial, nailbiting win over Aphrodite's Angels in week 12.

At this point there were five teams in the playoff hunt, and GoodnightMoon probably would have been voted the team least likely to win the championship. Clutch performances from Delhomme, Moss, and Pittsburgh defense provided a huge win over a disappointed Mounted Goatheads squad in week 13, and it was on to the season-ender against the fading Hoedyhatesthissquad.

It was about this same time that Jake Delhomme went down for the remainder of the season with his thumb injury, putting the hands of Steve Smith into the hands of Chris Weinke and effectively crippling the Carolina Combo. My other quarterback, Jake Plummer, had been sent to the Denver bench. With my last available move, I had to choose from a bevy of castoffs, leftovers, and rookies riding the waiver wire. I ultimately decided on young Vince Young, an obviously risky choice with a bit of an upside.

Meanwhile two bona fide superstars were ernerging from my backfield: Steven Jackson (who finally began adding touchdowns to his gargantuan yardage accumulations) and Maurice Jones-Drew (a brilliant midseason steal and a likely fantasy monster for years to come). Suddenly GoodnightMoon was led by the three-headed rushing monster of Jackson, Jones-Drew, and Young, an ensemble more likely to captain a championship fantasy team in 2009 than 2006.

The trio exploded for a combined 85 fantasy points in a bizarre regular-season ending victory over Hoedyhatesthissquad, who we would face again the very next week in the semifinals. This time Young crumbled, but the two RBs again put up big weeks, Pittsburgh D put up a monster game against a hapless Weinke-led Carolina offense, and Hoedyhatesthissquad got stinkbombed by Philip Rivers and Roy Williams. Just like that, GoodnightMoon was in the fantasy football Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl opponent, Shooooo-In, was a daunting behemoth featuring LaDainian Tomlinson, Carson Palmer, Marvin Harrison, and a very solid supporting cast. Shoo was coming off nine consecutive 112+ point games and Yahoo had them as a 23 point favorite.
But it must have been meant to be. Tomlinson finally had an average game and the rest of Shoo underachieved a bit. My three-headed monster combined for an absurd 668 yards and 7 TDs, overcoming a pathetic 2.4 pt combined effort from my three WRs, and GoodnightMoon claimed a fantasy football championship in its first year of existence.

GoodnightMoon wasn't the most talented team in the league. But scrappiness, effort, and luck can go a long way in competition, and that's what I'll be taking away from my first fantasy football season (other than the ring). I guess I better take something away from it, considering how many hours I poured into following it - including at least two writing this sprawling opus of aimlessness.