random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Just some stuff

I was hooked Sunday night. I watched most of �Extreme Makeover� where they took a family and gave them a new home. I gotta tell you, sometimes reality TV can really get it right, and it did last night. The family involved was a widower and his eight kids, who were living in about 1400 square feet and three bedrooms. The family was just chock full of good people, all the kids seemed remarkably mature and well-adjusted (especially considering their mom had passed four years prior), and despite their situation, they loved each other and didn�t complain about sharing rooms or pitching in or anything. The show really helped you fall in love with this family, and it was very, very emotional when they saw the whole town come out to support them getting the home of their dreams.

Good things should happen to good people.

Carter and I had a few minutes to talk on Saturday, and he was lamenting the fact that he doesn�t have an anonymous blog, and asked how this was working out for me. Apparently, he made his mom cry once with a family-related post, and stuff like that will absolutely prevent one from trying to get too personal again. No one likes to make their momma cry.

Look, having anonymity here really isn�t all that important in the wide scope of things. In reality, there�s only one person I can think of that I really wouldn�t want reading this site, but I have my sneaking suspicions she does anyway. But as long as I don�t know that for certain, and as long as I can imagine that I�m floating all this stuff out here to people who don�t really know me, I feel like I can be more open. And that�s what�s important. If you�ve read me at all over weeks or months, it�s obvious that there�s stuff in my head that I haven�t been able to emotionally reconcile, and I�m not just talking about my marriage. That�s only a small part of it. If I could pay for a therapist, I�d probably go, but since I like to spend my money on other things, I just spill out whatever happens to be circulating in my head at the time. And I�ve always been a guy whose past mistakes really gnaw at him.

And writing them down really helps me try to get them out of my head. That�s all.

So the anonymity thing is really as much a crutch for me as anything else. I can lean on it to pretend that I�m protected enough to say anything I want or need to, and that�s good enough for me. If I were really concerned about keeping my anonymity fully, I never would have met other bloggers personally. That�s the short and the long of it.

By the way, Carter tried to also give me one of those �Sack up and get over it� speeches, when he misinterpreted my comment about how a girl in the crowd Saturday reminded me of an old crush as wistful flagellation, and not something that really felt warm and happy being reminded of an old friend (she�s far more old friend than old crush). That being said, yes, there�s a certain amount of �Sack up and get over it� that probably needs to be beaten into my head. No biggie.

I�m terribly glad my sports betting site was down when I tried to make my deposit prior to leaving Saturday morning. This seemed to be one of those easy weeks in the NFL, and I hoped to take advantage. As my performance in the Pauly point spread pick �em game indicates, I would have lost money for certain. If those spreads look too good to be true, they probably are.

I think I still would have taken Houston and New Orleans to cover though.

So my Lions are 2-1, which is one win north of where I figured they�d be going into the bye week. Their week two win over the Texans looks a helluva lot better with that Houston victory this week over Kansas City, by the way. Basically, our defense is bad without Boss Bailey, worse without Dre Bly, and even worse going with Bracey rather than Brian Walker at safety, even though neither are a good answer to the question marks at that spot. On offense, that Charles Rogers injury really hurts, especially because teams have been loading up against our run game and forcing Joey to beat them through the air. Now that Roy Williams has proven he�s a significant threat, they�ll back off our run game a touch, but it�s going to get much more difficult to throw the ball.

Now, if we can just teach Kevin Jones to wait for his blockers�

In my fantasy league (the one I�ve been in for years), I put up a monster week, thanks to the Minnesota Vikings offense and the Baltimore defense. I had Culpepper, Moss, and Onterrio Smith combine for nearly 90 points, got another 19 from the Baltimore D, and barely needed Chad Johnson and the rest of my team to suit up to carry the win.

That being said, I lost Rich Gannon, my only backup QB, for six weeks and am unlikely to land Kerry Collins to replace him due to being at the bottom of the waiver wire. That leaves me with either Mark Brunell or Josh McCown starting next week, depending on who I manage to land. I also lost my second TE of the season, Erron Kinney, to some sort of hamstring injury. I had already put Todd Heap on the shelf, so this was annoying. To make matters worse, the under-performing Charlie Garner blew out his knee, thereby ending his season.

With Minnesota�s bye week this week, my lineup will look something like this:

QB � Brunell (if I don�t get Collins, this is the likely pickup)
RB � Chris Brown, and either Steven Jackson or Tony Hollings
WR � Chad Johnson, Brandon Lloyd (assuming he�s playing), Keary Colbert
TE � Jeb Putzier (if I land him in free agency tomorrow)

I�ll be lucky to hang 80 points after this week�s 159 point effort. Good bye undefeated season!

Once Minnesota�s off their bye week, I�ll be looking loads better. I�ve got Onterrio Smith and Michael Bennett, and with Kevin Jones shelved, Artose Pinner should see 18-25 carries the next few weeks. Tony Hollings might be the starter if Domanick Davis is shelved too. I just need to cross my fingers that Chris Brown and Michael Bennett stay healthy, and that maybe one of my backup RBs (Pinner, Hollings, S.Jackson) ascends to be a starter, as I don�t have the depth to make a trade for even a serviceable starter.

You know, fantasy football is funny. Were it not for fantasy football, I�d have no real reason to root for Marshall Faulk to blow out a knee.

[>>]posted at 7:11 PM by BG - click to email
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