Inaugural Blog

The Earl's Inaugural Blog... freakin' sweet. I have join the ranks of about a bagillion bloggers, and I think this will be excellent fun. I am not one who shys away from expressing my thoughts, so this only seemed like a logical recourse. I have thought long and hard today about what my first blog should be about... politics... the economy... religion... then it occurred to me... SPORTS!

I will start out my saying that I am a huge sports fan. My favorite sports in order from most favorite to least are: NASCAR, football, baseball, golf, basketball, and then everything else. My favorite teams are: the Miami Dolphins, the Boston Red Sox, Appalachian State (my alma mater), NC State, and the #9 car with Kasey Kahne.

So as you can imagine yesterday was not a great sports day for me. The Fins lost, Kahne was knocked out of the Chase, however the Sox won and are gaining momentum for a playoff run. App lost to LSU, but rebounded nicely against Jacksonville University with a 56-7 victory. I pull for NC State mostly in B-Ball, so I'll have to wait a while on them.

I wish to discuss my latest venture involving sports... fantasy football. I have never played it and frankly, do not really care for the idea. But a colleague of mine asked if I wanted to be in a league, and I agreed. Now, I play sports alot and have played them most of my life. I have won exactly three championship of any kind in my life. One REC league basketball championship and two consecutive Church League Basketball Championships in 2007 and 2008. Usually, my contributions to these teams was to keep the bench warm for the starters. However, while my basketball skills are not that great, my love for sports is All-Pro. I'm an ESPN junkie, I read websites on sports, the whole nine yards. So I figured I'd give this fantasy stuff a try. I read reports on who to draft and who not to draft. Read and listened to opinion after opinion. SO when draft day arrived, I felt very prepared. Then I was dealt a tough hand. I got the second pick of the draft. The first pick would be easy... pick LT. However, the second pick is much tougher. Do I take a second year back in Adrian Peterson who has great upside, but only one year of experience... or do I take a proven commodity in Bryant Westbrook, who may not have the upside that AP does, but does give you consistent numbers... what to do... what to do?!? So, during the draft, I consulted with my brother and his friend Joe. These guys are sports nuts also, and my brother is a stat freak... he knows crap the average sports guy doesn't. Their advice: take Tom Brady... he'll put up huge QB numbers and you'll still get a decent RB with your next pick... (BTW, it is usually best to take RB's first, then take QB's). So... I take Brady and hope for the best.

Now to the average person, this doesn't seem like a big deal... but to the sports fan in-the-know, they would know that to pull for Brady's success, means to pull for a hatred rival of the Dolphins.. a team I have loved since I was a kid (hence my dilemma with fantasy sports... but that is for another day). So what do I do... well... here's the results for week one. The Dolphins are an improved team, but still not great yet, so we're probably up for another losing season. My fantasy team... with Brady... the top pick on my team... the ringer... gets his ACL destroyed in the first 5 minutes of the game... done for the season. SO, not only is my REAL team gonna be bad, but now my FANTASY team is gonna be bad. Back to the bench warming day again... welcome to my world!