Feeling the Pain

Stingy defenses inflicting crippling hits, superstars playing at the top of their game and captivating comeback victories, almost all fantasy football fanatics have had something to cheer about during this past week. It’s just a shame that my mediocre team has yet to produce me fantasy points with their lackluster play.

With already three games into the NFL season, and a 1-2 record to show for it, I can only hope that my team shows up in the upcoming weeks.

I can recall in week two, when I gain my first victory, I felt like I was on top of the world. Even though my team, the San Francisco 49ers, suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Dallas Cowboys, I still felt like I had a bounce in my step as the days moved closer towards week three.

Then, I too experienced a crushing loss of my own when I lost by a measly 3 points to my opponent this past week. To make matters worse, only one of my players did well, adding to my misfortune.

With my current seventh place standing, I started contemplating about all those in the same position as me, and also those fortunate enough to be able to boast winning records in their respective leagues. 

A friend of mine in my league has a great start to the season with a 3-0 record, and he has already flooded the messages section with smack talk saying that he is going to win it all.  But can tooting your own horn really help you sleep better at night?

In fantasy football, pride is huge influence in the lives of many. Some people can take winning almost too seriously.  Surely in some leagues monetary gain can contribute to this, but bragging rights over your peers can also be a driving factor to something like fantasy football.

The same can also be said in almost all aspects of life. Some people brag about salaries, grades or some can even gloat who has the most extravagant lawn in the neighborhood.

Whatever the case may be, pride can certainly be an integral part in one’s life. It can motivate someone to achieve greater things, but it can also be detrimental one’s well being as well. Surely there has been a time in everyone’s life when their pride has gotten the best of them. I recall several times in my life when I would go out of my way to prove a point rather than let my pride get hurt, but we’ll save that for another column.

So as week four rolls around, I just have a couple of words of wisdom for all those in fantasy football land. If you’re lucky enough to have a winning record, I’d keep the smack talk to a minimum because you never know what the upcoming weeks will bring, or if that star player of yours will get afflicted with a nagging injury. And for those in the same boat as me, I feel your pain. But don’t fret, the season is still young.

Bay Area Flavor

With a lively night scene, numerous sports teams in the surrounding area and a temperature that is far more comfortable than what those in the valley experience, living in the bay area definitely has its advantages.

The bay area is like a haven for sports fans. Football, baseball, basketball and even hockey are all represented by their respective teams for different sports enthusiasts to enjoy. 

Sports columnist Monte Poole may have one of the most enjoyable jobs on the face of the earth because his duties include writing about teams in the bay area like the 49ers, Giants, and Golden State Warriors. Depending on the season, Poole writes about two to three columns a week, which can be found in the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and even on foxsports.com

In his columns, Poole addresses many different topics that relate to the teams in the area. At times they can include memorable or unimpressive performances of a particular team, distrust towards a particular quarterback, or even “angst” (have to give credit to my professor for using this word during class) felt by fans for their beloved teams.

Poole’s style is something that first attracted me to his writing.  His conversational flow of writing is something that is easy enough to read for your average sports fan to comprehend, yet it provides enough depth even for the most experienced sports gurus.

After reading a couple of columns by Poole, I found myself wanting to read more and more of his work.  I even had to monitor myself in fear of getting sidetracked and not being able to finish this column.

Another aspect of Poole’s writing that I enjoy is his reporting.  When Poole does an interview with a player, the reader gets sense of what that player is thinking.  I particularly enjoyed this part in his column where Poole profiles quarterback Jason Campbell of the Oakland Raiders.  Here, Poole goes into how Campbell has had to prove himself all through his entire football career and this subtle detail gives readers a better understanding of Campbell’s past.

"In high school, people said, 'The only reason you're going to play is because your daddy is a coach.' So I had to go out and prove I was better than that," he recalls. "Then I went to college, and everyone said, 'Well, he came from a small high school. Can he really lead an SEC team?' So I became the winningest quarterback in Auburn history, helped lead the team to an undefeated season and had one of the best years Auburn has ever had.

"Ever since I was a child, I've always been doubted. I use it as motivation."

Poole’s writing, not to mention his job, is something that I aspire towards in my journey to become a better journalist.  In the mean time, I’ll just read more of Poole’s work to better improve my writing and hope that if Mr. Poole is reading this, he will not hesitate to shoot me an e-mail about a future job opportunity.

In a World of Fantasy

The first, and probably the most difficult, step in overcoming any addiction is admitting to the problem at hand.

Well here goes.. My name is Anthony and fantasy football has taken over my life.

For those who may not be familiar with fantasy football, it is a place where individuals are able to act as general managers of a professional football team by drafting and managing players of their choice.

Success in this game is measured by those specific players providing points to the manager based on how well their performance is during a given week. 

Managers compete online and may join a random league or create a league of their own to include their friends.

This is my only second season participating in fantasy football and I honestly believe that I have developed a sort of obsession.

During class, I sometimes find myself pretending to listen to the professor (of course, never in my magazine or column writing class) when I am really keeping up-to-date with different player injuries and searching for better players to incorporate into my team.   

I’ve also started to notice other students with their laptops out during class with the familiar background labeled “Yahoo! Fantasy Sports” placed on the top of their screens. At least I’m not the only one.

One student in my class had a rather clever technique while he was looking up football statistics on his laptop.

Every now and then he would look up from the computer and pretend to listen to the teacher for about 5–6 seconds and then go back to doing his research.  I found it hilarious because while discussion was going on, he would even nod his head as if he was agreeing with the topic at hand.

These tendencies may seem bizarre to a person outside of the world of fantasy football, but to a person who is in a fantasy league, these actions are important in order to be successful.

Though fantasy football, or any fantasy sport for that matter, can be detrimental to ones academic standing in school, productivity at work or maybe even their relationship with their significant other, there is a silver lining to all of this.

Fantasy football has changed the way we look at the game. I remember a time when football fans would only root for their favorite football team and despise all the others who would stand in their way.

Fantasy football has also allowed us to become better fans of the sport because it has turned us into supporters of different players as opposed to just entire teams. It has provided us a way to become more fanatical about the sport by being inclined to follow a wide array of topics from player injuries, coaching changes, or even how long a particular player has to stay in jail.

What can college do for you?

From the time of our childhood days, many of us aspire to be many things in this life.  Some of us aim doctors, policemen, or maybe even a writer for a well-known newspaper or magazine. 

For me, college helped me to find what I wanted to do with my life.  

Just like many teenagers coming out of high school, I had no idea what career I wanted to choose.  One thing I did know was that I wanted a job that could help me become financially secure. 

Ultimately, I told myself that I would go into the medical field.  Everyone I knew was doing it so I figured, why not? To do this, the first thing I did was sign myself up as a biology major and I started taking classes at my local community college. 

At the time I entered college, a friend had just graduated from a prestigious pharmacy school.  Being a pharmacist struck my fancy because they make insane amounts of money and all they do is just count pills all day?  Well that was enough for me gear all my efforts towards being a legalized drug dealer.

As I was going through my prerequisite classes, all I could say to myself was, “Damn, this stuff is hard.”

I found myself studying almost all day and after all that studying, all I could manage was a measly “C” in most of my classes. After a couple of semesters, I got to thinking that if I am struggling so much this early on, what more down the road? I decided to stick with it, just hoping that I could succeed by getting by with a “C” average.

It wasn’t until my girlfriend asked me what I wanted to do with my life when I really started to think about a different career. At the time, I was still unsure about choosing a different field because I felt that I would disappoint my parents.  They were so proud of me when I decided to become a pharmacist and I didn’t want to let them down. 

When my girlfriend asked me what I was good at, the first thing that came to my mind was writing.  In all of my classes, writing always came easy to me.  So easy that I would almost always wait till the last minute to write my papers.  Despite the procrastination, my papers always came back to me with above average grades.  It was at this point when I decided I would to transfer to Sacramento State and pursue a career in journalism.

For me, I could honestly say that college was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It has given me the opportunity find direction in life, and it has also shown me a career that I am excited about pursuing.

College is, and should be, an important aspect in everybody’s life.  It can give us the opportunity to find out things about ourselves and also help us mature as men and women.  If college can help this teenager, who could only think about making money, find a craft that he really loves and enjoys, then it can do the same for you.

First Week Of School

You know when they say patience is a virtue? Well during this first week of school, I've found that patience is not a virtue that I possess.  

In the Fall of 2009, I moved into an apartment about 5 minutes from campus. This semester, I find myself waking up at 6:00 a.m. every day just so that I can make it to campus before my 9:00 class. Every Monday through Thursday I travel from Stockton to Sacramento, and during my long journey, I am greeted with traffic at almost every turn.

Once I leave Stockton, I drive to Elk Grove to pick up my girlfriend and then head to campus.  From her house, a supposedly 10-minute drive turns into a 35-minute drive because of the traffic that surrounds her neighborhood and the school.  On the third day of school, I decided to be caviler and take a different route than what my girlfriend told me was the "fastest way" to get to school.  I've lived in Sacramento for about 2 years so my pride told me that I knew a better way than the path she was directing me.  Boy was I wrong.  

We ended up about 30 minutes late for our 9:00 class, and I haven't heard the end of it from my girlfriend.  In my mind, I figured that taking the long way would be better than just staying in stop-and-go traffic.  

When we finally got to our class, a video about the different women in art was being played in a dark, crowded room of my classmates.  As we got settled, I glanced at my girlfriend, and she gave me "the look." She didn't have to say anything because I already knew what she was thinking.  

She probably said in her mind, "This boy (shaking her head). Why can't she just listen?"

While the video was playing during class, I started thinking about all the times that my pride has put us into situations that could have been avoided if I had just listened to her.  Of all those times, I've always, for the most part, admitted that I have been wrong and explained to her that that is just how guys are made when it comes to driving.  We always think that we are right, no matter what.

After this experience of mine, I have just one piece of advice for all the guys out there who find themselves in a similar position:  Just listen to the girl.

The reason why I say this is not because I've learned from my own experience and have decided to lower my pride, but it's because it's just simply the smart thing to do. 

When you listen to the girl, you avoid any unwanted bickering with your significant other, you keep them happy, and most importantly, when they're wrong (and they eventually will be) you will have the opportunity to rub it in their faces and you will be able to give them "the look."