Fantasy football keeps me competitive

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I’ll admit. I’m a pretty competitive person. Even though I stopped playing organized sports years ago, I still haven’t lost the need to compete. I am probably more competitive now than I ever was as a kid playing basketball or softball (most likely due to my lack of skill).

It’s probably due to the pride I have in my favorite teams, regardless of their skill level or if they’re in real or fantasy leagues. It’s true even when my team of choice has no logical chance of winning — like when the Vikings headed to Lambeau Field two weeks ago.

I wore an old-school Brock Lesnar Vikings jersey to work just to taunt all the Packer fans. I wore the same jersey to the gym for the same reason. Of course, that competitiveness came back to bite me because you know how they did.

So now, my competitive attention is mostly on my fantasy football league. My team starts off strong every year, winning three or four weeks in a row, and then plummets to the cellar. The same thing happened this season that has happened in the previous three. I came in being over-confident and ready to show my opponents that a girl — the only girl in our league — was ready to take over. It’s not just a matter of being competitive; it’s having something to prove.

And it’s hard to not be over-confident when you’ve been the only female in your fantasy football league for four years. There’s something so much more fun about beating the opposite sex, some of whom, live, breath, eat, sleep and dream football.

I follow the Vikings religiously and keep tabs on what happens to all the other teams in their division, but I don’t know much about the rest of the NFL teams. Yet every August, I enter the draft with the same strategy. I look for one big-name player and then draft my favorite quarterback.

Baby brother Eli Manning of the New York Giants has been a constant on my team since I first began fantasy play. Yes, that’s right; I always choose Eli over Peyton. I knew his time was coming after beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and much to the dismay of most of my competitors, he has actually been playing fairly decently, helping me solidify myself as a contender.

At least for a while. Every season starts the same for me. I start off strong, winning three or four games in a row before falling into the fantasy football cellar. Right now, I am sitting at 5-6 with three weeks left in the fantasy season. I am on the bubble of teams that may make it into the playoffs. If I stay competitive, I might give myself my first official fantasy football playoff berth and also spoil teams who have been playing strong all season.

Now is no time to give up.

Tags: budge sports, budgeteer, sports