I don’t even know where to start when it comes to Championship Sunday leading into Super Bowl Sunday…oh wait, I can’t say that cause the NFL bans anyone to use that phrase, so, the big game at the end of the NFL season.  I have to start off letting my Patriot homerism shine through…somebody needs to take Bernard Pollard out.  Seriously, the man is probably more hated in New England than Buckner, Boone, or Dent ever have been.  He has single handedly ended 4 Patriot seasons.  Tore Brady’s ACL when Pollard was with the Chiefs, the next season with the Texans, helped shred Welker’s knee, last season rolled up on Gronk’s ankle, and this year, knocking Ridley out cold, forcing him to drop the ball, basically ending the chance at a comeback for the Patriots.  Then, in the postgame show, Shannon Sharpe, former Raven, rips Belichick for not talking to Steve Tasker on the way off the field.  Really?  He doesn’t talk to the sideline reporter more than half the time, regardless of the score, and even when he does, he basically says things like he said in the post game press conference, “We gave up too many points and we didn’t score enough”.  Really Shannon?  You think that would have been good for CBS?  Shut up.

If you believe in teams destined to win, how can you argue against the Ravens being destined to win?  4th and 29 vs. the Chargers.  The deep throw against the Broncos when the Ravens had no business scoring.  The domination of the second half against the Patriots.  The made for TV movie that is Ray Lewis.  Speaking of Ray Lewis, is anyone else sick of every Ravens broadcast, during the national anthem, the camera basically zooming in up his nostrils while Lewis tries to force out a few tears to add to the caricature of a personality he has become?  Ray Lewis playing his last game will be one of the story lines that will be driven into the ground over and over again the next couple weeks.  Here are the other ones I am already sick of and they haven’t even started.

The Harbowl, or the Bro Bowl, or whatever lame phrase media outlets come up with to go overboard talking about two brothers facing each other as head coaches of the two teams.  The death of the BCS version 2.0.  Yeah, we are still a year away from the BCS being a thing of the past, but how many times will we hear about Flacco coming from Delaware and Kaepernick from Nevada, neither of which are schools anywhere near the national spotlight of college football?  The read option:  We will see clips of Kaepernick running wild against the Packers hundreds of times, and debates as to whether or not the read option is the future of the NFL.  Let me answer that for you…it is absolutely not the future, see Wild Cat.  The Elite QB:  Yup, the arguments are sure to come, is Flacco and elite QB?  I will put up a bounty on the question, can somebody please come up with an original though when it comes to valuing quarterbacks?  Manti T’eo.  Yeah, I am sure his fake girlfriend story will find a way to be a storyline with comparisons and stories of professional athletes being taken advantage of by people of no morale compass.  But I am sorry, I don’t feel bad for you if you are about to make millions of dollars and were gullible enough to have a “relationship” with a woman for several years, but never bothered meeting the girl, didn’t visit her when diagnosed with Leukemia, and didn’t attend her funeral.  The best comment I have heard about it all was on ESPN radio, when the host, whose name is escaping me, simply said, “I had a better time following along with Inception than Manti T’eo”.

Things that are actually intersting leading into the Super Bowl are actually few and far between.  Both teams are a mix of old and new school.  Kaepernick is fun to watch with his speed and insane arm strengh and Flacco throws a great deep ball, while both teams have a solid run attack and impressive defenses.  I see the game being very close, and the deciding factor just may be to one storyline too boring for mainstream media to even care about…kicking.  After setting a record for field goals made last year, Akers has missed double digit field goals this season.  And after seeing their season end on a shanked kick, the Ravens cut a vet in favor of a rookie kicker.  Make or Miss, The game will come down to the kicking game.  Oh joy.

Here is the question: How do you have a touchdown lead with a minute left, your opponent has nearly 80 yards to go and no timeouts, and you lose?

Here is the answer: John Fox is your coach. In the history of professional sports, there have probably been plenty of bad coaching performances, but if one should ever cost a coach his job before the fans leave the seats, it was this one.

Sometimes when a team is very good, piss poor coaching can be masked. A top defense, a hall of famer at quarterback, two very good receivers, a good line, good backs, all that leads to success. But in the playoffs, when everyone is good, you need your coach to step up with a good game plan and make good decisions under pressure. John Fox could do neither.

First, before Baltimore even got the ball back with a minute left, Fox refused to let Peyton Manning try to throw for a game ending first down. Yeah, sure, you want to keep the clock running, but on third and 8 with everyone looking run, what are the odds of a conversion? Besides, Manning excels on underneath routs and would likely have completed the pass whether it went for a first down or not, so the clock would probably have kept running. Second, and I’ve written about my disdain for the prevent defense before, he refused to bring any pressure to Joe Flacco on the final drive, opting instead to rush three and drop 8 in coverage. We saw how that worked out. Third, when Denver got the ball back, they had 31 seconds on the clock and two timeouts, and a kicker with the leg for 60. Are you telling me Peyton Manning can’t drive the ball 40 yards in 30 seconds with two timeouts? Would he have? We’ll never know. But can he? You better believe it. Flacco moved the Ravens 80 yards in 45 seconds, albeit the last 70 coming on a bomb. What does Fox do? Kneels. Has there ever been more of a display of chicken…uh…poop?

It continued in the overtime period, but at that point, the script was probably written. A brilliant Britton Colquit punt coupled with a beautiful open field tackle on the attempted return by Tony Carter stuck the Ravens at their own 5. After two plays netted a return of minus 2 yards, Fox again refused to bring pressure in the end zone, allowing Flacco plenty of time to loft a beautiful 25 yard pass down the middle to Dennis Pitta. Sure, Denver got the ball back eventually, and anyone who watched the game knows what happens. A brutal brain fart by Manning and an even more brutal throw as a result led to a pick that gave the Ravens the ball with scant few yards to have to gain in order to get into Justin Tucker’s field goal range.

The reality is, the win is nothing less than what Baltimore deserved. They played well enough to win, and the only reason they didn’t win in regulation is two special teams touchdown returns by Trindon Holliday. Wipe those from the board, and it’s not close.

In a sporting world where players are often released for an inopportune fumble, missed kick, bad game, whatever, there is no other course of action than for the Broncos to fire Fox. And you know what else, I think they should do it via press release in the next half hour. Hey, I’ve got time, I will even write it for them.

The Broncos organization has decided to part ways with coach John Fox. We thank him for his, uh, contributions, but the reality of the matter is, playoff caliber teams need to be coached by playoff caliber coaches. The fact simply remains, the players on this team have masked Coach Fox’s insufficient ability to coach at the NFL level for most of this season. We wish him luck in his future endeavors, which if they lie anywhere in football will probably be in Division 1 AA, or perhaps the CFL.

That should cover that, right?

On another note, the Baltimore win allows the storied (not always good stories but I digress) and brilliant career of Ray Lewis to continue for at least another week. Lewis, who is retiring after the season, is playing through what would be crippling pain to any mere mortal with a torn triceps injury that 99.9% of players would have taken to the operating room and subsequently Injured Reserve. Not only that, Lewis led all tacklers in the game with 15 (unofficially) and recovered a fumble.

Last point on this game, the officials were mediocre at best. Nah, let’s call it what it really is. They were awful. They got the obvious offside calls correct, but apart from that, they were horribly wrong both ways on pass interference decisions and screwed up about a dozen holding penalties, again, in both directions. However, it has to be said that they got it right on Peyton Manning’s third quarter fumble. Upon replay, it appeared that the play would be a prime candidate for a “tuck rule” incomplete pass ruling. However, they stuck with their ruling of fumble after review. Anyone who even remotely resembles a football fan has to admit, even if they were pulling for Denver, it’s nice to have that idiotic rule for once not become a factor on a play like that.

Ah… that felt good. I’m happy now. I will wake up tomorrow and John Fox will likely still have a job, but that is what it is. My allegiance to Denver in this game started and ended with the office football pool.

With nobody being elected into the baseball hall of fame and the NHL lockout recently coming to an end, I find it shocking somebody isn’t getting more criticized.  The topic of the hall of fame vote fell squarely on the steroid era with Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds on the ballot for the first time joining Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmiero as the poster boys of steroids.  But people forget the steroid era would never have been had is not been for Donald Fehr.

As head of the MLBPA, Fehr fought against drug testing, claiming it as an invasion of privacy, which basically enabled all baseball players to roid up, and home run numbers to soar.  “But didn’t the home run race bring baseball back to popularity after the 1994 strike?”  Indeed it did, but who had a huge role in the strike?  You guessed it Fehr.  In fact, He was involved in 5 baseball work stoppages.  After working for the MLBPA for over 40 years, he finally stepped down in 2009.

What did Fehr do after baseball?  He became the NHLPA executive director in 2010 and proceeded to orchestrating his 6th work stoppage in 8 negotiations through his career.  And the NHL is probably the sport that could least afford a work stoppage.  After the 2004-2005 season being completely cancelled, hockey became almost extinct on TV, being hidden on the NBC Sports Network formerly known as Versus, which, at the time, was only available in about half the homes in America.  Hockey finally found itself back in the spotlight with the introduction of the Winter Classic.  Now, a work stoppage cancelled about half the season, lost out on the Winter Classic, and has some of the league’s stars contemplating staying overseas to play their hockey citing the better treatment they get than in the states.  

Only Donald Fehr can make living and playing in Russia more desirable than the United States.  In my opinion Fehr is the worst thing to happen to sports since, I dunno, the WNBA?

Well, not a ton of you played, if you couldn’t tell by the completely empty comments section. But here are the pertinent facts.
The site I referenced is SB Nation. I find them to be quite entertaining and usually pretty well informed.
Player A was Mark Langston, a hard throwing lefty from the 80s and 90s who played for the Mariners, Expos, and Angels, and once was traded for Randy Johnson. Player B was Fernando Valenzuela, the pudgy Dodger lefty who baffled the National League with baseball’s best screwball since Carl Hubbel.
As you can tell, their stats were pretty similar, Langston having a big edge in Ks and Fernando a half run better in ERA with more career shutouts. The other biggy is that Fernando won two World Series titles.
Still, SB Nation asserted that Langston was better and implied that it wasn’t close. It makes you wonder what ever happened to doing a bit of research.
You can probably make arguments for both guys to be a little better than the other, but to assert that it’s not close is lunacy.
That’s all for now, avoid the flu and get a vaccine this year. Apparently the strain is pretty brutal and worth avoiding.

One of the great things about being a sports columnist, blogger, or merely a fan is that you can make assertions about a sport and it’s players without having to justify how you feel. I am conflicted about a sports website that I read frequently. I enjoy the content most of the time, but every now and then, the writers really come up with a doozy. So, we’re going to do an anonymous comparison of two players’ Major League Baseball careers.

Both of these guys were left handed pitchers, approximately the same age, and pitched in the same era, so there’s no need to throw any opposition comparisons in there. Oh, and both spent time in both leagues, so both had to deal with the Designated Hitter at points. Not everything is congruent, of course, but let’s stick to the stuff that’s close for now.

This aforementioned website asserted that one of the players below was undeniably better than the other. I think they’re on crack, so we’re going to do an anonymous comparison. Please help me out by voting.

Player A Career Stats: 179 Wins, 158 Losses, 3.97 ERA, 2962 Innings Pitched, 2464 Strikeouts, 81 Complete Games and 19 Shutouts.

Player B Career Stats: 173 Wins, 153 Losses, 3.54 ERA, 2930 Innings Pitched, 2074 Strikeouts, 113 Complete Games, and 31 Shutouts.

Both guys have nearly identical WHIPS of 1.3. I’ll give you another hint. Both players pitched a no hitter, but the guy who was determined to be so much better went only the first 7 innings of his.

So I beg of you again, please help me out by putting either Player A, Player B, or about the same, in the comments, with as much or as little of an explanation as you please. I will post the results and all info you may be wondering about in a day or two. Thank you.

Chelsea has made the first real high profile EPL transfer of the January window, securing prolific forward, Demba Ba from Newcastle. No doubt Ba is a terrific talent, but was this a good move for the team? Well, you could certainly make a lucid argument that Fernando Torres has been a disappointment, in terms of goals, since his move from Liverpool, so if the Blues were going to stay on the fringes of title competition, a striker wasn’t an out-of-line acquisition. But do you want one as… unsettled as Ba? Ba only spent a season and a half with Newcastle before essentially orchestrating his exit. Before that, a mere 12 games with West Ham. Sure, West Ham was relegated at the end of his tenure there so you can’t really be shocked that he wanted to remain in the top flight. Before that, his supporters may point to the four plus years he spent at Bundesliga side, Hoffenheim as a bit of a character booster, but in the middle of those four years, there was a failed transfer to fellow Bundesliga, side Stuttgart. And ultimately, he was the architect of his departure from Hoffenheim, alleging the team had gone back on a promised transfer to England. Bottom line, his talent comes with some baggage. It could work out… or you could have a conversation with Robert Mancini at City and see how that whole Balotelli thing is working out over there. Will Ba sulk if he is unable to continue his prolific scoring, or if he has to fight for his spot, given Chelsea’s other offensive talent? I would think mid-table clubs take chances on volatile players, or perhaps teams with bottomless pockets like City, who can write off any failed investment as a drop in the bucket. Believe it or not, we may have reached the stage where even Roman Abramovich may be paying closer attention to the bottom line.

Other Stuff:

Lewis Holtby going to Tottenham is a real coup for the North London side. Having watched Holtby consistently improve in his performances for Schalke over the past couple of years, he’s legitimate. And he should continue to improve. He’ll serve out the rest of the season with the German side and then join Tottenham for next season, so Spurs will have to wait to reap the benefits. But I’ll say it again, he’s a bargain.

I’m less than enthused about Daniel Sturridge’s move to Liverpool. With Luis Suarez, how badly did they need another attacking option? Now, I’m not a manager, but I’d probably have targeted someone to solidify the defense a bit… not that Dortmund would be in a hurry to sell Neven Subotic, but everyone has a price. Or, perhaps an upgrade over Stewart Downing, who has disappointed on the wing since his arrival.

You didn’t think you were getting out of here without a homer moment for my beloved Wigan Athletic, did ya? Dear Roberto Martinez, stop trying to get us excited about new boy Roger Espinoza. All it means is a confirmation of something we fans have long feared; James McCarthy’s departure for greener pastures, either this January or at the end of the season if we have any luck.

Yes, it’s still early so much of the movement is still to come. Rumors still abound with big names like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, David Villa, Fernando Llorente, and others making frequent appearances in the gossip columns. So as those stories play out, I guess you’ll just have to tune in here again for more, ahem, expert analysis.

Royce White was a first round draft pick in last season’s NBA draft, but really became known to the casual basketball fan in the NCAA tournament last March when he drove with his family to the games rather than flying with his team due to a major fear of flying that stems from a larger anxiety disorder.  He has yet to play in the NBA because the Rockets don’t know what to do about this issue or how to properly handle it.  That is not an indictment on them, it is simply the truth of the matter.  Royce is hardly the first athlete to suffer from anxiety issues.  Several baseball players have been put on the DL with anxiety struggles.

Anxiety is a widely misunderstood disorder.  How would I know?  I suffer from it myself.  It can lead from a simple uneasiness for no apparent reason, to paralyzing fear, and anything in between.  In fact, I am a little shaky right now just writing about it and know I will need to take a break to allow myself to calm down to avoid a potential anxiety attack.

In sports, there is an inherit macho-ism surrounding it.  Whether it is baseball, basketball, football, or any other, the locker room dynamic creates an environment that frowns on weakness.  Mental toughness is a term used to describe the greats, so naturally you would think nobody that has a seemingly irrational fear of being stuck in traffic, sitting on a plane, waiting in line at the bank, could possibly be great in sports, right?

Now I don’t know the specifics of the athletes that suffer from anxiety, those examples were things that trouble me at times, but you know it had to be something similar to Zach Grienke when he was placed on the DL with anxiety, right?  And a guy with that can’t be mentally tough, right?  All he did the next season was win the AL Cy Young award, and while the team wasn’t in a playoff push, you can’t be the best pitcher in the league without some mental toughness, right?

I am happy to see stories that are understanding of players with anxiety struggles, but for the most part they seem to be just that, understanding, but nothing else.  How about moving it forward?  Mention that it is not some unusual thing that happens from time to time, but a humanistic disorder that 40 million Americans struggle with. 

I am rooting for Royce White to make it to the court and succeed, I always root for Zach Grienke, because guys that publicly acknowledge their anxiety struggles and still compete at the highest levels motivate me, and I am sure others like me, who fight this every day.  One of the biggest hurdles I had was accepting I have this and being comfortable sharing my struggles with those around me, I just hope more stories like Royce will make those suffering from anxiety more comfortable in discussing their own struggles and can successfully fight through it just like I do every day.

Yes, I’m talking to you, everyone who wrote an article with some variation of the title, “Ex-Braves Player Jones Arrested for Domestic Violence.” Anyone notice a key word missing?

Who is the first ballplayer you think of when you hear Braves and Jones? If you said anyone other than career Atlanta Brave and first-ballot hall of fame certainty, Chipper, then you’re either out of touch with baseball (understandable) or a fool.

Anyway, as I’m sure you know, the former Brave referenced in the arrest headline is Andruw, the former slugger and gold-glover who hasn’t been on the Braves in several seasons. Most recently a Yankee, Andruw Jones also spent an abysmal season with the Dodgers, and had signed on to play in Japan this year. The Braves are long in his rear view mirror.

I will admit, the problem isn’t only with the piece of feces excuses for journalists who somehow have jobs. Yes, their complete disregard for journalistic ethics is nothing less than appalling, but the age of Internet news is at least partially to blame. See, it’s all about how many “clicks” you can get. Even if your totally transparent motive is to make people gasp and think, “Holy cow, Chipper got arrested!?” before seeing that the article was about Andruw. Never mind that people won’t read it, the mission was accomplished. The headline was clicked on and the article was opened.

Journalists used to be champions and watchdogs for the public. They reported facts that happened, kept institutions like big businesses and governments honest… well, ok, as honest as giant rabbles of greedy crooks can possibly be… so the public felt it could protect itself with information. Now, in the online age, it’s all about clicks. Clicks mean bigger advertising checks, better search engine results, which again leads to bigger bucks. Ethics be damned.

If I was Chipper Jones, I would be furious. And I would sue. Would I win? Probably not, as truth is an absolute defense to libel and slander, and technically, “Jones” is a former Braves player. But I’ll tell you what, I would make some noise.

How would I have written the headline, you ask? Simple. “Andruw Jones Arrested on Suspicion of Domestic Violence.” Sure, it wouldn’t get thousands of clicks it might otherwise get because I didn’t pander to the general baseball loving public’s natural instinctive reaction to a Brave named Jones being Chipper, but at least I’d have been able to go to bed at night knowing that I’m honest, and in my opinion, NOT a piece of sh*t.

We all know of the announcer that calls a game a battle, the athletes warriors, an impressive feat amazing, or a play the best they have seen.  All of these are understandable in the heat of the moment, but the most exaggerated word in sports always comes in the next day headlines.  A word used to get a click on an article or video, a cheap ploy to drive up “ratings”, a word I fell victim to this morning.  That word…brawl. 

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the car, a few hours packing and unpacking, and a few hours enjoying Christmas day with the family.  There was basketball off and on the TV/radio throughout the day, so it was very possible I missed an important play or moment, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw a headline about the Celtics game yesterday that I had missed.  I go to ESPN this morning and see a video referencing a brawl in the Celtics game.  They were playing the Nets and had “brawled” a couple weeks ago, so I figure maybe the tensions actually boiled over into a brawl. 

I watch the video in amazement.  Garnett gets his jersey held through a play, pulls the hand off his jersey, referees and teammates separate the two players after sharing a few choice words, and that now constitutes a brawl? 

I will admit it, baseball is the worst offender.  Nobody even needs to charge the mound, the benches just need to slowly spill onto the field and it is called a bench clearing brawl.  Please sports headline writers, stop dropping fake blood in the water, entice us with the real thing.  If you are gonna say brawl, have it be Artest taking out a fan, Krueter decking a guy in the second row, Chan Ho Park doing his best Mortal Kombat flying side kick, or Nolan Ryan pummeling Robin Ventura.  A little hug and a few words are not a brawl, please stop fooling yourselves.

Ladies and gentlemen, some words from your fantasy champion… in one league anyway. In the one league that matters as far as this blog is concerned.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the year. I trumpeted the fantasy awesomeness of a few players. Shall we see how I did? Let’s start with one I got right.

I said that Matt Ryan would have indiscernable fantasy numbers from Tom Brady when all was said and done, and Tom Terrific is drafted in the first round in every league, and if not in the first, then early in the second. I got Matty Ice in the ninth. I haven’t done the math, so the exact points are going to be left up to those of you with more time than me. But Ryan after week 16 has one more touchdown pass and a few hundred more passing yards than Brady. Tom may still get the total points by an eyelash by virtue of the fact he has thrown only 8 picks to Matt’s 14, and Tom has rushed for one more touchdown. But given the disparity in draft rounds, wouldn’t you call this a win? Yeah. I thought so. Score one for me.

On to one of the calls I was less than spot on with… Carolina tight end Greg Olsen was one of my picks to have a breakout year. Well, for a guy you may have grabbed with your last pick before snagging a kicker and a defense, he didn’t do poorly. I’m not saying I expected 2011 Gronk numbers, but I hoped for better, especially with a less run-oriented Cam Newton pulling the strings. You could have done just as well with Brandon Myers, or surpassed him with Kyle Rudolph. All in all, not a disaster, but these days, tight ends produce. You should have one on your fantasy team that will. So here’s my tip for 2013: If Tony Gonzales doesn’t retire, grab him. (see previous Matty Ryan mancrushing) And if you’re in a spot where you need to get one late, look at Lance Kendricks. Assuming an improved Rams team will upgrade their most significant weakness, a leaky offensive line, they won’t have to keep Kendricks home to utilize his superior pass protection skills as much, freeing him and his 4.5 speed up to terrorize opposing secondaries. Because he can. Then again, Jeff Fisher is an idiot and will probably pressure Les Snead into drafting three more receivers and defensive linemen, and focus his free agency targets on back up punters and place kickers.

On to… well, what do you call this one? I said Danny Amendola would be a hit when it came to PPR leagues. I’d have been right if he managed to stay healthy. Unfortunately, injuries hit again and he wasn’t the juggernaut I thought he’d be. Still, he’s an excellent player and a guy who you need to grab if he’s available late next season, ESPECIALLY in a PPR league. Will he get hurt again? Probably. You only need to look at Lance Kendricks’ 80 yard touchdown reception in week 16 against Tampa, where he sprinted all 80 yards with Kendricks, blocking THREE potential tacklers in the process. He’s a football player… which you admire, but for a guy who is about 5 foot 10 and maybe 170 lbs, gives him a limited shelf life.

Lessons To Be Learned

The best teams don’t always win. In one league, I had the highest scoring team in the regular season, and it wasn’t close. However, my points against were also the highest in the league and I barely sneaked into the playoffs. No matter, in round one, I ran into monster games from Tom Brady, Knowshon Moreno, and a good one from Alfred Morris. Couple it with a disappearing act from Chris Johnson, Mikel Leshoure, and Ryan Matthews, the injury to Percy Harvin and God not being on my side, it was over.

Shaun could tell you the same thing. His team in the league I just dominated finished with the highest regular season point total, but missed the playoffs… if only due to his dubious set up of only the top four teams making it. Still, that number can be deceiving. He’s got Tom Brady, Matt Forte, Jamal Charles Wes Welker, and Torrey Smith. While Brady is a consistent bet for 30 plus points, the other guys are as perfect of an example of a hit or miss group as you can outline. Sure, any of them can hang 40 for you on any given night. But they can also give you bagels. This is not to say that Shaun drafted a bad team. Quite to the contrary, he was our defending champion, and did the best he could. We keep two (in his case, Forte and Brady… not in that order) and he filled spots with the wheel pick with the best players available to him. And, with a bit better luck, could have won the whole thing again. But it wasn’t to be. Thing is, you can get a couple of 200 point weekends with that crew, but also get a few 60 pointers. It doesn’t matter if you score 200 if your opponent only gets 70. If YOU only get 70, you probably won’t win. Those weeks where you get 200 will pad your end of season point total, and give you bragging rights at the office for a few days, but nothing is a lock at the end.

While I won the championship tonight, I could easily have lost. For my two WR slots and my flex, I played Brandon Marshall, Randall Cobb, and Vick Ballard. Meanwhile, Roddy White (27 ****ing points!!!) and Jeremy Maclin sat on my bench. Hindsight being perfect, I did not make the right calls. BUT!!! The key here is, having the guys on your team to where, even if you make the wrong call, your roster is deep enough to overcome. My two keepers were Adrian Peterson (only 8 points in the final) and Ray Rice (a robust 21 points). So despite the fact that my opponent, who did not have a strong enough roster to even rightfully be in the final, got TDs from Miles Austin, Santana Moss, Antonio Gates, and two from Shonn Greene, I was able to overcome. Seriously, how does a team like that even MAKE the playoffs? Oh yeah, I failed to mention he also has Drew Brees.

Lesson to be learned here is that fantasy sports, not unlike real sports, shows real value in a deep roster. If your roster is deep, you can make a mistake in who you sit or start, and still win.

More Fearless 2013 Forecasting:

Matt Ryan will again have stats rivaling the top fantasy quarterbacks… but you won’t get him in the ninth round again.

So will Colin Kaepernick… and you will be able to get him in the ninth round… rather than the first round pick you’d likely have to spend on RG3.

Danny Woodhead will be a factor, especially during bye weeks. Pick him up late. Don’t leave him on the wire and bank on having the waiver priority or being the only one astute enough to grab him. Ridley is fumble prone, Vereen isn’t much good, and Brady LOVES his wood. And head. And Woodhead.

Alex Smith will be starting somewhere and do a good job. Grab him as a second qb in the 14th round if you didn’t get an elite starter in the first few.

If you’re in a keeper league, still hang on to Larry Fitzgerald and Dwayne Bowe. Both could be traded to teams that actually have quarterbacks… and in Fitz’s case, it would really be a shame if he didn’t.

Number one fantasy receiver next season? AJ Green.

Yes, I have been drinking… and yes, I know who Calvin Johnson is.

Wanna know who five receivers are you’ll be able to grab late on in next year’s drafts that will be big contributors? Say please… Ok fine. Here you go. Cecil Shorts, Chris Givens, Pierre Garcon, Eric Decker, and Alshon Jeffery.

Guys to avoid are Steve Smith (duh), Brandon Lloyd, Anquan Boldin, Miles Austin, and Greg Jennings.

Is there more? Sure… but I can’t tell you everything. My competitors MAY read this and I DO want to defend my title…