The Starting Line-Up: 2

AND, on a final starting line-up note:
Here is my Fantasy Football line-up for this week:
QB Tom Brady of the New England Patriots
WR Terrell Owens, Buffalo Bills
WR Anthony Gonzalez, Indiana Colts
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers
RB Ryan Grant, Green Bay Packers,
TE, Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys
RB Cedric Benson, Cincinnati Bengals
Defense--Minnesota Vikings

What have I learned from my fantasy football experience so far? Well, the names of all the teams above above, except for the Indianopolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys. What those little initials mean (QB, quarterback; WR, wide receiver; RB running back; TE, tight-end). Do I know what they do on the field yet? No...but baby steps.

Also I examined a schedule today and think I also figured out that when people say they are going to watch "the game" on a Saturday, it is college football, and noticed that there are TONS of pro-games on Sundays. I used to believe that guys could watch football all day on Sundays because football games were excruciatingly long, like Cricket. But from the schedule I deduce they must be watching a few different games.

Also, I've been reminded of how easy it is, once you really do it, to just obscure an entire portion of the world from your reality. Like I rarely open the sports section of a newspaper, I don't notice sports stories (except maybe Tennis) on my news pages, and because I never list sports as an interest on anything, or search for sports-related information, all the weird advertisements that pop up on gmail or facebook never pertain to sports.

I had fun today just looking at my starting line-up and clicking on the links to see their pictures, where they went to college, how they've been injured etc...It makes them seem like real people. Cool.

Because I was on a sports page to do all this today, I saw something I normally would not have--which was a little op-ed about Michael Jordan's induction into the Hall of Fame, and how his speech was kind of petty and bitter...and it implied that people who knew him would have expected that, because it's pretty much his personality. Which was sad and interesting, and something I had never heard before, probably since I haven't really followed basketball since 1995. But, Michael Jordan is one of the few sports heroes I feel a connection to, because I lived in Chicago from 1992-1995, the years that encompassed the Chicago Bulls "Threepeat" and even I watched the basketball games, because 1) My boyfriend was a sports fan, and 2) coming from Indiana, I did kind of understand basketball, and 3) because it was SO pervasive...and fun. Everyone, including me, wanted to "Be like Mike." He seemed so fresh and friendly and hardworking, and amazing and happy.

Then, toward the end of that time, I worked as the production coordinator on a series of car commercials that featured celebrities, and for a day or two we had Michael Jordan on the set. And I can't remember much. He certainly didn't diva-out or throw anything. but there was something about a couple things he said, maybe the way he treated some of the guys on the crew...All I remember, is that in the course of a day, he lost some of his shine for me, and that I came home and commented that I no longer wanted so much to be like Mike...but still, on the court, and on the Nike and Gatorade commercials, he was such a hero for so many.

I digress. But I guess the point is that it was interesting, that on the first day...ever, of looking at a yahoo sports page, I would see a kind of end to a saga that I actually know "something" about. Kind of like when, after seeing maybe four or five episodes of Dawson's Creek in my lifetime, I turned on the TV one afternoon, and they were playing the final episode. And just from those episodes over the years, I had gleaned just enough to be interested in seeing if Joey would choose Dawson, or that other guy who's now on Fringe.