A New 'Mania' Surfaces

Today marks the first regular season Sunday in the 2005-2006 National Football League schedule (NBC jumped the gun by showing the Steelers-Dolphins game on Thursday night). I will admit that I am a lifelong football fan and use its opening weekend as an indicator that fall is right around the corner (just like baseball announces the promise of spring). I do have my favorite team (E-A-G-L-E-S...go Eagles!) and my wardrobe contains several articles that sport either their logo or color scheme.; however, I don't think I qualify as a 'fanatic' and I will publicly admit that I've only been to one pro game in my entire life (Dolphins-Jets game at Shea Stadium in the late 1970s) and have voluntarily missed watching important games due to other commitments (including TWO Super Bowls due to international travel).


This season is a little different, though. After continued prodding by a co-worker (and a last-minute vacancy in a 10-team league), I have taken the plunge into the world of fantasy football. Our work league had our draft a few weeks ago and I have been fixating upon my 'team' ever since. I was lucky enough to get the #3 pick in a serpentine draft and I picked up LaDainian Tomlinson with my first selection (Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander were already taken). The draft lasted for 18 rounds and I was able to get some decent players (allegiance to Philly meant picking Donovan McNabb, David Akers, Correll Buckhalter and their entire defensive unit--also got Kurt Warner and Adam Vinatieri to help round out the squad and acquired some free agents). Our league is divided into two conferences and plays a 14-week regular season schedule that concludes with a two-week playoff to crown its 2006 champion. With the kickoff last Thursday night, everything was set into motion; however, I wasn't ready for the 'hook' that set itself in early this afternoon.

The website that hosts our league provides all of the statistical data required to accurately manage your team. During our draft, I consulted my laptop numerous times to determine which player met my more immediate needs or, if met, was the best 'fantasy' athlete available. During the season, players or teams earn or lose points from an approved scoring scheme depending upon their performance on the field. One option available is 'live' monitoring--seeing a 'score' in near real-time to determine how the players on your team is currently doing in the head-to-head match-ups with our scheduled opponent for that week.

I didn't pick any Steelers or Dolphins so I was already down 3.0 to nothing when today's action started. Although I had the Bengals-Chiefs game on the television, one eye was constantly monitoring my laptop to keep track of my fantasy players' accomplishments. After the early games, I was trailing 52-38; however, I wasn't too worried because my quarterback (Warner) and #1 running back (Tomlinson) had yet to take the field (playing the 4:15 and late Monday night games, respectively). Final results for the weekend won't be known until very late Monday night (at the conclusion of the Chargers-Raiders game) so our 'trash talking' will have to wait until Tuesday morning. If I do lose, it might be because I swapped out McNabb for Warner at the last minute (the Eagle quarterback returned from injury and posted a 'monster' game to earn 28.0 points). LATE UPDATE: Warner also earned 28.0 fantasy points--it's a draw!


In closing, on this special day I'd like to pay respect to one of the icons of American professional football:

"And then, on the seventh day, the game was played..."

As a middle-aged fan, I can easily imagine NFL Films legend John Facenda saying the above line (he'd have to add the TV revenue-driven Monday, Thursday and Saturday editions to reflect today's realities). Known as 'the Voice of God', John narrated weekly television programs that were the only place where sports junkies could get their football 'fixes' in the days before ESPN came on the scene. A chance encounter with Ed Sabol in a Philadelphia bar in 1965 introduced this legendary anchorman's poetic narrations to millions of potential fans and helped the league expand its presence in the embryonic television sports market of the 1960s.

A few years ago, I bought a CD called "The Power and the Glory" which featured the music that accompanied the films and the narration of Mr. Facenda or the show's hosts (Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier in its heyday). If you have younger children, you might recognize some of these pieces on the Nickelodeon show "Spongebob Squarepants"--especially during episodes that feature Mermaid Man and his 'young' ward Barnacle Boy. In one selection, simply titled "Lombardi", Facenda speaks for only 17 seconds but in that short span entrances the listener with a haiku-like passage that succinctly describes the essence of the coach and the game he helped to popularize.

"Lombardi...
A certain magic still lingers in the very name.
It speaks of duels in the snow and cold November mud."

Due to the current diffusion of football among a variety of broadcast and cable venues, we will probably never again have a single personna--or voice--like Facenda's to brand the league apart from other competitors for our discretionary time (Harry Kalas, a fine sportscaster in his own right, replaced John in 1975 but IMHO he just doesn't match up to the original standard set over 40 years ago). Thank goodness the Sabol family had the foresight to preserve his awesome voice for future generations of NFL fans to admire.