The Sac Fantasy Football League Cast of Charactersz: 14 team owners (missing one picture) and the hierarchy

This is Anthony and Angelo Campiglia (Prestige Worldwide and the Boot). Anthony began the league for our neighborhood 4 years ago. Anthony's team name comes from the movie Stepbrothers and Angelo's comes from his recent need to wear a boot because he hurt himself in football. Last summer I begged Anthony to give me the job of LM and he relented. Since then he claims he has grown bored with fantasy and gave the team to his son "the Boot" this year. He currently is the LM for the Sac Fantasy Baseball League but he says this is his last year doing that too. Anthony was very active on the message board as LM and otherwise. Anthony and Angelo are neighbors. The "Sac" is in reference to our cul-de-sac, where all the neighbors hand out to tailgate. In interviews Anthony is considered high in the hierarchy because he created the league, has a good understanding of football and fantasy, and is active on the message board. It will be interesting to see what happens now that he is "out" of the league. Incidentally, he stayed up until midnight to help his son draft even though he said he wouldn't. They are both at all the tailgates. This is Dave Flammia (Raider Nation). He is NOT a neighbor. He is a friend of Anthony's and his team is named after the Raiders. We only had 10 teams our first year and 1 team dropped out at the end of the season. Anthony was looking to expand and replace so he asked Dave and his other friend Billy. This is their second season with us. He is not involved in the message board and is a bit removed from the antics on the block but takes fantsy very seriously. Despite him taking fantasy serious he is viewed as low in the hierachy because of the distance and because of his lack of participation. Nobody I spoke to knew if he knew about football because they have never spoken to him long enough to find out. I've and he really does know football. He's just kind of a quiet guy. He's been to one tailgate. This is the other non-neighbor who Anthony invited to join the league, Billy Hulse (Team HulseMan). This is his 2nd season and Billy has a reputation for not understanding fantasy and forgetting to set his line-up. This pisses everyone off. Some of the other team owners wanted me to kick him out of the league. Just couldn't do it. Billy's in my baseball league and he hasn't set his line-up in weeks. Like I said it pisses everyone off. No message board activity. He is viewed as low in the hierarchy because of his the distance and lack of participation. I don't know Billy very well. He doesn't come to the tailgates. This is Dina Meli (D's Dirty Pirate Hookers). The name is a reference from the movie Anchorman. She is an original member of the SFFL and a neighbor. She is very intense and one of the people who wanted people kicked out of the league because she feels as if there are too many teams. She went to the finals the first season and was beat on her birthday at the first SFFL superbowl party. She is a Giants fan and up until this year drafted mostly players from the Giants and everybody talked about for it. She might be changing her strategy this year. She views herself as in the middle of the hierarchy and others view her that way. I'm told she doesn't know enough about football and fantasy to be at the top but her true love of the sport and passion for fantasy place her in the middle. She likes to read the message board but does not write much except things like LOL. She says she's not clever like the rest of the crew and can't keep up with the quick banter. She's at some tailgates. She has this rule that you can't talk to her when the Giants are playing. Lots of talking at tailgates. I am Redrum. My name comes from my favorite book the Shining. I am a founding member of the SFFL and am in my second year as commissioner. I live on the block and I have always been very active on the message board. People view me as the middle of the pack in the hierarchy because they don't believe I have a superior understanding of football or fantasy, but like Dina, my love for the sport and for fantasy push me up in the crowd. I had an amazing 1st season when I picked up Arian Foster before he hit it big and it turns out that might have been beginners luck, as I have not been so lucky in years since. Writing the LM page makes up for the losses. I sincerely believe noone has more fun than me. I love a tailgate!!! This is Nikki Spond (The Lost Boys). She is an original member of the SFFL, a neighbor and the champion for year two. The name comes from her favorite movie. Nikki was fighting cancer the season she won the championship, and I've mentioned previously she took great pride in being the girl who wasn't paying attention and still beat the boys. She said that with everything going on her team meant so little to her but she derived pleasure from winning and it made her "giggle." Sometimes her husband set her line-up for her. Nikki went onto to go through chemo and has been in remission since that 2nd season. She is razor sharp on the message board. She doesn't write ofter but she writes well and she cuts everyone. I wouldn't mess with her. She (interestinly enough) is also viewed (like all of the women) in the middle of the hierarchy. She admits she doesn't have the superior knowledge of football and fantasy and she is not the lunatic fan Dina and I are, but her role as champion pushes her up to the higher part of the middle of the pack. nikk goes to most tailgates. This is Jeff Spond (Polk High). He is an original member of the sffl, a neighbor and his name comes from Married with Children. Jeff does OK, but he doesn't stand out. He doesn't go on the message board, but when he does, like Nikki he is brilliant. He is great with phrasing the perfect insult. He was not mentioned by anyone I interviewed in the hierarchy but I see him in the middle of the pack. He understands football but actually has a life, so is not obsessed like some of us. He sometimes goes to tailgates. This is Rob Stawinski (the Jersey Fist Pumpers). He is an original member of the SFFL and a neighbor. He gets his name from the show Jersey Shore and I had a whole lot of fun last year with clips from the jersey shore on my page. He's had Adrian Peterson for 3 years. That's his thing. He's not on the message board much and usually doesn't read the LM note. I know because when I would post something about him (he had a great season last year) I would ask him if he saw it and he always said no. But he sets his line-up. He was not mentioned by others when I asked about the hierarchy. I'm going to say he'd be viewed in the middle of the pack. He certainly has done too well to be at the bottom but he doesn't act like a lunatic about fantasy. He goes to most tailgates. He kind of has a "real" job so he's busy. He's one of the only coorporate people on the block, lots of stay-at-home moms and teachers on the block. I couldn't find separate pictures of the DeMarco boys so I got the group shot, but that's OK, they're a package deal anyway. They are kind of one-for-all all-for-one. The long suffering Mrs. DeMarco is in the picture too. They are from left to right John (young money, Michael (40 yr-old virgin) and JD (Bon-Temp Hawks). The 40 yr old Virgin is reference to the movie, young money I don't know and Bon-Temp is a show on HBO. They often change their names. They are neighbors and this is their second year in the league. Again, in interviews John was not brought up, but JD and Michael are viewed not at the top of the hierarchy but towards the top. Michael was the champion last year at age 14 and is LM for an all kid league and JD made it to the finals and lost to his son last year and is in several leagues. JD writes on the messaage board, but mostly he complains, talks about boobs and stuff like that. Michael only posts questions on the message board and John posted something his first year and everyone jumped in on the thread and made fun of him. He was kind of pissed off and never posted after that. We're kind of assholes. The boys comes to most tailgates. I had to be a smartass and post this picture of my husband. There was no other direction to go in. He is Mother McCree's Uptown Jugband and writing that over and over in my LM note is a pain in the ass. Because it's long and because I hate that he's successful, but he is. He really is. He is a neighbor, a founding member of SFFL and champion from the first year. He is unanimously viewed at the top of the hierarch for his knowledge of football. He played and still coaches football. He is very active on the message board, writes about himself in the 3rd person (calling himself mother) and he writes longer posts than any other team owner, and probably posts the most times too. He relentlessly accuses me of not giving him enough attention on the LM page and never shuts up about it. Mother McCree usually sets up and runs the tailgate. This is Artic DiMartinis. He is an original member of the SFFL and a neighbor. He hasn't had too much success but he is all over the tailgates. Artie will be there from the minute the first canopy goes up till the last beer can is thrown away, usually with 4 kids in tow. He LOVES the message board. He writes in all caps, goes on rants, talks about boobs, insults everyone and then tells them he loves them. He has a tendency to argue about the fairness of trades he's not involved in. He was not mentioned by anyone specifically in interviews about the hierarchy. Nuno Paco is new. He is a new neighbor and a new member of the SFFL. God help him. I have no picture.

Ideas For my First Posting

Hanging out with the DeMarco boys for part of draft night, watching them photoshop pictures of other team owners gave me an idea for my first page. I found a picture of a family of 14 that decided to move into a trailer park to live for a reality tv show (never heard of the show). I wanted to try to figure out a way to plug all the faces of the team owners into the picture of the family of 14. I don't know how to photoshop so I'm not sure this is possible. Another option is to stay with the "formula" I developed last year for writing the LM note. I would sort of pick a theme, it might center around a team that lost, a team that one, the draft, the playoffs, a player who got hurt, mid-season report or someone who did something really stupid and find a funny youtube videoclip to go with it. Then I would do a write-up of the events of the week in terms of what happened in sports and what happened in our particular league. Some criticisms I got last year for this particular formula were that it was TOO much of a sports summary "I can see that stuff on ESPN." Another person said to me "yeah, yeah you did the youtube clip, it's been done to death." Others said they really liked them and found them funny. I don't want to write to please my audience. I did find one youtube clip I thought I might use. I'm trying to post it. Don't know what will happen. . So I need to decide if I'm going to think outside of the box and stray from my formula a little bit. It's really a lot of fun to browse youtube videos in an effort to make fun of someone. But I do want to try different things. OK, going to try to post this and see what happens.

Draft Night

Friday, August 23rd, 2013, the Sac Fantasty Football League had it's fourth draft (2nd online). It went off without a hitch. Here are some of the details and some information about the "characters" in the league. One of the new team owners, Nuno Paco (Team Paco) was in Hershey Park for the draft and planned to have the computer auto-pick for him. Instead it appears as if he brought his laptop to dinner and was live for the draft for the first hour or so. He was on the message board and other team owners were asking him how Hershey Park was. He wrote that he was having fun and was just "wrapping up dinner." Nuno logged off at that point, but we all appreciated his dedication to his new league, bringing his laptop on vacation (and to the dinner table) I obvioulsy was not able to film Nuno because he was away. I might not have asked him even if he were home because I don't know him that well. Don't want to chase him away. Nuno is a neighbor, he hasn't lived here very long. Nuno exchanged small pleasantries on the draft night message board. The other new team owner, 9 yr-old Angelo Campiglia (the Boot), was also possibly not going to draft live. The draft started at 9:30 pm and his dad (who is helping him) felt like it was too late for him to stay up. Despite this claim, the Boot was live and stayed up for the whole draft and his dad helped him with 2 or 3 picks, but mostly the team is made up of his choices. His mom, who was not home and hates everythink fantasy, is proud of him being the youngest memeber (as posted on facebook). The Boot's dad declined the option to be filmed. He said it was too late to be up. Anthony (formerly Prestige Worldwide) is the founding member of the Sac Fantasy Football League and was LM up until he gave me the job last year. He is currently LM of the Sac Fantasy Baseball League. Angelo and Anthony Campiglia are neighbors who moved in right after we did. Not much activity from them on the draft night message board. Anthony would be wise to keep his son off the message board, as it will quickly get out of hand. Nikki and Jeff Spond (The Lost Boys) and (Polk High) are neighbors who are original team owners, neighbors and they selected not to be filmed because they had to put their 3 yr old to bed. Nikki won the championship 2 years ago. She had just been diagnosed with Cancer and went through chemo shortly after winning the championship. She has said she rarely checked her line-up but when she found she was successful it was a good distraction and she got a good deal of pleasure from knowing a "girl who wasn't even paying attention" beat a bunch of boys. This is a picture of team owner Rob Stawinski (The New Jersey Fist Pumpers). He had the first pick and I visited his house first. He got his name from the show Jersey Shore. Fist Pumpers did very well last year. The first pick of the season was Adrian Peterson. This is a VERY predictable choice. It's hard to have first pick and be "creative" or "think outside the box." There's a lot of pressure to pick who the experts feel should be first. Rob has had Adrian Peterson for 3 years, but he's never won. He one of the original members of the league and is normally pretty reserved and does not comment on the message board much but last night he was the most vocal team owner on the message board. Possibly his position as person with the first pick gave him a little gusto, but that's just speculation. Rob trashed a couple of the owners, my husband in particular who is twitter and hashtag happy, and jumped on the threads of other team owners. Rob is a neighbor who has lived on this block longer than us. After I left Rob's house I raced home (I rode my bike to the houses) to make my first pick. First pick is always the hardest. I struggled with the technology part of picking and I selected Tom Brady. This was a controversial pick because the Patriots have lost a number of good players, and it's predicted that they will have a bad year. However, Tom Brady has been on target like crazy at football camp, so this, along with my bad spot in the drafting order, allowed my to pick Tom Brady. > Next I went to visit the DeMarco boys. Father JD DeMarco (Bon-Temp Hawks), son John DeMarco (Young Money) and son and SFFL Champion Michael DeMarco (40 year old virgin) will be going into their second year with the SFFL. Bon-Temp got his name from the show, not sure about Young Money and the 40 year old virgin is a reference to the movie. Visiting them was hysterical. The three of them sat in the basement, with 2 computers up and a soccer game on. They welcomed me into "the draft room." JD was drinking "aged brandy" which he offered me (I declined, I hate brandy) and John was drinking beer. Michael (who is a sophmore at the local high school had a coca cola. They sat and argued, yelled at each other and me. They photo shopped pictures of other team owners to make fun of them, the funniest of which was making a heavy set memeber of our league into Shrek. John accused Michael of "stealing" his best picks last year and claimed he was not going to let it happen again. They claimed they were spending the evening "not speaking to each other" but they were absolutely speaking to each other. Michael won the championship last year (at age 14) and John made some references to that being because he "stole" his best picks. More arguing ensued. No sign or mention of Mrs. DeMarco. I have true sympathy and admiration for her. The DeMarcos are neighbors and have lived on the block "forever." I have no doubt they'll be here till they die. JD has always been very active on the message board, and last night was no different. He trashed a bunch of team owners, complained about how long the draft was taking, complained about how late the draft was (and told me to move it next year), and said he liked beer and boobs. While I was gone I allowed my husband and son to pick for me. They picked Eric Decker. I wasn't happy. Next I went to visit Artie DiMartinis (OVAL-gang). He created his team name using the first initials of his four kids (Olivia, Vittorio, Annabella and Lucia). Artie had an ESPN spread sheet and he explained a little bit about his strategy. He belongs to another league and each year he goes back to examine the team of the champion for our league and the other league. He tries to pick up those same players the next season. Artie observed that nobody had picked up a defense yet, and since I live closest to Artie (right across the street) I ran home to try to pick up the #1 rated defense, the Seahawks. The 9 yr-old beat me to it. Finally, I went to Dina Meli's (D's Dirty Pirate Hookers) house. Her team name is based on a character from "Anchorman" being called a dirty pirate hooker. It was 10:30 by then. Dina is the only team owner with no kids. We centered the draft around Dina because she sells jewelry and she had a show that night, that's why the draft was so late. It was a pretty big source of stress for her. She is an original member of the SFFL and she takes the draft VERY seriously. She went to the finals the first year. She downloaded the app to her phone but didn't know if it would work, so she put her husband in charge of her first pick, this increased her level of stress as her husband does not know how to operate her computer and does not play fantasy football. She got the pick she wanted (Doug Martin) by text message. When I got to her house she was exhausted. She had a spreadsheet, like everyone else and she was sitting by herself on her computer. Other than missing out on some players that other team owners got, she had handled the stress of the evening pretty well and was happy with her players. Dina is a neighbor who has lived on the block longer than me. She wasn't too involved in the message board except to tell some of the men to stop "bitchin" about how late the draft was. This is the bike I rode down the street to visit my neighbors. It got me back when I needed to return to make my pick. The last picture is my own setup for the draft. I used the pull-out from the Daily News (cost $2.50) and I crossed off players as they were picked. My husband and I (Mother McCree's Uptown Jugband and Redrum) shared a computer for the first time, opening two pages. There was some yelling involved. Mother McCree is the original name for the Grateful Dead, my husband's favorite band and Redrum comes from my favorite book the Shining. The two teams not mentioned are two people who don't live on the block Dave Flammia (Raider Nation) and Billy Hulse (Team HulseMann).

My First LM note (predraft)

Well, here's my first LM note. This was the draft and a recording of the draft order. Some of my teams are unhappy that I allowed 14 teams in the league. Some people feel like it's too much. I like that so many people want to be a part of our league. For me it's about much more than football.

Tradition in Fantasy Football

Tradition is a big part of Fantasy Football. Every year (4 years running)we've had our neighborhood kids pick names out of the hat to pick the draft order. The first picture is (from left to right) Maggie, Hanna, Michael and Jojo picking the draft order. The person who got picked last (#14) was pretty unhappy. He's 9, but his 40 year old father had a similar reaction. They both pretty much said "what's the point." I was frustrated with their reaction, as my views on fantasty football have changed. I wanted to tell them that fantasy is much more about things like friendships and tradition than it is about who gets the 1st pick and who wins the championship. It's about the connections, being part of a group and these traditions we've created as a community. I felt like they were taking all of that for granted, or not seeing it. But I'm learning to keep my mouth shut about stuff like that and just sort of observe what is happening. Everyone looks at fantasy in a different way, and I can't see the experience through the eyes of the person who got the 14 th pick (even though I'm the 11th pick, which is not much better). What I did end up saying to the father was to let his 9 yr old deal with the bad spot in the draft order so he could experience all parts of the fantasy experience, good and bad. There are lessons to be learned about winning and losing and about the bigger things in life. I thought about finding a different way to pick the draft order. The computer can do it randomly. I'm glad I stuck with tradition. The second picture is the pull out fantasty football section of the Daily News we buy every year (4 years running). You can get information on players from numerous sources; magazines, online, on the radio, on TV, but there's something about having this hard copy, newspaper like thing to read and touch and smell. (It smells like newspaper). It's concrete and I study it with excitement from the moment I buy it right up until the draft begins. I thumb through it during the draft in desperate moments, when I can't even think of a kicker's name, when there are no running backs left. It's tradition.

Football Obsessed

Preseason football has begun. The Jets played Saturday night and I looking out for Geno Smith. He's the new Quaterback they just picked up to try to shake Mark Sanchez up. I am not a big Mark Sanchez fan (most Jets fans aren't). It was my friend's birthday last week and she had a terrible one. Her daughter ended up in the emergency room. We tried to make it up to her by taking her to Bahama Breeze Saturday night. As you can see from the picture, I was a little distracted. All Jets fans were watching closely Saturday night because it was the second preseason game (more important than the first) and to see how Mark Sanchez is reacting to the competition. So I found myself straddling the fence in listening to my good frind (since high school) tell me about her troubles on her birthday and paying close attention to the quaterback situation with the Jets. When I proactively declared to my friends that I would need some TV time during our outing the birthday girl responded (by text) "Just face me away from the TV. If I wanted to watch football I'd stay home with Bill." Bill is her husband. So when the waitress arrived at our table, and I asked her to please get someone to change the channel on the TV near us (just luck that we were seated near a TV) I might have come off as a little bit of an asshole to my friends, but I think I did a good job of balancing my role as friend and Fantasy footall player/Jets fan. Normally I like football, because of fantasy I love it. The next picture is my view from the elliptical machine at the gym this morning. Our draft is this coming Friday night and I'm looking for information to help create a good team. Although, as my husband has pointed out a couple of times, I am a little preoccupied "with this whole writing thing". Most days at the gym I watch Keeping up With the Kardasians (hate to admit that) on TV or go into the Cardio theatre if a good movie is playing. For the rest of the season I most likely will watch ESPN. The constant stream of football feels comfortable and familiar. Like a TV show I look forward to or an old movie I can always count on to lift my spirits. I won't always feel elated watching ESPN and I know that. I'll be pissed off that someone got hurt, sucked or someone else got the lucky break. But that's part of the game. You revel in the agony as much as in the victory. The Sac Fantasy Football League will have its draft this coming Friday night. Scheduling the draft can be a thankless job, and one of the jobs the former LM complained about but this year was pretty easy. I had to schedule it around a jewelry party one of the league memebers has that night so it's at 9:30 pm. That's a little late, but I try to work around everyone. We will pick our draft order the same way we have for the last 3 years, we will have the neighborhood kids pick the names out of a hat. Tradition is importatn.

Update and Research

I found this book, Fantasy Life: the Outrageous, Uplifting, and Heartbreaking World of Fantasy Sports From the Guy Who's Lived It, by Matthew Berry. He's one of the Fantasy Football gurus. The book is just out, and I thought it would be a good read. So far it's pretty funny. I picked out some interesting quotes so far. Because he's a famous sports guy, he's got quotes in there from all kinds of famous people about fantasy (including some of the players). One of the reviews on the back says "Matthew Berry's book proves that there are lots of people out there like us: people who don't use fantasy sports to escape from life, but rather to live it with more fun." I thought this was interesting because it is absolutely an element of fantasy that people view it as a form of escapism, and the idea that it might be something else is certainly interesting. There are some remarkable stories in the book so, far, like JJ's story. He was up late one night adjusting his roster and he heard a strange noise in his son's room. Upon investigation he discovered his son was not breathing. He called an ambulance and they were able to revive his son. He attributes fantasy football as the reason his son is alive. This is the same man who has the words "Fantasy Loser" tattoed on his body because he was required by his league to get it for being in last place (they even signed a formal contract). He said "Getting the word LOSER permanently inked on your body and being the reason your child is still alive are polar opposite stories, but in the world of fantasy sports I got news for you: Neither one suprises me. When you're done with this book, you'll realize the same thing I did: From birth to funerals and everything in between, there is no aspect of life that fantasy doesn't touch." That's good stuff. Berry goes on to write "Long before Twitter, Facebook, or even MySpace and Friendster, fantasy football was the original online community." That fits right in with what we've been writing about. He also writes "the best part of fantasy is that it gives people who normally would not have a reason to interact an excuse to talk...Fantasy brings them together. And it keeps them together too. That feeling of belonging is certainly what drew me to the game." I would say the same for myself. I feel that sense of belonging. I got 14 teams back for football season this year, and I'm pretty excited about the level of interest, which never seems to cease. We lost one team, a neighbor around the block, he's got a baby on the way and a lot going on. I was happy to be able to replace him with another neighbor. The teams (with the exception of 2) are all neighbors. The new team is a new neighbor, and I half jokingly told him he would be expected to tailgate and trash talk with us. He said he was in. We have a father with his two sons as team owners and the former LM is sharing his team with his 9 yr-old son this year. Of course my 7 yr-old son is now asking for a team too. The league is increasingly becoming a family affair and it will be interesting to see how that changes the dynamics of the league. We also have two married couples in the league (I am one of them). The draft is set for August 23 rd and is set to be online. I really wanted an in-person draft but it's just too many people to get together and easier to do it online. I am going to ask permission to walk down the street and come in and out of some of the neighbor's houses to film some of what they are doing in their houses during the draft. I may have to sacrifice some of my draft picks to do this. If I am not there to make the pick, the computer auto picks.

Football Season is Almost Here!!!

Football season is almost here, and it's obvious that fantasy is a big part of that, as you can see from the pictures I took at Barnes and Nobel the other day. Whole sections of magazine racks are dedicated to fantasy football. Yesterday they did a segment on fantasy football on the Denise and Judy Show on 101.5. It was a pretty funny segment and I taped it. The basic premise was Fantasy Football: Stupid things over weight white people do. Apparently the have a league at the station and they were having their draft. Denise and Judy were laughing at them, calling them geeks and trying to get some caller feedback on why fantasy football has pervaded our culture in such a major way. There were people who called in who, I think, really convinced Denise (not Judy) that fantasy is more than "dungeons and dragons for sports geeks" which is something I hear again and again. One person, who was not white, called in to say it's not just for fat white men. Women called in, but the one I heard just made a joke about the Jets. Another person called in to say that involvement with fantasy expanded involvement with sports overall. For instance, he is a Cowboys fan, but because he had players on his team from the Giants, he might turn on the Giants game, and spend more time watching other games. He also said it increased his chances of spending time with his friends, because they would be more likely to get together and watch the games.