It is so close I can almost taste it! We now stand only a week away from the start of the regular season!

As you may or may not have noticed, the new site does not allow for the posting of articles on the website itself. So I will continue my weekly write-ups here on this blog. Whenever the latest posting is available, I will post a note on the “Commissioner’s Note” section. In this week’s write-up I rank the teams in a totally unbiased fashion, speculate on how much James loves his team, and start a new feature—my “Political Rant”.


That doesn’t make any sense… just like the real NFL
You may notice that I have renamed the two Divisions to “North” & “South”. (Previously known as “Division 1” and “Division 2”.) I considered re-aligning the division members based on where everyone lives, but that would make our league completely unlike the real NFL. I mean seriously, the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East?! The Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South?!? Indianapolis is further north than Cincinnati!
So division members will stay as is…


Pre-Season Preview
A different approach was used for my pre-season evaluation of the teams this year. In years past, I simply looked over everybody’s roster and rated the team based on whatever gut-check feeling I had about the players. Obviously this is a highly un-scientific method for evaluating the teams.

So here is what I came up with… The Yahoo site lists the average draft position for all of the players drafted in Yahoo leagues so far this year. (Adrian Peterson’s average position is 1.2, Kurt Warner’s is 34.8, Lee Evans is 60.8, and so on. This gives a sort-of general consensus for how good each player is.) I went through each team’s roster and totaled up the average positions for the starting quarterback, both starting runningbacks and both starting wide receivers. (Tight ends and Kickers were excluded because they can be such a crap shoot, and Defenses were excluded because typically there is not a lot of difference in the Top 10 Defenses). So, in theory, the teams with the lowest overall score should have the best players by general consensus.

Now, without further adieu, here is how the teams stack up:

#10 – Joe’s Pats – Overall score = 219.6
Joe has a lethal combination with Tom Brady and Randy Moss, but gets hurt in the overall score with Larry Johnson (avg. pick 83.9) as one of his starting RB’s.

#9 – Lords of Lumberg – Overall score = 208.6
Timmy dominates in the runningback category with AP and Steve Slaton (avg picks 1.2 & 18.8 respectively) but gains a lot of points with Matt Cassel (avg. pick 101.5) as his starting quarterback.

#8 – ANTI-ALIEN – Overall score = 199.4
James did well to get Brandon Jacobs with his first pick (avg. pick 13.5), but apparently people don’t like Roddy White all that much (avg. pick 83.9)

#7 – American Bad-Ass – Overall score = 183.3
Perhaps our defending champ is trying to give everyone else a chance this year?

#6 – Coors Light Drunk Guys – Overall score = 181.8
Shawn’s lowest ranked player is Joseph Addai (avg. pick 71.3), but I have to expect that he will perform better than that ranking would indicate.

#5 – sprouts – Overall score = 174.9
If Matt Schaub (avg. pick 68.1) can stay healthy for a full season, and Santana Moss (avg. pick 55.5) can step it up this year, sprouts could very well be the team to beat.

#4 – Frito Pie – Overall score = 141.2
The Peyton Manning/Dallas Clark connection will be interesting to watch this year, but the bigger story for Rachel will be the Brandon Marshall saga.

#3 – Midnight Maulers – Overall score = 131.6
Once again Jamie has put together a team that you don’t want to have to play against. His lowest ranked player is Donovan McNabb whose average pick is only 47.6.

#2 – Mojo – Overall score = 118.4
Jens managed to snag the top two wide receivers in the game (Fitzgerald, avg. pick 8.0, and A. Johnson, avg. pick 16.3), and he has a deadly combo with the Warner/Fitzgerald connection.

#1 – Scottish Rebels – Overall score = 109.2
When my two runningbacks have average picks in the Top 6 (Turner = 2.5 and Forte = 5.1), it is easy to keep the overall score low. Watch out for the Rebels this year!!


Could it be that James is actually happy with his team?
By this time last season, I had easily already received 17 trade offers from the Captain. But so far this year, nada… So that has brought me to 1 of 2 conclusions – either James is remarkably pleased with his team and doesn’t feel he needs to change anything, or his internet connection is down. My hunch is the latter….


Political Rant
I simply cannot understand how people believe that having the government take over our healthcare will somehow control the costs. The government is ALWAYS wrong when it comes to fiscal matters. Here are some examples:

Cash for Clunkers – This program was initially funded with $1 billion, and was expected to run through November 1st when it kicked off on July 24th. By July 30th (not even a full week into it), the program was out of money, and Congress had to inject another $2 billion to keep it afloat until it was officially scrapped on August 24th. Final tally = TRIPLE the spending in only 5 weeks of a 10 week program.

Medicare – The costs of Medicare doubled every four years between 1966 and 1980. When it was signed into law in 1966 by Lyndon Johnson, it cost $3 billion. At that time, the House Ways & Means committee estimated that it would cost about $12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). But by 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 BILLION!! This represents an increase of 3466.67% from the initial cost, and a 791.67% increase from the original projections.

Estimates for the current bill being proposed is that it will cost $1 trillion in 10 years. ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!! If they are already estimating those kinds of numbers, imagine what the actual amount will be… can anyone say quadrillion?

Also, the bill being proposed is referred to as “healthcare reform”. But there is no reform actually being proposed. All that’s being proposed is to have the government pick up the tab. How is that reform?!? If you want to reform health insurance, here is a plan to do that without costing taxpayers any money:

1. Remove government mandates on insurance companies that require a specific % of plans offered to cover certain services that are rarely used (ex. Alcohol & drug treatment programs). These services are very costly to provide for insurance companies, and end up jacking up the premiums for everyone. Additionally, the government needs to allow insurance companies to do business and compete at a national level, not only at a state level.

2. Allow everyone to have access to and take advantage of Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) and allow insurance premiums to be paid from an HSA. HSA's allow you to contribute pre-tax dollars to a bank account that is used solely for medical expenses. It is a great way for individuals and families to be able to plan for and pay for medical services.

3. Work to change people’s perception of what health insurance should be. Health insurance should be more like car insurance, where it only kicks in on big expenses and doesn’t cover small expenses (like normal trips to the doctor.) Just like how your insurance company doesn’t pay for it when you get an oil change, your insurance company shouldn’t pay for a simple trip to the doctor for a stuffy nose. That should be paid by the patient, with money from their HSA account (see point #2). This will help to lower overall costs because High Deductible Health Plans (which provide catastrophic coverage) are much cheaper to administer and maintain for insurance companies. Thus the insurance companies will be able to offer significantly lower premiums.

Healthcare reform is something that can benefit a lot of people and is something that we as a country should work toward. But we need a real solution and real reform. Socialized medicine is not it…


Take THAT! Tom Brady…
Matt Cassel must be sick of comparisons to Tom Brady. So just to show that he’s nothing like him, he gets injured in the preseason instead of the regular season. BURN!! See, he’s nothing like Tom Brady…


Okay, so I think the last thing that I need to know is:
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!?!?!??!