Fantasy Football

I love the flexible scheduling that starts this week in the NFL, allowing more meaningful games to move to a nationally televised, primetime slot. This week, the Chicago/N.Y. Giants game was moved to Sunday night, an easy call considering it’s the only contest on the schedule between two teams with winning records.

The Sunday night games promise to be far more interesting to watch, especially in later weeks when Sunday night games will have playoff implications. Fantasy-wise, make a note to start anyone playing on Sunday night from here on out.

I wish the NFL could find a way to do the same thing for Monday Night Football. Did anyone outside of the Bay Area (or many inside it, for that matter) really care to see the Oakland Raiders get shutout for the second time this season on Monday night? Even diehard fantasy footballers skipped this one, considering that Oakland is bereft of any fantasy starters and Seattle’s two stars were watching from the sidelines.

Of the eight teams who will play on Monday Night Football in the next month, only three (the N.Y. Giants, Jacksonville and Seattle) have winning records. Doesn’t bode well for ESPN, which until this week was enjoying record audiences for its primetime NFL broadcasts.

And speaking of Monday Night Football, it’s been interesting (for lack of a better word) to watch the new broadcasting crew this year. Personnel changes were definitely in order, as the trio of Joe Theismann, Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire made it unbearable (and sometimes impossible) to watch/listen to the games as they bickered and shouted their banal observations over one another.

This year’s crew as a whole is a slight improvement, but they still drive me crazy. I can’t say enough nice things about Mike Tirico, who does a great job of play-by-play, offers interesting insights and mediates the squabbling between Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser in a good-humored way.

I keep trying to get a handle on the dynamic between the Kornheiser and Theismann. I’ve read alternately that the two are good friends or that they can’t stand each other, and it’s hard to tell from play to play which is more likely. Sometimes the two joke around like old buddies, but then seconds later they will begin to argue at length about some mundane point. At first I thought it was all Theismann’s fault, but lately I’ve noticed that Kornheiser seems to bait him.

I did enjoy the fantasy trash talking the other night, as Tirico apparently had a huge lead on Kornheiser going into the Monday night game. Kornheiser held out hope that Josh Brown could make up the 60-point difference, but Theismann mostly seemed annoyed that the other two would even talk about fantasy football when a “real”? game was being played.

So I’m come to the conclusion that Theismann’s problem is he’s forgotten how much fun a football game can be, especially when your players are in the game. Somebody please get him signed up for the office fantasy league next year.