September 15, 2009

Football is back

The first week of NFL football is under our belts. Football season is different here in Vegas than it was back in Chicago. I used to never care much for football. I’d watch the occasional Bears game, and the commercials, food and beer were the highlight of Superbowl. Family was big on football squares, I only played a few times. My football experience was pretty limited. Then, we moved to Las Vegas, and it all changed.

Suddenly, football mattered. It’s amazing how much fun the games were when you had action on them. I quickly learned to never be a fan a specific team, only a fan of my wallet. Lack of loyalty to any particular team made it easier to pick winners. The first couple years, we played in the Palms and Orleans football contests, and made weekly parlays. Then, Frank got into fantasy football, and I discovered online pick’em contests. The added interest in each game made every week of football more exciting. We attended Monday Night Football parties and watched the NFL Sunday Ticket at home on Sundays, and each week we hoped our picks came through. It was fun.

Last year, Frank started his own fantasy football league and joined another. I also dabbled with fantasy football in a free league, and continued to play a few pick’em contests. We had action on the games everyway imaginable. We had football parties at the house, we’d root for our team or player of the week. It was a wild ride.

This season, we have three fantasy leagues, three eliminator leagues, and two pick’em contests between us. Plus, for week one, we had a few teasers and a couple parlays. Most of the tickets didn’t cover but the one winner softened the blow and it left us with only a fifteen dollar loss. I got my ass kicked in fantasy, but Frank held his own leading both of his matchups. That’s where it counts, he has money riding each week – I don’t. We’re sitting pretty in the rest of our contests. It was a good start to the season. Let’s hope many successful lucrative weeks lie ahead.

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