Fantasy Football Finals

We're approaching the last week of the regular season of the NFL. Normally, this wouldn't be an item of note on my calendar since I'm not really a diehard professional football fan. My heart is really in the college game and has been ever since my freshman year at Berkeley. Fitting, with Cal slated to play in its second straight postseason bowl game less than six hours from now (Holiday Bowl, ESPN, 5pm PST). But this season, Sal and some of my other colleagues at Wells convinced me to throw in my twenty dollars and more importantly, my reputation as a proud Texas native to join their fantasy football league. So for an agonizingly long sixteen weeks now, I and eight others have been researching players, watching countless games, negotiating trades with other members, and through it all, consistently trash talking our beaten foes on Monday mornings. For those not in the know about fantasy sports, it's a large, multi-million dollar industry involving every major media outlet in print, broadcast, and the internet. It has contributed to making ESPN the highest revenue-generating cable station in history. Just about every male between the ages of 18 and 45 either plays or knows someone who plays one of the fantasy sports, football, baseball, and/or basketball. And its impact on the national economy, especially during the last weeks of the particular season whether it be the NFL, MLB, or NBA, is immense; a handful of economists have even proven a noticeable loss in GDP due to fantasy sports and its effects on worker productivity. Well, week seventeen, the final week, is a few days away. Seven teams are clearly out of contention. And only two teams are left standing, mine and Jeff's. It'll be extremely close with only a single point separating our two teams as of today. $150 and bragging rights are on the line. Just hoping my wide receivers have a good weekend with many of my running backs sidelined with injuries.