The Fifth Down Blog: Fantasy Cold Turkey
480424
So itâs Sunday afternoon around halftime of the early games, and this â writing this entry â is the first time Iâve even looked at the laptop today. Seriously. Itâs pretty unsettling, to be honest. For the past sixteen straight Sunday mornings (or more, counting preseason), Iâd be surgically attached to the Mac keyboard from the [...].
578242
So there were a few surprises in the wild-card games, many of which hurt playoff fantasy teams nationwide. But if youâre struggling after Week 1, donât fret . . . you likely have studs like Brady, Romo, Favre, Peyton, Moss, Welker, Wayne, Addai, Grant, Jennings, T.O. and Witten waiting in the wings to right your [...].
468825
In March 2002, I made a bet with Martin Nisenholtz about the relative importance of weblogs and the New York Times. I was and am a blogger, and Martin worked then, as he does now, for the Times. For the actual terms of the bet, read the piece on the LongNow site, and a story I wrote to announce the bet. A few comments.  1. It seems now is the time to decide who won the bet, if either of us did. 2. The world that I hoped would come about did not. While blogs have broken many stories, they have not, in general, turned into the authoritative sources I hoped they would in 2002. When the blogosphere resembles journalism it's often the tabloid kind.  3. I wouldn't mind losing the bet. That is, I wouldn't mind if the Times fully embraced the web, and I suspect Martin wouldn't mind if blogs rose to the quality of the Times. 4. If the bet had been held a year later, it seems there would be a pretty good chance that Martin would have won the bet because they recently took down the firewall at the Times, allowing search engines to index the full content. In the past, articles would remain visible for a couple of weeks then you'd have to pay money to access them. I believe they have a special deal with Google and other crawlers that allow them to get past the membership wall. For most of 2007 the Times articles were behind the firewall, and were less likely to be pointed to (which is how they rise in rank at Google). 5. It certainly is fun to speculate, but the decision about who won belongs exclusively to the Long Now Foundation. They have to decide who determines what the top stories of 2007 are, and imho they should consult with search experts to determine how to do the queries. Apparently it makes a difference how you do it.  But ultimately it's their decision. 6. Whether Wikipedia has more or less results seems to be a sidebar to the bet, which only talks about blogs and the Times. 7. Another interesting sidebar is rich media. In 2002, before podcasting had taken hold, before YouTube existed, it would have been hard to forsee the story of the South Carolina beauty queen, or the Don't Tase Me Bro guy. Questions about the future are always framed in the context of the past. Did the question Martin and I asked have any value in 2007, or did it just say something about the world of 2002?   Update: Paul Boutin who arranged the bet, apparently in conjunction with Google (I didn't know this) in 2002, weighs in.
332095
Ah, the good old days. You could draft a running back and know he&#39;d produce 1,100-plus yards and eight to 10 touchdowns for the franchise he had been with so long.
208674
If Michael Powell ever becomes commissioner of the NFL, look out. Sexual suggestiveness will be outlawed. And you know what that means?
288078
It's not a theoretical issue anymore. Terrell Owens is going to play in Super Bowl XXXIX on Sunday. Of course, there could be a setback.
311575
Our very own Judy Battista reports in todayâs paper that the Patriots could land in hot water for apparently videotaping the Jetsâ defensive signals during Sundayâs game â which the Pats won, 38-14, by the way. Over at footballguys.com, the, uhm, guys ran down recent team punishments to guess how hot the water [...].
226539
With all the hoopla over Bush and Kerry, some of you may not have been paying close attention to the other races going on in this loaded US political season. I've read a good dozen or so Senate outlooks, and my blurry eyes and spinning brain kept getting lost in all the numbers and losing track of who, ultimately, was likely to control the Senate on November third. So I made my very own Senate outlook to figure it out (or add further confusion, depending on what you think of my predictions). The bad news is, we probably won't know who controls the Senate on November third. The good news, if you're a Democrat (or a person who loves one), is that my best guess at this point is that when the dust settles, Democrats will probably be in control by the very slimmest possible margin. Shock! But everyone knows the Dems have no chance of taking either house of Congress. I think everyone hasn't been paying attention. Read on for my rundown.
223735
The football lifers don't understand Ricky Williams. The same probably goes for a lot of fans, too. There probably aren't many sports enthusiasts who can understand how a 27-year-old man in possession of such extraordinary athletic gifts can simply stop employing them. Perhaps they should have been paying closer attention.
434734
With the pro football season in full swing, it's time again for a superfluous digression into the corollaries between investing and sports. I can already hear some of you groaning, but cut me some slack.
250725
Embarrassed. There's no other word for it. The only male in North America not to be involved in a fantasy football league? That was me.
371441
Now if only the NFL can let players at the other 20 positions on the football field get involved. The league trading deadline was yesterday, and for the first time in five years, there actually were deals made. All three trades were for wide receivers.
45483
The cut block is back in the news this week after an incident on Monday Night Football. Cincinnati Bengals DT Tony Williams suffered a broken ankle on a cut block from Denver Broncos RT George Foster.
218484
The Giants and Jets have finally spun into utter disarray. My fantasy football team scored its lowest point total all season as I was forced to start Mark Brunell at quarterback (don&#39;t ask, please).
328331
I&#39;ve had about all I can stand of the most overused football term since &quot;West Coast Offense.&quot; And that&#39;s &quot;fantasy sleeper.
700789
Two of the NFL&#39;s most disappointing teams put on quite a show in prime time. And after all the wild plays and big offensive numbers last night, a phantom penalty that preceded
37757
The benefits of making the beast with two backs Also in this week's column:â¦