I drafted Ben Roethlisberger in fantasy football.
I drafted him last year, the year before that, probably the couple of years before that year and yes, this year.
I thought long and hard about my pick, wondering if it was a giant betrayal to the sisterhood of outrage. (As I’ve said before; I’m not happy with Roethlisberger, but I’m not condemning him either.)Â He’s going to sit there on my bench behind Eli Manning until I’m ready to see him play. Could be just the four weeks of his suspension, could be all season. I still have a month to decide how he’s going to figure into my roster and how I feel about him as a person.
Picking Ben also meant I had to think about other unsavory — criminally charged, not charged, or just plain old asshats — I’ve ever had on my fantasy teams. Guys like Jared Allen have been on my roster before, but I don’t think I would ever want to hang out with him in real life. And I was curious, if I played a team of “saints” versus a team of “sinners” all season in fantasy football, who would come out ahead?
Unfortunately, Yahoo!, ESPN.com and NFL.com do not allow you to set up a league with fewer than four teams on it, so for this experiment I am going to divide each team into two and then add up their points each week for the head-to-head point tally. The combined roster positions will be as follows: QB, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, (W/R/T), (W/R/T), K, D, D, D, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Now for the nominations:
Possible Sinners:
Brett Favre – QB – Minnesota Vikings
Ben Roethlisberger – QB – Pittsburgh Steelers (suspension)
Michael Vick – QB – Philadelphia Eagles (Back-up)
Santanio Holmes – WR – New York Jets
Donte’ Stallworth – WR – Baltimore Ravens
Larry Johnson – RB – Redskins
Cedric Benson – RB – Cincinnati Bengals
Reggie Bush – RB – New Orleans Saints
Jerramy Stevens – TE – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sebastian Janikowski – K – Oakland Raiders
Jeff Reed – K – Pittsburgh Steelers
Jared Allen – DE – Minnesota Vikings
Ray Lewis – LB – Baltimore Ravens
Possible Saints:
Peyton Manning – QB – Indianapolis Colts
Drew Brees – QB – New Orleans Saints
Andre Johnson – WR – Houston Texans
Wes Welker – WR – New England Patriots
Austin Collie – WR – Indianapolis Colts
Ray Rice – RB – Baltimore Ravens
Vernon Davis – TE – San Francisco 49ers
Jason Witten – TE – Dallas Cowboys (Edit. note – MAYBE.)
Troy Polamalu – S – Pittsburgh Steelers
DaMarcus Ware – LB – Dallas Cowboys
David Akers – K – Philadelphia Eagles
David Clowney – WR – Free Agent
Obviously, I’m light on saints. Not because there are not good, solid, upstanding people playing in the NFL, but it’s always easier to remember the bad before the good and our own personal opinions on players sometimes fog our judgment. Plus, just staying out of trouble doesn’t automatically make someone a saint. Giving back to the community should be part of the equation.
Don’t like someone I’ve picked? Say so. Just because I find Brett Favre’s antics enough to put him on the “possible Sinners” list doesn’t mean he deserves to be there. Who would you select for the “Saints versus Sinners” showdown 2010?
I still contend the ass-clownery of Randy Moss deserves a very high-ranking spot on the “Sinners” list.
A couple of Cal grads could be added to the Saints team:
Tony Gonzalez could be put on the Saints team for saving some guy with the Heimlich maneuver a couple of years back.
Scott Fujita for his work with the Wetland foundation after Katrina and the Oil Spoil. Also for his support of LGBT rights.
Good call. A few people have emailed me Fujita’s name too.
I’m fine w/ Favre there, both for being a grade A douchenozzle as well as the always fun painkiller addiction. Pacman is an easy addition to the Sinners on D. I must have missed the Allen story, what’d he do?
He has a few DUIs.