Ok so today is Tuesday and we only have one more Tuesday left in the month, which means that some of you are expecting a new Pop Punk Radio Show playlist today. Well, unfortunately we are going to have to break with our "two shows per month" tradition because I have had other things come up. One of those things being the start of NFL football season.
I've never been a huge football fan. I actually hated football players in high school because I was not one of them and they made that point very clear when I showed up to high school during my freshman year with green hair during rivalry week. Our school's colors were blue and gold, our rival school's colors were green and gold. So the football jocks hated me instantly. On top of that, hockey was not an "official" team sport at my school, we were a "club" and didn't get an entire class period dedicated to hockey practice. Instead, I had 6th period PE for some stupid quirk of idiot scheduling. So I was in the locker room getting ready to go home while many of the football jerks were in there getting ready for practice while hyping themselves up by acting like obnoxious douche-bags."Your hair better be blue by Friday!" they would threaten as they slam their meat-filled heads against the locker for intimidation. I just laughed and went about my business but it was an interesting environment, to say the least.
There is very little that would be considered "punk rock" about NFL football. Luckily people have been telling me that "pop punk" is not "punk" my entire life, so I'm not bound by such trivial labels or other elitist gate-keeper nonsense. Somewhere after graduating college, I gave fantasy football a try and discovered that my background in statistical analysis was actually quite useful at analyzing football stat-lines. I've also been a sports fan my entire life, so it's a subject I know and understand quite well.
Most people see a no-name player score two touchdowns in a game and scramble all over each-other trying to pick that player up off of waivers the following week. This is usually a stupid strategy. No player (besides quarterbacks) scores 2 touchdowns every game of the season. What if this is also a player who has never scored more than 4 touchdowns in an entire season during a 10 year career? Any player can have a big game, but only the elite players can do it on a near weekly basis. So quite often when we chase the big points, we are humbled when the player comes back down to earth the following week. Lesson: don't chase big numbers from a small sample size.
In any case, this isn't meant to be a strategy column where I dump all of my secrets. That one tip is free but don't expect to find more. The purpose of this column is to give me something to write about when I'm not in "music-mode."
I am a man of many interests. A "jack-of-all-trades" if you will. It's very hard for me to stay focused on just one thing for an extended period of time. I tend to float back and forth between projects. One of the reasons why I have always enjoyed seasonal work, because I have my moments where I get in to "work-mode" and really want to get things done. That might last a month or two before I want to change gears and focus on something else. I can't tell you how many times I have considered putting this silly "pop punk radio" nonsense to rest and moving in another direction with my life, only to end up having a music day where all my thoughts of "fuck this bullshit" turn back in to 'this bullshit is who I am."
Billie Joe Armstrong has a good quote from Bullet In A Bible where he discusses how he feels when people ask him what he would do if he didn't have Green Day. "I am Green Day," he replies. Well, unlike Green Day, I don't make a living off of this blog. It's a labor of love, which means sometimes I change gears and focus on other things like fantasy football.
Week Two Summary
After the second week of games, my 3 teams have a combined record of 3-3-0. Not bad but also not great.
Jamaican Bobsled is off to a rough start based on tough match-ups during the first two weeks but the encouraging sign is that if the league were ranked by most points scored, JB would be in third place overall. JB's season isn't over but will be a tough uphill climb the rest of the way to make playoffs.
Dick Fiddler suffered a Monday night defeat as well. While I was watching the game on TV, I had Yahoo's Stat Tracker up on my computer monitor. It was Aaron Rogers' third touchdown "pass" to Aaron Jones which buried me in two different leagues. Dick Fiddler went in to Monday Night Football with a sizeable lead, however his opponent still had 4 players remaining for Monday's game. One of those players was Green Bay's QB Aaron Rogers but that was OK because Dick Fiddler had Rogers' favorite target in WR Davante Adams. Receivers earn more points for yards gained than quarterbacks do, so as long as Aaron Rogers was throwing touchdowns to Adams, my team should be able to stay ahead. Well, of course Rogers has to go and turn his running back in to Al Bundy instead. Which meant that his team scored points while mine didn't. Another 10 point loss suffered during Monday Night Football.
Thrillho is off to a great start by picking up a commanding 111-80 point victory in week 2 to combine with a 114-84 point victory in week 1. Tennesee Titans' RB1 Derrick Henry lead the way with his 44.7 point effort in week 2, while Joe Mixon and Matt Stafford paved the way in week 1. Thrillho sits in third place while going undefeated by virtue of weak matchups in the early weeks but the point total would only be good for 7th overall. Thrillho will take the two victories but will be making adjustments in preparation for some tough match-ups to come.
Season Prediction: I might be lucky just to break-even this season but it will make for a fun ride along the way.