Weekend Reading (and Thoughts)

Remember, now's the time to vote on our starting lineup for this week's game against the Southern Rebels.

I'll offer my predictions for the Landshark Maniacs league later, but first I wanted to offer some interesting links and thoughts, some of them germane to fantasy football.

Put me in, Coach. If you looked at the bench players for Southern Rebels, you'd notice that she has Larry Fitzgerald, whose Arizona Cardinals have a bye week. (Insert huge sigh of relief here.) You would also notice a symbol next to Larry's name that indicates a promotion. ESPN is giving away footballs autographed by Larry himself. All you have to do to be eligible is put Larry into your starting lineup -- you know, as if you were on the fence about starting him or something. I'd try to persuade the Southern Rebels to start him this week to get another chance at a football, but clearly my opponent is too smart for that. She's starting Cedric Benson against the Browns, after all.

Clearly, this was the problem. What do you do if you're the coach of a team that's an unimpressive 1-2 and is having its home games blacked out? You cancel your quarterback's radio show. At least, that's what you do if you're Jack Del Rio, who shut down David Garrard's weekly show. Del Rio says he didn't like the timing of the show (which aired Friday afternoons and didn't conflict with any scheduled team activities) or the fact that Garrard was talking about things other than the upcoming opponent so close to game time. I'm not going to argue that Garrard couldn't use more film study -- these stats don't lie -- but I'm wondering if Del Rio would be better served worrying about his 25th-ranked defense rather than how his quarterback spends his down time.

(How does the above relate to fantasy football? Umm...don't start Garrard, regardless of when he's on the radio.)

Hot read. In addition to kissing babies and rigging Lambeau Leaps, our good friend Chad Ochocino has written a book, "Ocho Cinco: What Football and Life Have Thrown My Way." The book (written with help from Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports) is set for release Oct. 27 and features insights like this: "I got six paintings of myself in the living room of my town house in Cincinnati. Why? Because I love me. I’m great and I know it." I'm sure you'll be keeping that factoid in mind while deciding the People's Pigskin lineup.

Nobody asked, but... I don't get why Terrell Owens is getting sandblasted in some places for his press conference after the Buffalo Bills lost to the New Orleans Saints last week and his 185-game reception streak ended. He was given opportunity after opportunity to throw his coaches and teammates under the bus and then back the bus over them, but this time he didn't take the bait. (And I've got to be honest here -- some of the questions were an attempt to bait him.) He said that his job was to run the plays that were called. In other words, he's there to be a player, not a coach. If he had given that type of answer a few more times in Dallas, he may still be a Dallas Cowboy today. If he had given that type of answer a few more times in Philadelphia, he may still be a Philadelphia Eagle today. If he had given that type of answer a few more times in San Francisco ... well, you get the idea. And if that makes me a contrarian, then I'll have to be a contrarian who would still start Owens in any fantasy matchup.

Speaking of contrarian thoughts. Continuing a theme from last week, I couldn't resist offering this link to a fellow blogger's post, "Why I Dislike Fantasy Football." Even though I disagree with her about liking fantasy sports (and I'm sure many of you feel the same way), I appreciate Jessica Morrey's reasoned approach to fantasy and her love for the sport of football itself. Most articles in the "I don't like fantasy" genre are much less kind to those of us who play fantasy sports.

Stay tuned for predictions later today.