Saturday Afternoon Reading

There's still time to vote in the polls about our lineup, the waiver wire pickup and your favorite type of fantasy football trophy.

In the meantime, there's a very good football game on the schedule: Army vs. Navy in Philadelphia. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. EST on CBS. There are no Heisman Trophy candidates here, and nobody is going to argue for putting either team in the mix for a national championship. However, there are many reasons to make time in your schedule for this game (other than the "I need a football fix right bleeping now" reason). Here's one: The players on the field and their classmates in the stands take the "going pro in something other than sports" concept to a whole new level.

And while you're waiting for that game to kick off, here are some links to ponder.

Is it too soon for fantasy nostalgia? For those of us who can only fantasize about what it would be like to be a playoff contender right now, the folks at Yahoo's Roto Arcade blog offer some Decembers to Remember: a list of the top "fantasy football playoff runs" from the past decade. Number 1 on the list: Drew Bennett and Billy Volek putting up monster numbers in two December games for the 2004 Tennessee Titans. "They're the patron saints of Scrubs Gone Wild in the fantasy playoffs."

It's a fun list, unless you remember being bumped out of your playoffs by one of these performances. If that's the case, the list may make you want to do this.

That's it -- let the anger out. The People's Pigskin was not the only fantasy football team burned when Steve Slaton was inactivated for the season with a nerve injury. A fellow WordPress blogger, Second String Fullback, offers some not-so-pleasant thoughts on the matter. (And by "not-so-pleasant," I mean "not-so-G-rated.")

I can't believe I picked up Carrie Underwood in the third round. Yes, Virginia, you can set up fantasy leagues for anything. Sony is offering a Fantasy Festival application that lets you set up a league where you and your friends try to assemble the ultimate music festival. The grand prize: "four 'money can't buy' tickets (including VIP accommodation, flights and spending money) to one of Europe's best festivals." (Thanks to Converge Technologies for the assist on this one.)

I guess someone's watching. Remember that TV show "The League" about a group of friends in a fantasy football league? Well, FX must have liked what it saw from this show, because it is getting a second season. And this is in spite of (or perhaps because of) reviews like this one from YourTango that call the show a "moap opera" (short for "men's soap opera") and say it is "a relationship show in macho clothing."

By the way, has anyone out there actually watched the show? If you have, would you mind confirming whether it's about football as opposed to, say, what fantasy owners think of their significant others?

Things that make fans go "Hmmm." Christopher Harris, the top fantasy football expert on ESPN.com, breaks down every NFL game from a fantasy perspective in his essential column "The Breakdown." In this week's version, Harris has something very interesting to say about that Robert Meachem play from last week in which the Washington Redskins intercepted a pass and Meachem stripped the ball from the defender and scored a touchdown.

"Thanks, Mr. Meachem. True, your tying 53-yarder was a thing of beauty (and an unforgivably stupid play by LaRon Landry), but that stripped fumble of a Kareem Moore interception return and subsequent touchdown set off a fantasy firestorm. For the record, Meachem got credited for a fumble-recovery touchdown, and the Saints' defense got credited with a fumble recovery (but not a touchdown). There's no perfect way to score freak plays like that. We felt the way we scored it was the fairest thing we could do."

The most interested word in that passage? "We." Harris probably meant "we" in the "I am part of the ESPN family that made the decision" sense, but it also can be read as if he meant he personally had a hand in scoring that play. (Experts making predictions about games and then deciding how those games are scored? Talk about your conflict of interests.)

Anyway, there's still time to vote on our polls. We'll be back Sunday with a pregame update.