Getting to know you

I tried an unusual getting-to-know-you tactic this week. As I've repeated ad nauseam, I am in a local fantasy-football league. This year will be the fifth year that we've had a live draft here in Hotlanta. Some of the owners are close friends and others are more on the periphery. I decided to aid myself in two different ways by sending a questionnaire of sorts.

Most of the questions were fluff, like what kind of stadium does your 'team' play in, what's your corporate sponsor, and who is your chief rival in the AUFL. I'll use this information when I write my weekly 'game stories'. For some reason Sports Illustrated hasn't called begging for my services.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and ask one or two 'personal' questions per owner and got some quality information. I thought that the football-related questions would relax everyone and the personal questions might throw them off guard. I accepted the possibility that no one would answer them.

The best responses came from the quasi-question "Name one non-football-related accomplishment from last year." Two owners became dads this year, one for the second time. Other responses varied from getting in shape to mountain biking to fulfilling a long-standing dream of getting a job as a teacher. One owner had surgery on his ACL. Ouch.

Then there's my dad, who entered the Catholic Church. As for me, I performed a stand-up routine (although I'm in desperate need of a follow-up to that) and used this blog to get a writing gig. While I expect to have plenty of fantasy-football glory this fall, I'd like to complement it with real-life success.