Here comes the NFL

The NFL season is two days away and I’m already brain-fried. Was it a good idea to be in five leagues and write for a fantasy football Web site? Like the NFL, I had to cut my rosters down to 53 players in the Zealots leagues. My final cut was Todd France, who lost the kicker showdown in Tampa Bay to Matt Bryant. There’s an outside shot that France gets a tryout with the Titans this week, but it’s probably back to the cruel real word for the man with one of the worst last names in the NFL (at least until yesterday).

I spent a good hour scouring the box scores for breakout college stars to pick up in this week’s free agent offering. I need a backup kicker, and the rest of my team is pretty solid. I won’t find out if my free agent bids bear fruit until Thursday morning.

Can the good husband award go too far? The wife wants to watch/TiVo Reunion on Fox. It starts at 9 p.m. on Thursday, which happens to be the same time the Patriots/Raiders game starts. So far I’ve struck out on finding local pals to watch the game, at least the first half, outside the home. I have the one New England Patriot fan who bars his door 30 minutes before kickoff, the budding actor friend who has a performance that night, and the first-grade teacher who has to get up earlier than a farmer and therefore can’t stay awake longer than John Madden’s first rambling nonsensical comment. I might be sequestered in the bedroom.

The White Sox have been good to me this year. After a crummy August the team is 5-0 in September, including yesterday’s makeup game in Boston. A lot of the team didn’t even make the trip. Rookie Brandon McCarthy shut out the ‘other’ Sox for seven innings. He may force his way onto the playoff roster. Tonight starts a three-game series against the Royals. Hopefully that winning streak will be at eight by Thursday, and the magic number will be closer to ten.