Broken Promises

Vegas was, as expected, a BLAST. There were ten of us there for our fantasy football draft, and not a stinker among the group, so it was one of those really cool situations where you would just randomly end up in different pairings and groupings of people having conversations and what-not.

I'm not wholly unsatisfied with the team I put together. And I've already learned a lot about the way things work to help me in future drafts (such as how to read the list correctly to translate a players fantasy value vs. his real value). Ben Roethlisberger and Deuce McAllister are my two favorite players, mainly because they were the ones scoring the most for me in the morning games that we watched on Sunday. Trent Green and I are going to have issues, so even though he was the first member of my team he may become a bench warmer pretty darn soon. And it looks like I'm gonna' win at least one game this year (unless Warrick Dunn scores 21 fantasy points this evening, but that's HIGHLY unlikely).

Football is much more fun to watch when you have money riding on it, and as much fun as fantasy football is I may be having more fun with the underdog pool that Sweetie started this year. Here's how it works: Every week you pick an underdog to win their game. If they win the game you win the number of points they were under on the line. At the end of the season the person with the most points wins the money. I went big money this week, picking New Orleans to win over Carolina. The Saints weren't allowed to lose, as the citizens of New Orleans have been through enough lately and it was up to the Saints to show them a little hope in the world. And I was right. For a while it looked like it was going to go into overtime, and we got to see one of those wacky plays from Carolina where they hope that the Saints get bored and go home before they drop the ball, but my guys pulled it out. So now me and one other person have 7 points in the pool, and everyone else has 0. YEAH!

Sweetie and I even managed to do OK with the gambling, and basically came out even where we went in.

So there was really only one big dissapointment this weekend. One of our friends gave Sweetie and I each a bet in Vegas for a wedding gift. Before we left for the weekend Sweetie and I decided that the bets would be sports bets, that we would each place our own bet, and that it would not be a futures event so we would have instant results. I had decided I wanted to place my bet on football, since we were in Vegas for football. So Saturday we're at Imperial Palace, and while Sweetie is figuring out the record of each NFL team this season for the over/under, and his brother and sister-in-law are figuring the outcome of every Monday Night game, I decide to look at the lines for Sunday to place my bet. Green Bay is three point underdogs to Detroit, which gives them really good odds. I like Green Bay. And as much as I might like Joey Harrington, his performance in the NFL hasn't exactly been spectacular thus far. Worst case, if we lose the bet, I get some brownie points with Dad for putting money on his home team.

I'm standing there in the sports book contemplating this bet aloud and two very drunk guys guarantee me that Green Bay will win the game, so I should be free to place the bet. I question them as to how they can promise me this. They are from Wisconsin. The primary drunk is wearing a Milwaukee Brewers t-shirt and has a Green Bay helmet charm on a chain around his neck. I question him as to if he is one of those fans who will wear a wedge of cheese on his head, and his response was, "No! But sometimes you're tailgating and you're drunk and someone else puts it on your head, and then it would be rude not to wear it."

Yet I still placed the bet. And lost the bet. But if my biggest Vegas dissapointment is that a bet I place with someone else's money doesn't go my way, well that's alright by me.