It's that time of year again

So this is the point in the year where the blog will now morph from strictly baseball to baseball and football. Louie will still be taking care of the wonderful baseball portion of the blog until seasons end, but I will be doing the football posts, atleast until baseball is finished. We tryed to have a seperate page for football but it wasn't working so we are just going to put them both on the main page. If your looking to read about baseball stop reading here! The rest of this post is all about The Awesome Guys fantasy football league.

We've had to wait 7 months but it's is time for meaningful NFL games to begin. This season marks the 5th year of our fantasy football league, however this is the first year we will have a blog connected to it. The blog came into existence with the fantasy baseball league that some of us were in over the summer and it was a great success. There will be similar posts for the fantasy football season (recaps, waiver pick-ups, injuries, and more).

So, I figured for the first post I would give a small bio on every team and its owner:

Hey there pretty boy!

Rolling Meadows Mustangs (Zach) Defending Champion- Zach comes into the season trying to be the first owner to repeat as league champion. The Mustangs (named after Zach's high school team) rode a solid 9-4 record to the playoffs behind LeSean McCoy and Drew Brees. He decided not to tab either one of those guys as a keeper, yet he was lucky enough to get the number one pick and redraft McCoy this year. Zach drafted Andrew Luck this year to replace Brees, though Luck won't put up the same numbers, he should be a very good fantasy quarterback this year.

Show Me Them TD's (Kyler) 2012 League Champion- Last year my team was not very good and it was apparent early in the season. I ended up tied for 7th with a 5-8 record, although I did win the Toilet Bowl Consolation Championship. I kept Jimmy Graham from my team from last year because he is far and away the best tight end in the league and he was really the only star player on my team from last year who isn't suspended (I had Josh Gordon). This year I feel like I have a much better team than I did last year, and I went with a bunch of Packers to make it easier on myself to cheer for my fantasy players on Sunday.

Baghdad Bombers (Josh) 2011 League Champion- Not only does Josh own the best name in the league, he also owns the greatest playoff upset in the league. The Bombers went 8-5 in 2011 before destroying his opponent in the first round of the playoffs and then pulled off the incredible upset, beating a 12-1 Team Bashaw team by two points (217-215). This year the Bombers took Jamaal Charles in the first round to try and carry the team. Josh also is banking on a comeback season from RG3 this year as he drafted him to be the starting quarterback of his team.

Milwaukee Warriors (Jason) 2010 League Champion- The warriors won the inaugural league championship over yours truely, back when we were seniors in high school. Back then Jason had an amazing back field of Chris Johnson and Arian Foster, so this year its only fitting that he drafted Chris Johnson again. Its been a long three years for the warriors as they haven't finished better than 5th since winning the title. Jason has optimism for his team this year however,I know this because he text me right after the draft saying he feels like his team is stacked, and to be honest his starting lineup is damn good. If Reggie Bush racks up a lot of fantasy points in the high powered Lions offense and Colin Kapernick still kill other fantasy owners (and Packers linebackers) with his legs, there may be another title in the near future for the Warriors.

Kalamazoo Red Hawks (Chris) 4 years, 1 playoff appearance- This one is hard for me to believe. Chris, or Dr. Panda as I often refer to him, has been in this league since the beginning and I knew he never won a championship, but when I looked up past seasons and saw he's only made it to the playoffs once...WOW! In fact he made it as the 4th and final team the first year of the league and has finished progressivly worse every year since. Last year the Red Hawks were hurt by injuries (see what I did there) and finished dead last. They also had some trouble filling out a full roster from time to time (I hope that's not a problem this year). In case you didn't notice, the Red Hawks were the only team that didn't join the draft this year and were therefore on auto pick. This caused them to draft a lot of suspended (Ray Rice and Dwayne Bowe) or soon to be suspended guys (Le'Veon Bell). However, if there is one glimmer of hope for this team this year it is that they drafted Peyton Manning and if he has a season anywhere close to the one he did last year, he could single-handedly carry this team to the playoffs.

Team Mustangs (Tyler) Back to back 2nd place finishes- Tyler (who from here forward will be called T because he lost the right to the -yler part of his name when he lost to me all three times in fantasy baseball) is the twin brother of Zach (see above) and has finished runner up in his first two years in the league. Last year's Twin Duel to the Death Championship match saw a matchup of the Mustangs vs. Mustangs, and was easily won by Zach. The mere fact that T allows his team to still have the word team at the beginning of its name tells you he may be a little off upstairs. With that being said, the T Mustangs stole the RMHS Mustangs qb, Drew Brees, this year and are looking for pay back for last years shellacking. The team looks fairly solid but perhaps a better starting running back than Toby Gerhart or Stevan Ridley would help carry this team to a championship.

Skittle Power!

Wisconsin ArcticCats (Gunnar Paul Huber!) 2nd year in the league- The ArcticCats are entering their second year in the league and may still be a little bitter after how last season ended. Guber Huber lost to the Red Hawks (remember they were the worst team last year) on the last week of the regular season to lose the 4th and final playoff spot. The bitter defeat more than likely caused Gunnar to go into fits of rage where he yells nonsensical phrases for no reason. Either way the ArcticCats are looking to make it into the playoffs for the first time, and thanks to guys like Aaron Rodgers, Antonio Brown, and Marshawn Lynch, Guber's dreams may finally come true.

APeeing In The Wind (Louie) First year in the league- Louie is one of three new poeple to join the league this year, after turning down the oppurtunity to join a year ago. He is from my fantasy baseball league, and also happens to be married to my girlfriends sister for those of you that don't know. This is the second leauge that me in Louie are in together (last year his daughter kicked both our asses en route to the championship in the other league). When it comes to this year's team, APeeing In The Wind got the luck of the draw with taking over a team that had Adrian Peterson on it, making the draft a little easier on Louie knowing that he already had a stud running back in the bank. He also drafted a couple of guys looking for bounce back years in Tom Brady and Julio Jones. Both of which should put up better stats than last year should their team and them stay healthy.

YOU'LL KNOW SOON (John) First year in the league- First of all, why the hell is your whole team name capitalized? Anyways, John is the second of the three new people joining the league this year and he also comes to us from the fantasy baseball league. I can only imagine the sadness felt by John when he found out he couldn't draft Carlos Gomez for fantasy football. YOU'LL KNOW SOON drafted a solid lineup for this season headlined by star wide reciever Brandon Marshall. He also drafted Matt Stafford to be his starting quarterback which could pay off big if the Lions offense does what it should (destroy everyone with all the weapons they have).

Football Is Not My FORTE (Tom) First year in the league- Tom is the third and final new member of the league this year. He also comes from the fantasy baseball league, where I have learned a few things about him. First, Tom and John are mortal enemies/ life partners, second Tom doesn't follow football as close as baseball (hence the name), and thirdly his team will sit at the bottom of the standings for most of the year and then come out of nowhere and take over 1st in your division in the blink of an eye. Now when it comes to his football team year, Football Is Not My FORTE has a lot of stud fantasy players including A.J. Green, Matt Forte, Julius Thomas, and the Seahawks D/ST. This teams only weak point may be starting Pierre Thomas at running back but we'll see who ends up getting the majority of carries in New Orleans. When it comes down to it Tom's team is probably in the top 2 for best starting lineup heading into the season (along with Jason).

So there you have it. You now know a little more about everyone in the league, and how well they've done in the past. Tonight starts our 17 week journey to find a champion with a big matchup in Seattle. I will try to post something every day during the week for this blog and possibly on the weekends if the women is working,. So strap in cause it's going to be a fun ride.