Busy, busy

So the last few days I haven't even had time to check e-mail. We've been spending our days over at my SIL's house with the kids, making gingerbread houses, getting a tree, playing games, going bowling, and celebrating Hanukkah every night. Last night we had a big turkey dinner and the kids are with their dad today, so SIL and her boyfriend are on their way over here. We fly home tonight.

So I lost my last fantasy game and placed second in the league. I think C came in 3rd and my brother Rudy 4th. My cousin Tony won the league. He took the opportunity, when inviting C back to the league, to chastise him for a trade we made back in the 2nd/3rd week. When Brady went down five minutes into the first game of the season, I had a real problem. I picked up DelHomme, but seriously, DelHomme is not much of a fantasy QB except as a back-up option. C had Cutler on his bench, intending to trade him at some point, and for the first few games of the season, Cutler was on fire but things were unpredictable down the stretch. C wanted to trade him to me, but I insisted it needed to be a fair trade and he needed a third wide receiver to plug in every now and then. I refused to give him Chad Johnson, who was the highest ranked wide receiver on my team and I finally relented to the trade and gave him Santonio Holmes. C did need a back-up QB he planned to use once in the season, on week 4, so I also gave him DelHomme to use that week and he threw in Roddy White, who wasn't doing well and wasn't expected to do well. So what we were doing was trading Cutler(QB) for Holmes(WR) and DelHomme(QB) for White(WR). What Tony saw it as was Cutler(QB) for DelHomme(QB) and White(WR) for Holmes(WR.

So we could tell that Tony was balking at the trade based on the way he adjusted the approval dates for it, but he didn't say anything to either of us and he let it go through. We figured maybe Geoff had complained because, well, that's what Geoff does. We knew it would probably look a little controversial on first glance, but we made a point of making it a good trade for both of us and overall a good trade once it was really examined.

Fast forward to a week or so ago, and Tony sends C an e-mail asking him back for next year...but also taking him to task for that trade and saying that he realizes he didn't explain it, but that he doesn't allow collusion or trades that do not benefit both teams...us trading a start QB for a mediocre one and Atlanta's #1 receiver, White, for Pittsburgh's #2 receiver, Holmes. He didn't think it benefitted C's team at all. Dude. Anyone in their right mind at that point in the season had Pittsburgh's #2 receiver ranked much higher than Atlanta's #1, including all the pre-season ranking mags. Atlanta had a rookie QB throwing the ball and a questionable team in general. I mean, this was so early in the season, I was holding onto Chad Johnson with a death grip. Chad Johnson. He turned out to be a complete flop and I dropped him several weeks later after finally giving up all hope he would ever catch a touchdown.

White turned out to be one of the top receivers of all of them this year (a surprise as much to me as to anybody) and Holmes wasn't very good, but we didn't know all this back in weeks 2 and 3. And I kinda take offense to the fact that a) Tony talked this all over with my brother to decide whether to allow the trade rather than discussing anything at all with us and b) he assumed that since he hadn't told us specifically not to do improper trades that that was what we were doing. We knew perfectly well, without being told, that we needed to make a trade that benefited both teams. We knew that because aren't imbeciles.

C is way more gracious than I am and his reply to Tony got all that across in a much better way than I probably would have said it. He spends a lot of his time writing diplomatically worded e-mails.

Anyway, I landed in second place for the second year in a row and it kinda sucks because you are denied bragging rights and at the same time get the second worst drafting position for the following year. But it was a good season and I like being in the league even if they assume I'm a cheater.