The fantasy sports world is made of an interesting breed of sports junkies. But when the NFL season begins, the “I’m just an occasional fantasy player,” becomes an addict. Once you’ve had your fix of draft night, your first trade, the first time one of your guys earns three touchdowns, you’re hooked. Then there’s that first big injury that ruins your chances of a Super Bowl, that missed field goal by your kicker that leaves you two points short, and that guy that you thought was your friend totally rips you off in a trade after week one.

Suddenly you’re not only losing sleep, but you’re losing friends. You’re losing your shot at earning good grades and finally doing better this fall because you can’t shake your fascination with proposing trades and scanning the waiver-wire for possible backup tight ends.

It’s that same mentality that had me simulating seasons of Madden 2004 to see who would finish with the best stats… Ah, it’s fantasy sports and it’s fantasy-tastic. Fantasy Football rivals only Madden for the best $50 ever spent. I am dead serious.

But you’ll still need to fight that urge to become Billy Beane on steroids and refrain from trading all of your players in the first week if you ever wish to succeed. I hate to throw out the cliche “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” but “you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Every league has a guy that just can’t stay away from the “propose trade” button. If that’s the case in your league, go ahead and throw out that Marvin Harrison and Priest Holmes offer for Tim Brown and Emmitt Smith. Just make sure and accompany that trade noting something like, “I’ll give you two hall-of-famers here if you can just give me a couple of these one-season wonder guys. I’ll go ahead and take a chance on them, but just because I am already so deep at receiver and running back. Oh, and remember, I only did this because I am really rooting for you to do well this season.”

I have one guy in my league that will do basically anything to get his hands on an Oakland Raider. You can call him up offering Tyrone Wheatley and Doug Jolley for LaDainian Tomlinson and you’ll get an “I’m listening…” response that’s pure magic.

There’s also that whole, “my fantasy stud is going up against my favorite team” problem. This always makes for an awkward situation, especially when watching the game with a buddy who shares your favorite team. It happened to me this weekend when Torry Holt went up against my 49ers. It’s all a matter of holding in your celebratory jaunt until after the final score, where you can then say either “We won AND my guy had a great day,”- the best of both worlds – or you can go with, “well we lost, but at least I had a good fantasy day.” It’s an odd mixture of excitement and disappointment and it creates a sheer test of team devotion… it’s a real emotional roller coaster.

Fantasy is also a great way to maintain hanging out, albeit over the Internet and through message boards, with old buddies. My league allows me to interact with my brother, best friends from home, a couple of cousins and I’ve even made some great new friends along the way…

Jeff Garcia receptions, Mike Martz always going for it on fourth down, it’s like playing one of those annoying Madden players…PLAY REAL!

The 49ers absolutely threw away Sunday’s game against the Rams. Despite 13 penalties for 121 yards including a crucial pass interference call on a third and long late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers still had a shot after scoring the game-tying touchdown and recovering a fumble on the following kickoff at the 50-yardline. Garcia completed a difficult pass to Cedrick Wilson, who failed to get down before the clock expired, preventing 49ers kicker Jeff Chandler from getting a shot from about 40 yards. The 49ers would never see the ball again as the Rams won the coin toss and kicked a game winning field goal.

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