What is The Sunday Edge?

Anytime your life is consumed by a concept with the word "fantasy" in it chances are you live in your parent's basement and get queasy at the thought of a conversation with a real life female.  I currently reside in my mother-in-law's basement and the only thing that makes me queasy (besides vegetables) is the thought of my wife delivering our child on a Sunday during football season.  While on the topic of my wife; I need to give her a thank you for allowing me to spend all day in front of the television every Sunday during football season--as well as Monday night, Thursday night, and the rare Saturday game.

When and how did it begin?  My first football memory happened January 17th 1993.  I had just turned 8 years old just two weeks prior.

*Quick sidetrack* - My first actual memory must have occurred when I was about 5 years old.  I remember giving my youngest brother Trent an off the couch pile-driver (my pap pap was a big WWF fan and I must have picked the move up from watching wrestling at his house)  I vividly remember exactly where in the house I was and how everyone came running in and screaming at me--ah the good ol' days.

.....Anyways my brother Spence is a Dallas Cowboy fan.  He was having a party at his house to watch the game.  I remember there being a lot of people there.  It was the Cowboys vs the 49ers in the NFC championship.  I obviously knew nothing about the game but since my brother was rooting for the Cowboys I figured I would too.  It took me awhile to track down this clip, but here it is.  My first football memory: 4:50-5:30

Funny hearing John Madden and Pat Summerall on the call.  Summerall sounded half dead back in 93.'  Listening to him do the play by play a few years back in the Cotton Bowl was just brutal.  This  wise sage agrees with me:

Got a bit off track there.  Anyways that Alvin Harper catch was my first football memory.  I rode the momentum from that Cowboy win into the Super Bowl where they stomped the Bills.  From there on I was hooked on football; more specifically Cowboy's Football.

The following season I was in 3rd grade.  Each Monday Ms. Creps had us write something that we did over the weekend in our journals.  Each week I would write up a recap of the Cowboy's game complete with scores and stats.  They went on to win the Super Bowl again that year.

The following year they did not make it to the Super Bowl however, this year I got my first taste of gambling and football mixed together. Hello Super Bowl "Squares." My brother Ryan offered me a split on a square he bought for $5.  Sure enough the numbers we needed came through and hit the 3rd quarter score.  Beginners luck I guess, because that was the first and only square I have ever won.

1996 was a tough year for Steeler Country here in Bedford, PA as they matched up with my Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX.  What did you expect though when this guy was your QB?

Anyone who thinks it would be a sweet idea to have a card of them deflating a football with their bare hands lacks good decision making skills. I actually own this card (not autographed) if anyone has a shrine of Neil O'donnell out there and is missing this crown jewel.

I was like any kid.  My favorite teams were the best teams.   For me it was the Cowboys in football and the Chicago Bulls in basketball.  By this time I was 11 years old and the Cowboys had just won their 3rd Super Bowl in a 4 year span.  I was starting to get annoyed by how everyone was jumping on board with the Cowboys.  I will admit that I jumped on the bandwagon but I was only 8 years old, I didn't know any better.  I still liked the Cowboys but the bandwagon effect soured me.  It was okay though I was about to be introduced to fantasy football.

 I had some exposure to fantasy football through a league that both my older brothers were in.  I would watch players that they had on their teams and root for them.  A few names that I remember rooting for off the top of my head were Brett Favre, Jerry Rice, Chris Carter, Terry Allen, Rob Moore, Yancey Thigpen, Barry Foster,  Mark Chmura, Napoleon Kaufman, and his backfield running-mate Harvey "long-neck" Williams.  After realizing how much fun I had rooting for players I realized that I needed to get my own team.

The idea was hatched to start a league for the 1998 season.  Its  participants would be my three brothers Spence, Ryan, Trent, and a buddy from school--fellow football enthusiast Shaun Styer.  At this point Trent was only going into 5th grade and had yet to fully develop his fantasy mind so he tagged up with one of my other friends Chad Shoemaker (ask Chad or Trent their best pick from that year and I guarantee they will remember.)  A five team league by today's standards would be viewed as a joke but it was a good start for us.  We wrote our names on poker chips to decide the order that we picked (a method we still use today.)  Luckily, my name was pulled first.  Terrell Davis was my first pick.  I can't remember any other players on my team from that first year but thanks to the 2225 yards and 23 touchdowns from Davis I won the league.  This was a familiar site in 1998.

I just wrapped up my 14th year of playing fantasy football.  I sometimes wonder if there will ever come a day when I won't react in pure jubilation to one of my players scoring.  Considering I know there is 227 days / 5,466 hours / 328,010 minutes until the first Sunday of the 2013 season I would say probably not.

So what is The Sunday Edge?  Eventually I hope it will bloom into a spot where people can share thoughts and ideas on anything football. I think the 1047 words, pictures, and video you have viewed up to this point is a strong preview of what I hope to provide.  I will offer up lots of thoughts, opinions, and analysis on fantasy football, and although my wallet would discourage me from this I also enjoy handicapping games and attempting to pick winners against the spread.  It is border line embarrassing the amount of time I spend researching/thinking about football.  I figured why not set up a platform for others to enjoy the fruits of my labor.