By Paul Honda
hrcFantasyLeague@aol.com
Friday, Sept. 8, 2006

Clue No. 1. Since two weeks ago, the e-mail address under my byline has changed. It used to read hondareport@aol.com.

Now, it's different.

Clue No. 2. This site, the front page, anyway, is now cluttered (in the free content area) with cartoonish logos, and when you click on the stories, you find more logos. League logos. Team logos. Not real leagues or teams, but fantasy leagues and teams.

If your husband or boyfriend seemed weird enough in his fascination and obsession about fantasy sports, you might not approve the fact that someone like me has condoned his childish hobby by creating pictures to manifest his team "ownership."

Clue No. 3. Mass volume. The number of teams (35 as of 1 a.m. Friday) in the three HRC fantasy leagues is ridiculous enough. And I am in a fourth league filled mostly with Star-Bulletin sports dorks like myself.

But the kicker to Clue No. 3 is this: As of tonight, I've opened a fourth HRC league. Pain in the arse that it was — Yahoo limits every person to four leagues, so I had to register a brand new username — the fourth league will include defensive individual statistics. How novel is this?

Nobody I knew who was involved with fantasy football even knew this function was available on Yahoo. Nobody I knew, that is, until today. So I looked and looked and figured out how it works. And now, the HRC Katoosh League includes defensive starters, and stuff like sacks, interceptions, even deflections matter a great deal.

I don't know if anyone will sign up for a league that starts after Week 1, but if we can gather eight teams, that's plenty. I just couldn't bear the thought of waiting until next year to find out what it's like to root for defensive players with as much intensity as I do Daunte Culpepper (ouch, two picks tonight) or Ronnie Brown (30 yards, but two TDs, yay).

The hints and clues are out there. I am certifiably off the edge. Five fantasy leagues. I thought people who entered that many leagues were a bit imbalanced.

Woah. I'm getting dizzy here. Next draft is in 9 hours.

God, I love this game.

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