Draft Day 2 – "My Man in My Pocket"

Day 2 began with Carolyn resting on her laurels and taking 15 hours to make her picks for the end of Round 6 and beginning of Round 7. The natives were getting restless and the “OH SO LOVELY” trash talking began. Carolyn suffering a slight hangover from drinking too much beer while playing Bingo the nite before was not prepared to make her picks.

So we waited….Finally she made her picks and we were off and running and ACTUALLY moving at a fast pace. Steve finally made an appearance, instead of phoning in his picks and the TRASH talking was kicked up another notch with Steve in the draft room. (a lot of it directed towards me and what did he say “a person with Alzheimer’s could pick better than Skillz” -meaning me)

I think the best part of the draft was the trash talking and Carolyn and I probably had the dirtiest mouths out of the 10 of us – 8 men and us 2 women.

I again was getting nervous because Manny (or “MY MAN IN MY POCKET” as he became known amongst the other 9 drafters because they all knew I had a guy on IM, email, on the phone, texting me with picks) was not home and my form of communication with him for picks was text messaging.

I already knew what my next picks were to be because Manny had told me the nite before so I was all set on Rounds 7 & 8 – Galloway and the Giants Defense (i know taking the defense early is not good but i was following the trends of my fellow drafters on that one).

However….my man in my pocket, who was off gallivanting somewhere (seriously how dare him – i needed him to help me draft!!!), was not so quick (and extremely vague) with his responses the rest of the day. He helped me through Rounds 9&10 – Rhodes (RB) and Winslow (TE) (which remember were back to back picks for me) after I listed names of available players, but from there on out….I was basically on my own…

Rounds 11 &12 I did research on the players – I mean I am a lawyer that is what I am trained to do research and justify my reasonings – i sent off names to my man in my pocket via text message and he said yes to Chris Brown(RB) and no to Plummer(QB) asking if Brunnell(QB) was still available. He was, simple enough. I was doing good.

However, Rounds 13 & 14, I again researched picked some names, sent the text off to man in my pocket. He didn’t respond and he didn’t respond and the draft was bouncing along coming to me quicker and quicker and quicker.

Finally he responded with YES to BOTH. However, at this point, I had researched more and had a few other names in mind and couldn’t remember what names I sent him. I had also conferred with Kiki, who liked the current thoughts running through my head.

I was in a panicked state – wishing and hoping for more time – loving (for once) that Lee was not at his computer and was taking his sweet ole time (which usually annoyed the crap out of me.) Finally, I sat back and thought this is not Manny’s team, aka man in my pocket, this is MINE – I am going to make my own decisions based on my research and make my picks – So i went with Longwell (K) and Moulds (WR) – i believe I had texted man in my pocket Akers (K) and Moulds (WR). I had waivered with taking Bruce (WR) instead of Moulds…but I thought i could grab Bruce the next round. SO THERE I MADE MY FIRST DRAFT DECISION COMPLETELY ON MY OWN!! I was sooooo PROUD!! FRANTIC but PROUD!! And I had my mind made up by my turn to draft (thanks Lee for the stall).

So from here on out – I thought well man in my pocket is NOT being helpful, he is too busy off having fun – so I AM GOING TO DO THIS ON MY OWN! I buckled down and researched. Which trust me – made for a stressful and harrowing afternoon/evening. I know that the later picks are not quite as important as the beginning rounds BUT I still wanted to impress Manny and my fellow drafters with my OWN SKILLZ!! Since my nickname is MC SKILLY SKILLZ! (which later turned into MC TRASHY TRASH TALK just for a few hours)

Rounds 15 & 16 came and Bruce (WR) my fall back in the previous round was still available – right now he is hurt but he is looking good for the season and when in good form an excellent choice – so I grabbed him. Then I read about Michael Turner who is Tomlinson back-up RB – so I snatched him up too.

Now I was getting the hang of it – my only real decision was with 18 rounds did I want to draft a back up kicker or a back up defense for my BYE weeks or try to pick them up later….I thought ahhh why draft them now grab another WR and RB – so I took Norwood (RB) and Caldwell (WR) – supposedly good late draft picks. So I set my draft on autopilot and let it roll…

MAYBE I made some wrong decisions there in the final rounds on my own. AND PROBABLY I will have Manny- aka Man in my Pocket – yelling at me when he sees my picks. But it was FUN and I am glad I did some of it on my own.

THE TRASH TALKING was sooo much fun!! and if you remotely even know me – you know I love to do it and I am good at it! I told Carolyn that I wished there was some way we could have saved the Draft Room chats going on – there would have been some great blogging material.

When the draft started to wind down the trash talk lessened and everyone started to turn back to their work (or those that were home already signed off)…it was a sad moment for me as the trash talking ceased…BUT I know the trash talking will continue and will last me ALL season into February.

SO my question now – DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE TO WATCH FOOTBALL ALL FALL AND WINTER????

ummmm i have never ever done that in my life – guess I know how my Sundays will be spent…uuurrrghhhh – AGAIN WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO??

My Fantasy TEAM:
Culpepper, Daunte QB MIA
Barber, Tiki RB NYG
James, Edgerrin RB ARI
Rhodes, Dominic RB IND
Moss, Santana WR WAS
Owens, Terrell WR DAL
McMichael, Randy TE MIA
Giants, DST DST NYG
Brunell, Mark QB WAS
Brown, Chris RB TEN
Norwood, Jerious RB ATL
Turner, Michael RB SD
Bruce, Isaac WR STL
Caldwell, Reche WR NE
Galloway, Joey WR TB
Moulds, Eric WR HOU
Winslow, Kellen TE CLE

The Latest POLL Posted by an OFFICEMATE:
Which owner pissed you off the most?
Poll Results as of 8/30/2006 @ 9:37am
Pieter – Because he has the best team. 0
Steve – Because he was too cool to attend the first day in person and used his lackey to hand his pick to the commissioner. 0
Mark – Because he went against the grain and passed on 1 of the 3 best running backs. 0
Todd – Because he was on autopilot. 0
Lee – Because he averaged 1.5 hours between picks. 3
Carolyn – Because she continually claimed she was working (sure)! 1
Karin – Because she based most of her selections on who was cute 0
Evan – Because he based most of his selections on who was cute 0
Enrique – Because Christina really made his selections. 1
Peter – Because he thought he would fool everyone with his “top secret sleeper picks.” 0

OH YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION – MY VACATION TO MIAMI IS TOMORROW!!!! BE GONE FOR FIVE DAYS!!! WOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!