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I was tempting fate

Posted Friday, January 7, 2011, at 10:35 AM

Each year, I participate in three or four fantasy football leagues. Up until this year, I never really fell into the trap of rooting for a guy because he was on my fantasy team. I knew, somewhere inside me, the bad Karma of taking my rooting interest away from the Packers (and to a lesser degree the Steelers) would come back to bite me.

And that just may be what happens this weekend.

I had a disastrous week 1 in fantasy. I lost in every league. The Tuesday morning after, I was up early with the baby, so I jumped online to see if I could make any free agent acquisitions before any of my fellow owners woke up.

Wouldn't you know, Michael Vick was available in two leagues. He was fresh of torching my Packers in the second half of their week one game, and I was impressed.

Vick carried both of those teams to their respective league titles, and I feel indebted.

The thing that happened along the way was, I started genuinely cheering for Vick. There's a difference in wanting a guy to pick up points for you and in wanting him to genuinely excel. I chose the latter.

I understand this could get me into a moral discussion about what Vick did to those dogs that landed him in prison for a couple years, but I'm not really focused on that. Quite frankly, I enjoyed the man's work on the field this season. It starts and ends there for me.

Now the chickens have come home to roost, though. Between the Packers' late season run to make the playoffs and the Eagles' struggles in recent weeks, they've found themselves in an NFC Wildcard matchup this Sunday afternoon in Philly.

While I'm clearly on the Packers' side, the cheering I've done for Vick all season now haunts me. I feel as though I've cheated on my team and it may come back to bite me in a big way.

All I can say is if I'm wearing a frown come Monday, I'll blame myself as much as any shortcomings Green Bay displays on the field.

Also, here's a quick rundown of my playoff picks:

Wild Card Round
Colts over Jets
Ravens over Chiefs
Saints over Seahawks
Eagles over Packers (I find things go better when I pick against my team.)

Divisional Round
Steelers over Colts
Patriots over Ravens
Saints over Falcons
Bears over Eagles (It really hurts to pick that one, but it's a good matchup.)