2003-08-28 - 2:44 a.m.

It took forever, all of us huddled in the Conference Room, picking players.

My first ever draft day. There was whining about fuck! I was just about to pick that player. Bitching. Stalling.

But not from me. I had the number two spot, and my picks were quick and as well thought out as I could make them. The one one page (four column) printout I culled for myself the previous night turned out to be extremely helpful. As was the seventy-five Bill Simmons columns I�ve unconsciously absorbed where he gleefully describes something pertaining to football drafts.

Anyway, here�s my team:

Quarterbacks:

Dante Culpepper

Drew Bledsoe

Wide Receivers:

Peerless Price

LaVerneus Coles

Troy Brown

Running Backs:

Ricky Williams

Fred Taylor

Tight End:

Marcus Pollard

Kicker:

Jeff Wilkins

Defense:

Atlanta

Bench:

Wayne Chrebet (WR)

Christian Fauria (TE)

New England (Defense)

Martin Grammatica (Kicker)

Santana Moss (WR)

Antwoain Smith (RB)

Yes, I know I�m not very deep with quarterbacks and running backs. But I figure I can pick someone up if they get hot down the stretch--those types of players always emerge out of nowhere and you can snag �em if you pay attention. I�m glad I got Williams and Culpepper. I wanted Vinateri, and I was hoping to get Vick (I hesitated �cause I knew his injury was due in part to the fact that he hadn�t participated in his team�s training and conditioning camps--he�s not gonna be the fantasy gem he was last year). I also wanted to strike early with defense and pick Tampa Bay or Pittsburgh, but the person with the highest pick snagged both of those defenses in the third round--right before I was about to claim Tampa Bay. My mistake--I didn�t know you could choose backup defenses--again, my first draft. Although this could work out for me with trading.

The whole draft, I sat rocking back and forth, hardly speaking, concentrating. Did I mention it costs $25 to join? My right palm was blue from ink when I was done.

I wanna win.

If this makes absolutely no sense to you, don�t worry. It wouldn�t have made any sense to me three days ago.

This is kinda fun �cause it reminds me of when I was like six years old, and my parents every blue moon would actually have people over. This was very exciting for me--I couldn�t go to sleep, and I�d make up some sort of excuse just to sit at the table and try, ready for an unexpected put-down, expecting a good thwarting, to figure out the rules.