Making fantasy a reality

For the past several weeks, I’ve been bugging my wife about this wild fantasy I have.

I admit, it’s a little lavish, and in some eyes it can be seen as a tad indecent.

“Do you think I can get Joseph Addai, Travis Henry and Cedric Benson in the first three rounds?” I ask.

“Or maybe Larry Johnson, Carson Palmer and Steve Smith.”

For weeks now I have been fantasizing — dreaming about the opportunity to load my fantasy football team with studs and be the king of my fantasy football league.

Yes, I am one of those guys.

And today, I’ll be sitting in a living room with nine others just like me.

It’s been about a decade since I was first bitten by the fantasy football bug. I remember bringing a freshly purchased fantasy football magazine and a highlighter into the newsroom of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the site of my first live fantasy football draft.

I was pretty new to the idea. This was long before I spent many-a-night mulling over my draft strategy. I drafted players on a whim, reached for players I rooted for, and generally used an unorthodox approach to build my team.

Well, somehow it worked, and I dominated the league full of Fairbanks newspapermen and television personalities.

And since that day, I’ve been hooked.

Soon after I returned to the Valley and started my tenure at the Frontiersman, I had to find an outlet for my fantasy football fix. It didn’t take long before I found another fantasy football junkie — former Valley Life editor Casey Ressler — and the WAFFLE (Wasilla Area Fantasy Football League of Excellence) was born.

It started out as an eight-team league, and since it has grown to a steady group of 10.

Each year its the same group of people who gather in Ressler’s living room for a day in which the central focal point of our lives is football. We are school teachers, engineers, computer technicians, tourism authorities and sports writers by day.

But on this one afternoon, all of us believe we are a general manger for a National Football League squad ready to build the next dynasty.

Various forms of meats are grilled and beverages stocked full of malt and hops are consumed. Tall tales are told, and past fantasy football glories are recounted.

While living the life of a football fanatic is one reason why we sit there for several hours pondering which fourth-string running back to draft in the 18th round. But in reality, the WAFFLE has become more than just football.

Most of us are married, and many of us have kids.

And when you find yourself graduating from the life spending your weekend evenings out to spending those same evenings at home, this day becomes the social event of the year.

It’s about a day of grilling. A day of tall tales. And a day of recounting glories of the past.

And oh ya, we draft

fantasy football teams too.