THE BURROWING OWLS

If you're not in a Fantasy Football League, you should be. Otherwise, the NFL season can be extremely long.

When you're in a league, every game means something. When scores and stats are given, you sit up and take note. If you only follow your favorite team, you're left with a whole bunch of meaningless games and statistics.

Millions upon millions play. Some leagues play for big, big bucks. But you can be competitive and have just as much fun with a low budget league such as ours. We pay $20 per year and half of that is to cover the stats and have our website. And we are very competitive.

Just try to pick up a reserve who has a big week. When you check, he's already on another team. A promising rookie? Forget it. We have a rookie draft based on the order of picks in the NFL draft in the Spring. For instance, last year I got 4th, which netted me Mike Bell. Reggie Bush, Joseph Addai, and Vernon Davis went to the three guys that outpicked me in the Spring draft by selecting more NFL draftees in the precise order.

The rest of the rules are pretty standard though we tweak them somewhat. One qb, 2 rbs, 3 wrs, 1 te, 1 kicker, 1 defense, 1 owner's choice. One example of a tweak is that we emphasis a tight end by allowing 1 point per catch as well as receiving yards and tds.

So if you're just wading into fantasy waters this season, feel free to cheer for my Burrowing Owls and Matt Hasselbeck, Steve McNair, Warrick Dunn, Willie Parker, Torry Holt, Keyshawn Johnson, Derrick Mason, Dallas Clark, Jay Feely, and the Eagles.