HBFL to your right

Thanks to a great suggestion from Deep Run, I’ve placed the ongoing draft and analysis of the HBFL to the pages on your right. If you’re interested in keeping up with our draft (and why wouldn’t you be?), you can go there. Thanks, Deep Run!

HBFL Round Three

25. Deep Run Tar Heels — D. McNabb, QB, Phi (A little too early, but I understand that with a wrap-around pick like this, he wanted a QB)

26. Tobbaco Road Tigers — T. Owens, WR, Dal (Tap’s first solid pick. Owens should have a good year for the Boys)

27. Free Press Predators — S. Smith, WR Car (OK, I’m a homer, but this is an excellent pick; Smith is projected as an early second-rounder to late second-rounder and I got him this late. Helps make up for my screwed-up Ronnie Brown pick)

28. Screaming Seahawks — C. Benson, RB, Chi (A solid third-round pick of perhaps the most underrated fantasy player of the year. Benson will end up being a top-8 RB this year)

29. Henderson Gunners — M. Lynch, RB, Buf (At first blush, seems to be a reach pick, but we know what his predecessors have done in Buffalo; third straight player for Randy who has a bye week in Week 6)

30. Tom Sheehey All Stars — T. Holt, WR, StL (A steal at No. 30. With Henry and Addai, Sheehey is building a powerhouse)

31. Gridiron Gladiators — M. Bulger, QB, StL (Six QBs taken in the first three and a half rounds? Sheesh. Leave some for the rest of us!)

32. Exlax Induced Bowel Explosion — R. Williams, WR, Det (RB, RB, WR — typical Drew Loftis. This is just about exactly where I had Williams slotted)

33. GC Rams — A. Gates, TE, SD (After waiting two hours, GC Rams lucks out and gets a great pick. Chalk one up for fanball)

34. Pawtucket Pot Roasts — L. Fitzgerald, WR, Ari (Another great selection. The Pot Roasts and Sheehey have the early lead for the “great draft” award)

35. Jeter drinks wine coolers — L. Evans, WR, Buf (Not a bad pick, especially since the Bills will be behind most of the season)

36. + ARod drinks ’em with a straw — A. Boldin, Ari (Surprised GZino didn’t go RB here, but Boldin is not a bad pick at this spot)

HBFL Second Round

13. + arod drinks ’em with a straw — C. Johnson, WR, Cin (Arguably the best WR in the draft and he goes in the first pick of the second round. Solid pick)

14. Jeter drinks wine coolers — B. Westbrook, RB, Phi (Heelsfan redeems his horrible first-round pick with a good pick here. Westbrook will be solid again for Philly)

15. Pawtucket Pot Roasts — R. Johnson, RB, Cin (Another beneficiary of the ridiculous first-round picks. R. Johnson paired with W. Parker is a fantastic start to a team)

16. GC Rams — M. Harrison, WR, Ind (Head-scratcher here … you do know you need RBs in this league, right? Harrison will do fine, but I can think of at least three RBs you could’ve picked here who would produce more points)

17. Exlax Induced Bowel Explosion — M. Drew, RB, Jax (I know you’re married to the two-RB thing, but you essentially drafted a part-time starter with your No. 2 pick?)

18. Gridiron Gladiators — W. McGahee, RB, Bal (A spectacular pick. Really surprised Exlax didn’t pick him)

19. Tom Sheehey All Stars — T. Henry, RB, Den (Another great pick; along with Addai, I have to think this is the best first two rounds of the draft)

20. Henderson Gunners — R. Wayne, WR, Ind (A bit of a reach only if Harrison doesn’t begin the slide I think he is set to start. Otherwise, a good compliment to Gore in the first round)

21. Screaming Seahawks — C. Palmer, QB, Cin (All he did was continue the run on QBs. In that vein, not a bad pick)

22. Free Press Predators — R. Brown, RB, Mia (Not a great pick. Barely 1,000 yards last year and 5 TDs?)

23. Tobacco Road Tigers — D. McAlister, RB, NO (Another reach here. Why pick up a parttime RB when there are still a couple of sole No. 1’s out there?)

24. Deep Run Tar Heels — T. Jones, RB, NYJ (A good pick. It’s Jones’ show in NY and he’ll make the most of it. Tobacco, this is one of the backs I was referring to)

HBFL First Round

Here’s how the first round and a half of the blog draft shook down with my commentary in parentheses:

1. Deep Run Tar Heels — L. Tomlinson, RB, SD (Ho-hum. I’ve seen probably 200 drafts and he’s gone No. 1 in all of them)
2. Tobacco Road Tigers — P. Manning, QB, Ind (Way, way, way too high; he’s questionable in the first round. Tap made a boo-boo that makes me VERY happy at No. 3…) 
3. Free Press Predators — S. Jackson, RB, StL (I wouldn’t quite call him a steal at No. 2, but I’ve not seen him go lower than 2 in a few weeks)
4. Screaming Seahawks — L. Johnson, RB, KC (Safe pick. LJ is going to have a rough few weeks until he gets back into the flow, but he’ll be fine)
5. Henderson Gunners — F. Gore, RB, SF (Solid pick. Gore was last year’s breakout player and could be a top-3 before all is said and done)
6. Tom Sheehey All-Stars — J. Addai, RB, Ind (The first REAL steal of the draft to this point. I’m projecting Addai as the No. 3 overall player, so for him to slip to 6 is good for BW)
7. Gridiron Gladiators — R. Bush, RB, NO (Bush is a dual threat who is going to get his fantasy points. A good pick at this spot)
8. Exlax Induced Bowel Explosion — S. Alexander, RB, Sea (Another good pick; but since this is Drew’s 55th draft, he should be used to making good picks!) 
9. GC Rams — T. Brady, QB, NE (OK, this is a serious reach. Brady is going to have a good season, but he would’ve been available in the third round)
10. Pawtucket Pot Roasts — W. Parker, RB, Pit (Solid pick. This is about where I had Parker projected) 
11. Jeter drinks wine coolers — D. Brees, QB, NO (Three QBs in the first round? Doggone it guys, I thought we were getting some professionals in this draft. Brees would’ve been available in the late third to early fourth round)
12. + arod drinks them with a straw — L. Maroney, RB, NE (Another safe pick, especially with the QB hoarding going on above him)

HBFL — It’s on!

Team owners, the draft will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. You’ll have two hours to make your pick, but please do it well before then. I’m hoping we’ll have the draft done by Friday or Saturday at the latest.

Here are the draft positions and the team owners:

1. Deep Run Tar Heels — The Kid
2. Tobacco Road Tigers — Taplie Coile
3. Free Press Predators — Me, with name subject to change
4. Screaming Seahawks — JMassey
5. Henderson Gunners — Randy Capps
6. Tom Sheehey All-Stars — BW
7. Gridiron Gladiators — Heelatious
8. Exlax Induced Bowel Explosion — Drew Loftis, who creates the best team names in the history of fantasty football
9. GC Rams — DubG GC
10. Pawtucket Pot Roasts — Charlie Kraebel (go to urbandictionary.com for the meaning behind his team name…)
11. Cowboy Crusaders — Heelsfan
12. Oak — GZino

That’s it. Any questions, e-mail me at bhanks@freedomenc.com. I’m going to keep the folks up to date with the draft with my commentary (and yours, if you’d like to post it).

Update at 11 p.m. on Tuesday: The Kid takes (surprise, surprise) Ladainian Tomlinson. Taplie Coile is on the clock (starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning).

Hanks Blog Fantasy League

There is three two one spot still available and we need to start the draft IMMEDIATELY. Here’s your chance to get in…

Go to fanball.com and then click on real leagues. Register your team and pay your $9.95 (you actually get two teams). Find HBFL (Hanks Blog Fantasy League) in the private leagues and sign in. The password is blog.

As soon as we get our 12th team, I’ll have the draft order set (fanball sets it) and we’ll start the draft. I’m going to give each team 2 hour intervals to draft (although I — and everyone — would appreciate if you drafted more often than that) with pauses between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. every day. We should be able to finish the draft within a week if we do that.

Get in! I’ll keep everyone up to date here on the blog on the progress of the draft.

2007 Hanks Blog Fantasy League

We have our 12 owners for the inaugural season of the Hanks Blog Fantasy League. Here are the owners:

Me

Flagan

BW

Heelatious

The Kid

Taplie Coile

Charlie K.

GWhitley

GZino

DubG GC

Heelsfan

JMassey

I need all of you who has not contacted me to send me an e-mail. I am shooting for the draft to take place on Saturday at noon at The Free Press office; if you can’t make it, it’s no big deal, but I’d really like for you to be here if at all possible. If not, maybe we’ll do an e-mail draft.

Regardless, for all of you not taking part in it, I’ll keep you up to date with our draft picks and we’ll make fun of the bad picks. ‘Cause if I know some of these jokers, there will DEFINITELY be some bad picks.

Fantasy football teams

As many of you are in the process of doing, I am in the middle of (or getting ready to start) drafting my fantasy football teams. Here is a team that I think could do well; I call them the “Mighty, Mighty Johnsons”:

• QB — Brad Johnson, Dal (Thanks to The Kid for this suggestion)
• RBs — Larry Johnson, KC; Rudi Johnson, Cin
• WRs — Chad Johnson, Cin; Andre Johnson, Hou; Calvin Johnson, Det
• TE — Eric Johnson, NO

OK, there are no Ks with Johnson as a last name, although JOHN Kasay (Car) could fill in (thanks, Kraebel!).

Any other ideas for funky FF teams? Or even names for teams? Our good friend Drew Loftis is the KING of FF team names — Hookers with Dysentary; Angry Neighbors with Slingshots and The Mighty Gary Colemans are among the best of the Lofti lot.

I had Champs Chocolate Squirrels in my big-money league last year; I’m leaning towards the Alaskan Snow Dragons and the Chapel Hill Chili Doggers this year.

Additionally, I’ll be setting up the Hanks Blog Fantasy League soon; here are the participants so far:

Me

Flagan

BW

Heelatious

The Kid

Taplie Coile

Charlie K.

GWhitley

GZino

DubG GC

Heelsfan

We need five four three two one more. We’ll either do a live draft or an e-mail draft. I’ll be updating the stats and leaders here on the ol’ blog. Join now!

Any interest in a Hanks fantasy football league?

I’m getting into the fantasty football mode, where I’ll be in my usual 5-7 leagues this year. However, I wonder if any of you are interested in joining a league with me that we’ll keep folks up to date with here on the blog and in the paper? If you are, reply below.

Likely, I’ll let fanball.com run it; that means you’ll have to pony up $9.99 to them to enter your team. But it is ABSOLUTELY the best site; I’ve used it since 1998 and have always been impressed with it.

Real NFL players play fantasy football, too…

An excellent article at ESPN.com about NFLers playing the fantasy game…check it out here.

My take: Why shouldn’t they be able to play? Makes me wish I had an inside guy for my sorry fantasy team in the Kinston Walrus League. I started 6-0 but have gone 2-5 since. Of course, losing Clinton Portis and Trent Green for the majority of the season hasn’t helped, but enough whining.