Fantasy footballers occupy a 'League' of their own

Nearly half of American homes in February watched the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII on NBC. Who even knows how many people turned in to watch the Shiva Bowl last Thursday on FX?

Finally, a show about Week 6 waiver-wire pickups, trade deadline scams and first-round draft picks has hit cable television. In its first season, "œThe League" (rated TV-MA) is about five middle-aged men who have been friends since high school. Their number one goal: win the fantasy football trophy infamously named The Shiva.

And why not have a show about fantasy football? We have shows about the housewives of New Jersey, and shows about pseudo-celebrities dancing, shows about surviving on an island, and shows about Miley Cyrus' alter ego, when in 2009 the best shows revolved around the NFL.

This year, according to the Nielsen Company, three of the top 10 television series had to do with professional football and nine of the top 10 single-broadcast shows involved pigskins as well (the Academy Awards being the exception).

It is inevitable people; America is a football country.

This year marked my first year of fantasy football. My friends from high school and I set up a league on ESPN, created inappropriate names for our teams and sent inappropriate texts to one another before weekly battles. And I'll admit it; I didn't know the first thing about drafting a team.

In the first round I drafted LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers. It was a good pick... in 2006. I then drafted Ben Roethlisberger, Thomas Jones, Terrell Owens and Eli Manning. Sure, I had the opportunity to get Chris Johnson of Tennessee, undefeated Peyton Manning of Indianapolis, Pierre Thomas of New Orleans and Carson Palmer in Cincinnati, but I didn't. I managed to be the laughingstock before pre-season had even ended.

In week one, however, I won! After a three-week skid of constant blowouts, I dropped every player that was weighing me down. I felt like the Cleveland Browns' general manager, dropping and adding personnel after every loss, but in this case I was successful. I proceeded to win again five more times.

Sitting at 6-6, it all came down to the last week of the regular season for me. I had to win my match-up and another team had to lose, and I was in the playoffs. Three touchdowns from Big Ben later, I found myself scrambling to trade for better quarterbacks for the playoff bracket. I got Peyton Manning and picked up Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant.

No matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't beat Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre.

I'm not going to win my playoff game, the Super Bowl, or even the Shiva bowl. But what I am going to do is put the work in next year. I'm going to buy draft guides and watch "NFL Live" every day. I might even fly out to some mini camps to see how Percy Harvin and Maurice Jones-Drew look.

This game is about so much more than the money and the trophy you win at the end of the season. It's about the smack-talk and pride that follows each win.

"The League" gets that. "The League" gets me. This show is one of the funniest programs on any network right now and deserves your attention if you love crude humor, guy talk and what football and fantasy football bring to the table.

"There are a lot of things a man can do with his time. And this... is better than those things." - "The League."