A new season is upon us…

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Jesse in Blog

When we started this site back in July, we didn’t really know what to expect. Having run a different fantasy football related site for five years, we knew we wanted GoHuddleUp.com to be different. The hopes were grand. In retrospect, probably too grand. I’m a full-time student, with a family, and I work (as a painter) to pay my bills. Still, my passion has always been to let my voice be heard. Unfortunately, like the snow in Minnesota has piled up this winter, my real responsibilities piled high this fall. Such business has precluded me from being able to spend time on GHU.

Nevertheless, a new season is upon us. It’s a new year. NFL playoff time is here, and my favorite team (Vikings) has a real chance to win the Super Bowl. With such newness comes renewed hope.

I promised myself long ago that I wouldn’t make New Year’s resolutions any more, because I’m just no good at them. Instead, I’m trying to focus more on the things that really matter to me and let the other things fall away. As a result, I’m going to try to be more active over here on GHU.

We’ll see how things go. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting couple of months as the NFL season concludes.

Me and my Vikes get two bye weeks in a row

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

Those of you who regularly read my postings on this site have probably wondered where I’ve been lately. We’ll, just like my favorite team, I’ve taken a couple weeks off. The Minnesota Vikings didn’t play a game in week 9, and they basically had another bye week yesterday as they hosted the hapless Lions. Honestly, I didn’t even watch the game because the outcome was decided before the opening kickoff. Actually, I missed the entire day of football yesterday as I returned from a fantastic hunting trip out in Wyoming.

Now back to the grindstone this week for both myself, and for my favorite club. Fantasy’s stretch run is beginning, and the Vikes have a couple of competent opponents coming up, so we’re all getting refocused. More content to follow soon…

That’s what it’s all about

Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

Last weekend I was fortunate to attend a very good football game between the Broncos and the Cowboys at Invesco Field at Mile High. The stadium was awesome, and our upper-level seats still gave us a great view of the action as we sat near the 30-yard line. I took this picture of the Broncos two Lombardi’s before the contest began, and they now serve as one of my memories from a truly fantastic day.

After all, winning a Super Bowl is what it’s all about, right?

Not on this day. Glories past may still matter, but the experience of the moment seemed more glorious than anything else last Sunday. My good buddy and I yelled loudly for the home team, drank a few cold ones, and stuffed ourselves on nachos. Maybe that’s why “the present” is referred to as “the present.” This day was certainly a great one for me and an old friend I hadn’t seen in five years.

I wonder if Tony Romo feels the same about the outcome? Probably not. Players play to win games, but for fans like me, it’s all about the experience.

There are a lot of plains in Nebraska

Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

I’ve been away from things for a few days now, just taking some time to clear my head. The kind of time one needs when stretched thin by life’s realities. The kind of time where you surround yourself with those you love and reflect on things long past. It would be wrong to deem those past times as being “better times” just because we now feel loss. They were great times, and we’re wise to re-live them. But we also need to remember the times we’re in right now will soon be tomorrow’s yesterdays. Deep? Maybe, but the kinds of things one ponders while gazing at the plains in Nebraska.

I grew up in the panhandle; that’s what the small-towners in Northwest Nebraska refer to the rectangular shape of the state’s left-most extremity. It’s different there, you can be sure. The towns around are filled with kindly folk who do things the way things ought to be done. A handshake is all you offer as a pledge of your word, and dinnertime has a mandatory attendance policy. See, here people are the most important part of life. Grandsons mow lawns each weekend for Grandmas, men open doors for women, people greet one another with smiles, and a never-ending game of dominoes goes on down at the community center. The rolling plains out the window serve as the perfect backdrop for a simpler way of life.

It’s from one of those small, seemingly insignificant towns that a big story unfolded. Broadwater is barely a dot on the map of my atlas, but it’s the epicenter of my family’s story. My grandma is from there. Met my grandpa there when he had just returned from WWII. They lived in a 400 square-foot house there (with an infant) nearly 60 years ago. It’s in that same town this week my family buried that soldier, in a cemetery on the side of a trademark rolling hill. The man was my grandfather, and he’ll never be forgotten. Partly because he was jokester and loved to tell tales, but mostly because he was our ‘Pa’.

Yes, the story I speak of starts in a very small town. In fact, the story probably wouldn’t be of interest to you, because it’s my family’s story. Tons of chapters, told by different tellers, weave an endless string memories together. I’m seeing, more than ever, that the story is important. I’ve always known that family was to be a priority, but honestly, my own busyness and desire to achieve have often derailed me.

I’m glad it’s quiet here in Nebraska, I think it’s supposed to be. It makes thinking and reflecting a daily ritual, and that’s exactly what I needed. I’m leaving here with a pledge to refocus. Remembering is great, and sometimes it’s all you have left. But taking time to make the memories is just as important. Throw a ball with your kid when he wants you to. Take your wife out to dance. Tell your mother you’re sorry, or you love her. Call that brother you haven’t talked to in years. Reflect.

Good bye Pa, I love you.

When you are out here, you feel it. There is a connectedness between the plains and the people.

Smack Rules: Don’t be a Donkey

Posted on 11. Sep, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

As another season of fantasy football gets underway, I feel it is a good idea to remind ourselves about a few guidelines for smack talk on your league’s message boards. While smack is certainly part of the game, if it goes unchecked, it can ruin any league. Here are a few tips each owner should follow to effectively avoid any drama on your message board, because after all, you don’t want to be thought of as the leaugue donkey, do you?

1. Minimize profanity. While I can occasionally appreciate the well timed “F-Bomb” for dramatic purposes (yes, I dropped one in the presence of my kids, on national TV once- sorry Granny!), profanity in written word seems much worse. See, to type a swear word takes specific intention, compared to “letting one fly” vocally. Good smackers try to creatively use their mastery of the english language to get a point across with intelligence… it’s just the right thing to do.

2. Don’t kick a dead horse (or donkey). Jim Rhome has made a career of repeatedly bashing a certain topic, but even he can get annoying in a hurry. Page 2: Certain things happen in fantasyland that upset us (bad trade, lopsided deal, poor scheduling breaks, etc.) and may cause us to wander towards redundancy, but it’s best to say your peace and be done with it. Continued brow-beating of any topic can make some owners feel ashamed, like they are viewed as less-savvy, and often leads to the loss of fun- which is why we play, no?

3. Keep it above the belt. Don’t use the message board as a place for personal attacks against another owner. I got into a war of words with another owner in a league that I had played in for 7-years; it so damaged my reputation in said league that I eventually had to quit because of our long-standing angst. Sad to say, I’ve lost the respect of other people in that league who I once considered true friends… all over smack-talk!

4. Always re-read your post before clicking “post message”. Often times we can find it theraputic to verbally obliterate our competition, but we are wise to re-read our posting and consider the consequences of our words carefully before putting them out there for the whole world to see. The “sticks and stones” thing is pure crap: words do hurt people, and can cause lifelong problems if we allow them to. In fact, the greatest book ever written tells us that the power of life and death is in the tounge. I submit that with the written word, it is even much more so.

5. Two strokes and a poke. Two years ago I’d have had a “Mike Vick in prison” joke to drop here, but now I digress. This easy saying is actually a good guideline for smack talk. It’s simple, for every “poke” you take at another owner’s team (try to avoid personal stuff and keep it focused on the game), you should give them two “strokes” (props for something good they have done). Keeping this mindset helps to insure that all owners are having fun, and that everything stays on a positive course overall. NOTE: some of the “strokes” can be on a phone conversation on just hanging out. The key is keeping a positive rapport with every owner.

6. Know your target. When you play in the same league year after year, you will learn much about your opponents. You will learn what really sets them off, and what they will accept as within the fair boundary. Humor is key here, but ask yourself: “Will the owner this smack is aimed at be able to laugh this off?” If not, reconsider your attack, and try to be witty… not cruel.

7. No name calling. Specifically calling any owner “stupid”, “cheater”, “liar”, “idiot”, “dumbass”, and the like will not win you any friends. Although what you are saying may have some validity, using this approach only undermines whatever feelings you may have about a certain situation, and invites more of the like in retaliation against you. Furthermore, I advise all commissioners; if you have an owner repeatedly violating this on your message boards, you may have to banish them from the league if they don’t heed your warnings. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, and sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and move on.

I truely love this sport (and yes, I did say sport), and want everyone who plays it to have an enjoyable time. I’d advise you use your message boards this season with these tips in mind, and encourage others in your league to do the same. After all, smack should increase the action and bring out the competitive nature of the guys in your league, not have them wanting to cave each other’s faces in.

Don’t be a donkey.

My son loves caterpillars

Posted on 29. Aug, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

My son loves caterpillars. He’s got two of them up in his room right now. After finding them the other day in a friends garden, he made a makeshift home for them out of an empty plastic container. It’s the kind of thing that makes an inquisitive nine year-old stop and think. One was much larger than the other to begin with, and both were different in many ways. He put some milkweed leaves inside the container so they could continue to eat, and poked some air holes in the makeshift saran wrap lid. After all, caterpillars, like humans, need to eat and breathe to survive.

My son loves caterpillars. He’s fascinated by how they move so slowly. One can sit all day on the same leaf, barely seeming to do anything at all, besides the occasional wiggle or slight shift. I noticed on about day three of this experiment that these caterpillars produce a ton of waste. Yep, they poop a lot, and the evidence is very apparent all over the bottom of the container. Though some may think the whole thing is disgusting, I must admit the colorful caterpillars do have a strange, unique beauty about them.

My son loves caterpillars. Of course he was very excited when the first one, which he had named “Spike,” built its cocoon. He’s since informed me that it’s technically not called a cocoon, but should instead be referred to as entering the “chrysalis stage.” Sounds impressive. I’ve read that the caterpillars often grow rapidly prior to entering the chrysalis, and they instinctively head to the top of their container as they prepare for their eventual emergence. Now I’m no scientist, but I’m guessing that they are planning to fly after their transformation becomes complete. It is somewhat strange though, as my son’s other caterpillar is still just sitting there on his leaf doing nothing. I guess caterpillars develop in their own time.

My son loves caterpillars, but through this experiment I must admit I’ve been somewhat captured by the little creatures as well. See, they have reminded me of some things about myself, and about others who I care deeply for, which I had lost sight of. Really, when you think about it, we’re all kinda like caterpillars. We’re uniquely different, we move at our own speed, and in the meantime we leave a pile of crap in our wake. Seriously. The sole purpose of the caterpillar is the beauty that will one day spring forth from the cocoon.  But by that time, the caterpillar is long gone. Replaced. A transformed butterfly will emerge.

Now you may not see the connection between we humans and these caterpillars, but I do. For years I’ve angrily wished that people around me would change, and some of those same people have wished I would change too. But just like my son and his caterpillars, yelling at the plastic bucket doesn’t make the process move along any faster. It’s taken me a while to realize that. I’m a guy who has beliefs in a higher power, but you may choose to disagree. That’s your choice and I’m not here to convince you. Instead, I’m urging you to look at people differently… look at them like caterpillars. See, each of us is at his own point, in his own journey. Each of us wants to fly, but the circumstances and the timing of things may not be aligned quite yet. In fact, I believe that some parts of us may never fully change into all they could become. I’m finally coming to grips with that, and I guess it’s ok. The process of improving is likely more important that becoming improved anyway. So I’m going to try, from this day forward, to look at people like caterpillars. I think that’s what God would do, and he’d likely have the same thing to say that I do.

My Son loves caterpillars.

Sometimes you just need to hit bottom

Posted on 03. Aug, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

By now you’ve heard the news. The Super Bowl hero from just 18 months ago has been indicted on three felony weapons charges. Yes, Plaxico Burress made a real mess of things when he illegally carried a weapon into a nightclub last November and accidentally discharged it into his thigh. Now, the All-Pro wideout faces the biggest uphill battle of his life. If convicted on these charges, Burress could face a minimum of more than three years in jail.

Burress testified remorsefully on his own behalf today, but the federal grand jury didn’t see fit to excuse his reckless behavior. In fact, Burress’ lawyer doesn’t sound too optimistic, telling reporters: “When you have the mayor and the district attorney both publicly demanding a maximum prison sentence, it was perhaps too much to hope for the grand jury to conduct a sympathetic review of the unique facts of this sad case.”

Maybe it was wrong of Burress’ lawyers to expect any preferential treatment. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time an athlete of his magnitude was exonerated on charges that would ruin the life of an average Joe like you or me. Still, I think Plax’s lawyer summed the situation up succinctly when he used the word “sad.” It is sad. Not because I love Plax or am a Giants fan, I’m not. But sad because Burress is hitting the bottom, and I know how painful that process can be.

I’ve got a beautiful wife and three great kids. Two and a half years ago, I had alienated myself from them due to poor choices and an addiction problem. Thankfully, I never had any legal repercussions whatsoever. But still, when I found myself living on my own in a one bedroom apartment, I realized how badly I’d messed up. The bottom was unavoidably agonizing. The hardest months of my life. But sometimes you just need to hit bottom.

Fortunately for me, the bottom wasn’t my end. I was able to address my problems head on, and I’ve seen a miraculous turnaround over the past 30 months. My wife and I have reunited. We just celebrated our 13-year anniversary last month. The kids are great, and I certainly don’t take them for granted any more. See, sometimes you just don’t know how good you had it until you lose everything.

Not that Burress will ever read this post, but if he did, I’d tell him one thing. Don’t shy away from the gravity of your own mistakes. A man without scars can’t be trusted. Only someone who has been to the bottom and then came out on top could understand. My hope for Plax is that someday he’ll be able to look back on this test with pride. Like me, the bottom could actually end up being a blessing in disguise.

The problem with the world today

Posted on 19. Jul, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

All any of us really have is our time.

The problem with the world today is simple, yet inexorably complex. It boils down to one simple concept, yet we can’t wrap our minds around that to save our souls. The concept is there before us each day. In fact, it makes up each day. The problem with the world today is time, or lack of it. Twenty-four hours, that’s all anyone gets, and yet, we are forced to carve out careers, relationships, build and amass fortunes, all as our most precious resource slips away. At the end of the day and at the completion of our tasks, we hope to fit some sort of leisure into our hectic schedules, of course, if time permits. We basically have to plan to be impulsive these days:

“Hey honey, lets do something wild and crazy… something on the spur of the moment. Yeah, Thursday night at 7 works great for me.”

See, when you boil it down, what commodity do any of us have that is more important than our time? The American Dream has become a true nightmare. In our pursuit of boxed happiness, we’ve traded that which really matters for what we’ve been told will make us happy. That bigger house, that newer car, that slimmer figure. Each pursuit costs us time on the treadmill, figuratively or literally. And I hate treadmills. Figuratively and literally. The elusive nature of our own goals can cause real pain. I believe that pain comes, in large part, because each of us knows a very unpleasant truth. At the end of each day we’ve spent something we’ll never get back. We’ve handed over, of our own free will, our most precious asset… our time.

I’m a busy guy. I’ve got a beautiful wife (I promise, no more Kim Kardashian pics on the new site honey), three great kids, and I am a full-time student with a full time job. I’m also heavily involved in playing music at my church and have an admitted addiction to fantasy football. Each one of these things takes up my time. Rather, I give my time, of my own choosing, to each of these things I value. I’m also pledging some of my time to this new website: GoHuddleUp.com.

GoHuddleUp has a nice ring to it. Rolls off the tongue. But it’s also got a bit of a deeper meaning, and I’m feeling that more now than ever. You see, in the huddle, plans are made. In the huddle, revisions happen based upon the current situation. I’ve been involved in several “fantasy football only” sites throughout my career, and I’ve loved the ride. However, I started feeling like those weren’t making the best use of my most precious asset: my time.

So let me thank you, my reader, for spending your time here with me on GoHuddleUp.com. I know you are sacrificing something else to be here. I think it’s only fair of me then to explain to you, I don’t know where this journey is taking me. I know football. It’s in my pocket. I’ve also got interest in a much wider array of topics, which I hope to discuss here. So it’s back to the huddle for me, back to assess that which really matters. I know I can punch out Sports  Newsbreakers until the cows come home. That’s not a challenge any longer. But here at GoHuddleUp.com, I’m wanting to go deeper. What that means exactly, I do not know. I can’t take off those old clothes and put on new ones instantaneously. I do know this journey is going to be an adventure.

The problem with the world today is simple. We waste our most precious seconds all too often. I’m just as guilty as the next guy, and it haunts me too. So as I move forward in life, I’m really trying to take account. To make each thing I invest in be worthy of my investment. I believe GoHuddleUp is more than just a football site. It’s a chance for me to reach a little bit deeper. To pry back the layers, into who I really am. Hopefully, I’ll bring some of you along for the ride. Thanks for the time.

Welcome

Posted on 15. Jul, 2009 by Jesse in Blog

Welcome to GoHuddleUp.com!  This is a site dedicated to the sport I love…FOOTBALL!!  I am just getting things kicked off with this site, but over the next few weeks I will be adding a ton of content.  So, go ahead and subscribe and give me your feedback as I go.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jesse