Metaphorical Pins & Needles

In which we delve into the psychosis of a sports fan playing in two fantasy football leagues as he prepares himself to watch his favorite-team-of-all-time, The Philadelphia Eagles, go on to the road to take on division rivals, The Washington (DC) Redskins.

The scenarios play out like so:

• In the real world of the NFL, The Eagles are 3-2 and behind in the Giants and the Cowboys in the division, only ahead of the Redskins at 2-4. We’re not out of it, but we can’t fall too far behind. We need to prove that losing to the Raiders was a fluke and that we belong in the playoffs. The Redskins have yet to face a team this season that had won a game already. The Eagles have won 3 (and should’ve won 4). If the Eagles manage to blow this game, they lose my confidence in their ability to make the playoffs this year - even as wildcards.
• Fantasy Football League 1 - College Group: I’m 3-3 going against Ben who is 4-2. There’s only a small amount at stake for this league and I’m 3rd in my division (10 teams total). It’s a 2QB league, etc. I didn’t expect to win this week (considering I left Veron Davis’ 27 TE points on my bench for Tony Gonzalez’s 3 pts). Currently, I’m up by 11 points and I have Eagles D/ST tonight. But he has Brian Westbrook in RB. So, if Brian Westbrook gets him more points than the Eagles D/ST AND my 11 pt lead, then I lose.
• Fantasy Football Leage 2 - HS Group: I’m feeling slightly more comfortable in this league, on a hot winning streak of 4 games. Currently, I’m ahead 46.5 points, but he still has 4 slots playing tonight: Maclin WR, Cooley TE, Eagles D/ST, Akers K. So, yeah. I need all of those positions to come up with less than 46.5 points.

In conclusion, this is what I’m looking for tonight:

• I want the Eagles to win (first and foremost), without giving TOO many fantasy points racked up by Westbrook/Maclin/Cooley/Akers and just enough points for the Eagles D/ST to help me win in League 1 and not lose in League 2.

It’s an absolutely crazy way to watch sports only accentuated by the fact that there’s simply NOTHING I can do to affect the outcome in any way.