Oh how fantasy football has changed. The quarterbacks are viable first round picks in some leagues as the rules change to resemble the modern game played on the field, wide receivers actually matter, and defenses are putting up astronomical point totals.

This past season I applied my archaic strategy to my fantasy football team and with the very first pick in the draft I chose Adrian Peterson. By the time I had my second pick, every major quarterback had been chosen and I was left with Donovan McNabb.

It is important to note that the operator of the league altered the scoring so that quarterbacks were awarded six points for a touchdown instead of six and big plays also garnered excessive points. Well, I, coming into the draft woefully unprepared (which is ridiculous since I basically write about sports for a living) and finished sixth in a field of eight teams.

I blamed Brett Favre and his tendency to use Peterson like Andre Rison (as a distraction) as Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice seemed to score more fantasy points for the Minnesota Vikings than Peterson. Oh how I hated every time AP let some scrappy safety pry the ball from his grip.

Then McNabb takes the field with a concussion-prone Brian Westbrook and a Philadelphia Eagles team with no go to guys in the wide receivers core. Yeah, there were games where McNabb had point totals in the 30s and even 40s, but then he would comeback with a pitiful 10 point effort.

Of course, luck also had to do with my demise. I scored the third most points in the league yet went 6-8 because my opponents scored the second most. On a side note, the standings that show Points Forced and Points Allowed also showed a home and away record. Why? I know this is my way of pretending to play professional football, but I am not that delusional.

My other major issue played for the New England Patriots. Mister Randy Moss decided that he was not going to play with the zest for life he had just two years ago. Talk about lame duck status. He had a negative point total one week and put up single digits six other times.

Oh why did I buy into Calvin Johnson in Detroit? Sure he earned his points in other seasons, but the lesson from this season seemed to be that as the league turns into more of an offense-oriented league only pick offensive players from winning teams. Offensive players from bad teams are worthless because their teams lose because they do not score points.

The one good thing about fantasy football, despite the ulcers it gave me, is that it allowed me to find some sicker deeper fascination with the game without season NFL tickets. I diagnosed every game and have a clue how the Indianapolis Colts offense and how it is extremely different from the San Diego Chargers offense despite putting up similar numbers.

Oh well, I am actually giddy with excitement as I wait another six months before I get to obsess over every single play of every single game again.