I admit, I like it when my world leaders know a little something about sports. And yes, I'm one of those people who looked up President Barack Obama's pick's for the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament (thanks for the UNC pick, by the way).
But I think I draw the line of "I give a darn" right before we get to fantasy sports. I personally love fantasy sports and my football season is made all that more stressful and complicated for it. But I don't think I'd want my local politician having that much time on his hands that he can put together a decent fantasy football team.
Yahoo! Sports doesn't see it that way and is trumpeting its new "mobile fantasy football" tools (an iPhone app, a BlackBerry app and a version for the mobile web) for Yahoo! Fantasy Football leagues via a mayoral showdown between 11 cities.
The competition matches mayors head-to-head each week of the fantasy football season, (Sept. 10 - Dec. 28) and the winning mayor takes home $15,000 for the local nonprofit sports program of his or her choice. And in a battle for civic pride, a second $15,000 donation will be awarded to the city with the most votes from fantasy fans.
Participating mayors and cities are: Byron Brown (Buffalo, NY), Buddy Dyer (Orlando, FL), Jim Schmitt (Green Bay, WI), Luke R. Ravenstahl (Pittsburgh, PA), Ron Dellums (Oakland, CA), Kevin Johnson (Sacramento, CA), Mark Funkhouser (Kansas City, MO), Gavin Newsom (San Francisco, CA), R.T. Rybak (Minneapolis, MN), Pam Iorio (Tampa Bay, FL), Mick Cornett (Oklahoma City, OK).
I really wonder why Yahoo! Sports cooked this up. Does anyone else out there think a more meaningful competition would have been between retired football legends from major cities? You know, people that other football fans might of actually heard of? I'm not talking about the guys we see yakking on pre- and post-game shows every Sunday but guys we don't hear from a lot like Rod Woodson, Joe Montana or Darrell Green.
Was nobody else available for this promotion? And if you're going to have a competition between a bunch of politicos many of us have not heard of, at least make it a 12-team league and eliminate the bye week. Two thumbs down all around for this campaign.