Should I have expected something like this?

If you are like me, and you play fantasy football, then this is by far the best time of the year.

Rankings are released, the most fun part of the year is right around the corner-draft day-and your pounding out your Excel Spreadsheets just in time for draft day, when you put it all on the line to prove to 11 of your buddies that you have better football smarts than they do.

Unless of course, you are cursed, like me.

That's because just a week ago I was just as positive about the upcoming fantasy football season as everyone else.

I was thinking good thoughts, and somehow, when the month of August rolls around, and hope springs eternal, all is well with the fantasy world.

Then Ricky Williams happened.

Let me set the record straight here -- I wasn't planning on drafting Williams.

Hell, I wasn't even trying to negotiate a trade with him, because, well, he was already on my team, from last year.

Yes, that's right, I had him as a franchised player, alongside Peyton Manning, and things were looking good with my unstoppable 1-2 punch heading into this season.

Of course, that was before Ricky dropped his dread-locked bomb on the entire NFL -- after five years in the league, he announced he was going to retire.

So now I sit here less than a month away from draft day, with Manning as the only guarantee I have going into this season.

Meanwhile, the other 11 teams in my league are all getting a full night's rest because they have two horses to ride into the 2004-2005 season with.

I on the other hand, sit here hunched over a keyboard with only the glow of the monitor as my light, desperately mapping out draft day strategy.

The last 48 hours went a little like this.

Just yesterday, I was sitting calmly about four hours before the deadline when I had to have my keepers designated in an email to the commissioner of my league.

Considering I finished a lowly 5-8 last year, and did a late season nose dive that Greg Norman would have been proud of, it was pretty much a no-brainer that Williams and Manning would be my guys heading into this year.

Just a short day later, I was sitting at work, and happened to come across www.espn.com, which informed me of what will be my slow, and painful fantasy football demise.

The more I think about it, the more I understand that this is what happens to me.

While I've never been one of those people who got the unlucky ACL tear in the preseason, or was cursed to get a big injury that would force a fantasy stud on the shelf for an entire year, I AM the one who loses in a variety of ways.

A missed extra point that would have put me over the top, a quarterback who needs just 10 more yards to get me a win, and decides to hand-off the final 5 minutes of a game.

Yes, this is my fantasy football life, and it's one I've pretty much grown accustomed to.

Maybe perhaps, this is some sort of sign that says maybe I take this stuff a little TOO serious.

If it is, well then, I'm only sure of one thing. I'm probably going to lose next week regardless of who is in my lineup.