There’s little in the world of non-real digital sports that beats the feeling of just finishing your fantasy football draft. As you scan your final roster, buzzing on adrenaline and Miller Lite, you realize that the Tom Brady’s Love Childs just might grab the brass ring this season between the metaphorical white lines of battle.
Fast forward. It’s Sunday afternoon, week five in the NFL, but you’re not watching the games. Instead, you’re watching the John Deere National Lawnmower Racing Circuit Semifinals on ESPN27. After all, their stat ticker is faster. You’re sitting alone in the dark, and there’s a little tiny Clydesdale rearing up against the back of your eyeballs, and a nail from one of its horseshoes is loose and catching on your optic nerve as you wait to discover whether Tatum Bell is going to get any goal-line carries. It’s at this point that you realize that maybe fantasy football is not for you.
So you stop playing. And by “you,” I mean “me.” Yes, me stop playing fantasy football. In fact, I quit so long ago that Tatum Bell was my final big sleeper pick. That’s the most timely fantasy reference I can give you.
That is, until today. For you see, a certain ex-Terp is tearing up the fantasy world. That Terp, of course, is San Francisco 49ers tight end and Under Armour Spokesperon Vernon Davis. Davis is currently sitting third in the league TE rankings behind Dallas Clark and Antonio Gates. But that actually seems a little low, especially given that he is leading the league — the entire league — in receiving touchdowns with nine. Only Larry Fitzgerald and Reggie Wayne have as many. Add 57 receptions for 670 yards, and it’s no wonder he’s at 44 overall on the Yahoo! big board.
What I don’t understand is: what happened to his nickname? All throughout college he was “The Duke.” If I remember correctly, at one point he actually insisted on being called Duke Davis. But now he’s just plain old Vernon, at least in the media. But his Facebook refers to him as “The Duke.” Why can’t we bring that back? It’s a good nickname.
I used to have a Wilson football called “The Duke”. Davis may have been a victim of circumstance here, with his entry to the NFL coinciding with the death of Wellington “The Duke” Mara, the late beloved owner of the New York Football Giants. If you can’t get your Vernon “The Duke” Davis campaign moving forward, I like Vernon “Down the House” Davis as an alternative.
When I hear “The Duke”, I always think of Dan “The Duke” Davis from when he read the news on the ESPN incarnation of the Tony Kornheiser Show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Davis
Wow, he just turned 67…sounds about right.