Cyber Sunday

It's not just for geeks anymore. Fantasy football's gone mainstream.

A A A Comments By Ray Hafner Thursday, Dec 22 2005

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"Is this still the early games?" asks Caswell. "I feel like I've been here eight hours," he says, putting his Giants koozie over another beer. As with any rivalry game, the trash talking is running heavy, especially with Dallas being only one touchdown behind, but because of the real game and fantasy game going on, the whole thing becomes kind of meta. It takes a keen ear or a lot of practice to figure who's picking on whom and why.

After Eli Manning misses a pass, Caswell says, "Nice try."

Daniel Kramer

Dawn Dancy has been disappointed by David Carr all season.

Daniel Kramer

PJ's patrons chow down every Sunday.

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"Nice try…nice try?" implores his buddy, looking skeptical. "Apparently he's not on your fantasy team."

Caswell mutters something back about how you can't get upset over every little play. These players may be focused in on the big game, but you can see their eyes darting around to check stats in the other matchups, doing the mental calculations. Their $200 buy-ins are starting to become very real.

Another player, Tonja Griffin, comes over and starts ragging on Caswell for being a Yankee and because his fantasy team sucks. "Shut up, Tonja," yells Caswell. But Tonja's nowhere near shutting up. Dallas fails to make a comeback in the final minute, and the Giants hang on to win 17-10. Meanwhile, the Texans are folding in the final minute against Baltimore, much to the dismay -- but hardly the surprise -- of everyone in the bar. But for Caswell and the rest of the crowd, it's no worries. They've still got the afternoon and night games, and there's plenty of beer behind the bar. The fantasy stats keep adding up. The regular season won't be over until January 1, and for fantasy players, that's a long way off.