I don’t know about you, but fantasy football wise this is absolutely the worst month of the year for me. The furor over the NFL draft and free agency is now only seen in our rear view mirrors. It’s too soon to draft for the 2008 season and even mock drafting feels a bit premature.

Yet the itch to start something, anything for that matter, grows every day. Nothing I do stops this itch either. Reading articles, scanning the Quick Bits, mulling over my dynasty team roster ad nauseum and planning my draft that is still ninety long days away just makes the itch more irritating.

Yes, it certainly helps that my beloved Sox and Cubs have both been in, or very near first place in their respective divisions of late. And it certainly is refreshing to see the Bulls cap off one of the most disappointing seasons in the forty years I have followed them with a gift from the NBA, the first pick in a draft order drawn in a way that makes no sense whatsoever.

But even with the joy supplied by other teams in other sports, my first sports love is fantasy football. I was pondering that point with a friend just yesterday. I guess that as one gets further away on a timeline from the days of actually playing competitive sports, fantasy football provides a great outlet for discharging one’s aggressive nature. With our dynasty league entering its 24th year, obsession would be an understatement. I passed obsessed over 20 years ago and haven’t looked back.

Last year I was in more leagues than ever and learned the bittersweet lesson that more is not always better. By the end of the season I was more emotionally drained than I have ever been playing this game. My two playoff runs went down in flames and I wound up a scant 200 points from winning my Sporting News salary cap league (out of about 40,000 points). Visions of Marc Bulger, Shaun Alexander, Frank Gore, Jeff Wilkins and the Baltimore defense still haunt me when I sleep.

Injuries, surprises, close losses… Oh, such agonizing memories! Fortunately, at my age, the memory starts to stutter a bit. Thankfully, most of the brain cells that I had in 2007 have mysteriously vanished.

Wait! Where am I? Fantasy football-what the hell is that?

Oooops. I almost erased too much!

Phew! I’m back again.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I was disappointed the other day to find that our old buddy Smitty won’t be hosting his expert’s league again. It seems that since he couldn’t win, he decided to take his ball and go home. That was a lot of fun last year and I was looking forward to it so much. Although I got edged out in the playoffs, it was fun being #1 in the league power rankings each and every week of the season. It was also a kick to beat fantasy expert Jamie Eisenberg from CBS Sportsline twice.

But, on the other hand, Bonnie and I will be in two leagues managed by our friend Tim Van Prooyen. Much to our delight, my two sons Geoff and Greg will be joining us in one of them. After playing with us in the Sporting News salary cap league for several years, this will be their first head to head re-drafter league. That makes me a very proud papa.

This is the month where I start writing for the draft guide. After doing things for a while you need to make sure you are writing with a fresh outlook each time. Writing about the game we all love is something that gives me great pleasure. But nothing cures that itch like playing the game.

Now we are starting to roll with our second season of the FF Mastermind IDP League. I have been excited about the subscriber response. Last year it was like pulling teeth to get 12 participants. This year we had more people clamoring to play than slots.

Mark (Sportsprophet) is doing a great job of being commissioner once again. The league is going to be played at MyFantasyLeague.com this year which will be a BIG improvement over the primitive, confusing setup at Y_____. Last year, the wacky waiver system and low IDP scoring scale made it less than a satisfying experience. This season promises to be a lot better. The draft is less than a month away and I can hardly wait.

Is it just me, or does the NFL seem to have taken the No Fun League concept to another level? Regulating player celebrations is one thing, but now they are worrying about hair length and monitoring player’ personal lives to the point of absurdity. Owners are crying about losing money on one hand, while signing $72 million contracts with the other. This is getting just plain silly.

The owners say they are losing money, yet the market value of the teams is soaring. NFL teams are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. How many owners do you suppose have not seen their initial investments increase exponentially over the last decade? When the market values of the teams start to fall, then and only then will I believe they need salary relief from the players. This losing money cry reminds me of the talk of voodoo economics back in the Reagan presidency years. It’s a crock!

Another thing that bothers me as we await the start of some real football action is the increased level of disciplinary vigilance in today’s NFL. Could a Joe Namath or Jim McMahon, or countless other old timers, play in the 2008 NFL? No, I don’t think so. They probably would have been branded as bad apples and be prone to suspension after suspension. It’s amazing how folk legends in one generation could be called turds in another.

No, I’m not saying that DUI’s, domestic violence, or drug and steroid use should be swept under the carpet. Let them play out in a judicious manner through the court system. The role of the commissioner has evolved into that of being the school principal. The NFL has become like a Welcome Back Kotter episode, without the humor. Cedric, you misbehaved on your boat last weekend! Go see Mr. Goodell and get a pass before returning to class.

Now every “incident” is becoming a major issue. Why do we have to care whether Jared Allen’s bar closed and went out of business? Why does the best, highest paid defensive end have to worry that a wild night out could knock him out of football for anywhere from eight weeks to a full season? This should be an issued played out in the courts. Most employers worry about an employee with an alcohol problem and help them get into a treatment program.

The NFL’s treatment program is to punish them and take away the mega million dollar livelihood. HELLO! What good does this do?

If someone uses performance enhances, suspend them. Period! No exceptions! But know the difference between a dietary supplement or cold medicine with a hidden ingredient and steroids, or HGB.

But with all these legal issues, leave them up to the individual teams to deal with. How in the world does a DUI affect the integrity of the game? How does getting into a fight with your spouse affect the game? Let these legal issues play out in the judicial system and if the team thinks further action is required, let the team impose sanctions.

While I certainly don’t condone cruelty to animals, the Michael Vick last year is a good example. He committed a crime. The judicial system punished him, perhaps even more so than the average person because of his public persona. Why does the NFL need to suspend him as well?

I have been a Bears fan for about 50 years now and there have been countless running backs that have come and gone. Other than Walter Payton, Gale Sayers and to some extent Neal Anderson, most have been very average at best.

I think that as a player, the selection of Cedric Benson was a wasted draft pick by the Bears, but the hullabaloo over his off field activities the last month has been absurd. His arrest in Texas was basically for having a party with some family members and friends on his boat that was at anchor and not even underway. That sordid story hadn’t even faded away when word came the other day that he got a speeding ticket. Both of these “BIG” stories have gotten almost more attention than the Chicago trial of a sleezeball fund raiser/job broker tightly connected to our current crooked governor.

Give me a break! Let’s put the G-A-M-E and F-U-N back into the NFL. With over 2,500 players, not selected for their good manners or gentle spirits, what the hell do the powers that be expect? Unless the players commit a crime worthy of imprisonment, just let it go NFL.

I can see it now – a headline in 2009 proclaiming “Peyton Manning suspended four games because of 16 unpaid parking tickets.” Or maybe even, “Babygate - Tom Brady suspended for impregnating his 12th fashion model out of wedlock, ignoring Goodell’s warning.” Enough is enough!

Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue were heralded during their tenures as outstanding commissioners. They were respected by owners, players and fans alike. Roger Goodell rules with fear and intimidation and carries a big stick. I think it’s time for him to put down the stick and work on more important matters, like untangling the onrushing labor imbroglio, bearing down on the league like a runaway freight train.