“Demons of war came between them. What can bring them back together?”

The movie “Brothers” was actually released in 2009. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire; “Brothers” depicts intense conflict between two brothers resulting from war torn emotions and altered states of complete detachment.

The entirely fictional plot of this film was rendered in exact non-fiction between my brother and I over this past weekend…

However, the stakes of this actual brotherly civil war were much higher than that of the movie. Instead of family, marriage, and war’s effects on humanity; My brother and I waged an epic battle of FANTASY FOOTBALL.

This was a very key matchup. I stood atop the league with a perfect 4 – 0 record. My team has put up astounding numbers of points on multiple weeks to leave me in a commanding position. My brother’s team stood in 2nd place. His record of 3 wins 1 loss was met with similar numbers of fantasy points. It was clear and certain that this was nothing less than a battle of giants, the supreme battle for 1st place.  The titans of the WPE fantasy football league clashed with such force, the entire universe trembled with fear.

My team’s projected fantasy numbers were heavily favored – 147 points vs the 115 of my brother. His team was heavily injured, hurting, limping, but poised with dedication to claw their way to the top. His star running back, LeSean McCoy put up a 25 point game while wearing a FLACK JACKET covering his FRACTURED RIBS.  A truly remarkable feat. Meanwhile, my star running back Arian Foster rushed for a bastardly 25 yards on 11 carries resulting in a despicable 4 (FOUR) fantasy points.

The brutality of this contest weighed heavily on our remaining warriors.

• My brother’s quarterback, Peyton Manning,  put up equally disappointing numbers in what must be his worst fantasy output ever. 8 points.
• Anquan Boldin held to one singular catch for 8 yards; making my WR2 position nothing but a sheer travesty.
• Single digit points continued from at least 3 players on both sides of this contest. The misery and disbelieve in what was taking place continued to add up.

As others fell, the dark horses emerged with valiant efforts to pull their respective teams ahead.  Philip Rivers put up astounding passing numbers coming from my bench.  He now leads the NFL in passing yardage and is tied for most touchdowns thrown.  For my brother, Santana Moss and the Philadelphia Eagles defense combined for nearly 50 fantasy points.  The battle raged at even keel as night time drew upon them.

As Sunday came and went, my brother enjoyed a 20 point lead over my team as we looked to Monday Night’s game.   The final and deciding battle in this epic 2 day war.  I still had one last hope: The New York Jets defense.  My brother’s lone combatant still remained as well: Jets’ tight end Dustin Keller.  Keller posed a worthy foe; as he has been the favorite target of QB Mark Sanchez lately.  Meanwhile, the Jets’ defense faced an aging and somewhat injured/interception prone Brett Favre.  Both sides lined the battlefield stacked with an agonizing blend of hope and frustration.

As the final battle drew closer, we each seemed certain that the other was going to be the victor.  Vanbergs awaited numerous interceptions by my defense on the “pic-prone” Favre.  I dreaded the notion of Dustin Keller catching multiple touchdowns as he has done in the red zone this year.

With the utmost anticipation; we clutched onto our very souls for the final game of the week: Monday Night.  Jets vs Vikings.

The stage poetically set in heavy rain, thunderstorm delays, and utter warfare; the game begins with optimism on both sides.  The rainy weather seems to foretell many short yardage passes to TE Keller; While Favre’s age and health would eventually lead the Vikings scoreless throughout the first half at the hands of my defense.

As the first half drew towards a close, Jets QB Mark Sanchez targeted Dustin Keller for a touchdown pass that was sure to be the nail in my coffin.  I couldn’t bear to watch.  I had to turn away.  Through the complete downpour of rain, the killing strike  of my undefeated season had been unleashed.  As the play closed, the slow motion replay was simply poised to agonize me… but it was time for me to face my fate.  I watch the replay, and the image of Keller dropping the touchdown pass will never leave my memory.

With only a couple receptions for Keller, and a couple turnovers in favor of my defense, I had cut the margin from 20 to 7 at the half.  But time was running out.  Two Vikings touchdowns early in the 3rd quarter increased my uphill climb to victory; but the Jets were heavily run focused and not passing to Keller at all (at the detest of my brother).  As the game wore on, the Jets maintained a narrow lead over the Vikings and my brother was under 2 minutes away from squeaking out a viciously epic, hardfought, and utterly narrow victory.

But with some terrible clock management, the Jets had given the Vikings a striking chance at a final game winning drive.  The offense took the field for Minnesota, and they would serve as salvation for one of the VanBergen brothers.  As the aging Favre drew back his next throw, he unleashed all of the torment and hardship that this fantasy war has caused.  The most momentous and profound pass ever thrown was screaming through the air; the outcome of true warfare spiraled into the rain soaked air. With only 1 minute left, in one of the last plays in the last game of the week, Brett Favre threw an interception to my Jets defense that was returned for a touchdown.

I simply cannot imagine the blinding red infuriation caused by this singular play.  In one play, my team wins by one point.  In one play, Vanbergs’ team falls from 2nd place to 4th place.  In one play, I have maintained an undefeated season thus far.  In one play, the relationship between brothers may never again be the same.

This is undoubtedly my favorite time of year. Football is my favorite sport by far, and the start of NFL/Fantasy/College Football this year has me very excited.

Let’s start at the top:

The Detroit Lions
Every single year, I am overtaken with immense anticipation of what the Lions are going to offer. Continuously, it is an immense let down. The Lions are literally astounding at how they can grip their fans’ optimism and crush it over the regular season. The Lions hit rock bottom in 2008; finishing with a record of 0 wins, 16 losses. The PERFECT season of fail. 2009 was only marginally better; with a record of 2 – 14.

I have some cautious optimism this year; as the Lions appear to have some significant improvement in their offense with the likes of Jhavid Best, Tony Scheffler, and Nate Burleson. Matthew Stafford showed really pretty impressive numbers in the pre-season; so I maintain my optimism as we look to the season opener this weekend.

University of Michigan
The college football season opened last weekend, and Michigan played excellently well. It’s been hard for me to maintain a fanhood to a single college team over the years, primarily to the change in rosters and rancid BCS bowl system. But, having my cousin Ryan VanBergen as a starter on the U of M defense makes it very fun and exciting to watch.

U of M has some upward ground to climb to overcome two pretty awful seasons of their own. But, if their opener is any indication; then I have high hopes for them this season. Denard Robinson was somewhat a surpise start over Tate Forcier, but he killed it in their opening game. He rushed for just under 200 yards and has really improved his passing game as well. It was a really fun game to watch, the Wolverines looked like a strong team, and my cousin got a couple awesome hits in the game. I’m thinking RichRod finally has things turned around; and that’s a good thing – if he produces a losing record this year it’s pretty much universally guaranteed that he’ll be fired.

Fantasy Football 2010
Much to my own surprise, I have decided to play fantasy football this year. I have been pretty disgusted with how my last two seasons have turned out regarding fantasy football. I’ve drafted very competitively and intelligently. My teams have put up very good and even league leading numbers; but I’ve been in the bottom shelf of the league since its effing inception. Last year I thought was a breaking point, as I declared via bloggity that I was quitting for good. Vanlandw and others may call out my bluff here, and that’s fine. I’ve shown my ability to stick to my stubborn guns already this year as I quit watching 24 halfway through its final season.

Months of downtime has healed my fantasy wounds. I have overcome complete and whole frustration to forward-looking excitement and anticipation of the fantasy storm that ensues during football season. There are some good changes in our fantasy league that will breathe some freshness into it, and I did end up with a pretty decent draft.

I am going to make bold predictions that this is the year for the tri-fecta of turnarounds:

• Detroit Lions finish with a decent record (9-7 or 10-6) and may even make the playoffs.
• U of M makes a bowl game; following on the heels of their conference wins over MSU and Ohio State. 😛
• “The Double Rainbows” (my fantasy team) will win the effing league.

I look forward to updating this post in early 2011 declaring all my predictions completely wrong on all levels.

I grew up in a small town with a smaller public school system.

In this small public school district, the only time soccer was offered as a sport was during a summer months league.  The programs were largely put on by volunteer coaches/refs and organizations like the Jaycees printed team uniforms.  I took part in this summer soccer league for 2 or 3 summers during my elementary grade-school years.  I never had much interest in it though; as I wanted to spend the precious summer vacation months riding my bike, playing nintendo with my brother, and watching TV and cartoons.  Really I only participated in soccer because my parents took me, my dad volunteer coached our teams, and many of my friends played.

I soon outgrew the summer soccer league, and my minimal interest in the sport faded until it was a complete and total lack thereof.  I didn’t follow the sport, I didn’t find any interest in it whatsoever, even when a more organized school sponsored team formed during my late high school years.

Fast forward more than a decade – and I have World Cup fever.

Before this World Cup started, I couldn’t have named a single soccer player aside from David Beckham.  Still, for reasons that I simply cannot understand or communicate, I’ve made a strong effort to watch as much soccer as possible in these early stages of the tournament.  It started perhaps with the much-hyped USA vs England round 1 match, but it’s since morphed into near addiction.  Following the USA alone has been thrilling and entertaining.  They’ve had very dramatic games with tight scoring, referee controversy, and topped that off with a sensational last minute victory over Algeria to win their group and advance.  Even with the US since being eliminated by Ghana, they’ve certainly made me a fan.

I have been trying to decide the pros and cons of this sport, maybe searching to answers for why I’m all the sudden so into it and eager to jump on the bandwagon.  So this is the best I can come up with:

What I like about Soccer:

• No stoppage of play.  The clock keeps ticking no matter what.  Any lost time for injuries or substitutions is added on at the end of the match per referee discretion.  Compare that to the NBA where the last 2 minutes of a game take nearly as long as the previous 3 periods combined.  Whistles, timeouts, fouls, etc.  Soccer maintains a much quicker flow and consistent tempo because of this and I am glad it works that way.
• Yellow/Red cards.  Seeing somebody get kicked out for a red card is purely entertaining.  I also enjoy the fact that a red-carded player results in the team playing a man down for the remainder of the match.
• The teamwork.  Soccer is similar in strategy to hockey.  The length of the field and gameplay result in a lot of ball movement, passing, and formations.  This makes it impossible to have a “Ball hog” type player a-la Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.  One player can’t make the team, and I like that.
• Substitutions.  I don’t know how other leagues do it, but international rules of the Worldcup only allow for 3 substitutions per match.  This adds to the dynamic of the game, and speaks volumes to the conditioning of the athletes.

What I don’t like about Soccer:

• Dives.  It seems like players continuously take dives at the slightest hint of any contact in an effort to draw penalties.  They do this more than in any other sport I have ever seen.  A slight tap to the calf muscle may result in the player writhing in pain as though his leg was just blown off by a frag grenade.  It’s just completely ridiculous.  But the public makes the most if it with hilarious hilight compilations scattered throughout the web.
• Vuvuzelas.  I can understand blowing an effing Vuvuzela when something happens in the game…  When a goal is scored, a foul, or a great play.  But when fans just blow them continuously and constantly it makes no sense to me whatsoever.  It’s almost like the fans are bored with soccer and have to do something to occupy themselves.  The sound is annoying, distracting, and is seriously almost unbearable to cope with.  It sounds like a swarm of steroid pumping insects that can devour anything in their paths.   They’re terrible.

With all of that detailed near-amateur analysis, the bottom line is that I’ve enjoyed this year’s World Cup tournament quite alot.  I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of it play out.  And I just may be a converted soccer fan.