Air McNair: The beginning of my fantasy football life

In honor of Steve McNair's passing, I'd like to pay homage to him in the only possible way I know how. Air McNair was the first draft pick I ever made in fantasy football. Granted it was in an auto draft. Granted David Akers was my second pick. Granted I had no idea what the hell I was doing (just yet), or more specifically, how to front-load my auto draft with RBs, WRs, and QBs to even have a hare's chance at successfully not drafting 2 Team defenses and 2 Kickers before filling out my position starters and having some viable bench positions for the all-too-important (and incredibly vexing) Flex position.

But this was the SUMMER OF 2000!

How many people were playing Fantasy Football back then? I would bet there are less of you than you might think. How many people can remember McNair taking them to the championship game? How about Lamar Smith? Yeah, I had him too. He was one of my Steve Slatonesque waiver wire pick ups.

But it was McNair who lead my team. And despite drafting David Akers, the Tampa Bay defense and Mike Vanderjagt as my 2-4 picks, I somehow pulled an unlikely upset (made it into the playoffs in an 12 team league) and against even greater odds won the championship.

Beginners Luck? I owe it all to Air McNair.

Rest In Peace,

-Marty