Fantasy The Word

Broncos running back Travis Henry has tested positive for marijuana and could be suspended for one year, Fox 31 in Denver is reporting.

Meanwhile, Newsday is reporting that Henry is suing the NFL to prevent it from using the results of the drug test to suspend him. If the lawsuit fails -- and it seems like an incredible long shot -- he could also appeal, but the chances are very good that Henry will be suspended for a year, and that the suspension will come soon.

Henry, who is leading the league in rushing, served a four-game suspension in 2005 after testing failing a drug test when he played for the Tennessee Titans. Henry signed a five-year contract with the Broncos in March that guaranteed him $12 million, but unless the Broncos' front office is a collection of the world's biggest idiots, they included a provision that allowed them to get his bonus money back if he failed another drug test.

More at Pro Football Talk.

MDS is in Bristol for an ESPN Media Workshop. Here's his latest dispatch from behind the cameras of the Worldwide Leader.

Yesterday I spoke with some of the bigwigs at the biggest player in the sports web world, ESPN.com. And from talking to Rob King, the editor in chief of ESPN.com, and John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager of digital media at ESPN, it's clear that the blogosphere is not a particularly high priority for ESPN.

The decision-makers at ESPN.com see three things as the top priorities for the site: Video, fantasy games and using the web to integrate all of ESPN's different platforms (TV, radio, magazine, etc.). Blogs are way down on the list of what ESPN.com cares about. It's not that they're anti-blog, it's just that they don't have all that much interest in blogs.

King (whose background is in newspapers) said that journalism is central to what ESPN.com does, and although he mentioned that he thinks highly of the work done by Henry Abbott, my general sense is that ESPN is a lot more likely to hire more beat writers like Mike Sando than it is to hire more bloggers like Abbott.

The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



I was going to write today about the Michael Vick apology, but I was only able to see it 693 times on television yesterday, and I didn't feel like that was enough to get a firm grasp on it. I needed at least 1,100.

Besides, I was tied up for a very, very, very long time yesterday with the AOL Fantasy Football Mock Draft. Don't get me wrong, I usually wouldn't mind a 5-hour draft ... provided that it's in person and with people I know. But. I suppose, as far as 5+ hour on-line drafts with strangers with whom I'm not in direct communication with go, this one was superb.

And since it was so much fun, I figure I should at least get a column out of it. I'd like to take you through some of the more interesting selections. You can peruse through the whole draft here if you'd like, where each selection is accompanied by comments from the general public, draft host Thomas Herrera, and the expert making the pick.

In a related story, I think it's time we re-evaluated the term "expert."

(Also at the bottom: Mexico's almost as competitive with the U.S. at basketball as they are at soccer ... Okay, I am going to talk about the Michael Vick apology, but just briefly, I promise ... and there's an ugly Ronaldinho rumor out there ... )

The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



Maybe this is sufficient reason to entitle this column "I'm a dork," but there are few days on the calendar that I value above the day of the annual fantasy football draft.

There's Christmas, maybe a birthday, maybe a friend gets married, maybe you're looking forward to the release of a DVD featuring your favorite adult film star, or maybe you're up for parole on November 19th ... but that's about it. How many days of the year do you get most of your friends in one room for hours at a time, with total license to insult, belittle and curse at them to your heart's content?

It's not often, and to me, those opportunities are special. By now, most of us are fantasy veterans and know how to get through a draft, but if yours is still coming up, I've put together a list of handy Do's and Don't's that might help to maximize the enjoyment of your fantasy football draft experience.

(Also at the bottom: Eddie Griffin, I'm sorry you're dead ... Stephon Marbury would like to talk to you about deers ... Oregon really has no excuse to not win the national championship in every sport, every year ... and Tiki Barber, though criticizing him, has found a way to make Eli look mature and sensible ... )