With the trade deadline nearing or already here in many fantasy football leagues, it's time for the annual tradition that drives all scrupulous fantasy geeks nuts.
It's the time of year when fantasy owners in the running for a playoff spot lose all sense of fairness and work up absurdly lopsided trades with their pals whose teams have long been out of the postseason hunt.
You know the type: "Let's see, how about I give you Cadillac Williams and Kerry Collins and you give me Aaron Rodgers and Brandon Jacobs. ... Oh, and I'll buy your lunch this week."
Check out some blockbusters listed recently on a major fantasy Web site: Kurt Warner for J.T. O'Sullivan. Clinton Portis for Jerricho Cotchery and Daunte Culpepper (really). And my personal favorite: Derek Anderson, Austin Miles, David Akers, Kevin Curtis and Fred Taylor for Drew Brees, Marshawn Lynch, Bernard Berrian, Donald Driver and Matt Prater.
Please, contending fantasy owners, don't stoop to this level. And please, losers, don't junk up the rest of your league.
As you lobby your commissioner to crack down on the trades that threaten the very fabric of this pretend game, here's a look at some players to start and some to avoid in Week 10:
QUARTERBACKS:
TAKE A SHOT
-What's become of the good old black and blue division? Now everybody scores 30 or 40 in NFC North battles, so look for more big days from Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers (300 yards or at least 2 scores in all but 2 games) and Minnesota's Gus Frerotte (5 TDs in last 2 games).
-In the four games since his 6-touchdown eruption, the Jets' Brett Favre has just 3 TDs and 8 interceptions. But he's due to go off against the 28th-ranked pass defense of the Rams, who get credit for trying recently but still have that JV look about them.
-Is it physically possible to be terrible against the Bengals and Lions in back-to-back weeks? Probably not, so look for Jacksonville's David Garrard to bounce back. He'd gone four straight with a score before inexplicably becoming the first QB in recent memory to collapse against Cincinnati.
-Atlanta's Matt Ryan is hardly playing like a rookie anymore, with two TD passes in three of his last four games. And now he gets the flimsy Saints defense that gets significantly flimsier on the road.
BACK AWAY SLOWLY AND NOBODY GETS HURT
