I used to be crazy about fantasy sports. Ridiculously crazy. Stats, records...I immersed myself in it.

I still get into it, just not with anywhere near the same level of intensity.

I'm still willing to try some fun new fantasy twist.

Thus, this year's foray into NFL.com's Playoff Fantasy Football.

It actually wasn't my idea.

My friend Kevin (I'll introduce him further at another time...I'm sure he'll pop up again multiple times over the course of the year) sent around an e-mail to a few of us who play fantasy baseball together suggesting we sign up. It doesn't take much more than that to convince me.

What's striking about this game (actually called "Fantasy Playoff Challenge"), though, is how different it is from anything I've attempted before. You get somewhat traditional fantasy points from each player, but the longer they are on your team the more the points are worth. So you kind of get double-rewarded for picking players who last deep into the playoffs. And if the player has a bye in the first week, you still get double points in his first game if you have him the first week. (Hence the gamble I'm taking at QB and TE...I still think the 49ers are going to the Super Bowl, and I don't know if there's a better tight end out there than Gronkowski.)

And I am sure that I know nothing more here than the others in the mini-league, which is why I have no qualms about publishing my roster here.

I don't want to get too deep into sports details here on you, but I'll wrap up with this: I've done playoff pools (and I'm doing one this year), I've done fantasy football before where you pick a team and stick with that team straight through the Super Bowl, but I've never done it like this. And there's nothing at stake here other than pride.

I'm excited about trying out a new fantasy sports activity. And with the Jets missing the playoffs for the second straight year, it's good for me to have as many possible things to root for in the post-season that distract me from that fact.