The Student Newspaper of the New York University School of Law

THE COMMENTATORVol. XL, No. 1 September 7, 2005

InfraWould-Be Corporate Lawyers: Get Out Now! p. 2

‘Steel Magnolias’ Surprises Arts Editor p. 3

First-Rate Fantasy Football Drafting p. 4

Continued on page 2

BY CHRIS MOON ’06While the events of Septem-

ber 11 impacted our entire coun-try, the events of that day had anespecially strong impact on NewYork University School of Law.

Over 200 alumni of the LawSchool worked in the World TradeCenter at the time of the attack.The law school’s website indi-cates that at least six men andwomen were lost in the tragicevents of that day.

Throughout the summer thewest side of the courtyard ofVanderbilt Hall was undergoingrenovations. It was finally re-vealed this week that the mainproject of the renovations hadbeen the addition of a small wa-terfall-like fountain to the side ofthe entrance.

In a memorandum to stu-dents, Dean Revesz announced

Courtyard Fountain Will Honor Memory Of Those Lost On 9/11that the fountain was created as amemorial to honor the memory andlegacy of those law school com-munity members lost on Septem-ber 11, 2001.

Dean Revesz invites all stu-dents to the dedication of the me-morial, which will be held onMonday, September 12, 2005. Thededication will take place at 8:30a.m. in the courtyard of VanderbiltHall.

President of New York Uni-versity, and former Dean of the LawSchool, John Sexton, alumnus PaulFrancis (’80), and the Dean willmake remarks, which will be fol-lowed by a moment of silent re-flection.

Those who wish to join theDean in honoring those lost onSeptember 11, 2001 should emailArden Ohls in the Alumni RelationsOffice at arden.ohls@nyu.edu.

BY BEN KLEINMAN ’08Editor’s Note: We asked an

incoming 1L to give his first im-pressions of New York UniversitySchool of Law. What follows isBen’s running diary of Orienta-tion.

Saturday:Basically, I’m nervous. Not

terribly so, but a bit. Maybejumpy is a better description. Andthat could be attributed to the DietCoke I chugged while scanningin pictures for an upcoming fam-

ily party ... well, explaining theparty will have to wait for someother time. But if you’ve everscanned in dozens of pictures,you’ll probably agree that DietCoke helps.

The jumpiness could also beattributed to tomorrow being thecommencement of the first univer-sity orientation I’ve attended inseven years. And it’s been elevenyears since an orientation that ledto the attainment of a degree.

We won’t dwell on the expe-

rience of graduate school in Scot-land right now except to say that agoal of the Marshall Scholarshipprogram is to build bridges acrossthe Atlantic (figuratively, I as-sume) and I feel that developingan appreciation for whisky andpurchasing a kilt qualify. I did mypart and people just need to chillabout the not getting the degreething.

So law school ... I should beready for it. Back in June I quit thejob I’d had for seven years andbegan a summer of leisure withonly one real task to accomplish:to fit into my kilt again.

When I purchased that kilt Iwas 21, in my first year of gradschool, and apparently I sported a32 inch waist. After seven yearsof, ahem, ‘prosperity’ I was a size36. Couple that with the fact thatno matter how hard you try to suckin your gut, 4 inches is a lot. Butjust now it only took five minutesto struggle in.

So I’m tan, more or less backto my grad school fighting trim (butagain, I lost my last fight withacademia). My schedule is printedand in my calendar. I know where Ican stow my bike if I decide topedal in. My tour of GreenwichVillage is confirmed. I have mylocker location and combination. Ihave my law books all on a brandnew Ikea bookshelf. I even have aspare bookshelf still in the flatpack, just in case.

One more night of sleep. Ashave in the morning so that I lookpresentable for the facebook pic-tures. And then orientation offi-cially begins. Heh. Should be fun.It’s only school, right?

Sunday:I feel a little like Winnie the

Pooh when I leave the gym. Butonly a little. Tut tut. It looks like

rain. And then... miraculously, itcleared up. So I walked toschool.

I didn’t bring any books orthe laptop today. I can ferry thema few at a time during the next fewdays. I need to remember to findout if there are showers I can useafter biking. And what the heck arehornbooks? And what’s the dealwith outlines? For the moment,that’s all I’m looking for out of ori-entation.

The day was kind ofunderwhelming in hindsight. Isuppose a careful reading and in-ternalizing of the schedule wouldhave made it a bit more obvious,but the day was fluff.

Registration was a breeze,so kudos to all involved with that.An early highlight was getting alocker. I gazed at it with a pride thatblossomed into love. I evenopened it on the first try. I’m think-ing of decorating it, but I never didthat in high school so I don’t re-ally know how. Suggestions?

The tour was fantastic. Anyguide who can take 2 hours tocover 9 blocks is pretty impressive.In the spirit of openness andbrotherly love, I’ll share my ‘find’of the evening. Having about 2hours to kill before the eveninghappy hours started, I hit V Bar on

Commentator Picture of the WeekThe black suits once again took over the D’Agostino lobby for EarlyInterview Week 2005, August 22 to 26. Second and third yearstudents interviewed with more than 350 private and governmentsector employers for summer internships and full-time positions.

Sullivan. Take a left out of Furman,cross the street, and it’s the thirdor fourth bar on your left. Freewireless, coffee bar, wine bar,pastry bar, snacks, beer on tap, andBelgian beer in bottles. I assumethey have cocktails. We reallyneed to encourage them to offer astudent discount.

The receptions/happyhours were pretty good. Really justmeet and greets, and a chance totry some new pubs. I randomly satat a booth across from a Ms. Rieger,the younger sister of one of mygood friends – when I was 7. Itjust goes to show you that LawStudents for Choice is a great or-ganization.

Definite impression that thiswas a chance for returning stu-dents to reconnect – I learned alot about a few groups and itpretty much whet my appetite forthe organization fair next week.

Monday:Biking in is going to work,

but will require a bit of effort. Sincethe law school is sans shower, afew basic toiletries in the lockerand a spare shirt in the backpackought to do the trick. New sun-glasses, a new backpack, and thatshould trick me out. Mentally

Welcome To NYU Law: Orientation Through The Eyes Of A First Year

THE COMMENTATORThe Student Newspaper of

New York University School of Law

Page 2 September 7, 2005

The Commentator serves as a forum for news, opinions and ideas of mem-bers of the Law School community. Only editorials and policies developedby the Editorial Board reflect the opinion of the Editorial Board. All otheropinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of TheCommentator. The Commentator is issued on alternate Wednesdays duringthe academic year except during vacations and examination periods. Adver-tising rates are available on request. Subscriptions are also available at a rateof $15 per year. Letters to the Editor should be sent to the followingaddress, either on paper or via e-mail.

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e-mail: chrismoon@nyu.edu

Copyright 2005 New York University

Continued from page 1

Commentator Opinions

added those items to my weekendshopping list.

We sat down for a two hourspeak-a-thon this morning. I’munder the assumption that thegoal was to put faces and namestogether, not to actually convinceus that we’re welcome at NYU Law.Trust me, we’re convinced.

By the way, has anyone evercommented on the startling simi-larity between our Dean and Tellerof Penn & Teller fame? I’m not say-ing Ricky isn’t good at what hedoes, but if he wants a free trip toVegas, he may want to proffer hisservices as a stunt double.

Over lunch we had casualmeetings with 2L’s and 3L’s, andthat was fine, but the highlight ofmy first day was getting the wire-less to work. On the first try, at that.

With wireless enabled I wasable confirm for my own eyes thequickly spreading gossip that ourclass had been sandbagged. Noth-ing on blackboard for us, but yes– there’s an assignment on somenonsense called the ‘early assign-ment’ web page. Devious, theselaw school people. They’re earn-ing my grudging respect.

Mostly, this has been achance to meet new people andcatch up with folks from previewdays and the summer reception.Obvious but worth repeating: ourclass is filled with fascinatingpeople and, overall, it rocks.

And while I have no ideawhat a hornbook is, I do know what

a course outline is: Summarizedand reviewed notes. But what theheck, let’s call it an outline. Again,very devious.

Tuesday:I couldn’t help but smile

during the class discussion of theSpeluncean Explorers. Law schoolclasses are going to be a blast. Youget to read and then be askedabout what you read – it’s like bookreports all over again. Only withsmaller print, more Latin, and nonaptime.

The talks about financialaid, jobs and public service werefine – much shorter thanyesterday’s escort to the land ofnod. But I’m pretty sure the up-shot is that anything we need toknow will be emailed to us, andanything we need to do will be,umm, emailed to us.

Have I mentioned the de-viousness which pervades NYULaw? They nailed us again – theLawyering session wasn’t enter-taining introductions and icebreakers. Bam, right into discus-sions about evil celebrit iesbreaking the law and driving intoparks.

And the first reading for ourcriminal law course (see sandbag-ging above) was all about sodomy.Not quite an instruction manual,but Scalia was rather salacious. Inany case, it warmed the cockles ofmy heart. My undergrad institu-tion was in a state where sodomiteswere fodder for fires, not for home-work.

That undergraduate institu-

tion was on my mind more and moreoften as orientation wrapped up.I’m not the only one here with con-nections to Tulane University, toNew Orleans, or to other placesaffected by Hurricane Katrina andits aftermath.

It’s not sad, it’s friggingunbelievable to think that our ad-ministration and fellow studentswere taking action even while thefederal government was lettingcitizens die of thirst and expo-sure.

My anger and frustration atthe government’s inaction andsadness at the devastation havebeen tempered by the great re-sponse of the University and theLaw School. In the middle of theweek I emailed Dean Revesz andspoke at some length with ViceDean Gillette. It turns out, ofcourse, that the SBA was all overthis from the get go: Oliver and histeam are doing a wonderful jobfundraising for Katrina recoveryefforts.

Perhaps it’s some cosmicbalance being maintained whenthe orientation we received wasaccompanied by the disorienta-tion and chaos bestowed uponthe gulf region. The work withKatrina will go on for months,continuing in parallel with the lawschool year.

But I tell you this now, andyou can hold me to it in June.When we finish this year, I’m buy-ing the first round at the TropicalIsle on the corner of Toulouse andBourbon in the French Quarter.

Editor In ChiefChris Moon

Managing EditorMary Santanello

Arts EditorBrigham Barnes

Photography EditorGillian Burgess

Staff Editors

Editors EmeritusEmily BushnellDave Chubak

Alison NorrisLuke Tullberg

J. WilsonCraig Winters

Jackson EatonJulia Fuma

Ben KleinmanKevin Lees

BY CRAIG WINTERS ’07To the newest members of

the NYU Law community, allow meto provide some unsolicited ad-vice: figure out, now, how not tobe a lawyer.

“Woah! Craig,” you may bethinking, “the ink is still fresh onthe $170,000 dollar mortgage onmy future! [Read: student loan.] Imean, aren’t you being a littlecrazy? Or depressing?”

Well, perhaps depressing.And I should amend the abovestatement. For a significant per-centage of you, law firm life willleave you burnt-out, bitter hulksof your better selves. So, when Isay lawyer, I mean “corporate law-yer.”

For starters, isn’t theresomething crazy about the wholelaw school meat factory game tobegin with? We’ve all successfullymastered one of the most intense,cutthroat competitive processesto earn a spot at NYU, and forwhat?

Lawyers have one of thehighest professional job dissatis-faction rates in the U.S. And NewYork lawyers are among the mostunhappy of the lot. (Oddly, a re-cent study has dentists coming inahead of lawyers for the covetedspot of most miserable. Weird.Thoughts on this appreciated.)

Incoming Law Students: Plan An Exit Strategy From Big Law NowAnd what you can look for-

ward to, 1L’s, is to jump, jump, jumpthrough the various hoops that willmagically appear before you.“Learning to think,” on-campusinterview sign-ups, writing sampleprep, the dreaded EIW, offer par-ties, targeted mailings, call-backs,more EIW, the MPRE, bar prep, atwo-day nightmare exam, a shortvacation and then – drumroll,please – work, work and worksome more, and watch one out often make partner!

And don’t forget yourgrades, because whatever lies youhave been told or will be told inthe future, the rough approxima-tion of your GPA at our non-GPA’ed school is by far the mostimportant factor in everythingyou’ll ever want to do with yourJ.D.

Depressed yet? Youshouldn’t be. The above is the funpart. Sitting in your glass-and-steel coffin somewhere in midtownis when the fun really stops.

When you spend a summerat a law firm (which will be 95% ofyou), it won’t take a translator tohelp you figure out the meaningbehind all the inside-jokes aboutthe hellish nature of law firm life.If you really don’t catch on, askyourself: how many suits doesthe average associate have hung

behind the door? Does the firmhave a bathroom with a shower?Why is dinner catering free after8:00 p.m.?

There is an out, though, andmost lawyers figure it out in YearFive (of their associateship, thatis). The reason that the averagemegafirm hires 75-100 new associ-ates each year is that they have 30or so left by Year Five and betweenfive and ten by Year Eight.

Where does the remainder ofthe hundred or so fresh faces gowhen their partner dreams die?Somewhere else, and the sooneryou figure out where your safehaven is, the better for you.

I admit it’s a bit weird to be-gin law school looking for abackdoor, but that’s the reality.Maybe if you had taken your par-ents’ advice and become a doctoror a nurse or an engineer (or evena garbage man, as some of my as-sociate friends mumble) youwouldn’t be in this spot.

But what else to do with adegree in English or political sci-ence? I made my mistakes long,long ago, and now the anvil of theLaw demands its pound of flesh.

And there’s a reason the Of-fice of Career Services (which youwill get to know oh-so-well in thecoming months and years) has pre-cious little advice for you as youplan your jailbreak. Because, com-pared to the supermarket-like op-tions corporate law careers offer,everything else is individualized,out of the ordinary, and pays dirt.

Yes, fair law student, it’shard to pay back a gazillion in loanswhen you get $35,000 from theEqual Justice Foundation. NYUhelps with the LRAP program (pay-ing your loans if you make lessthan $40,000 or so) but there’s noway to save when you make suchlittle scratch. Which may be finewith you! And if it is, jailbreakaway!

But there’s a problem. It’scalled: everyone you know will berich and you’ll be poor. While mostof your friends lunch at the FourSeasons and dine at the UnionSquare Café and after-party atsome fancy place I can’t afford togo to, you’ll hit MickyD’s andjuggle MBNA and your Citicardsand pay 50% of your income inrent to some slumlord in Brooklyn.

Forget ever owning a homeor a condo in this city or even in

New Jersey: average sale price isover $1 million! And at 10% down,that hundred grand is about as ob-tainable on a public interest salaryas your election to the vacantthrone of the Holy Roman Empire(which was, as my 10th grade his-tory teacher taught us, neitherHoly, nor Roman, nor an Empire.But I digress.).

So it’s time to roll-up theshirt-sleeves and get creative.You’re bright, or you wouldn’t behere; you can figure somethingout. Politics, journalism, busi-ness (certainly, if you want to berich, go be an I-banker and don’twaste your time as a transac-tional lawyer at $500 an hour),who knows?

The world is your oyster, ifyou do something about it now.Don’t wait for your first balloonstent and bypass operation.

Or you can lap up the firstyear of law school and ignore thenight train hooting and holleringand surging towards you. “Hey,Winters – that train’s three yearsaway! Why do I have to worry?I’m gonna party and cavort andown this town – or at least the SBAkeg party. And did you hear,Cravath is having a reception atNobu! Free food!”

You’re right, kid. Free food.Contrary to the collective wisdomof the entire economics profes-sion, in the legal world, there is afree lunch.

But my-oh-my, watch thatcliff-edge. Because it’s a doozy.

Diary Of A 1L: Discovering Law School’s Devious Tricks

When you spend asummer at a lawfirm, it won’t take atranslator to help youfigure out the mean-ing behind all theinside-jokes aboutthe hellish nature oflaw firm life.

September 7, 2005 Page 3Commentator Arts

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Newsflash: Man Attends Broadway’s ‘Steel Magnolias’ And Enjoys ItBY BRIGHAM BARNES ’06

Summer in New York is atime of opportunity. You get homefrom work, change your clothes,and then it seems you could doalmost anything you want thatnight. But one Friday night thispast July, I found myself sitting athome without a single idea for whatto do but feeling really desperateto get out and do something.

Then I get a call from myfriend Steve, who gets near-freetickets to plays and musicals allthe time. Once before I got to gosee a new Woody Allen play withhim and some folks thanks to thesemagic tickets. Steve tells me he’sgot three tickets he’s trying to getrid of to a new show on Broadway,and he was wondering if I was in-terested. And I think: “Cheapticket to something? Sure I’m in-terested.”

But then I ask, “What’s theshow?” And Steve says, “Well,that’s the problem. You see, it’s ...it’s ... Steel Magnolias.”

I was being invited to go seethe Broadway production of SteelMagnolias? Quickly I asked my-self: “Self, what do we know aboutSteel Magnolias?” All I couldcome up with was: Movie. I’venever seen it. Julia Roberts.Women. The South. A pizza par-lor? (Turns out I was thinking ofMystic Pizza, another early JuliaRoberts film).

Does it have anything to do

with Fried Green Tomatoes?Women. For a moment I was a littleweirded-out about the idea andpretty sure I was about to renegeon my acceptance, but I decidedto stick with it and agreed to meetSteve at the theater.

On my way to the theater, Ireasoned that, if anything, maybeSteel Magnolias would be dumbenough to inspire some scathingcriticism at a later point in my lifewhere I, say, was desperate to comeup with an article for the first issueof “The Commentator,” and in thetime that passed between accept-ing Steve’s invite and heading forthe theater I was told by a travelerabout to depart for Scotland that“Only a robot wouldn’t cry at SteelMagnolias.”

Maybe I’d wind up writinga facetious review about how Icried through the whole play orwhatever. So, by the time the cur-tain went up, I was pretty psychedup to watch the play with a verycritical eye, enjoy it in a very nega-tive way, and then have at it laterwith (hopefully) humorous results.

And, well, wouldn’t youknow that I pretty much really likedthe play and would even probablysee it again.

A coward would ditch hismean-review-gone-wrong rightnow, but I’ll stick around a littlelonger and try to say what I likedabout the play without going toooverboard.

Because it’s not like I lovedit. It’s not like I bawled my eyesout. But the Steel Magnolias, itwas a little dagger, it stabbed atme a bit, and while I didn’t suc-cumb to any twisting of the blade,I felt the most direct cuts a little. Alittle, I said.

Actually, I don’t know whatmore to say about the show. It hadsix women, they were funny. Theyweren’t dumb. That pretty muchtook care of it.

And while the big disaster

Wednesday9.7.055-6pm Law Studentsfor Human Rights

5pm Law Democrats,with drinks to follow

5-7pm Law WomenHappy Hour

6pm Black Allied LawStudents Association(BALSA)

7pm Asian-PacificAmerican LawStudents Association(APALSA)

The following is a list of the first meetings of the year for various student groups at New York UniversitySchool of Law. This list is by no means exhaustive. Several groups have already had meetings, andother groups are finalizing plans. Students are urged to pay attention to listservs and posted announcementsaround campus to find which groups appeal to their interests.

of the play could be seen from amile away, it was still kind of sadwhen it happened, and all theMagnolias had to pull throughand hug each other.

I suppose it helped that theactresses were all a little famous:Delta Burke, Rebecca Gayheart,Cliff’s Mom from Cheers, and twoother women who all got suffi-cient applause when they firstcame on stage, so they must havebeen famous to someone.

If I have any solid gripe with

the play, it’s that never is the expres-sion “steel magnolias” used in thedialogue. The flower “magnolia” ismentioned very briefly in the first act,but barely even allegorically.

I suppose I had hoped thatin the final group hug of the finalact one of the ladies would havesaid “Yes, we’ll make it, becauseyou know what we are girls? Abunch of steel magnolias, that’swhat we are, y’all.” But maybe sucha line would have only satisfied theside of me that wanted to be mak-ing fun of Steel Magnolias, not,well, you know, having fun at SteelMagnolias.

Oh, wait. Here’s somethingthat was bad about the play: therewere two or three topical jokes thatwere slid into the play, and whileI’m not saying I read the script andknow that these were made up later,but the jokes were so awkwardlydirect the actresses might as wellhave been winking at the audienceas they told them. So take that, SteelMagnolias.

Student Group Kick-Off Meetings

12pm John Roberts talksponsored by LawStudents for Choice/ACLU

4pm Asia Law Societyand International LawSociety

4:30pmThe Commentator

4:30pm NationalLawyer’s Guild (NLG)

6-7pm Research,Education & Advocacyto CombatHomelessness(REACH)

Sunday 9.11.05Unemployment ActionCenter (UAC)

Monday 9.12.054:30pm John Robertstalk sponsored by theAmerican ConstitutionSociety (ACS)

4:30-6pm CoLR

Tuesday 9.13.05West Coast Connection

Health Law Society

Wednesday9.14.0511:30-12:30pm RealEstate and Urban PolicyForum (REUPF)

Lunch with theBattered Women’sProject (BWP)

5pm Law Students forChoice

5:30-8:30pmPrisoner’s Rights &Education Project(PREP)

Thursday9.15.056pm IntellectualProperty andEntertainment LawSociety (IPELS)

Friday 9.9.058pm OUTLaw Party

Thursday 9.8.0512-1:30pm Coalitionfor Legal Recruiting(CoLR)

Sunday 9.25.05Unemployment ActionCenter (UAC)

Commentator SportsPage 4 September 7, 2005

BY CHRIS MOON ’06The secret to fantasy suc-

cess is drafting players lower thanthey should go and not taking play-ers higher than they would bedrafted otherwise.

Maybe you really think thatStephen Jackson of the St. LouisRams will lead the entire fantasyworld in points this year. You re-ally want to take him with the firstpick in the draft. Don’t! Sure, youget Stephen Jackson, but insteadof Jackson and Peyton Manningyou are stuck with Jackson andRudi Johnson.

I feel as though my fantasycohort and I had a spectaculardraft, and so I thought I would giveyou a rundown of our team. Anddon’t worry, if, in December, myteam is winless I’ll be sure to letthe entire law school know myteam sucks.

In the draft, each team musttake two quarterbacks, five runningbacks, five receivers, two tightends, two kickers, and two de-fenses. Each team starts two backsand two receivers each week withone flex player.

Before the draft I told mycohort that I hoped we landed apick at the end of the first round,thus guaranteeing us two top run-ning backs. When it comes downto it, there isn’t a huge differencebetween Shaun Alexander andWillis McGahee, so why not gettwo superstars for the price ofone?

We ended up with the ninthpick, guaranteeing us two greatrunning backs. When the top threequarterbacks all went before ourfirst pick, we decided to wait untilmuch later to draft a quarterback.The difference between the 4th and11th quarterbacks in our league lastyear was only 38 points, a differ-ence of less than 3 points a game.

Running Backs: CoreyDillon, Julius Jones, Ronnie

Brown, Michael Bennett andLarry Johnson.

Quick question: who wasthe number one fantasy runningback of the last six weeks of theseason? Most fantasy fanaticswill be shocked to hear that it isJohnson, Priest Holmes’ back-up.Everyone who gets Priest shoulddraft Johnson as insurance, al-though we stole him late in ourdraft as our fifth running back.

We were fortunate to getDillon and Jones, two backs whoshould get plenty of carries in theirrespective offenses. We looked atdrafting Jamal Lewis ninth, butusually spending three months inprison isn’t the best way to pre-pare for the season.

Drafting Jones with thetwelfth pick was a no-brainer, as Ithink he could end up being oneof the top five producers in all offantasy football. We draftedBrown, a rookie with tremendousupside, in the sixth round. Finally,we were amazed to get a fourthstarting back, Bennett, in the tenthround.

Wide Receivers: JavonWalker, Andre Johnson, AnquanBoldin, Jimmy Smith and MarkClayton.

Walker and Johnson areconsistent producers, viewed byeveryone as belonging in the sec-ond tier of receivers, just below thetop three of Randy Moss, TerrellOwens, and Marvin Harrison. Al-though we would have loved oneof those three, they were all draftedbetween 12 and 29, our third roundspot. Of course, Walker had morefantasy points than all three lastseason, so we were excited hedropped to us.

Boldin and Smith are bothranked around 20th in receivers,and are great back-ups. I wouldn’thave minded starting either one,although it is unlikely that eitherwill ever play for us except in bye

weeks. Clayton was a late roundstretch, hoping for an unlikelybreakout season by the rookie.Given Kyle Boller’s play, this pickprobably won’t pan out.

Quarterbacks: Drew Breesand Jake Plummer.

Whichever quarterbackplays for us each week will be de-termined by the defensive match-up. Even though both were top tenquarterbacks last year, we draftedboth after the sixth round. Some-how Plummer, a quarterback withthree points less than the fourthranked quarterback last year (BrettFavre), dropped to the twelfthround. Favre? He was drafted inthe fourth. If you can’t get one ofthe top three quarterbacks earlythen wait and get two good quar-terbacks later. We waited and gotexactly what we wanted.

Tight Ends: Antonio Gatesand Eric Johnson.

At the time, Gates was stillholding out. Nevertheless, wewere shocked that he dropped allof the way to the end of the 5thround. Although Gates is missingone game, he is a steal this late inthe draft. Because Gates was hold-ing out, we drafted our back-up,Eric Johnson, a couple of roundsearlier than we wanted. With TimRattay beating out future Hall ofFamer Alex Smith for the startingposition, Johnson should be astarter in most ten team leagues.

Defenses and Kickers:Jets, Chargers, Jason Elam andLawrence Tynes.

Inevitably, somewherearound the 7th or 8th round therewill be a rush of teams taking de-fenses. Don’t do this, wait untilfour rounds later and take a gooddefense. Generally the point dif-ferential between the top fantasydefenses is minimal and can varygreatly from one year to the next.We drafted the Jets defense be-cause the Jets and the Giants both

Building A Championship Fantasy Football Team: Patience Is Key

are awful, so I needed a reason towatch football on Sunday.

Kickers are kickers. The dif-ference between the second andtenth ranked kicker last year was justover a point a game. I would sug-gest waiting until the last three orfour rounds to pick up your kickers.

Free Agents.Paying attention to the free

agents that weren’t drafted is alsoimportant. At the time of our drafteveryone thought that Tatum Bellwould start at running back for

Denver. Somehow, Mike Andersonwent undrafted in our league. Nowthat he has won the starting job,he is worth starting in fantasyleagues. We picked him up as afree agent right after MikeShanahan announced Andersonwas the starter.

Follow the advice given inthis column and you should be onyour way to fantasy success. Or,even if you end up flaming out,you can still claim you have thebest team on paper.

Running back Corey Dillon should top your fantasy draft list.

Looking to spice up your resume?Wishing you could write more than lawyering assignments or B papers?Wanting to have a larger audience than your blog?

Join The Commentator!

Leadership positions are available:Managing EditorNews EditorCrossword CreatorComic ArtistNews, Arts, Sports, and Opinions Writers.

Introductory meetingthis Thursday, September 8, 4:30-5:30pm in Golding East.Free food and drinks!

contact Chris Moon with any questions, chrismoon@nyu.edu