Obama Scores in Fantasy Football

Candidate steps up to sportswriter's challenge
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2008 4:40 AM CDT
Obama Scores in Fantasy Football
Barack Obama, accompanied by former Pittsburgh Steelers players Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris, leaves the Soldiers and Sailors Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pa., earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Barack Obama's too busy be a great fantasy football partner, but the man knows his stuff, writes Rick Reilly at ESPN. The candidate accepted Reilly's challenge to help him draft a team for a week in a fantasy football league and the sportswriter found him on the campaign bus poring through stats. "Man, this is more important than politics!" Obama said  "This is football!"

Obama, who played a bit of football himself in school but switched to hoops in ninth grade, picked Drew Brees and Clinton Portis, who had great games. Reilly's picks struggled so the pair finished 32,190th for the week—still in the top fifth of the league, and still ahead of John McCain, who turned down Reilly's challenge.
(More fantasy sports stories.)

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