Okay, I admit it . . . I'm one of those nerds who enjoys "playing" fantasy football with his buddies.  To the uninitiated, fantasy football is a game played by couch potato (mostly) team "owners", like me, who select real NFL players for their fantasy teams and then score points throughout the season based on the performace of those players in real football games.  Geeky?  Sure.  But I want to tell you a short, true story about a friend of mine and how, through him, fantasy football is helping provide clean water in Ghana.

Bruce is a good friend of mine.  We've known each other for almost twenty years.  And we've been playing fantasy football against each other since 1995.  This year I served had a pretty good team even after losing Peyton Manning in the pre-season.  I made the playoffs but ran into Bruce's buzzsaw in the semifinals.  Bruce's team went on to the fantasy Super Bowl but lost.  But, in our league anyway, the runner-up still wins a modest prize.

Bruce had yet to receive that modest prize when I met him last week for lunch.  (Our league commissioner, you see, a.k.a. me, is a slacker who just hasn't gotten around to sending out the prizes.)  During the course of our lunch conversation, Bruce asked about The Ghana Project.  I was, of course, more than happy to tell him about all we've been able to accomplish so-far, the results of the Christmas Miracle Offering, and all the things we hope to be able to accomplish because of that offering and into the future.

And now comes the good part . . .

Bruce looked at me at the end of that conversation and said, "Jim, you know that prize money from our fantasy football league?  Don't pay me.  Give it to The Ghana Project instead."

Now this might seem like a small thing.  We don't play fantasy football for big bucks.  The money is really only a token.  But it isn't a token to The Ghana Project.  Every dollar given goes directly to help needy people in Ghana.  We have no overhead.

So here are a couple of questions, inspired by my friend Bruce . . . did you win something in your fantasy football league this year?  If so, did you put your winnings to as good a use?

Now, can anybody get me a lunch with Tom Brady or Eli Manning?  Anybody think we could convince one of them to put their Super Bowl winnings to good use at The Ghana Project?