By John Nemo
Enquirer contributor

It's here. For the first time in our league's nine-year history, we're going with an auction instead of a draft. Twelve teams, $100 cap per club, and no idea what's going to happen.The first player thrown out for bid is LaDainian Tomlinson. The shouting starts: "Twenty!" "Thirty!" "Forty!" At that last number, shrieks of surprise.

Somebody is willing to commit nearly half his cap to one player!

"Just wait until he breaks his leg this weekend in the last preseason game," offers Tim, who dropped out of the LT lottery early on.

Wes ends up getting Tomlinson for a cool $45.

Brad, Wes' brother, then throws a curveball, nominating a kicker, David Akers, as the next player. I get Akers for $3, prompting barbs of "Have another" and "Three dollars for a kicker? Are you crazy?"

Crazy like a fox, boys.

Ricky Williams gets tossed out. Wes ends up buying him for $42, meaning he has just spent $87 out of a possible $100 on two players. He still has to buy 12 more guys to fill out his roster and has $13 to do it.

Marvin Harrison's name gets thrown out, and I do one of those Scooby Doo "Uhs?" After years of suffering through wide receiver roulette, the thought of plugging Harrison into my lineup is too intoxicating to pass up. I get him for $27, or $2 more than I thought he'd cost. Michael Vick's name comes up. I can't help myself now. I'm pumped up, I just got Marvelous, and now Vick is sitting out there at a mere $10.

"Eleven!" I yell, and the room falls silent. "Welcome to the compulsive buyers' club," says Dave, shaking his head as the injured Vick lands on my roster.

Somebody tosses out Terrell Owens. Suddenly I'm right there, bidding $23 on him. Nobody tops me, and I write him in next to Marvin Harrison. Owens and Harrison. On my roster. Are you kidding me?

Later I get Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck, my pet sleeper for the year, at a mere $7, or half of what I thought it would take to land him. I'm now set for life at QB and WR. There's just one problem: I've already spent $68, and I don't have a single running back.

Panic sets in as I see the remaining runners getting gobbled up faster than the leftover pizza. But my guy, Jamal Lewis, is still hiding among all those scribbled out names on my list. Nobody is putting him up for bid! Instead, people are blowing money on the likes of Trent Green and Donald Driver. It's working! I'm going to get Jamal!

Soon only one guy, D, has more cap money left than me. I know D had Donte' Stallworth last year, and that he was obsessed with the injury-prone wideout.

"I nominate Donte' Stallworth, bidding starts at one dollar," I say, then smile like Dr. Evil. Sure enough, D goes right for the bait, getting into a bidding frenzy that soon pushes Stallworth over $7. But D drops out, and someone else gets Donte.

Then, my worst nightmare: Jamal Lewis is the next guy put up for bid. I lose out my $1 as D, knowing my cap restrictions, simply goes over my head.

I end up getting Garrison Hearst, Kevan Barlow, Amos Zereoue, Moe Williams and Michael Pittman, meaning all my running backs are either stuck in committee situations or in danger of being incarcerated.

Welcome to life in an auction league.

John Nemo writes Fantasy Fanatic, a nationally-syndicated column, every week. Reach him with question and comments at johnnemo@comcast.net