Over the Line?

As referenced in my prior blog, I like to use funny and/or clever fantasy team names. There's a certain purity to it, not unlike a perfectly struck golf shot, or pooping in the shower.

But I wonder if I've gone too far this time. The name I've chosen for fantasy football this season is "Heath Ledger's Pallbearers." That team's fictional owner, played by me, is named Oscar Posthumous. In poor taste? Absolutely. Funny? Open to interpretation, but I'd certainly say so. Reminds me of a fantasy team I saw on the internet in a bygone era called "Natalee Holloway's Search Team," referencing the American college student who disappeared in Aruba or Jamaica or some other Caribbean island where I wanna take ya'. I don't really remember what happened with that. I think a guy who went to college with her was charged with her murder. Or something.

Now, my grandmother died a few months ago, but I don't think I would name my team "JW's Grandmother's Pallbearers," even though this would be technically accurate as I actually was one of the pallbearers. A name like that would be disrespectful but (perhaps more importantly) it would not be funny. It lacks that certain je ne sais qua that comes with making fun of a celebrity death. I mean, there are "celebrity" Dead Pools, where people bet on which celebrity will die during the year (put me down for $5 on Kirk Douglas, with Muhammad Ali as a dark horse). But I've never been invited to a "grandparents of my friends" Dead Pool before. And I may be relatively heartless, but I doubt even I would participate in something like that.