I was pretty rough on fantasy football the other day, and strident about how I was not going to care and not going to be involved.

And then Week 1 happened.

We may have to take another look at the video. This may not be so bad. Especially if I continue to win.

One consolation to the waste of time that is fantasy sports is that the fake owner picks up some basic knowledge about the sport. Which never hurts for those of us employed in sports journalism, certainly.

Two weeks ago I was not quite sure Where Pierre Garcon played. I absolutely could not tell you who employed Marshawn Lynch.

Now that they have helped me win a game …

The other thing that happened, over here on the other side of the world, is that I watched a lot of NFL on TV.

For one, because more of it is being shown in Abu Dhabi this season. But mostly because I have the San Francisco 49ers defense, and my week came down to the late Monday game between Oakland and San Diego.

The 49ers started after midnight UAE time. And I decided to watch a few plays. Then a few more. And then the first half. And the Niners were shutting down the Packers so emphatically, and I was so impressed … I just kept watching.

I was up till after 4 am, coaxing home that win — that I almost lost on the un-called clip on the Packers TD punt return that took points away from my defense and gave them to my opponent, who happened to have the Packers guy who benefited from the replacement zebras picking up the flag they had thrown.

This morning, I climbed out of bed early and caught the San Diego-Oakland “Monday night” game in the first quarter, when it was 3-3. I had the Chargers safety Eric Weddle in that game, and my fantasy opponent had Sebastian Janikowski, the Raiders kicker, and Antonio Gates, the Chargers tight end.

Depending on how that went would determine if I won the game, which I led by 20 points with one game left.

I never did quite figure out how I wanted the game to go. More or less, I gravitated towards the Raiders offense on the field a lot, so Weddle could make tackles and Gates would be sitting, but I didn’t want the Raiders to get close enough to let Janikowski kick field goals.

It was very confusing. But it turned out.

And when I went to the office at 11 that day, I had seen about seven hours of football on the first NFL weekend — or seven more than I saw on the first weekend last year.

I won my game by 15 points, and I’m 1-0, and I might even come to not loathe this. But it may do some real damage to my sleep patterns.