By Kim J. Harmon

This is the time of year they come out of the wood work – clutching their copies of Street & Smith’s in one hand and a sheet with the latest CNNSI.com projections in the other hand.

They are the ones who fret about the relationship between Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb and wonder what impact it will have on the numbers; the ones who fret about the contract status of a second-string tight end in Cleveland; the ones who fret about middling third-string wide receivers – like David Tyree and Bobby Wade – from sub-par passing teams.

They are the fantasy faithful (of freaks, if you prefer).

What once was a mere fancy among the most ardent football fans has become a nationwide obsession, so much so that dozens of publications are dedicated solely to the fantasy aspect of football; so much so that CBS, NBC and ESPN all have fantasy stats crawling along the bottom of their screens on NFL telecasts; so much so that ESPN radio dedicates two hours on Sunday mornings (and ESPNRadio.com dedicates an hour every Tuesday afternoon) for a show called Fantasy Focus, hosted by two guys who – kidding aside – know everything.

This is a critical time of year. The injury reports are pored over with a fine-toothed comb and the FF agonize over the elbow injuries of possible Pro Bowl quarterbacks. The wires are scanned for any and all news reports about contract holdouts, problems in training camps, and any trade rumors that hold even the slightest hint of plausibility.

It’s a tense time of year. Many leagues have already held their drafts and many more are still to come. Decisions made in the first and second rounds can make or break a fantasy team – ask any of those owners who may have drafted Stephen Davis early and saw the Carolina running back felled by a knee injury against Philadelphia last October.

What makes it all more fun (or nerve-wracking, depending on how you look at it) is that some leagues pick their draft order a week or more in advance, giving jittery owners (especially those holding the No. 1 selection) all that time to agonize about their picks … because, let’s face it, make a bad pick at No. 1 and the season is essentially over before it begins.

It seems patently obvious that Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts is the consensus No. 1 pick. But what about No. 2 or No. 3? Does Priest Holmes fall to No. 4 and is he really healthy? Should the first pick be a quarterback or a running back? How long should one wait to grab a wide receiver? How about a kicker?

These are the decisions that have to be made and the decisions that have turned hardened football fans into quivering bowls of jelly.

It’s that time of year.