Are You Ready for Some (Fantasy) Football?

Last week you were approached by your boss, best friend, co worker or acquaintance and asked if you would be interested in joining their fantasy football league.  It sounds like fun and just about everywhere you turn, from ESPN to Hooters’ commercials someone is talking about fantasy football.  So you agree to be part of the newest sports subculture…..But what now?  The good news is that fantasy football is a really fun way to make NFL games more interesting, especially if your favorite team is not on TV, not playing, or the thought of watching them lose another game will make you physically ill.  Fantasy football also allows you to compete with your friends and neighbors for anything from bragging rights to cash.  

I have been playing Fantasy Football for the past ten years and the following is a beginner’s guide to making your first year in your league a rewarding and enjoyable experience. 

Right after you agree to join your new league there are a few initial steps to consider.  First you may need to choose a team name; most people use either a nickname or a variation of their favorite sports teams.  Next you need to find out what the scoring system for your league will be and when and where your draft will take place. 

Scoring in Fantasy Football is based on performance of individual players. On offense quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers get points for yardage gained and touchdowns scored.  On defense points are awarded for sacks, turnovers, safeties etc.  Kickers get in on the action to as there are usually points for extra points and field goals.  You need to find out how your league calculates points, as this will greatly influence your draft. 

Prior to your draft you will need to do some research.  If it is early enough in the summer, I would suggest picking up a draft guide or two.  These can usually be found along with other magazines in local grocery stores, book stores and even gas stations.  You will notice there are a multitude of choices for you to consider, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News all have separate Draft Guides.  There are also a number of Fantasy Football only guides that come out once a year.  It really doesn’t matter too much which one you choose since most will have the same basic information.  I usually pick up The Sporting News and a Fantasy specific publication.  These guides are good reading during vacation, right before bed or while your sitting on the toilet.  The bad thing about them is that they are usually published in early summer so some of the information will be outdated by the time most fantasy drafts take place.  

Your second source of information is your television and radio.  Sportscenter, or ESPN News is good for training camp reports, injury news and pre season highlights.  ESPN and other networks have recently started airing shows specifically geared toward Fantasy Football.  If you have Sirius/XM Satellite Radio you can tune into the NFL Network as well as their fantasy sports station.  Additionally you should try to catch as many pre season games as your time allows, since the starters only play about half the game or less, how they perform is more important than the final score (Last year Detroit was undefeated in the pre season).

Finally, the best tool at your disposal is your home or office computer (Now you can stop wasting valuable company time playing solitaire and focus on what’s really important, fantasy domination).  A Google search of the words fantasy football will yield 68,700,000 results.  Instead of making you sift through all those sites, let me just give you some of my favorites and what to expect.  I have purposely left out some of the obvious sites like ESPN.com and CBSSports.com since most sports fans are already familiar with them.

Usatoday.com Their individual team reports from around the league give you information you might miss, like who is sliding up and down team depth charts, how practice is going and what rookies are making an impression.

fftoday.com I really like this site, it links up to a bunch of other web pages and has some cool tools like their Cheatsheet Compiler and Draft Buddy (They charge a low fee of $16.95 for the year, which also includes entry into one of their $5,000 draft contest).  Their front page has feature articles and up to date player news.  I also suggest visiting the forum page, it has a lot of activity and most of the regular posters are very well informed and friendly.  If your fantasy league is hosted through Myfantasyleague.com they even have a tool that will give you player projections by your scoring format. 

Fantasyfootballstarters.com I stumbled upon this site not to long ago while searching for a draft analyzer, a tool that grades how you drafted.  You have to sign in with your email address to use the analyzer, and will be asked if you want to upgrade to their $9.95 power player package that includes wireless reports and game predictions. 

One final place to gather info on the net is from individual team message boards.  These can give you some additional insight into specific teams or players but be warned, these forums a generally for the diehard fan so they will more than likely be tainted with a good bit of homerism. 

Most or all fantasy football web pages will have a section where you can do a mock draft, which is a practice draft to give you an idea on what position different players may go.  It is a good idea to do several of these before your real draft.  Try to find one that reflects your league by number of teams involved and scoring method.  Your also going to want to look for one where the other people involved are going to take it seriously, much like online poker it doesn’t help you much if the guys around you are just goofing around. 

After doing your homework get a game plan together.  Use the info from your cheatsheets and mock drafts to get an idea of what players will be available when you pick.  This is especially important in the middle rounds as people will try to fill out their rosters according to the previous rounds picks.  I always liked to have my projected starters (with the exception of the kicker) picked by round 7 or 8, depending on how many players you start each week (in my league we start 7 positions 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR or TE and a kicker).  Just keep in mind that it’s not a bad idea to grab a third RB or second QB before it gets too late in the draft since these two positions score the most points and are also the most injury prone.

Now that you have done your research its time for the draft.  Drafts are usually done one of two ways over the internet or live and in person.  For me having a live draft at someone’s house or your neighborhood pub is the best part of the season.   If you do have a live draft there are a few items that you absolutely need to bring with you.  If your location has wifi access, bring your laptop so you can have access to all your tools with the click of the mouse.  If wifi is not available you’ll need the following items, pen and paper, cheatsheets, one of your preseason magazines and any notes you may have collected along the way.  The cheatsheets are especially important to help you keep track of each players bye week, since you don’t want all your starters not playing at the same time. 

OK, so now you’ve done your research, got a game plan together and arrived at your draft location prepared to get started, here are some things to watch out for. 

Don’t confuse a good player with a good fantasy player.  It will be of no help to you to go after a running back that gets a lot of yards but gets pulled when his team is at the goal line, since the most points are given to touchdowns. 

Team loyalty is mostly overrated.  This applies not only to NFL teams but also to where a player went to college.  I can remember the first draft I participated in, one of the guys used every pick from round 8 till the end on players that came from his alma mater.  Needless to say, he did not have a fun season.  I also have a friend that could not bear the thought of having to root for any player that was on the field against his Steelers, so his team consisted of the Steelers offense and players that didn’t play any games against them last year.  It should be noted that he didn’t finish dead last but he didn’t finish in the top three either. 

Go easy on the booze.  Drafts can often last for several hours, so if you start drinking heavily beforehand, odds are that you won’t be sober enough to draft effectively in the later stages of the draft. 

Don’t pin most of your hopes on rookies.  Outside of a few exceptions each year, success in the college game does not equal success in the NFL.  I’m not saying avoid rookies at all costs, just ask anyone who drafted Steve Slaton or Matt Forte last year how happy they were.  But you should keep in mind rookies, especially wide receivers com with more risk than their more seasoned peers.  

At the end of the day, just like pee wee baseball, fantasy football is all about having fun (Although it is a lot more fun when you are winning).  I hope these tips will help every one enjoy their first fantasy draft.