my football fantasy
The first NFL game of the 2012 season is a week from today. Yes!!!!!!!!!!! I love football more than any other sport. I pay attention to the college game, primarily because of its fast pace and the excitement that comes with being on a college campus. In fact, I am taking my son to the AT&T Nation’s Classic this Saturday. It’s a match up between Howard University and Morehouse College. It should be fun. Pro football (NFL) is my thing, though.
Over the past few years, one thing that has pulled me even deeper into the game is Fantasy Football. I am currently in three different leagues, including one with friends from work (managed outside of the office, of course). Somewhat like poker or golf, there is strategy to playing/participating in fantasy football — strategy that I have yet to master. My teams over the years have been decent, but not strong enough to contend for a title. I am hoping that a little more draft research, and more thoughtful roster management, will lead to better results this year. The one tough thing about fantasy football is the inevitable situation of having a player on your fantasy team playing your real life favorite team. It’s a struggle, because you want your fantasy team to win, but you don’t want your real team to get torched. I’ve always said that I would rather have my Detroit Lions win, no matter what. However, if several hundred dollars are on the line, I may just have to accept a Lions loss for a fantasy win. That’s terrible, I know, but it’s just a game…right?
What about you? Do you play in a fantasy league — in any sport?
If you are new to fantasy football, and need a little help, here are some sites that I’ve found useful.
If you are a fantasy football veteran, please feel free to share some draft and weekly game strategy and tips in the comments. If you have an additional link to a good fantasy football site, please share that as well.
Good luck to everyone playing fantasy football, except anyone playing in my leagues.
Bring on some football, and Go Lions!
Hi Matthew, I’ve been playing fantasy football since the early 90’s, and I love it. I usually only play in one league to avoid the dilemma of playing against my own player in different leagues. I also have the problem of rooting for the Redskins, and my fantasy players who play against my Redskins. Ideally I want my players to rack up a ton of points against the Redskins but for the Skins to still win the game LOL!!
I like being in control of my own team, drafting players who have break out years,–like the year I drafted Chris Johnson and he went off, and the year I drafted Arian Foster in the 5th rd and he went off. Last year I got Calvin Johnson in the second rd, and Eli Manning in the 8th rd!~! I like tracking the stats as the games unfold.… I believe football would not be as interesting to me without fantasy football… I know it skews how we view the games now, but I believe its great overall for the popularity of football.
The only strategy I know is to do as much research as you can, find out who’s injured, and don’t rely too much on one particular “expert”.. I read Matthew Berry of ESPN alot, and tend to rely too much on his advice — you gotta get other opinions.
It all comes down to research, diligence, and a little luck (avoiding injuries to your key players).
Good luck in your leagues!
Thanks for the comment Jucain.
Picking up a break-out player is a great feeling. I had Johnson and Eli last year, too. A friend in my office league picked up Arian Foster when the rest of us were sleeping on him. No more. I just had my first draft last night. It is a PPR league, so I had to think differently about running backs and receivers. I can’t say that football wouldn’t be as interesting without fantasy football. In fact, it has worked quite the opposite for me. It has caused me to pay even more attention to the game. I track statistics like I never did before. (I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.)
Cheers!
Matthew — until you get over your childish loyalty to your favorite team, you will never win at fantasy football!
You must be cut-throat and ruthless. I used to exploit guys like you all the time. I especially loved it when a guy would come to the draft/auction wearing head-to-toe gear of his favorite team. I knew I could get him to overspend for the players on that team. This usually resulted in a guy drafting the Lions’ #3 wide receiver in the third round or the Redskins 3rd tight end in the fourth round. Or spending 2/3 of his budget on their fave team’s best two players. I remember a Cowboy fan spending $120 of a $150 budget on Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin. Great players but not especially great fantasy players and certainly not worth those prices. And he’d have spent his remaining money on Alvin Harper if the rules didn’t mandate that you had to have a full roster at the end of the auction. Anyway.…
I started Rotisserie Baseball (NOT fantasy) in 1989. Started Fantasy Football, Rotisserie Basketball & Rotisserie Hockey a year later. At one point I was in three baseball leagues, four football leagues, one each hoops & hockey; all at the same time. And I was the commissioner for all but one of the leagues and doing the stats by hand out of the newspaper. It got to be too much. So I pared down to one football league after moving to Chicago. That was still fun but when I moved to Denver and started the online versions, I found that the fun of it wasn’t following my players. The fun of it for me was the camaraderie with the other guys in the league. It was a blast when I tended bar and the league was made up of other employees and regulars. We talked trash to each other and talked trade all the time and there was a lot of fun to that — especially when two guys in the baseball league, after two months of negotiations — produced a 20-player trade! Without the regular interaction with other players, I lost most interest in it. And when the fantasy sports phenomenon exploded, I got so sick of all the fantasy related content on TV and online that it was just too much. And when everybody has access to the same information, the game changes from one of being the best at getting and exploiting the best information to one of basically luck. I especially hate the constant trickle of the bottom line on every game telecast. It’s distracting. Especially with easy access to online info, I don’t think most people are going to stay tuned to a channel because they are waiting to see how many yards their running back has in a game right now. And I really don’t care that Mike Sims-Walker caught one pass for 12 yards. Why is the bottom line telling me this?
Here is how deeply my fantasy sickness got: I came up with the Super Rotisserie League. It was made up of eight sports with eight different stat categories. It lasted for an entire year. We had a draft for each sport just before the seasons started. It was NFL, college football, NBA, college basketball, NHL, MLB, motor sports, golf (including female players). I easily walked away with the title but that was only because I exploited a few rules loopholes like drafting division II and III college players who put up amazing stats against inferior competition. I remember having running back Jerry Azuma from New Hampshire (who later played for the Bears). Nobody else had ever hear of him. Turned out this wasn’t very much fun either. Anyway, when I found myself scouring box scores of division II football and LPGA leader boards, I decided I needed fantasy rehab. That was it for me and I’ve never looked back. I guess I could equate it to your social media opt-out. I found that the grass was greener, the sky bluer, the air fresher.
Thanks for the comment, Rich. Ok, I was D.E.A.D. dead laughing at your quip about the Mike Sims-Walker stat. Too funny.
For the record, I want the Lions to win, but I never let my loyalty to the team affect or influence my drafts. I see far too many homers in one of my leagues. I am flabbergasted by some of the picks.
I can totally see the connection to my social media opt-out and you pulling back from rotisserie (I never knew that wasn’t fantasy. I need to look that up to better understand the difference.) and fantasy football leagues. I was exhausted just thinking about your involvement in all of those leagues, let alone being the commissioner in most. I am the commissioner in one, and fear there may be a manager revolt. The minute that fantasy football takes away my enjoyment of the game…I’m walking.
I joined a league for the first time this year — they draft for you though, so didn’t have to worry about picking up all my favorite Packers. Ended up with none, with Romo behind center. I think I’ll be ok — got some good players, just have to look at stats. We’ll see — should be fun!
GO PACK GO.
–robert
I won my first game by one point!! and it was pure torture watching my opponent’s QB, Aaron Rodger steadily cut into my lead until it was just one point, and Rodger’s threw incomplete on fourth down!!!
I am quite please with my draft and optimistic about this season.… here’s a quick run down of my team and draft… in a twelve team league with QB, RB,RB, WR, WR,WR,TE, K, DEF and with the eighth pick in a snake draft I drafted — Cam Newton, Julio Jones, Victor Cruz, Ahmad Bradshaw, Jeremy Maclin, Vernon Davis, Steven Ridley, Shonn Green, Robert Meachem, Donald Brown, Malcolm Floyd, and Roy Helu (Alfred Morris went undrafted!!!), Bills DEF, and Gould Kicker — everyone except Cruz, Meachem, and Helu scored TDs!!!!
That’s great Jucain! I was 2–1 in my leagues this weekend. My drafts were exhausting. Since are two of the leagues PPR leagues, with completely different scoring schemes, I had to plan a little differently for each. Here are the teams I have assembled.
League 1 (10 Team PPR — QB / 2 RBs / 2 WRs / 1 WR or TE / TE / Flex (R/W/T) / D / K) )
QBs:
Matt Ryan
Ryan Fitzpatrick
RBs:
Ray Rice
Matt Forte
BenJarvus Green-Ellis
Mark Ingrham
Mikel Leshoure
WRs:
Larry Fitzgerald
Dwayne Bowe
Dez Bryant
Jeremy Maclin
Santonio Holmes
Greg Little
TEs:
Jason Witten
Greg Olsen
DEF:
Lions
K:
Dan Bailey
League 2 (10 Team Standard — QB / 2 RBs / 2 WRs / TE / Flex (R/W/T) / D / K) )
QBs:
Josh Freeman
Andy Dalton
RBs:
Ray Rice
Doug Martin
Kevin Smith
Stevan Ridley
WRs:
A.J. Green
Hakeem Nicks
Steve Smith (Carolina)
Dwayne Bowe
Antonio Brown
Austin Collie
TEs:
Jimmy Graham
DEF:
Green Bay
K:
Dan Bailey
League 3 (12 Team PPR — QB / 2 RBs / 2 WRs / TE / Flex (R/W/T) / D / K) )
It’s worth nothing that I joined this league and inherited an existing team. I had to pick two keepers and chose Brady & Peterson.
QBs:
Tom Brady
Josh Freeman
RBs:
Adrian Peterson
Kevin Smith
Ronnie Brown
Robert Turbin
WRs:
Greg Jennings
Andre Johnson
Percy Harvin
Darrius Heyward-Bay
Torrey Smith
Davone Bess
TEs:
Vernon Davis
Ed Dickson
DEF:
Seahawks
K:
Rob Bironas
* I need to shore up the running back situation on this team.
Hi Matthew, nice drafts… that had to be exhausting!!
I like your teams, but on Team 1, your WRs didn’t get off to a good start, but have the potential to produce big results.…
on Team two, I’d start looking for a upgrade at QB.… Freeman could revert to form from two years ago with Vincent Jackson to the throw to, and I had high expectations about Andy Dalton, but after that start against the Ravens, and with another game against them and two more against the Browns, and Steelers… i don’t know…
Team 3 is really nice if you could just figure out which other RB to pair with AP each week!!!
good luck, the rest of the way… i’ll be sure to stop by and post and check for updates!!!
Fantasy football update — after two straight loses (one because I benched Cam Newton against the Falcons), I had my best outing this week with spectacular efforts from Ahmad Bradshaw, Steven Ridley, and Victor Cruz. and solid outings from Julio Jones, Malcolm Floyd, and Vernon Davis and my best efforts from my K-Vikings and Def-Dolphins.
I’m really frustrated with Cam Newton (my first pick), but I’m scared to trade him, and also scared to play him!!! I’m 3 and 2, at the top of my division, and near the top in total points in the league!!
I also escaped a disaster when another owner rejected my trade to him of Ahmad Bradshaw and Jeremy Maclin for Ryan Williams (RB Cards) and Andre Brown (WR-Steelers)… whew!!
Hi Matthew (and others)! I’m a college professor (and fellow fantasy sports fan) researching fantasy sports and am looking for people to take a 10–20 minute survey on why they play and what they think about playing. All responses will remain anonymous. Please take a few minutes to share your views on fantasy sports! The link to the survey is here: https://lafayettec.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e9XKU3EnKf7GZ3n
Also, a dollar is being donated per survey completed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for breast cancer research and awareness (up to $1,000), so your time will help a good cause. Thanks for helping and please forward the survey link to others in your fantasy leagues. The more surveys completed, the more money for breast cancer research and awareness!
Best,
Rebecca