STARTING A FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM Vol. 2

STARTING A FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM

In case you haven’t noticed by now Fantasy Football has grown to be one of the most played On-Line games of the decade. If you are not playing it, you know someone in your immediate circle that is. If you were to line up ten of your friends against the wall chances are seven have a team on one of several computer leagues. Why such a fuss? Why are so many playing? The answer is plain and simple. It’s called the marketing machine of the NFL (National Football League). About ten years ago the NFL figured it out. They knew they were surpassing Baseball as Americas’ favorite team sport to watch. Watching baseball on TV or going to a game at your local stadium is nice, but that’s it, it’s nice! You could lay back, have a hot dog or two, a cold beverage of your choice and most of all RELAX. With Baseball, there are time outs between each pitch, batters don’t rush, pitchers take their time… Not much lost!  And you can even take your eye off the game for a bit. (Just be careful if your sitting close enough to be hit by a foul ball).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElCY36pR2Ck.  Football is the opposite. It’s fast paced, you have eleven players on each side, most taller than six feet and weighing over 250 pounds, running at full speed and crashing into each other. It’s down right violent and America loves it!  We are a DO IT NOW www.witenterprises.biz  kind of country. We want our action fast, we want results now and, WE WANT TO SEE SOMEONE GET SMASHED!  We want Instant ACTION, Immediate RESULTS, and Potential DANGER! We WANT to SEE someone get SMASHED! Especially if it’s the other team. Now I know some of you are disputing that but for a moment, think of YOUR teams’ rival. If, let’s say for discussion you are a Miami Dolphin fan, you’d love to see someone from the New England Patriots or the New York Jets or the Buffalo Bills (all Dolphin rivals from the AFC East where there are years of hard fought games) get smacked good. I’m not talking about a carreer ending injury, just hard enough to be out of that game, even if it’s for a few plays.  A little bit hard of an example but it goes to show that we love our “controlled violence.” We love our football.
Which brings us to why so many are playing Fantasy Football.  Most of us would love to have had the opportunity to have God given talents to play in the NFL. Think about it, to be paid millions to play a childs game. Tens of thousands try out but only a few make it to the bigs. So we do the next available thing. We start our own Fantasy Football team. (There are also Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Golf, etc Fantasy leagues if that’s your sport of choice).
To start you can go to one or several sites such as www.nfl.com/fantasy or www.espn.com/fantasy  or www.fleaflicker.com and simply follow the directions where you could either start your own “customized” league or join an existing one. Don’t be alarmed when you see there are literaly thousands of leagues to pick from. We suggest that if this is your first time playing that you join an existing league that has “Standard League Scoring Rules.”  This will allow you to become familiar with all the the things neccesary to having a team. It’s very simple, within a game or two you’ll be a pro.
The fun part of having your own team is you get to be the Owner, the General Manager, and  the Coach and you get to compete with anywhere from 4 to 20 teams from all over the country for the whole football season, including the playoffs.
You can start with either the computer picking your team (if this is your first time playing I suggest letting the computer pick the team) or join a league with a “Live Draft.” If you join a Live Draft league there are several “Mock” drafts before the actual one to help you practice and ‘Rank’ the players you want on your team.
You can also Rank your preferred players “before” a computer draft.

Everybody has an opinion on who and when to pick a player or a position. I’ll give you mine but first a brief recap of my won-lost record . In the eight years I’ve been playing I’ve made the playoffs six times have two League Championships and last year went 13-0-1. I usually play in leagues that have a 14 game season (the first 14 regular season NFL games and the last 2 NFL games are our playoffs).  Sadly, in my only undefeated season I lost the Champioship game. (and yes I stayed depressed for the next three months).
Most leagues have nine players (8 offensive positions and a Defense/Special teams (Def/STM) on the starting lineup and six players on the bench. Some people like to pick a Running Back (RB) first. I don’t. RBs have a tendency to get hurt somtime during the season and can miss quite a few games. I like to pick a Quarterback (QB) first. They also can get hurt, but statistically (and that is all of what Fantasy sports is about, statistics) they’ll miss fewer games than a RB will. And the QB usually gets the most “points’ of all the positions. Points are awarded to players for reachng certain milestones, ie., a QB will get four points for every twenty five yards he throws. He’ll get six points for each touchdown pass he completes. An RB will get one point for every ten yards he runs, a Wide Reciever (WR) or a Tight End (TE) will get one point for each ten yard pass he gets and so on.
You might have a QB frm New England an RB from Green Bay, a Kicker from New Orleans etc. The object is to get the highest point getters in each position. Here’s a few more tips. If your league only allows one starting Kicker (K) do not keep another one on your bench. Same with the Def/STM. When that K or Def/STM has a Bye week simply pick one up on Free Agent Players for that week. Drop one of your lower point getters to create that opening. If your K or Def/STM is doing good you’ll want to keep them and put them back on your starting line-up the following week.

Try not to (this is hard) pick players from your heart. I did the first year by picking a bunch of players from my hometown of Buffalo. You can see where that got me. Go with the stats, pick with your brain. Even though you might join a league that has the computer pick the team you can still add and drop players or trade with other teams to improve your teams chances to win.
My Fantasy Football friends, this should get you going. Give it a shot. Each week we’ll share some new ideas and techniques that will improve you and your teams chances to succeed. Most of all remember it’s a game, so have some fun and hope to see you in the playoffs.
Feel free to write in any questions or comments to Mike Mondia at this blog. Also let me know who your favorite team is and if you have a technique that works for you and you’d like to share it, we love to hear from you.  Go Bills and if your from San Diego, Go Chargers, if your from Atlanta, Go Falcons, if your from Green Bay, Go Packers and so on and so on and so on. Turn ON the lights, the partys’ starting.