Following an exciting first round, we break down the favorite picks, most pleasant and biggest surprises, most under-appreciated pick, worst move and more.
Peyton Manning, Mario Williams, Mike Wallace and Carl Nicks headline an intriguing free agent class that can shift the balance of power this offseason.
The Eagles seemingly came out of nowhere to sign Nnamdi Asomugha as they eye a trip to the Super Bowl.
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I?m one of those rare birds who was into fantasy football back in the early 90s, when leagues drafted in person at a sports bar, records were kept on legal pads, and the accounting major of the group was the commish because of his superior math skills. I proudly still have the bottle of vodka signed by everyone given to the Lush League winner back in 1994, although it?s not quite as heavy as it used to be. But times have changed. Everything is computerized, and most leagues are largely impersonal. People who know very little about actual football field winning fantasy football teams (witness my wife winning her company league two years running with very little of my help). Fantasy advice has become a lucrative cottage industry, with ?helpful? magazines and websites everywhere you look.
Because of all that, I play much less fantasy football than I used to. I still participate some, as much to make myself focus on afterthought players and league trends than for the exhilaration of whipping up on internet-based friends. My current fantasy rules of thumb...
Thumbs Up
To leagues featuring weekly choices, salary caps, and/or player usage limits: I found one I really like this year at Paythefan.com. Every entrant can use any player, any week, but only use a certain player a limited number of times. They also have a very simple interface for choosing the players, which is something that drags down games like the Stock Exchange at ProFootballWeekly.com. Games like this are true tests of fantasy acumen; you have to select favorable matchups and not just hold onto a stud RB and WR all season, which is how most salary cap games work. I got into the contest at Pay the Fan a little late, but already it?s probably my favorite fantasy game since Fanball.com did away with their weekly auction leagues. It?s on the pricier side for my liking ($40 a team), but at least league transactions are free, and the advice is written by folks who have clearly watched the games and not just applied mathematical theorems to box scores.
To the broadcast networks, for streaming up-to-date fantasy information in the crawls during games. I don?t fire up my PC and check how I?m doing until Sunday night (more on that guy later), but I do like seeing the current stats of the more prominent players while the games are being played. As a side benefit, that info often helps ascertain how a game that I?m not watching is going down. Take this past Sunday; I wasn?t able to watch one regulation-time second of the Cowboys/Cardinals' game, but I could tell by the meager numbers of Marion Barber and the JJ Arrington kick return why the Cards were winning and the Cowboys were struggling. On those Sundays where I don?t make the trip to BW3 or some other TV-filled eatery, that kind of info is invaluable to someone like me, even if it?s not for fantasy purposes.
Thumbs Down
To leagues that consist of what most people consider the standard fantasy football. You know, the snake draft, weekly head-to-head competition leagues where your season is essentially over when your 1st round pick (say, Tom Brady) goes down for the season in Week 1. I won?t deny that there is some skill involved, but so much of what makes teams win these leagues has nothing to do with the guy assembling the team. You can always count on at least one deadbeat owner who forgets to swap out on bye weeks, another couple who hate their team 5 minutes after they draft it and offer every player on their roster for ridiculously complex trades that make both teams worse, not better. Of course there is always the die-hard fan who picks only Pittsburgh Steelers or guys who played at USC. These leagues are almost always won in the middle rounds of the draft by the guy who knows the most about actual football and offseason developments, not the guy armed with four different fantasy draft prep magazines and reams of cheat sheets.
To the loudmouths who talk smack about their fantasy teams. You all know the guy I?m talking about, the dude who won?t shut up about how great his team is doing because he had the unfathomable wisdom to draft Adrian Peterson with the 2nd overall pick instead of Willie Parker or Jason Campbell. This is the guy who piles on when his team is dominating because his opponent has its top 3 fantasy contributors either on bye weeks or out with injury, then wonders why he doesn?t get invited back to the league next season even though he finished in 3rd place. Just as in real football, there is no place for maladroit, mean-spirited celebrations and poor sportsmanship in the fantasy realm.
Thumbs Twiddling
On the overall impact of fantasy football. As someone who earned a college degree essentially on football (my senior history thesis was on the USFL, my geography thesis on the impact of rainy weather on football scoring), it?s always nice to see more people paying more attention to football. There are more than enough good stories involving players on and off the field to keep everyone happy, and the fantasy boom has elevated the profile of players that would have been largely anonymous beforehand. The sports bars are more crowded, the traffic on internet sites raised, and jersey sales have skyrocketed. And that?s part of the problem too. People who are fans solely for fantasy purposes think Ben Roethlisberger is an overrated bum but praise the proclivity of a relative stiff who happens to notch a 3-TD week, a la DeAngelo Williams. That is a slippery slope towards what plagues the NBA, too heavy a reliance on individual player fandom and not enough love for the overall team game. Outside of Devin Hester, when was the last time you ever saw one player win a football game basically by himself? On the flip side, LeBron James won two playoff series all by himself two years ago for my beloved Cavaliers. What works for one does not work for another. It bugs me that all these avid fantasy players know all about John Broussard?s awesome Week 1 in 2007, but they don?t understand why he?ll never see the field outside of a practice squad again.
Thumbs Sucking
To anyone who totes their laptop to the sports bar for the specific purpose of following his fantasy football teams online while the games are being played. Is it really that important to see if your Cleveland Rocks are beating the Bury ?em Enemas after the first quarter of the early slate of games? For the love of God, don?t tell me about how big of an idiot you are for not starting Calvin Johnson over Wes Welker just because you ?swindled? him as part of some blockbuster trade with an owner in Bangalore who mistakenly thought he was signing up for fantasy cricket. Trust me when I tell you that unless I?m in your league; I don?t care about how poor you are doing because you gambled on the Saints' defense and your regular kicker is on a bye week, and nobody else cares, either. Watch the games, enjoy the camaraderie, have some unhealthy food, but please leave your laptop and your addiction to instantaneous satisfaction in your used Saturn. Follow that advice and just maybe the next time you get a woman back to your parent?s basement, you won?t have to inflate her.
