As the summer sets to close and fall rolls in, most of us heartily welcome the football season, with high school football underway and collegiate level football playing tonight already. In addition to the high school and college leagues, I can hardly wait for the NFL to start with the lockout being lifted this summer. (Looks like we all can't rock out with our lockout this year.) One of the best parts of the National Football League headed our way is the fantasy leagues that come along with it. There are varying ways to view the fantasy league you're in, regardless of a friendly league, paid league, or even both, which is why I'm here, to give you the "ABC's" of fantasy football!
A - Adjusters. Every league has that one guy who always goes to check on their team at every possible second they can to make petty roster changes. They can't wait until Sunday (exception: I realize there are Thursday and Saturday games) to change their own team; they aren't picking up new players for the waiver so there is no hurry to get it done but they believe there is. These people tend to be very irritating cramming the league's newsfeed with roster updates.
B - Bye Weeks. Bye weeks tend to be a huge pain in the neck for true managers vying to win their leagues with flying colors. My mentality: get rid of them. Players do not need one week off, they're professionals for goodness sakes, man up, you "self proclaimed 'pros'"
C - Commissioners. In order to have a successful year to occur, you must have a great commissioner dedicated to the league. They may sometime get too attached to the leadership position of the league and go way over the top. The time and effort used to set up and maintain the league almost always pays out in the end. Our league is kept by no other than The Mr. Post.
D - Divisional Match-ups. These matches don't mean any more than a normal fantasy football week. Unless your league is set up where the divisional winner gets a sum of the payout for winning their division, there is no need for them. I'm just speaking on the terms that your league is set up similiar to the one I am active in, if not, blame Mr. Post
E - Expert Analysis. They don't know $#!%. Paul the Octopus could better predict how the season is going to play out compared to some of these air heads. Don't get me wrong, some of them are very good at what they do, but no one is perfect. Go by your gut, not Chris Berman.
F - Football. I was obviously going to mention football on a fantasy football topic blog post, right? Of course! This isn't a trick question. I'm sure I can speak for a multitude of people when I say, 'Thank you for lifting the lockout, NFL." With the exception of a shortened mini-camp, no two-a-days, this off-season went somewhat smooth after the lockout was over.
G - Gamesmanship. Most of us are guilty when it comes to putting gamesmanship in front of sportsmanship in our leagues. If your opponent has a vacant roster spot, text him or her before the rosters are locked. Don't be the ass who doesn't play fair against full rosters.
H - High risk, high reward. If your gut is telling you something insane is going to happen the upcoming week that no one else is feeling will happen, go for it. Yes, it's a high risk that your guess may be a bust, but if it's not and you lose by a few points that you would have had if you had played your gut, you'll be kicking yourself in the ass. No one really expected Vick to have the year he did after he was reinstated, and look what he did for the owners that decided to take a chance with him. Who's going to this year's Michael Vick?
I - Injuries. Injuries are almost always the things that make fantasy football leagues interesting. If a player gets hurt that I drafted, I almost instantly become irate and can't tolerate the player, especially if he gets hurt in week one on one of the first drives of the season. Such feelings displayed towards players are generally negatively perceived by the player, especially in the likes of Arian Foster, who didn't hesitate to express his feelings on Twitter after a recent hamstring injury.
J - Jokes. Most fantasy owners take the time to change their team name to something 'funny'. Don't center your whole fantasy team around a name and be a cupcake team that just generates laughs from other opponents. Respect is easily lost when it comes to not caring how your team does. Sure, people enjoy the easy opponent, but other owners find it unfair when their competition has to play the cupcake team.
K - Kickers! The best part of the draft is when you get down to the nitty gritty and start selecting kickers. There is no need to go after kickers until the final 5 rounds when you have a solid player in each category with an above-par backup for the regular starter's bye week Don't be the guy who selects the kicker in one of the first 3 rounds. Sure, it might be funny, but it will turn out to be something that you will kick yourself in the ass over because you could have a breakout running back selected instead of your 'star' kicker, Robbie Gould, getting you 4 points in a week.
L - League Makeup. Most leagues have a generally balanced makeup of owners. A good league consists of people who enjoy fantasy football and take it somewhat serious, and making sure that not many of the guys who spends all day looking up statistics or the guy who never sets his roster full are in the league.
M - Manchester United. Speaking under a football topic, i find it necessary to include the fact that Manchester United destroyed Arsenal 8-2 last week in Premier League play. Arsenal club management found this loss so embarrasing they started a free ticket giveaway to a future away match for the fans that came to witness the rout on the side of Arsenal.
N - Name. This pertains to the joke section mentioned before on this blog. The name of your team can be funny, but don't go overboard. If someone uses a racial or gay slur, I find it inappropriate for a fantasy league. Yeah it's a league with your friends, but use your judgement here.
O - Online Drafts. Having a live, online draft can be very entertaining with the capabilities of trading draft pick positions. If you are all gathered in one area for the draft, you can have a draft party and make an event of it. These types of parties can be quite fun and highly suggestive, just make sure your wireless can handle up to 16 people on laptops at once!
P - Picture. Also pertaining to the Jokes and Names section already discussed, the picture of your team can be very fun to play with. If you are emulating a fictional place with a proper picture, it makes your team reputation all that much better. Once again, don't go over the line with the pictures that would disgust your mother had she walked in and seen your team's picture.
Q - Quarterbacks. One of the most prized picks for the owners would be their star quarterback. There are quarterbacks vying for the number one spot on many team's depth charts, so you want to make sure that you get a stud quarterback with virtually no risk of losing his starting spot, disregarding the possibility of an injury to occur.
R - Reserve Players.Every good owner has a backup plan in-case of occurrence of disastrous events, and they usually are based on reserve players. Having quality backups can be the difference between first place in your league and second place, which, in some leagues, can be a $100 difference. Don't be the guy who thinks his starters are the bee's knees and doesn't get any good backups and pays the price for their ignorance.
S - Score Running. Synonymous with garbage points, many players score many fantasy points at the end of the game, whether they are winning big or losing bad. If the team is winning big, a helpful tool is to have that running back, as they are going to go to him to slowly wind out the clock. If the team is losing bad, having the quarterback or star receiver is essential as they typically heave the ball down field and try to get back into the game quickly. The quarterback is prone to throwing interceptions in most cases as the defense knows what they are going to do and plays a heavy coverage play.
T - Trading. Make fair trades, combining teams with another member of the league to be sure to get the league title is ridiculous. Some leagues even make rules banning events like this, disqualifying both sides for the running of the prize money. No one appreciates the ones who do this except for the ones combining teams. Just don't do it.
U - Undervalued players. Be sure to always keep an eye out for the sleepers of the upcoming football season. Only a few are noticed coming into the year, but preform at a high level for the majority of the year. They prove to be steals in the draft sometimes coming in the last 2 rounds, seeing how they are rated very low and not many people look for these players. Keep your eyes open.
V - VMA's Best New Artist, Tyler the Creator. I know this has nothing pertaining to the upcoming fantasy season, but seriously!? Who is this guy!? HE ROLLED HIS EFFING ANKLE RECEIVING THIS AWARD. Foster the People or Wiz Khalifa should have gotten this award, but Tyler the Unknown comes out of no where and wins. I haven't heard one of his songs on the radio to this day.
W - Waivers. Every week, most owners rush to the waiver list, hoping to pick up the upcoming stars and those who preformed excellently the previous week. My mindset is, wait until you are sure they are worth it, and you should have a fairly high waiver priority as everyone takes someone new every week. But some weeks I'll go batshit insane and try to pick up 4 guys. It's all up to your preference on when it comes to your waiver strategy.
X - XM Radio. You don't need to go spend money on things that aren't going to change the outcome of your player's statistics. You might think it's worth spending the money on a high tech radio just to listen to your fantasy players, but it's not better than just checking it at the time online or waiting until the next day. (Let it be known i love XM radio's because the music selection is super impressive.)
Y - Yahoo vs. Espn. Each person has their preference to either ESPN's fantasy leagues or Yahoo's. It really doesn't make a difference because all in all, the commissioner can set it up either way. You can make your ESPN league identical in terms of points and settings in comparison to Yahoo. They are almost completely interchangeable.
Z - ZZZZzzzz I hope I didn't put you to sleep during the reading of my ABC's to fantasy football. Hopefully my blogging skills increase as I continue to blog about various concepts on here throughout the year. Stay tuned here, comment, follow, and share this blog to your friends!
All Alex, all the time.
