Fantasy Football, whats the hype you ask?
Fantasy Football is a way of immersing yourself into the game as a fan. You start to follow players on teams other than 'yours' because the team you 'drafted' depends on their individual performances. You want the best of the best on your team at every skill position, but were your preseason guesses correct? Did your star player get injured, who are going to pick up off the waiver wires or trade for to replace him???
Every league has the opportunity to customize the general rules set forth by the website in which you are playing on. I play on www.yahoo.com and www.espn.com. Some leagues do automated drafts that you can set up your pre-selected draft order and the system will take your top rated available player to fill your team. Most leagues do a live snake draft. A snake draft will take you from player 1-10 in round 1, and player 10-1 in round 2, and so on through all rounds. Draft position in both types of draft are randomly decided. Another type of draft is a live in person auction draft. In this type of draft you have a certain amount of cash, your salary cap in which to draft your players. In this type of draft the order is randomly selected, but on your turn you nominate a player and starting value for him. He then goes on the auction block, you may or may not get that guy on your team.
Leagues generally have 10 to 12 teams, the fewer the teams the deeper the rosters go. The more teams the creative you have to be with your drafting and waiver pick ups. There are risks and rewards to most picks. Some are more reward than risk! This is a great way to connect with your guy, if he plays you can start and as you start to follow your team, you'll notice that aspects of the game you haven't understood before are starting to make sense. You might even develop your own favorite team, or your love for your team will grow stronger yet diversified because you have a Top 10 player on your fantasy roster.
Fantasy Scoring is slightly different in most leagues, but common values are:
Touchdown- 6 or 7 points
Rushing/Receiving Yards- 1 point for every 25 yards gained
Passing Yards- 1point for every 25 or 50 yards thrown
Field Goals up to 35 yards long- 3 points
Field Goals 36-49 yards- 4 points
Field Goals 50+ yards- 5 points
Point After Touchdown- 1 point
Interception - 2 points
Sack - 1 point
Fumble Lost by Offense - negative 2 points
Fumble Caused by Defense - 2 points for the defense
So today as I sit here, I am thinking about the upcoming fantasy season....
My Dream Roster (NOTE: I have not compared bye weeks)
QB- Aaron Rodgers/ Green Bay Packers
RB- Ray Rice/Baltimore Ravens
RB- LeSean McCoy/ Philadelphia Eagles
WR- Calvin Johnson/ Detroit Lions
WR- Victor Cruz/ New York Giants
WR- Jeremy Maclin/ Philadelphia Eagles
TE- Rob Gronkowski/New England Patriots
K- Mason Crosby/ Green Bay Packers
DEF- San Francisco 49ers
Bench- RB - Adrian Peterson/ Minnesota Vikings (If he is ready to play from injury)
Bench- WR - Vincent Jackson/ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Bench- TE - Jimmy Graham/ New Orleans Saints
Bench- QB - Drew Brees/ New Orleans Saints
Bench- WR- AJ Green/Cincinatti Bengals
A common question is 'Should I put Rookies on my fantasy team?'
My theory is if you feel there is a rookie that will make an immediate impact on his team and be a big scorer, by all means draft him. But make sure you solid veterans that play the same position. For example, Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers) came in last year and played well from week 1. That generally isn't the case, as it takes time to learn the playbooks and the speed of an NFL game.
So I pose to you....
Will you play fantasy this year?
Would you play in a women only fantasy league?
What questions do you have about football?
What football related topics are you interested in?
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-Amanda
well, hell yes I'm gonna play fantasy football this year. But your second question intrigues me...and I believe my initial answer is 'no.' Sorta like trying to work-out in a women-only gym environment (think 'Curves')I find it to be...limiting - like acquiescing to someone else's notion about what I should or should not be comfortable with, you know? I'm not a guy, don't pretend to be one in either appearance or attitude, but neither do I want to be hemmed-in (get it? - a chick joke)to the 'nicer' world of women's stuff. Yes...I cry about football sometimes (much to the dismay of my football friends) but I also curse mightily at the tele on gameday sunday and am here at training camp now intently watching the competition for right guard on the vike's o-line.
ReplyDeleteMy question back to you: Why would one want to have a women-only league?
I bow to you! I was at bucs camp again this morning, and was able to get a Clark jersey signed! SCORE ONE FOR THE QUEEN!
ReplyDeleteI was posing that question at the girls who aren't necessarily as savvy as you and want to learn how to play fantasy without being dominated by their husband's or boyfriends :-)
I am trying to spread the love of the game through our gender...
YOU ALSO NEED TO CALL ME BACK :-)