Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football is a game in which participants or "owners" select (or are assigned) football players from all 32 NFL franchises in which they then use to score points for their fantasy team. Points are scored based off player stats and performance in the actual weekly games. Fantasy Football leagues are typically run by a main organizer called the commissioner who may or may not also field a team in the league. Sometimes there are also co-commissioners.

History

Fantasy football can be traced back to Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, an Oakland area businessman and a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders. Winkenbach, along with Raiders Public Relations man Bill Tunnel and Tribune reporter Scotty Starling, developed a system of organization and a rulebook, which would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football. In the first fantasy football draft, participants drew cards marked for the privilege of choosing their drafting positions. The draft proceeded in a serpentine order with the first position making the first selection, the second position making the second selection, and so on until the eighth position makes the eighth selection. During the second round, the draft order reversed, with the eighth draftee starting with the ninth selection and the order continuing backward from the first round until eventually returning to the first player whose next pick would then be the 16th. Each subsequent round, the order would reverse with the last position of the previous round making the first selection of the next round until each team's roster was full. This serpentine order was implemented in order to make the teams equal and to promote a higher degree of competition. In subsequent years, after roster cuts were made, the team with the lowest record the previous season would have the opportunity to draft first.

Oakland restaurateur and Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Procrastinators (GOPPL) team coach Andy Mousalimas opened the first public fantasy football league to his patrons at the Kings X Sports Bar in 1969. By veering slightly from the original GOPPL formula, Mousalimas was responsible for the push toward the current practice of performance scoring, which rewards points to players who score touchdowns. Mousalimas has since retired from the restaurant business, but the Kings X remains the ground zero of fantasy football.

With all of the available players, variables, weather conditions, and statistics, it takes a lot of work to be a successful fantasy football player. What about the people who enjoy playing, but just don't have the time to scour every game each week? Or the new guy or gal who find themselves in last place in their league? Have no fear! There are a vast number of Web sites dedicated to all the rumors, stat-compiling, rookie speculation, good picks, draft helpers, and injury reports. One of the best websites on the internet is the Fantasy Football Cafe

Early supporters of fantasy football struggled to get information about the condition of their competing players and relied heavily on such publications as Street and Smith's sports annuals to make draft day decisions. Today, Internet-savvy football fans can get a wealth of information online on any player currently in the NFL. They can easily compare and contrast both whole teams and individual players. "Virtual drafts" enable team owners to build teams from the comfort of their living rooms, and fans can create leagues with friends who live half a world away or test their skills against a group of total strangers.

With the arrival of the Internet, fantasy football has grown from a game played by an elite group of all-male sports enthusiasts in bars to a million-dollar industry reaching 30 million online players (including 6.5 million women) in America. On average, players spend $110 a year on their online fantasy franchises.

Drafting

With the growth of the internet has come an explosion of interest in fantasy football, along with a plethora of information designed to aid everyone from the beginner to the most shrewd and experienced fantasy football owners.

For the beginner, just figuring out which type of league to join can be as confusing as figuring a quarterback's passer rating without a calculator, so the Fantasy Football Cafe has put together an explanation of some of the more popular types of fantasy football leagues.

Standard Draft Leagues: Standard draft leagues are the most popular and generally begin with teams selecting all their players in a serpentine style draft. Owners then set their lineups each week based on the number of players per position allowed by league rules. If you are new to the Fantasy Football community, this is probably the best league to start with since there are fewer details.

There are basically two different types of standard draft leagues; head-to-head and total points.

In a head-to-head league, a team matches up against a different team each week with the team receiving the most points of the two that particular week being awarded a win while the other team is given a loss. At the end of the regular season, teams with the best won/loss records meet in the playoffs to decide an eventual champion. If there is a tie, league rules will determine who will make the playoffs.

Total points leagues do not track wins and losses, rather teams accumulate points on an ongoing basis with standings being determined by the teams' total points. The teams that build the highest total points at the end of the regular season advance to the playoffs.

Auction Draft Leagues: As with standard draft leagues, auction draft leagues can utilize either a head-to-head or total points system. The difference is that owners are given a predetermined amount of money to bid on players to fill their roster. Each owner may bid on any player he likes. But if an owner overspends on one player, the rest of his roster might suffer because he does not have enough remaining cash to fill other positions with quality players.

Dynasty Leagues: Dynasty leagues are for the serious fantasy football owner and require a commitment over multiple seasons. After the initial draft in a dynasty league's first season, players remain on the same roster from one season to the next unless they are traded or released. Each year after the initial season, a draft is held for rookies only, so fantasy owners must be more in tune to the talent in college than an owner in a standard draft league.

This type of league also allows owners a more realistic experience managing a franchise as they must take into consideration how each transaction affects the future of their franchise.

Keeper Leagues: A keeper league is sort of a combination between a standard draft league and a dynasty league. Each preseason, most of the players are drafted, however, owners are allowed to keep a predetermined number of players on their roster from the year before. Most league rules allow only a few players to be retained by each team from year to year.

IDP Leagues: This type of league utilizes defensive players on an individual basis rather than an entire defense, which is common among most other types of leagues. The additional players and positions to fill require owners in an IDP league to do a lot more research to determine which defensive players to draft, and when.

Rules/Scoring

Scoring varies from league to league. Many fantasy web hosts allow for a customizable scoring system which leads to an almost limitless amount of variations in scoring systems. Over the years there has been a standard scoring format devised by default league settings.

(Need Standard scoring list)

Scheduling

Fantasy Football schedules typically run from week one of the NFL season to week 13 or 14. In weeks 13/14 the playoffs typically begin in which the seasons best teams play single elimination games to determine an overall fantasy league champion. Most competitive fantasy leagues hold their Fantasy "Super Bowls" in week 16 due to many NFL franchises resting key players in week 17. Some fantasy football leagues do host their Super Bowl in week 17 or carry over into the NFL playoffs in a more limited format.

Scheduling can be done by hand by the leagues commissioner or can be automatically generated depending on the fantasy website. Many times fantasy leagues are split into divisions similarly to the way the NFL is organized.

Strategy

Drafts, in my opinion, are the most fun and exciting parts of the entire fantasy football experience, but there is a lot of work that is involved in order to draft a roster that can be competitive. Owners should come to their draft prepared and ready to draft a solid team. It is imperative to bring the following to your draft; positional rankings, cheats sheets, and a list of bye weeks. Although, the most important thing to bring to your draft is a knowledge of the scoring system, rules and roster limitations. As a future team owner, you also need to be prepared with some sort of draft strategy. There are many different strategies that each team owner may have, but we will discuss five of the top fantasy football strategies used. These are basic strategies that may not fit every league or scoring system, but you can use these in every league in some way to allow you to be an affective owner and cruise into the playoffs.

1. Smashmouth Football Strategy: This has been one of the most discussed strategy among fantasy owners. This strategy suggests that owners should select three running backs in the first three rounds in order to secure depth at what is considered the most important position in most scoring formats. After you select your top three running backs, owners will then select a wide receiver or quarterback with their fourth round selection. Of course, this would be dependent on the current flow of the draft. The plan for the next few rounds should then be placed on a combination of wide receivers, tight ends or even a fourth running back depending on who you selected in the fourth round.

The next question most people ask is does this strategy work? Based on the number of teams that use two running backs during a game, commonly referred as a running back by committee, has caused this strategy to not be used as often as it once was in years past. The only time that I like this strategy is when your league uses the flex position. More often than not, owners will fill the flex position with a running back and it may pay off to draft running backs in the first three rounds. Like everything else, it would be dependent on the flow of the draft and what running backs were left to draft. In addition, as we have seen in years past, running backs get hurt often and if there are no running backs on the waiver wire worth grabbing, you may have some power when it comes to a trade with that owner in need.

2. The Best-Player Available Strategy: This plan tells owners to choose the best player available at each position based on an overall positional rank list that you created or you obtained from a top notch fantasy source such as the Fantasy Football Café. For example, an owner who has the 12th overall selection in a 12-team league would select the 12th and 13th best available players in the first and second round based on the positional rankings. For example, if you selected a running back with your first pick, you would then select a player (not a running back) based on your positional rankings. Once your draft is complete, in theory, you would have a well rounded fantasy team.

The next question most people ask is does this strategy work? This strategy could work for every skill level. However, it is important to keep follow the flow of the draft in order to make good decisions on which position to fill once the first two rounds (which will be running backs in most cases) are finished. Owners must also be aware of what positions they have already filled to determine when to add depth to your team.

3. The Quarterback Strategy: Owners will usually use this strategy when the top tier running backs are filled or when the quarterback position scores more points than other positions. Once they have selected their quarterback of choice, the plan would be to select a running back in the second and third rounds. However, it's not out of the question to take a running back and a wide receiver in those rounds based on the flow of the draft or scoring for your league. Although, in most cases it will be running backs who are the focal point in the rounds right after you select your quarterback.

The next question most people ask is does this strategy work? With the exception of greater scoring for quarterback, the only advantage with this strategy is that it allows you to draft the top quarterback in fantasy football. The only negative is if the top quarterback goes down with an injury (see Tom Brady). At that point, unless the second quarterback that you drafted steps up to stud status, your season may go down the drain. Needless to say, I am not a big fan of this strategy.

4. The Wide Receiver Strategy: Most of us know that running backs are the backbones for fantasy teams and is usually the first skill position selected in the first two rounds. This strategy suggests that an owner take wide receivers with their first two selections and wait to select their first back until the third round. As a result, it is possible to land, for example, Randy Moss and Reggie Wayne, and then fill in the backfield with lower tier running backs. Since there will be many available quarterbacks still on the board in the middle rounds, an owner who decides to utilize this plan can then wait a few rounds to fill the quarterback position.

The next question most people ask is does this strategy work? This strategy works well if your league awards points per reception (PPR), but with the depth at the wide receiver position, I would not recommend this strategy. This is a risky strategy, but could pay off if you were able to get your hands on two solid rookies this season (Chris Johnson and Matt Forte), a lack of depth could be a major concern. Like I discussed earlier, running backs tend to get injured and if you do not have depth, it could mean the end to your season, even with Moss and Wayne. The running back position is also the hardest position to fill once the season begins. The only way out would be a trade, once of your number one wide receivers for a running back. Ultimately, this would do away with your wide receiver strategy all together.

5. The Safest Strategy: This is the safest and most tried and true draft strategy on the street today. Regardless of your draft position, owners should take two running backs in the first two rounds. This would guarantee you two tier two running back and could mean one tier one and one tier two running back. This is a good base to build your team off of. By the time the third rounds comes, you should be able to land a top tier wide receiver. Once the fourth round comes, you can either select another wide receiver or another running back to add depth for the bye weeks. Solid quarterbacks and tight ends should still be available in the middle rounds, so don't get concerned and try and fill those positions early. All of this depends on the flow of the draft and if there is a run on any position. Finally, never draft a kicker or defense until the late rounds, although, the last two rounds would be preferred for these positions. You may hear that there are tiers related to defense. In my opinion, this could not be farther from the truth. Key defensive players are injured all the time and if the offense is weak, the defense will not be very effective if they were on the field for 75% of the game. Another pitfall you do not want to make is to draft either two kickers or defenses. When the bye weeks roll around, at that time you can play the match-ups.

The next question most people ask is does this strategy work? This plan of attack should work, unless you end up with two running backs that were either disappointments or were injured, such as Larry Johnson and Steven Jackson. Most of the time, you'll finish the draft with two solid running backs, a top tier wide receiver, a solid number two wide receiver, and a quality quarterback. The middle rounds should also include a solid tight end and some depth at the key positions. This strategy should allow you to have a solid roster. Barring any injuries or disappointments, you should have an extended season and have a chance for a run in the playoffs.