Fantasy Football for newbies

So, let me preference this post with this disclaimer:  NFL football and any fantasy football based on it is fairly complicated.  This post is intended for people new to football or fantasy football, and can in no way be considered a full explanation of either game.  This is more of a quick overview to get someone started.  Specifically in the fantasy football league that I am running this year.

We good?  OK, here we go!

The Leagues

The NFL has 32 teams, which play for 17 weeks. (There are divisions an conferences, but that doesn't really concern us.  So, we'll leave it at that.)  After that 17 weeks, they will jump into the playoffs.  (Again, we really don't care about that, so we'll move on.)  Each team in the NFL will have one BYE week that they don't play.

The RJCFFL has 12 teams (or maybe 10, depending on whether we get the last two teams), which play for all of the NFL regular season.  The RJCFFL will have 3 weeks of playoffs to determine the ultimate champion of the league.  So, that means that the last three weeks of the NFL regular season are the RJCFFL post season.  The top 8 teams in the RJCFFL will play in the playoffs.  The rest of the teams will quietly sit it out on the side until the end of the season.   These playoffs will be a single elimination tournament. (1st seed versus 8th seed, 2nd seed versus 7th seed, etc.)  The seeding is done based on the regular season record.  The RJCFFL does NOT have a BYE week.

Both leagues will be head to head match ups between two teams.  Higher score wins.

Positions

Each plays in the NFL plays at a certain position.  These are the positions that we care about:

Quarterback (QB) - Pretty much the brains of the field.  He tells the other players what the play will be, determines when the play starts, and takes the ball initially.  Generally (like on 99 out of 100 plays), he'll be one to throw the ball.  Also, there's only 1 QB on the field at any given time.

Running Back (RB) - These are the guys who line up behind the quarterback.  You know the guy who is handed the ball from the QB and runs into the mess of people in front of him?  That's the Running Back.  There are generally several good running backs on a team.  Many times, there will be more than one on the field at once.  Also, not only do they run the ball, but a lot of them will catch the ball as well.

Wide Receiver (WR) - These are the guys who line up on the far left and right side of the fields before the ball is snapped.  They run down the field and catch the ball.  Generally, there is one really good WR on the field (the QB's favorite) and maybe another pretty good WR per team.  There are anywhere from 2-4 WRs in the field at any given time.  

Tight End (TE) - This is a bit of an odd position.  Tight Ends line up on the line of scrimmage, and are allowed to catch the ball (offensive linemen are not).  So, sometimes they are used just as much as receivers and sometimes they are just used to block.  It varies wildly from team to team.

Kicker (K) - There are actually two types of kickers:  place kickers (who put he ball on a stand before the kick it) and punters (who drop kick the ball).  Place kickers are the ones who do any kick off, field goals, or extra points.  Punters are called in when the offense is not able to move the ball well enough to keep playing.  (Punting is the last thing that the offense does before turning the ball over.)  For the RJCFFL, we only care about the place kickers.

The only position that we care about in the RJCFFL that I didn't mention above is the Defense (DEF).  This is pretty self-explanatory.  Pretty much you are drafting the entire defense of a team.  This just simplifies things a bit.

A note about position draft order.  Everyone's got a different draft strategy, and I've only won one league in all of my years of playing.  So, take this for what you will. I have found that QB are *really* important.  There are only 32 starters out there and 12 people in the league.  I wouldn't say that they are necessarily a #1 pick for your team, but you'll know it if you've got a bum QB more than any other position.  DEF and K?  The top shelf of those positions will win games for you week to week.  However, outside of the top shelf, there's not a lot of difference between average kickers.  So, don't draft them too early.  WR/RB?  That'sthe bread and butter of your team.  Make sure to get a bunch of 'em.  TEs....  Last year I was taken off guard with how much they were used.  So, it's kind of a chance this year.  Try to get a good one early, but don't sacrifice a good RB/WR for one.  My two cents at least.

So, what's this about the bench?  Well, you'll have some players on your team that you don't play in a given week.  They sit on your bench and don't score for that week.  They can be of any position.  So, why do we have a bench?  You'll want to bench a player for short term injuries, if they are on a BYE, or if they have a bad match up.  (For example, if you have a decent DEF, but that team is going up against an undefeated team this week, then you'll probably  want to bench that DEF for that week.)

That's about all that I have to say about the NFL per se.  So, let take a look at the league.

RJCFFL

So, first and foremost, bookmark this url:  http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/rjcffl . 

This'll be the base of our discussion here.  Across the top of this screen, you'll see a menu.  "League", "My Team", etc.  When you hover the mouse over anything here, you'll get more sub-menus.  Any time that I want you to click on a link, I'll probably be referring to up there.

So, let's take a look at your stuff, shall we?  Head to My Team -> Edit Team Settings.  Here's where you'll set a team name, set your helmet, etc.  Head in there and poke around.  At the very least, you'll want to choose a team name.  Yahoo! picks some very odd team names by default.

Now, just click on My Team.  This will bring up your team's roster.  Right now, it's empty.  But, week to week, you want to log in, move some players around, etc.  Also, you can set your team slogan.   By default it'll say something like "Team Slogan..."  Generally, this is used for smack talk week to week.  (It is encouraged, but let's keep it semi-civil, please.)

Also, week to week, You'll probably want to hit the Players link.  This will show you a list of available players (and taken players, if you're looking to trade).  As a heads up, Yahoo! will sort these players by "Rankings".  I'm not entirely sure how these rankings are put together.  Generally, I'll sort by "Fan Pts" (the last column) when I'm looking to pick up or drop a player.

Right now, you can take a look at Draft Central -> Pre-Draft Rankings.  Here you can sort what you want.  You'll see that Yahoo! has already ranked the players.  So, that is a pretty good guide if you have no idea about players.  (Really, in the first round or two of the draft the rankings are *really* solid.)  You can also set your pre-draft rankings to help as a guideline during the draft.  I've kinda stopped doing this because once the draft starts, I tend to get frazzled and ignore this anyways.  But his is a good practice to at least get familiar with players names, positions, and teams.  

When it is time for the draft, there will be a pop up that appears on the home screen of the league.  So, don't worry about that.  The nice thing is that during the draft, the tool will display a player's BYE week.  

Now the tool that I use the most week to week is the Stat Tracker.  Just click on the Stat Tracker over to the side. It'll give you real time updates of all of the games in the league.  It's really nice to have while your watching the game.  Or, if you're out, I'm pretty sure that there's a mobile app.

I think that's enough to get you started.  As an FYI, you will NOT receive any notification from Yahoo! if somoene offers you a trade.  So, if you want to trade with someone you might want to call them or IM them or email them or something to make sure that they know about the trade.

I think that's enough to get you started.  If you have questions, please let me know.

Tomorrow is my birthday

Tomorrow, I turn 35.  For some, I’m quite the old man.  For others, I’m practically a baby.  As we as a species have longer life expectancies, “mid-life” changes and the perspective of what is young versus what is old changes.  This puts me in the unique position of having learned a lot, and also accepting that I have a lot to learn.  When you reach a certain age, you don’t suddenly become wise.  For many it could even be said that wisdom is never achieved.  This is all noise.  Let me get to my point.

There are a lot of bad things going on in the world.  Admittedly, there have ALWAYS been a lot of bad things going on in the world.  People have always had ways of dealing – turning to God, taking advantage, giving up etc.  I think, however, things seem worse lately because we’re all so connected.  Technology has increased the ability to communicate exponentially, and has given a voice to almost everyone. 

Some people have some great things to say, some have some terrible things to say. Some make stuff up just for the sake of getting a rise out of others.  Some wonderful achievements have been made, some terrible events have occurred. 

It seems now that we’re always tuned in, we’ve truly stared into the abyss, and it is staring back.  It seems that tragedies, drama, stress, anxiety has permeated into every home and now the terror of external tragedies has come home.  I’ve always been pretty anxious, but I must admit that lately my dander is up quite a lot. 

I’m not saying the answer is to retreat back into ignorance, but more to see what we have, and think of how we can use it to positively influence one another.  So, for my birthday, you don’t have to wish me a happy birthday, or buy me a present. 

Be kind to someone.  Reach out and speak to someone you haven’t in a while for whatever reason.  Help a stranger.  Or even just unplug for a while, and take time for yourself.  Listen to your inner monologue without outside distraction.  You might learn something about yourself, or someone else.  You might reconnect. You might be reminded why you disconnected.  I’m hoping that maybe we can all focus on the positive, and not be so damn negative all the time.

I don’t know.  I’m going to unplug myself for a while, take some time to get to know Erik again.  The 25 year old is much different than the 35 year old, but I still think there’s a lot to teach one another.  Plus, I have a family now, and I’d rather they get to know the kind and giving me, not the stressed and nervous me.

Peace.