Entries Tagged 'Fantasy Football' ↓

This is why it is highly recommended that you wait until the last possible moment to have your league draft. Injuries are going to happen, and everyone accepts this. If you’ve played fantasy football for more than a year or two you’ve had the championship pried from your first place grasp at least once by way of injury. I got mine when Alexander went down in 2006.

So its an understood risk that at any given moment - on any given sunday (had to say it) - your season could come to an abrupt end.

But to be handed your fantasy pink slip before the season starts? That’s simply too much to bear, and the recent slew of running back injuries, recorded just days after training camps have opened, is all the proof you need to delay this year’s draft as long as possible.

By now, the fact that potential top-5 fantasy back Frank Gore, broke his hand on Monday and will likely miss the rest of the pre-season is old news. But a number of other highly sought after running backs are dinged up as well including Chester Taylor (arm), Clinton Portis (knee), Lamont Jordan (back) and Vernand Morency (knee).

Keep in mind that none of the aforementioned injuries are season-ending, and it is common knowledge that many vets will nurse any minor injury in camp to rest themselves for the long season, but we are only a few days into training camp and all of these backs figure to play a key role on someone’s fantasy roster.

As much as we’d like to believe it, NFL teams aren’t moving to the dreaded running back by committee just to screw with our fantasy football seasons. They are doing so out of necessity, because running backs today take a beating from big, fast defensive specimens and the odds of playing a full sixteen games is rarely a safe bet.

So here’s some advice on how to hedge your bets and build a solid stable of running backs for this fantasy season:

1. Draft as late as possible so you’re first rounder doesn’t fracture his tibia before you even get one week of work out of him.

2. Stock up on running backs because they will get injured.

3. If you have a top back, handcuff him to his backup. Here’s some solid info on when to handcuff a running back.

4. Likewise, target top backups and gamble that the starter will blow out a knee. Rooting for injuries may be an uglier side of fantasy football but its still part of the game. I once broke a finger on a ceiling fan celebrating Rich Gannon’s career-ending injury because I had grabbed his backup Kerry Collins in the last round that year. Of course that didn’t really pan out so say what you will about karma. A more practical example was grabbing LJ as a backup in the fifth round of the 05′ season. Priest went down, and I got a championship ring. Feeling lucky? Michael Turner anyone???

5. Do your research. Check career injury histories on all your RB prospects. How old are they? Are they destined to fall victim to the 370-carry theory?

6. Check offensive line reports. Who are the keepers of your star runner’s safety? If a backs left guard regularly pulls a Billy-Bob and give some 290-pound monster an open lane to shred cartilage, consider looking a little further down your draft board for a safer pick. 75 yds per game for 14 starts is better than 100 yds per game for 6.

Finally bought my first fantasy football magazine of the season. It’s a little late in the year but I’ve been doing most of my research online for the past few years. This year I went with Fantasy Football Index. They have a decent site that gives you access to regular updates with the purchase of the mag. Hey so what if they had Alexander on the cover last year and, this is funny, Tatum Bell two years ago.

For my money, after trying a number of other publications, this is the go-to magazine. The two things I look for are an in depth analysis and rankings by position as well as a team-by-team breakdown. Fantasy Football Index 2007 offers both… as well as a number of other goodies like expert mock drafts, sleepers and busts, rookie forecast, o-line rankings and the often overlooked but ultra important 2007 schedule with team by team bye weeks.

To each their own, of course. Brandon Funston of ESPN wrote a good article years ago on How to Draft the Right Fantasy Football Magazine. It’s a little old (from 2001) but the different standards by which he measures fantasy football magazines still hold up.

Here’s a link to a unbelievably thorough review of 13 top fantasy football magazines for 2007.

Fantasy Football is quite possibly the most important development of the last 10,000 years. Sure one could make an argument for a number of other noteworthy inventions such as fire, or the wheel or birth control, but none of these innovations have ever provided me with that feeling of excitement you get on Sunday morning’s in the fall.

Just a quick side note: Fire was actually harnessed by man much earlier than 10,000 years ago. If you don’t think evolution is the devil’s hoax and you want to learn more about how we evolved from monkeys into the mouth-breathing, extra-value meal eating, paper pushing marvels of science we are today, read anything by Ian Tattersall (I don’t get paid if you click), curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.

Anyway, you know the feeling, your bets are placed, your lineup is set, you got Peyton Manning playing indoors against the Niners… and as if God himself owed you bigtime from last nights hold em’ game, the old lady is AWOL until at least halftime of the Sunday night game.

Ah, yes…. I’m getting excited already and I haven’t even mentioned beer or pizza.

With the 07-08 season looming just out of reach like the finale to a free porn sample that cuts out after 10 seconds, I felt obliged to dig into the history of this glorious past time.

Apparently the origins of fantasy football can be traced all the way back to 1962 when Bill Winkenbach, a businessman with some vested interest in the Raiders laid out some rules that would evolve into the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Procrastinators League). Great name - it’s interesting that even during its inception, fantasy football is given no love as an worthy past time. I checked a bunch of sites but the best info seems to be at How Fantasy Football Works so definitely check out that site.

NFLPlayers.com actually has the original rules and draft results from the first ever fantasy football league posted on their site which you should definitely check out. I like to imagine “Billy Wink” and the boys sitting around grilling their buddies for their terrible picks over full glasses of aged scotch in a smoky hotel room. Sometimes I picture scantily clad hotel employees handing out cigarettes and getting lightly spanked. I can hear it now - “Blum your so f’d you old dog - your rolling with Frank Gifford and Ronnie Bull at halfback”…er… or something like that.

It looks like U.K. fantasy football has been around for about 16 years. I don’t know much about those chaps but I can tell you from experience that in Ireland it is very difficult to find a sports bar featuring American football. It’s all rugby and soccer. Now football is obvious number one on my list, but when you sit and watch some rugby player with blood gushing from his face, charge headlong, and unpadded I might add, into a 6-ft monster on the other team, you can start to understand why most Europeans are dumbfounded that American’s can sit and enjoy a baseball game.

Back on topic, to Bill Winkenbach and the other OG’s of fantasy football - thank you for this wonderful gift. It makes it a much nobler decision to choose multiple TVs and 1pm whiskey shots at the bar on Sunday afternoon over my mother-in-laws 70th birthday when I know I’m fighting to preserve over 50 years of tradition. Salut!