Fantasy Football

It's that time of year again for that strange and wonderful Sunday afternoon ritual of Fantasy Football. That's when our extended family gather around their laptops usually in the same room, and, while not speaking much, they cheer on individual performances from various NFL players from around the league that happen to be on their "team".

I had pretty much lost interest in professional sports (something I thought would never happen) until our "Commissioner", Adam, started a family league of Fantasy Football. I am truly enjoying participating in it and am really looking forward to this weekend's draft when we get to pick new players for the upcoming season. Here's why:

The last game of last season had me in last place. My last contest was going well, too well. The last place team would get the first pick in each round of the next season's draft. If I won the last game, and the second to last team lost, I would not be first pick in this weekend's draft. It looked like I would win my last game and I couldn't take that chance. I made the decision early that Sunday, before all my players were playing, to bench the rest of the team! Dang! I lost! :-) This played havoc with the playoffs (sorry Adam) but it has assured me of the coveted first pick of every round this Sunday in the draft.

How I ended my season so abysmally still puzzles me. My team was actually rated number one before the season started last year. But, with Fantasy Football, every season is practically a complete new one. You get to keep two of the players from the previous season (I, unfortunately couldn't keep the water boy) but other than that, you get a whole new group of players.

Our previous drafts were done manually and were long drawn out affairs with whiteboards, instant messaging and Skyping. As communication around the country, and in some cases other countries, is not always that swift, last year's draft was 3 1/2 hours. This year we are using the online draft. 90 seconds per pick. That doesn't sound like very long, but it really is if you've done your homework. If no pick is made in 90 seconds, the computer will automatically pick the player predicted to get you the most points. So, unless there is a sentimental favorite, you are pretty much guaranteed the best pick anyway. You can even set up the system to pick a certain position in a certain round of the draft. This draft promises to be about 30 minutes.

I'm not giving away my strategy, but nobody can steal my first pick now because all the keepers are chosen and I get the first overall pick! I'm taking Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans. Not because my daughter lives in Texas (I love ya dah-lin), but because he is the highest rated QB, and highest rated available player of any kind for that matter (my thanks to Melissa for dropping him!). I also think he's going to have a great season throwing to Andre Johnson (Charlie kept Andre!).

We shall see how we do this year!