Why Do I Torture Myself ?

Yes, this IS another post about Fantasy Football.

Yes, I am destroying the other teams in ONE of my two leagues.

Yes, I told myself that "it's just for fun" and "I won't take it too seriously."

BUT ...

Every.  Single.  Week.

 

Every.  Single.  Game.

 

Every.  Single.  Player.

I get sucked in and experience these huge emotion swings as it looks like I will lose badly, then it looks like I might eke out a win, then it looks like I might get a dominant win, then it looks like I will just barely lose, then it looks like ... no wait ... yeah, I lost.

I'm currently in 10th place in my 12-team league.  Those other two teams doing worse than me have basically NEVER updated their teams!  So I am only better than people who aren't playing at all!

And yet ... I cannot wait for next week and the week after that and the playoffs and then perhaps next year when everything will be better because everything will work out the way I expect it to and I'll have a new chance to win again!  Hope springs eternal!


Song Of The Day:
I've wanted to use the song "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls for a while now but didn't have the write blog post idea for it.  I can think of none better than this one, because I'm always seeking the better days ahead related to fantasy football.

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Fantasy Football Part 2 - The Big Mistake ?

I feel a disclaimer is deserved here at the very start of this post.  I only set up a fantasy football league because my wife asked me to.  Okay, so she never really asked but she mentioned multiple times that she would love to play fantasy football this year.  I hate being a commissioner of a fantasy football league ... but I love my wife more than that, so there you have it.

The FF league commisioner has the responsibility to set everything up for the league.  This includes the draft (date and time, etc.), the positions being filled on each team, the participants invited into the league to manage a team, and, of course, the point settings.

It is with that last item that I made a MAJOR mistake.

Without getting too technical, there is supposed to be a balance in possible points in most FF leagues.  Offensive players typically generate the most points (QBs, RBs, WRs, and a few very talented TEs).  Defenses or Defensive players and Kickers generate fewer points, but enough to tip the close games one way or another if you played the right people.  I wanted to add in points for Special Teams players, specifically for those men who risk life and limb to return punts or kickoffs.  Those are some of the most exciting plays and players to watch in a football game, so why not get some points for having one or two of those people on your FF team?

Somehow I set up "Return Yards" with an exceptionally high value (1 point for every 5 yards).  This has caused players who only do ONE thing to generate more points than any other position player.  Like, WAY more points.  So much so, that my oldest son dropped many of his drafted players for "no name" return men, because they were projected to earn twice as many points.  It's not his fault for taking full advantage of the point settings.  It is mine.

Sadly, there is no way to adjust these point settings once the draft is done, so I am going to have to figure out a way to create an honor system in our league to keep any one player from having a "stacked" team filled with kick returners.


Song Of The Day:
Every year with Fantasy Football, I believe every participant is a "King Of Wishful Thinking" about their team, players, and match-ups.  This is a great song by Go West.  Enjoy it!

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Can I Overcome This Weak Grade ?

Below is the grade I received for my fantasy football draft.

The thing is ... this was the draft as completed by the computer-generated draft list.  I was unable to attend so the pre-programmed order of players guided my draft "choices."  This is the first time a computer has fully selected my fantasy team, which makes me wonder why we even use their suggestions in the first place.

If I trusted your analytics of player ranking and value, then why is my draft grade so low?  Shouldn't the draft grade for automated picks be better than a "C" ?  Or is that appropriate since "C" is supposed to suggest "average" ?  But then, does that mean it could be programmed to select a better lineup, but is instead dummied down to penalize people who miss the draft?

Regardless, I now begin the process of identifying which post-draft players to pick up.  I take solace in the fact that every year there are at least a handful of big point producers who were either late round pickups or claimed off waivers early in the season.  I don't care if I win the whole league, but not making the playoffs (after coming in 3rd last year) would be a big disappointment.


Song Of The Day:
I remember that the video for Dire Straits' hit song "Walk Of Life" was my first introduction to the concept of a football highlights video.  Long before ESPN and Sportscenter had theip Top Plays of the day and even longer before YouTube highlight packages, we were left to appreciate the great game of American football through compilation videos that were specially made, usually for other purposes.  I always remember this video when football season is upon us.

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What did we ever do before Facebook?

Feel free to replace with Fantasy Football, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.

Seriously, my zoo is SOOOOO much better than this crap!

Oh that's right ... before Mafias and Farms and Zoos and IHearts and Passing Drinks and collecting Flair and playing Bejeweled Blitz or Family Feud or Zynga Poker ... we had real lives and interacted with real people and planted real gardens and read real books and decorated our real houses and did work at our real jobs and sent real gifts through the real mail system.

What a real waste of time that used to be!  :)