Fantasy Football 101

Each and every fantasy football season is a learning experience, no matter how long you've been playing fantasy football. So, what better way to look forward to the 2005 season than to take a peek into Forrest N. Long's notebook to pick up a few tips?

Each year in fantasy football it gets tougher, and each year is different, even if you are in the same league with the same owners. As more and more people play fantasy football every year, and there is more and more information available to owners, winning your league is a tough task. So as a service to you, my loyal readers, I'm going to share some of my thoughts with you. Here are some selected pearls of wisdom that I've jotted down in my notebook over the course of the last few seasons from all of the leagues I have participated in during that time. These tips should be helpful in your pre-draft strategy, hopefully leading you to a championship in your league this year!

Have a Draft Board
If your commissioner does not use a draft board, then I strongly urge you to make it a league rule that you do each year. A draft board is basically what it says it is, they are a big poster sheet of paper and most come with easy peel off stickers that are color coded (green for QBs, red for RBs, etc.) with every NFL players name. Its big and easy to use, thus owners can easily see every player that has been drafted each round and each of the others teams needs. This also helps with the speed of the draft. In my opinion, a draft board is a must have at every draft, and most are about twenty bucks.

Be at your draft
A couple of years back, I co-owned a franchise in a new league to split the entry cost with a fellow fantasy fanatic. I was out of town the weekend of the leagues draft, leaving my partner to pick our team for us. The two of us had met prior to my departure regarding players we liked, sleepers, strategy, etc. Unfortunately, the draft didn't go quite as we had anticipated (they never do as we all know). This is not a knock against my partner; rather, it's an endorsement for being there in person at the draft when your team is selected. So many factors go into a draft or an auction draft that you can't possibly prepare for them ahead of time. And everyone reacts to those factors differently, whereas my partner let Player A slide and grabbed Player B, I might have done something differently. If I had been able to be at the draft, he and I could have discussed each pick, thus both of us having our input into the selections for our team.

Internet websites are now allowing you to pre-rank for players for the draft, thus the computer will draft your team for you each pick, but personally, I recommend that you draft your own team in those leagues too, mainly because I just don't trust some computer to draft my team.

The point is you should be at your draft to do your own drafting, and if you can't be there, you have no right to complain about the team you end up with after its over.

Co-owning a team is tricky
Please don't get the impression that I am bashing the co-owner method. Co-owning a team is a tricky endeavor. The biggest problem I noted is that it was easy for the team to fall between the cracks because he thought I'd be checking the lineup, making roster moves, etc., and I figured he would be doing them. Also, there is a problem with who to start or sit when co-owning teams that can lead to some arguing about your lineups. If you were heading into season planning a co-ownership franchise, I'd advise some clear-cut definition of roles. Whether you split up by position (I handle the running backs, you handle receivers and kickers) or day of the week (you make moves Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll take Thursday and Friday) or duty (you do pickups and drops, I set the lineup), both owners should know specifically what is going on with their squads. Or perhaps a rotating management plan where one owner handles everything one week, and the other the next week. Like a successful marriage, communication between both of you is the key to success. However, based on my experiences, I would advise against co-owning a team, if at all possible.