Matty's Top 8
A BRIEF HISTORY: I have loved the hobby of Fantasy Football since I first started playing in 1995. The game has changed quite a bit since those early days. If you are not familiar with the game, it involves a draft similar to the way professional players are drafted in real life by the National Football League NFL. However, the NFL drafts players who are coming out of college and a team adds the players known as rookies to an experienced squad. This squad has been formed over the years from prior drafts and acquisition of veteran players via trade or free agency. I will elaborate more on the Fantasy football aspect more than the real life NFL assuming my readers have prior knowledge of the NFL, it's rules and method of team building. Fantasy Football has a draft similar to the NFL but it is usually done with a group of friends, co-workers or groups on the Internet acting as owners. There are multiple types of draft methods. My page will focus on the method I assume the majority of Fantasy leagues use from my experience. This method is also the system the league closest to my heart employs. This draft type is commonly referred to as the snake draft style. The Snake draft as it's name reflects, has a predetermined number of owners (usually 10 but can be as few as 8 or as many as 16) drafting in order at a predetermined specified slot in the draft. Each owner picks one player in each round. If I have the first pick in the first round I have the last pick in the second round. I will then once again pick first in the third round. The second team will draft second overall in the second round, second to last in the second round (or 19th in a 20 team league). This process continues for all owners 3rd through 10th. The draft board will either be done on-line or as I prefer on a draft board at a draft party. The draft board looks like a giant spreadsheet. You have the owners listed at the top of each column and the round at the beginning of each row. The draft process moves like a snake, hence the name. You take stickers will players names and fill in each cell of the spreadsheet. There will usually be roughly 20 rounds for a team to build their roster.This number can also vary dependent upon league rules.
THE RULES: The league will have a predetermined starting line-up that you must fill with active players and play each week in a fantasy match-up against another owners team. The common line-up will consist of 1 Quarterback, 2 Running Backs, 3 Wide Receivers, 1 Tight End, 1 Place Kicker and 1 Defensive Team. You score points for how many yards your QB passes for, RB, WR and TE run or catch for in that weeks real NFL game. Place kickers PK will score points for field goals, and extra points made. Defenses score fantasy points by holding their opposing team to a low score, causing fumbles, or having interceptions of passes of the opposing teams QB. All of the points tallied by all of your starting line ups are added up and matched against your opponent for the week. The high score for the week takes the match up and receives a Win. The losing team receives a loss. Much like the real NFL the teams with the best record are invited to a play off. The winner of that single game elimination tournament will win the league championship. This will usually result in prize money accumulated from dues collected by the league at the start of the season. But more important to me than the money is the satisfaction of beating my friends in a hobby I love and having the bragging rights for the next live draft. Now that you have the format of how a draft works you need to prepare for the draft. The Fantasy Football industry is a multi million dollar enterprise that provides multiple resources you can study and implement when planning your draft strategy. Fantasy Football began long before the advent of the Internet. When I first started playing in 1995 the most common resource available to prepare for a draft were Fantasy Football magazines. The magazines would review player profiles, statistics from prior seasons and forecasts from the upcoming season. This content would allow fantasy football players to read up on players potential or lack thereof and assign a value to the player for what round he should be picked in the draft. This is where the owner integrates their own opinions, tendencies and player likes or dislikes into a draft strategy. This site will provide you with much foresight and common denominators in some of the greatest fantasy seasons of all time. This invaluable information can provide you a guideline on how to play and win a fantasy football championship.
THE LIST FROM MY GENERATION