If you think you can't win, then you have already lost. This is the best advice that I can give on winning fantasy football. You can say the same thing about anything in life. If you think that you will never be happy, then you have no chance of ever being happy. You have to go into every season, and every week, believing that you are going to win. If you think that you are going to lose, then subconsciously you will make poor fantasy football decisions. Believing you can win is half of the battle. Knowing what's going on in the NFL is the other half. This is an outline of how I do my fantasy football research.
Part of what makes fantasy football great, is that everything we do is an educated guess. No one knows what week Vincent Jackson will have 100 yards and 2 TDS, or what week he will have two catches for 34 yards. No one knows which Redskins RB will get carries from week to week, not even the RBs themselves. All we can do is improve our odds by understanding the situation. The more we know, the better chance we have of guessing right.
Doing your research can be as easy as finding an expert you like, such as me, and relying on their legwork. This is fine for someone who doesn't has a lot of time, and can still give you a big advantage over less informed opponents. I have the luxury of time, and get a lot of satisfaction out of doing my own investigating and forming my own opinions.
The main things that I am looking for, is news that can shift a player's value. In the world of player value OPPORTUNITY is king. The best place to unearth hidden gems of new found opportunity, is https://twitter.com. My twitter account is separated into a list of each NFL division, and one list for the NFL in general. Each divisional list follows all of the beat writers for the four teams in the division. These writers know their respective teams better than anyone else, and are a GREAT source of key quotes from the coaching staffs. For example, you can find a quote from the head coach stating that they feel that Robert Turbin can be an every down RB in the NFL. Then, a month or so down the line twitter tells you Marshawn Lynch won't be suiting up this week, due to back spasms. You think back to that quote and rush to your computer to check the free agent list for Turbin, knowing that the coaching staff will more than likely use him exclusively in Lynch's absence. Simply put, Twitter is the best source for credible and up to date information.
Comparing my opinions with the other fantasy writers is also key to my investigations. I read a couple articles a week from most of the sites I have linked on the blog. A lot can be learned from the NFL programming on ESPN and NFL Network. NFL Playbook, on NFL network, and NFL Matchup, on ESPN, are great at breaking down match ups for individual players. I also listen to about 6 NFL or fantasy football podcast a day, while I'm at work. Chief among these podcast is ESPN's Fantasy Focus: Football podcast, which i have listened to every day since my first season playing fantasy football in 2006. Mathew Berry, Stephania Bell, the Weasel, and sometimes even Pod Vader have kept me entertained for years, and have even taught me a few things about fantasy football along the way.
Now you know where The FFBI does it's investigating. If you have any questions, would like me to go into more detail, or want to share where you do your investigating, please leave a comment below.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Why I love fantasy football
It was a joy filled white Christmas day in mid Michigan. Having spent the morning with family, I was now huddled around the TV with a group of my close friends. As we watched week 16 of the 2006 NFL season come to a close with the Jets beating the Dolphins, I had mixed emotions. On one hand, I was ecstatic that I had just won our first fantasy football league. On the other hand, the game that I had come to love the last few months, was gone for the next 8 months. Sure, we still had another month of football, but it just wouldn't be the same on Sundays.
It was that day, and in the coming months of waiting, that all of us in that room knew we would be playing this game for the rest of our lives. That anticipation is one of the things I love most about fantasy football. There is the anticipation for the start of the season to see how our teams we drafted will perform on the big screen. The wait from Monday to Sunday can seem like forever, as we try to keep a win streak going or get things back on track after a brutal loss. There is the wonder and second guessing ourselves after we pull off a big trade, and have to wait and see who was right.
Then, Sunday finally arrives. We scour the morning pregame shows for any new information that might help us decide the line up decision we have been going back and forth on all week. As the final seconds of 12:59 tic away, we lock our line up and pray we made the right decisions. The next 10 hours can be filled with sheer joy, watching the waiver wire pick you put in at the last second go absolutely Man Beast on the field. We sometimes end up just staring in utter disbelief as our "stud" RB does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with 20+ carries. Come Tuesday morning, the slate is wiped clean. We look forward to next week and make our waiver wire pick ups and throw out some trade offers.
Playing this game with my closest friends, or people I'm just getting to know, is the other half of what makes this game great. When my friends and I started playing back 2006, we hung out all the time and all lived in the same area. As time passed, we have scattered across the state and country. Fantasy football is something we can all still enjoy as a group, even though we aren't together. It gives everyone a good reason to keep in touch and call weekly.
This is a big part of what led me to start a fantasy football blog. I love the game, and researching the game. I'm like a proud father, when I watch a waiver wire pick, that I had faith in, go off. I'm going to get a great deal of satisfaction sharing my insights with others, and hearing other opinions as well. I know the downside of my league mates knowing all of my strategies will be outweighed by debating fantasy football with people that I have yet to meet. I welcome good and bad feedback on my work, and I am looking forward to this season more than any other.
It was that day, and in the coming months of waiting, that all of us in that room knew we would be playing this game for the rest of our lives. That anticipation is one of the things I love most about fantasy football. There is the anticipation for the start of the season to see how our teams we drafted will perform on the big screen. The wait from Monday to Sunday can seem like forever, as we try to keep a win streak going or get things back on track after a brutal loss. There is the wonder and second guessing ourselves after we pull off a big trade, and have to wait and see who was right.
Then, Sunday finally arrives. We scour the morning pregame shows for any new information that might help us decide the line up decision we have been going back and forth on all week. As the final seconds of 12:59 tic away, we lock our line up and pray we made the right decisions. The next 10 hours can be filled with sheer joy, watching the waiver wire pick you put in at the last second go absolutely Man Beast on the field. We sometimes end up just staring in utter disbelief as our "stud" RB does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with 20+ carries. Come Tuesday morning, the slate is wiped clean. We look forward to next week and make our waiver wire pick ups and throw out some trade offers.
Playing this game with my closest friends, or people I'm just getting to know, is the other half of what makes this game great. When my friends and I started playing back 2006, we hung out all the time and all lived in the same area. As time passed, we have scattered across the state and country. Fantasy football is something we can all still enjoy as a group, even though we aren't together. It gives everyone a good reason to keep in touch and call weekly.
This is a big part of what led me to start a fantasy football blog. I love the game, and researching the game. I'm like a proud father, when I watch a waiver wire pick, that I had faith in, go off. I'm going to get a great deal of satisfaction sharing my insights with others, and hearing other opinions as well. I know the downside of my league mates knowing all of my strategies will be outweighed by debating fantasy football with people that I have yet to meet. I welcome good and bad feedback on my work, and I am looking forward to this season more than any other.
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