Are you wondering just WHY OH WHY you didn’t take home your goofy home league virtual trophy and your nerdy little nephew did?
You did all the homework, you watched every Eisenberg miniclip online and stayed up into the wee hours in late night from the 4th of July until week 3 of the pre-season watching ESPN trying to obtain “inside” information.
How is it that you live and breathe everything FFL and still you ended up the butt of endless jabs from your friends and relatives that you play fantasy football with?
Chances are the reason lay in at least one of the following scenarios:
- Injury issues
- Draft muscle-memory
- Draft ineptness
- Draft hunches
- Superabundant draft theory syndrome
- Murphy’s Law
- Lack of season interest
Let’s break those down.
Injury Issues– In 27 years of playing this wonderfully fulfilling pastime I have had my share (or what seems as more than my fair share) of early round season ending injuries from my studs. This is going to happen and cannot be avoided, and if you haven’t had that happen then email me on whom you are going to draft this year so I can avoid them as you cannot dodge Lady Badluck.
But many players have had this happen and still come out on top. How? Either with the foresight to utilize late round draft picks of round 1 and or 2 studs’ backups. You can bet that if I draft the Purple People Eater Adrian Peterson then I will later draft whomever (McKinnon/Asiata). If you have not done this then you need to be a great in-season pick up artist. Be quick to grab value that arises when it arises!
Draft Muscle memory– You do all that great studying and analysis and then on draft day you unknowingly put all the information, planning and strategy in some dark corner of your brain as not to be able to retrieve it until the draft is over. When the commissioner or computer program starts that 10 second countdown until the first pick of the draft your brain goes into muscle memory mode in which it settles into that comfortable draft strategy you have used for years. Call it flying by the seat of your pants strategy or simply “I’ll just pick who I want to pick when it’s my time to pick” theory. You just do what you always have done and the next thing you know the draft is over! So much for all that prep work.
Draft Ineptness- Its probably not you of course, but some people simply hit the 7-11 on the way to the draft and pick up a FFL magazine and wing it, be honest, did you do this last year? Maybe rested on your laurels? I’ll be honest….I’ve done it.
Draft Hunches- Deep down inside you just know that this is the year that Andrew Luck is finish as the number one QB in points, so you go ahead and pass on top WR and RB positions in the first or second round and draft Luck based upon that gut hunch. How’d that work out last year? I’m not picking on you as much as sympathize with you. I too drafted Mr. Luck last year, but I picked him up after I had a stable of running backs and wide receivers. One important aspect of drafting a stud is to be able to sit them if they are having an off season. I still won the league in which I had drafted Luck dueto the fact that I sat him very early in the season and went a lessor “name”, but scored more consistent points.
Superabundant Draft Theory Syndrome- Yes, that is a newly coined term I just invented for this article. But the essence of it is something we have all dealt with in that we have done so much studying and research that all of the competing theories have come together all at once and created a gridlock in your brain. “Draft a RB first as there are not many one running back backfields”. “Draft the best available in every round”. “You must have an elite QB”. You get the idea, so what do you do? In short, pick one. But by all means you have to stay in touch and on top all season long no matter which you pick as all theories have some validity.
Murphy’s Law- If anything can go wrong, it will. Did you score 122 points only to lose to your brother-in-law who scored 124? You start Dez Bryant on Monday Night Football due to his success in prime time, only to have back pains in first quarter? Did you score second highest Total Points in your league last year only to not even make the playoffs? Every league owner has had this happen if youhave played long enough. It’s these bitter seasons that cause the more successful ones to taste that much sweeter.
Lack of Season Interest- Okay, you’ve lost four of your first five games and you’ve thrown in your proverbial towel. You can’t even log in to the site as it makes you sick just seeing the trash talking andfun the others are having. Well wipe your tears on your skirt buttercup…and put on your big boy pants. There is integrity in Fantasy Football, or at least there can be if those that are having losing seasons still try to compete and make it fun. Don’t be one of those guys or girls.