Anyone want to explain fantasy football for me?

[Anonymous]

I mean how it works. do you just make perdictions on each game andeach players involvement through the year? Do fantasy leagues compete against each other or are you competeing against other members of your league? My understanding is that at the end of the season there's a first, second, and sometimes third place winner that earns the pot at the end. How is that even decided?

Esentially I know nothing about it, but would like to at least understand the basics so I can converse with my boyfriend when he brings itup and not be completely dumbfounded, ha. I tried asking him the same kind of questions but hhaven't really gotten anywhere.

[sketchy]

You only compete against other members of your league - so anywhere between 3 and 19 other people. If it's a money league, you each pay a small fee which is divided between the teams that do best (the exact distribution varies between leagues).

At the start of the season, the league has a fantasy draft - basically, that just means you take it in turns to pick players for your team (each real life player can only be owned by one fantasy team).

The key here is to understand players' *relative* values - quarterbacks will usually score the most points, but because there are a lot of quarterbacks who are all roughly equal, there's no point drafting one early - you want to get your elite running backs and wide receivers first, because there are far fewer of those. You also want to spot "sleepers" - players who are not generally highly rated (meaning you can draft them very late) but who have the potential to do really well - eg. the Ravens' WR Marlon Brown is a possible sleeper this year. Also, "handcuffs" - players who would (in real life) replace your "studs" (top players) if they were to be injured (eg. If Adrian Peterson were injured, Toby Gerhart would be his backup, so if you draft AP, you might want to draft Gerhart in a late round as well).

Each week, you select which of your players you want to "start" - a starting lineup generally consists of one x quarterback, 2 x running backs, 2 x wide receivers, one x "flex" (can be either a RB or WR), one x tight end, one x kicker and one team's defense & special teams - and which you want to "sit" (leave on your bench).

Your team is then matched head-to-head against one of the other teams in the league, and each player in your starting lineup (not those on the bench) is awarded points according to their performance in that week's real life football games (eg. 6 points for touchdown run; one point for every 10 yards rushed; etc). Whoever has the most points at the end of the week, wins that matchup.

At the end of the season, you have the fantasy playoffs - a knockout tournament for just the teams with the most wins throughout the regular season - which determines the overall league champion.

Throughout the season, you can add players off "the waiver wire", if they are not already owned by someone else. Most of the fantasy talk throughout the season will be about adding players off waivers after they have a big game (or ideally, when you predict they're just about to), and who to start / sit.

You can also trade players with other teams in your league. Here, the key is not to try and "win" a trade (ie. don't try to rip the other guy/gal off), but to make trades which are mutually beneficial.

Hope that helps :) Why not join a league and have a go? I play at nfl.com

[Anonymous]

I don't know if that violates the Bro Code. You see, fantasy football is a time for men to gain superiority of other men during the cherished NFL season. It's a distraction and manipulation free zone from women, so if I tell you.. well, I'd have to chop my own balls off.

[Asker]

Haha.

Well its not as if I intend to participate. If anything wouldn't you want more woman to grasp what it is your men's hobbies are so we women would stop complaining about things we don't understand. If you wanna get all sexist here for minute.

Hey, if HE didn't want me to know I'm sure he would avoid bringing up for 40 minutes a day. And I don't even know enough to encourage the discussion. I just want to be supportive. But the first step would is having some idea of what the h*ll I'm supp

[rdrgzjcqln]

Google .. Solves everything

[trouty42]

This article explains it better than I can :)

link