http://profootballweekly.com/PFW/Fan...ning071406.htm
Rules to work by
Thirty tips to consider as your prepare for Fantasy drafts
By Mike Wilkening (mwilkening@pfwmedia.com)
July 14, 2006
You are starting to think about fantasy football. You say you’re not, but the magazine aisles are crammed with magazines with Larry Johnson on the cover for a reason.
Far be it from me to suggest you shouldn’t be getting ready for the upcoming season; I’m doing it myself. Along the way, you’ll be bombarded with content, some of it worthwhile, some of it so banal you’ll be lamenting the time you’ll never get back.
With an eye on helping you enjoy your fantasy football experience in the coming month, here are some tips as you prepare for your annual player-selection meetings:
1. Use the word “sleeper” as little as possible. Find a synonym, avoid the subject altogether, whatever. It’s time for a change. I’m trying myself.
2. Read everything available to you — blogs, NFL preview magazines, the Football Scientist’s latest guide/coffee table book — to glean fantasy football information.
3. Read everything, but be sure to filter it all. Use the good stuff.
4. If nothing else, know your injury news. Know it inside-out.
5. Of course, don’t share everything you know. But you know that already.
6. Be wary of anyone that refers to himself as a “Fantasy guru.”
7. If that person’s your friend, knock him down a peg, will you? Thanks. You’re doing all of us a favor.
8. Form a TD-only league. Makes you remember what’s important in fantasy football.
9. Form an auction league. Makes you budget. Makes you remember drawing supply and demand curves in economics class.
10. Form an individual defensive player (IDP) league. Makes you appreciate cornerbacks who tackle and middle linebackers who play hard on hopeless teams.
11. If you’re relatively new to the game, join multiple leagues and allow yourself to develop a successful management style.
12. If you’re burned out, it’s OK to be in just one league. Or maybe just serve as an unpaid consultant for your dad, mom, brother, sister, cousin…
13. Give your commissioner a break. He or she is doing this for free.
14. Give the new guy a break. Nah, give him hell. And a nickname like "Fluffkins."
15. Talk up LenDale White, then avoid him like the plague.
16. Ignore anyone who talks about Domanick Davis without mentioning his knee woes.
17. Better yet, invite said person to your draft.
18. Make your own rankings. Just don’t talk yourself into reaching for players. Everyone knows someone who got way too excited about Kevin Jones last season.
19. Your homework assignment: Who is this season’s Kevin Jones?
20. In the final rounds, choose young players long on potential over steady veterans. You can always pick up a 30-year-old wideout capable of catching four TDs on waivers.
21. Make side wagers with other owners. If you think that, say, Laveranues Coles will catch more TD passes than Chris Chambers, back up your words. These work best if the wager involves a steak dinner, or a case of imported beer, or expensive clay poker chips.
22. Make a mental note: It’s a game. And it’s a sunk cost, too. Relax.
23. But don’t be a pushover, either. Shoot down insulting trade offers from other owners, and do it quickly and firmly. Don’t be perceived as a farm system for other teams.
24. Be wary of leagues where owners conspire to make lopsided trades. You’ll probably be happiest leaving such leagues as soon as possible.
25. Do name your team after some inside joke only you and a couple other people understand. Bonus points if there’s a guy in your league who isn’t in on the joke. That said…
26. … No Barbaro jokes under any circumstances. They’re not funny. Don't be a cur and a fool.
27. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Have your draft in a big room with lots of chairs and lots of food and drink. Or in a small room with an old card table and everyone brings their own Big Gulp. Drafting online has its advantages, but you can’t get a read on your competition in a virtual draft room. Nor can you find out who has a sense of humor, or who will take this way too seriously and threaten you over a waiver claim in Week Eight. Do this long enough, and it’ll happen.
28. Remember to bring pretzels. And iced tea. And a good cigar.
29. Keep your draft moving, for heaven’s sake. Thirty seconds is enough time to make a pick.
30. Go out afterward. Toast the fact you’ve gotten the band back together one more time. People get married, move, lose interest. Knock on wood, everyone will be back next season.