By Trey Witzel, Columnist
Do you feel it in the air?
I’m not talking about the fast approaching season of Homecoming. And no, not scarf weather either. Something better than both.
Football season is upon us.
More importantly, fantasy football season is upon us.
For the past seven years, I have been participating in fantasy football. It is a tradition for my dad and I to form a team with some of his coworkers.
We get together once a year for a couple of hours to catch up, eat large quantities of beef and have our live draft.
Many of you may know what fantasy football is. Many people in my life (my fiancée, my roommates and classmates) don’t appreciate my love for fantasy football. I can understand their confusion. Why would anyone want to play fantasy football if it’s not even real!?
Fantasy football gets more and more complicated each year I play. To many, the rules don’t make sense. You draft players from different teams and put them on one “fantasy” team. How do they play? Is it like a video game?
The basic rules of fantasy football are pretty easy. Generally you have one starting quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, a kicker, and a defense.
The statistics that your players earn on gameday correlate to how many “points” they score for your fantasy team. Your team gets points for each passing, rushing and receiving yard each individual player gains. You get more points for touchdowns, and you lose points for turnovers.
The more I think about and play fantasy football, the deeper and more complex the strategy gets. My first year, I played the people who had the most name recognition.
I would get incredibly frustrated at my players for sometimes scoring 30 points one week then five the next. I then realized that while the personal ability of a player is certainly important, the team surrounding them and the opposing team may play a bigger role.
Once I realized this, my entire strategy changed. This is just one area where strategy changes; I could go on about bye weeks, how and what position to draft, etc.
One of my roommates just joined a league and went through his first week of playing. Before he left for his draft, I tried to impart whatever quick wisdom I could give. “Draft a runningback first! Wait on your quarterback! Watch bye weeks!”
I’m so excited to sit back with my roommate, talk NFL and fantasy football, and watch the game all day Sunday.
For me, fantasy football is just as real as what is played on turf.
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