The Basics

Vince Lombardi started his first practice with the Green Bay Packers with the words: "Gentlemen, this is a football." Not a bad place to start. "Guys, this is Fantasy Football(FF) in a nutshell." A FF team is exactly that, a fantasy. The players on your team don't necessarily play on the same team in real life, they can but it is not typical. The basic premise allows Fantasy owners to pick players from any team and assemble the best possible team having any active player eligible for selection.

Each FF team is managed by an "Owner" (that's you). Typically, Owners play in a league of 8-14 teams. Each week, your team will "play" another team in the league. The winner will be whichever team has accumulated the most points (duh!) Each team accumulates points according to the performance of its players. For instance, in my current league, your team is awarded 6 points each time your QB (quarterback) throws a TD (touchdown.) Scoring can vary from league to league and we'll cover that later.

Each owner selects the same roster of players. Typically, each team gets 2 QBs, an assortment of RBs (running backs), WR (wide receivers), TE (tight ends), PK (place kickers) and DEF (team defenses). The actual make up of each team can vary from league to league but these are the player positions you'll have to get to know. All the players listed are Offensive players (except of course the defense.) Your team score points when they do what they were hired to do which is gain yards or score touchdowns or kick field goals.

Each owner selects their players on the same day through a draft process. Drafts can be either "snakes" or "auctions." In a "Snake" draft, each owner draws a number from 1 to 12 (or however many owners are in the league.) The owner with number one makes his first pick, then the owner with number two selects his and so on. When the last owner has made his first pick that concludes round 1. Then he, the last one to pick in round 1, immediately selects first for the 2nd round and the selection process goes through the numbers in reverse order. In an auction draft, each owner starts with the same salary and can bid on each player. There is no predetermined selection order. Each owner just wins his players through an auction process. This is for the very, very, very savvy Fantasy Football owners out there and only about 10% use this system. If you are reading this blog, you are not ready for an auction draft and you will learn nothing more about them here.

DO NOT attempt to draft a team without doing research. If you show up on draft day without a good understanding of the players, you will supply the rest of the league with enough material to heckle you with for the rest of your life and beyond. Your name will be brought up every year after that and become code for "idiot." The importance of Draft Day can NOT be overstated. During the first few weeks of the season, before the players have a had a chance to prove the owners wisdom, all the talk and ribbing is about the draft; which player you selected and in which round you did it. You've probably heard someone say something like "You took Michael Vick in the first round? Really? What were you thinking?"

This is enough for now. To help you get a handle on this, take a look at the this list of highest ranked and most valuable players listed by position. Football Player cheatsheet. Be very careful to make sure you know the players position before diving into the conversation. If they are talking about which RB they should start and you pipe in with the name of a WR, you'll totally out yourself.