The NFL’s training camps are in full swing, and football fans everywhere can feel the start of the season getting closer.
And an ever-increasing number of fans are anticipating the start of the fantasy football season, which has come to mean nearly as much as the NFL season.
Having played fantasy football for the past seven years, I kind of assumed that pretty much every football fan has at least tried fantasy sports before. But I had a conversation with a friend this week about it, and it turns out that there are still more than a few sports fans out there that haven’t jumped on the fantasy bandwagon just yet.
So to help spread the good word, I’d like to share my five favorite things about playing fantasy football.
1. It helps you learn more about football.
Ever heard of Wes Welker? He’s the New England receiver that caught the most passes in the NFL last season. How about Jesse Chatman? He’s Miami’s third-string running back and filled in nicely when Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams got hurt.
In my fantasy league, both of these guys (and a few others) were like rock stars. People wanted to trade for them, the saved their waiver pick to see if they could get somebody like them; it was crazy, because nobody had heard of these guys before.
Fantasy football gets you beyond the big names and helps you see the value of players who may not ever be on Sportscenter.
2. It gets you into the game.
Sure, it’s easy to watch football when your favorite team is going up against your hated rival. Chargers vs. Raiders, Cowboys vs. Giants, Anybody vs. Patriots; they’re all great games to watch. But when the not-so-exciting contests come along, it can be pretty boring.
Fantasy football comes flying to the rescue because it allows you to watch Arizona vs. Tennessee with a renewed interest. Perhaps you have Larry Fitzgerald and need him to score two touchdowns so your fantasy team can win. Perhaps you have Rob Bironas and need him to hit four field goals. Maybe your fantasy opponent has one of the players on these teams and you need his guy to have an off day. You watch the game differently.
Some people say this is a bad thing – “We should root for our team, not for the individual!” – but I say the NFL is an individual-first league these days, so let’s enjoy what we can. It’s not like you can blow a hundred bucks on a Randy Moss jersey without realizing that he probably won’t be with his current team for more than the next three years. At least if you have him on your fantasy team, you can root for him this season, then start over next year with a new squad.
3. It gets you together with other football fans.
I like the fantasy league I’m in because I see the other owners on a semi-regular basis, and we get to good-naturedly bust each other’s chops about what our teams are doing. Sure, you can do this with the NFL, and as a Miami Dolphins fan from way back, I certainly have had my chops busted.
But with fantasy football, you feel like you have more to do with your team’s success than just rooting for them. If you drafted wisely, you feel a little bit of pride when your team does well. If you start out slowly, you can work the waiver wire and get your team back on track.
Plus, the pre-season draft is always a great time, especially if you get everybody together in person. Last year, we got the ten owners together (a couple phoned in from other places, but that will happen) and went through the picks one by one. We got to make fun of picks, we got to eat tons of food, and we had a great time. Live drafts are usually the key to having a great fantasy football league.
I’m always a fan of things that bring people together, and fantasy football does just that.
4. It’s so easy to play.
In the early days of rotisserie leagues, so I understand, players had to keep track of stats themselves and send (by mail) the results to their league commissioner, who would keep the league standings.
Now, you can sign your team up in about 27 seconds and your stats are all managed automatically. If you want to find out how many times Donald Driver has been targeted in the red zone this season, there’s a category for that. If you want to see how many third-down receptions Steven Jackson has, you can find that out easily enough. It’s all right at your fingertips.
5. If your NFL team is terrible, you can still feel important when your fantasy team does well.
Not to brag or anything, but I am the current champion in my fantasy football league. I have a sweet trophy, and I enjoy telling the story of how I had the last pick in the first round, yet still got my team through to the title.
On the flip side, as I mentioned, I’m a Dolphins fan. They won one game last year. One game! It was ridiculous trying to watch them (thank goodness not many of their games are on out here on the west coast) because they looked like a decent college team going up against the pros.
So every time the other owners in my league would ask if Miami was ever going to get a win, I’d remind them that my fantasy team was dominating and that there was clearly nothing they could do about it.
-- -- --
So there you go; five good reasons to log in and play fantasy football this season.
Coming in the next few weeks will be my annual Fantasy Football Preview, where I (and maybe a special guest) break down some players to grab and some players to avoid in your draft.
And as always, if you have any stories about playing fantasy sports, I’d love to hear them. E-mail me at sports@valleycenter.com and I’ll share it with our readers.
Just don’t make fun of the Dolphins. They look good in training camp, and they could be a playoff team if everything comes together.
Well, it probably won’t, but at least I’ll have my fantasy team dominating the league again.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Today's Athletes Are Whiners
Nobody likes a complainer.
Whether it’s a professional athlete or the second baseman in your company’s slow-pitch softball league, it’s just not fun to be involved with a game when somebody won’t stop whining. Listening to somebody argue with the officials, demand the ball again and again, or even just blame everything on everyone else just drains the fun out of what should be an enjoyable experience. Most of us can only take that for so long before we get sick of it and take action.
Jeremy Shockey found that out this week, when the Super Bowl champion New York Giants traded him to the New Orleans Saints for a pair of draft picks. Shockey is considered one of the best tight ends in the game, but the Giants must not have felt that he was a part of their future after he missed significant time with an injury last season and opted to watch his team win the title from a luxury box instead of on the field.
But I think the front office, and I dare say a majority of the fans, will be glad to see Shockey leave. He has tremendous talent, to be sure, but he also has a way of dragging his team down by hounding the refs for a flag or getting into skirmishes with the other team.
And Shockey certainly isn’t the first talented player to be cut loose because of his attitude; Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Milton Bradley (not the board game company, the baseball player) and Vince Carter all come immediately to mind, and there are so many others in every team sport.
It makes me wonder why bad attitudes are so prevalent in sports, especially at the professional level.
I think it starts with the individual personality, and I don’t think anyone will disagree with the idea that we’re all different.
But regardless of personality differences, most of us find ways to set aside our own personal motives and agendas in the unifying pursuit of achievement. Athletes tend to be especially good at this, at least most of the time, because it takes a lot of work to win a professional league’s championship.
Which makes it so frustrating to find a talented athlete who refuses to set his own ego aside to help the team reach its goal; at some point along the line, the “me first” athlete had to have succeeded, and this implies that he must have been able to function as a decent teammate. He probably showed up to all the practices, played hard on every play, rooted for his teammates when he was on the sidelines, and listened to what the coach told him to do. He played the game the way it’s meant to be played.
But then there must have come a time when this revelation occurred; like the opening of Pandora’s Box, the idea must have formed in his mind that he was the sole reason for the team’s success, and he must be treated accordingly.
Honestly, I think this moment happens to every single talented athlete. We live in a world that glorifies the hype of the superstar athlete, and it would be pretty great to have your own line of Nike Adidas shoes, wouldn’t it? How cool would it be to have your own Gatorade flavor? How about having EA Sports design a virtual you for their next Xbox 360 game?
But along with each of those moments comes a landmark moment in the life of an athlete – the refining influence of reason, in one form or another. Most often it’s a coach who lets the athlete know that, while he has special talent, the game he loves has no compassion for the ill-prepared. I’m sure Todd Marinovich can take some time off from his job at Wal-Mart to explain how that all works.
Basically, the temptation for the athlete to think he deserves more credit is squashed by the reality that he’s already treated far better than he deserves because he gets to play the game he loves.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Every so often, we get one that slips through the cracks. We end up watching Terrell Owens go from a guy who was so happy to catch a game-winning touchdown that he cried like a baby in his coach’s arms (in the 2002 playoffs for San Francisco against Green Bay) to a guy who whose Web site (www.terrellowens.com) has t-shirts proclaiming him to be the “Original 81” and a rap song, performed by Owens, that brags “…to the haters that said I wouldn’t get my money, I’m laughing in your face; ha ha, that’s funny.” Not only is that missing the point of the game, it’s not even a clever rhyme scheme. He’s unpleasant in more than one arena of entertainment now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do any more TV guest spots like the one he did for the MyNetworkTV show “Under One Roof.”
Obviously, Owens never got the message that football is bigger than the antics of one reasonably talented wide receiver, no matter if he (as his rap song also boasts) “[is] back on a mission, [he has] a new recipe, so [he’s] back in the kitchen.”
I’m pretty sure Owens, just like every other pro athlete, has had a coach tell him that he’s part of a team and that all the showboating isn’t what the game’s about. But at some point, the guys with the shoe contracts and the rap moguls with the proposed lyrics “I'm back, and I'm better than ever; I’m back, and I’m getting this cheddar; I’m back, this time I’m a Cowboy; I’m back, and I'm got 'em sayin' wow, boy” started getting louder than the voice of reason.
And the sad truth of the matter is that things aren’t going to change; money talks and there will always be another talented young athlete who is willing to listen.
But I do still have hope, because there are still those that fight to keep our sports pure.
So to all you coaches, parents, fans and supporters of youth sports – keep up the great work. What you do for our sports is akin to the work our teachers do for our society. You may not ever receive an award, and you may not get mentioned at the Espy Awards, but you are the only thing keeping us from living in a world where Eli Manning has his own rap song.
Please don’t let Eli Manning have his own rap song.
-- -- --
If you have a particular coach, parent, fan or supporter you’d like to mention for what they do for our sports, I’d love to give them some much-deserved credit.
Send me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com and let me know what this person does to help preserve the purity of our sports, and how they’re impacting young players to avoid the pitfalls of listening to rap moguls.
I’m also curious to hear your horror stories about the athletes who are tearing down our beloved games, so please send in those stories as well. You don’t need to mention any names, especially if it’s that one indoor soccer goalie with the goggles who always finds a way to beat your team head-to-head (not that I have any personal stories to tell), but I’d still enjoy hearing your experiences.
Although, I hear it’s a great idea to put your experiences into a rap song and post it on your personal Web site.
Whether it’s a professional athlete or the second baseman in your company’s slow-pitch softball league, it’s just not fun to be involved with a game when somebody won’t stop whining. Listening to somebody argue with the officials, demand the ball again and again, or even just blame everything on everyone else just drains the fun out of what should be an enjoyable experience. Most of us can only take that for so long before we get sick of it and take action.
Jeremy Shockey found that out this week, when the Super Bowl champion New York Giants traded him to the New Orleans Saints for a pair of draft picks. Shockey is considered one of the best tight ends in the game, but the Giants must not have felt that he was a part of their future after he missed significant time with an injury last season and opted to watch his team win the title from a luxury box instead of on the field.
But I think the front office, and I dare say a majority of the fans, will be glad to see Shockey leave. He has tremendous talent, to be sure, but he also has a way of dragging his team down by hounding the refs for a flag or getting into skirmishes with the other team.
And Shockey certainly isn’t the first talented player to be cut loose because of his attitude; Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Milton Bradley (not the board game company, the baseball player) and Vince Carter all come immediately to mind, and there are so many others in every team sport.
It makes me wonder why bad attitudes are so prevalent in sports, especially at the professional level.
I think it starts with the individual personality, and I don’t think anyone will disagree with the idea that we’re all different.
But regardless of personality differences, most of us find ways to set aside our own personal motives and agendas in the unifying pursuit of achievement. Athletes tend to be especially good at this, at least most of the time, because it takes a lot of work to win a professional league’s championship.
Which makes it so frustrating to find a talented athlete who refuses to set his own ego aside to help the team reach its goal; at some point along the line, the “me first” athlete had to have succeeded, and this implies that he must have been able to function as a decent teammate. He probably showed up to all the practices, played hard on every play, rooted for his teammates when he was on the sidelines, and listened to what the coach told him to do. He played the game the way it’s meant to be played.
But then there must have come a time when this revelation occurred; like the opening of Pandora’s Box, the idea must have formed in his mind that he was the sole reason for the team’s success, and he must be treated accordingly.
Honestly, I think this moment happens to every single talented athlete. We live in a world that glorifies the hype of the superstar athlete, and it would be pretty great to have your own line of Nike Adidas shoes, wouldn’t it? How cool would it be to have your own Gatorade flavor? How about having EA Sports design a virtual you for their next Xbox 360 game?
But along with each of those moments comes a landmark moment in the life of an athlete – the refining influence of reason, in one form or another. Most often it’s a coach who lets the athlete know that, while he has special talent, the game he loves has no compassion for the ill-prepared. I’m sure Todd Marinovich can take some time off from his job at Wal-Mart to explain how that all works.
Basically, the temptation for the athlete to think he deserves more credit is squashed by the reality that he’s already treated far better than he deserves because he gets to play the game he loves.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Every so often, we get one that slips through the cracks. We end up watching Terrell Owens go from a guy who was so happy to catch a game-winning touchdown that he cried like a baby in his coach’s arms (in the 2002 playoffs for San Francisco against Green Bay) to a guy who whose Web site (www.terrellowens.com) has t-shirts proclaiming him to be the “Original 81” and a rap song, performed by Owens, that brags “…to the haters that said I wouldn’t get my money, I’m laughing in your face; ha ha, that’s funny.” Not only is that missing the point of the game, it’s not even a clever rhyme scheme. He’s unpleasant in more than one arena of entertainment now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do any more TV guest spots like the one he did for the MyNetworkTV show “Under One Roof.”
Obviously, Owens never got the message that football is bigger than the antics of one reasonably talented wide receiver, no matter if he (as his rap song also boasts) “[is] back on a mission, [he has] a new recipe, so [he’s] back in the kitchen.”
I’m pretty sure Owens, just like every other pro athlete, has had a coach tell him that he’s part of a team and that all the showboating isn’t what the game’s about. But at some point, the guys with the shoe contracts and the rap moguls with the proposed lyrics “I'm back, and I'm better than ever; I’m back, and I’m getting this cheddar; I’m back, this time I’m a Cowboy; I’m back, and I'm got 'em sayin' wow, boy” started getting louder than the voice of reason.
And the sad truth of the matter is that things aren’t going to change; money talks and there will always be another talented young athlete who is willing to listen.
But I do still have hope, because there are still those that fight to keep our sports pure.
So to all you coaches, parents, fans and supporters of youth sports – keep up the great work. What you do for our sports is akin to the work our teachers do for our society. You may not ever receive an award, and you may not get mentioned at the Espy Awards, but you are the only thing keeping us from living in a world where Eli Manning has his own rap song.
Please don’t let Eli Manning have his own rap song.
-- -- --
If you have a particular coach, parent, fan or supporter you’d like to mention for what they do for our sports, I’d love to give them some much-deserved credit.
Send me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com and let me know what this person does to help preserve the purity of our sports, and how they’re impacting young players to avoid the pitfalls of listening to rap moguls.
I’m also curious to hear your horror stories about the athletes who are tearing down our beloved games, so please send in those stories as well. You don’t need to mention any names, especially if it’s that one indoor soccer goalie with the goggles who always finds a way to beat your team head-to-head (not that I have any personal stories to tell), but I’d still enjoy hearing your experiences.
Although, I hear it’s a great idea to put your experiences into a rap song and post it on your personal Web site.
Where Are The Big Names In All Star Events?
It’s All-Star time in Major League Baseball!
Come out and watch the stars of the game show their appreciation for the fans by showing up and playing a fun, fan-friendly game.
Or rather, come watch one or two big-name players have to play with second-tier players because the “stars” of the game would rather come and hang out, but can’t risk re-injuring that “strained quad” in an exhibition game.
It all started with the Home Run Derby on Monday, which drew the likes of Alex Rodriguez... nope. David Ortiz... uh-uh. Ken Griffey Jr... not so much. How about... Dan Uggla? Justin Morneau? Evan Longoria? I know that home run totals are down from a few years ago, but since when do 16 home runs at the all-star break earn you a spot in the derby?
It ended up being a pretty decent showing; Josh Hamilton added another chapter to his already remarkable story by hitting a ball off the back wall of Yankee Stadium (a storied accomplishment) and at least three over 500 feet en route to a record-setting 28 home runs in the first round. And then he got upset by Morneau in the final round, which proves… something. I’m not sure what, though.
But the big story, unfortunately, is the ongoing reluctance of sport’s major players to be missing in action for games they’re not being paid to play.
That’s really what it boils down to, as much as we, the fans, try to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. Professional athletes are in it for the money, plain and simple. It sounds nice when they give interviews about all the charity work they do, or when they take a sick kid on a tour of the dressing room before the game. But when it comes down to it, the primary motivation for the typical professional athlete is money.
So when it comes time to thank the fans for shelling out the ridiculous ticket prices to an elite-level sporting event, the “regretfully decline” responses come pouring back in.
It happens in other sports as well, most notably in the NFL. The fact that the Pro Bowl is after the Super Bowl is partly to blame; it’s hard enough to gear up for 16 regular season games and, for some, the rigors of playoff football. Playing an exhibition game two weeks after the Lombardi Trophy is hoisted just isn’t that exciting.
But to me, the worst is when a professional athlete turns down the chance to play in international competition, especially the Olympics.
It happens a lot in basketball, where one “star” after another politely declines the invitation to represent his country by playing a game, so he can spend more time on his upcoming rap album or finally beating Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360.
I don’t always feel the nostalgia of “the good old days,” probably because they weren’t always so good. For example, I’m really glad we don’t have to ration things like sugar in this country. I’m pretty sure that I would have used up my year’s worth in February.
But in sports, I can feel a little bit of the nostalgic longing for a better version of the game. Back in the day, players played the game like they were supposed to: like it was a game. Every interview I’ve seen or read from an athlete from before or around 1960 has the same theme – “Sure, I was successful, but I’m just lucky I got paid to play a game.”
Sure, we’re witnessing feats never before accomplished in so many various competitions, but we have to wade through the ticket prices, the over-hyping of every new flash in the pan, the constant stream of analysis, the self-promotion, and the showboating just to get to something great.
And that’s the thing: there are great things happening in sports.
We have the Josh Hamilton story; a blue-chip prospect gets hooked on crack, gets clean and comes back to lead the majors in RBIs. We have the Summer Olympics coming up, complete with 41-year-old Dara Torres setting a new world record in the 50-meter freestyle in qualifying. We saw Tiger Woods limp his way through the U.S. Open and still pull out another impossible win.
There are plenty of things wrong with sports, from steroids to Marv Albert’s toupee, and we certainly shouldn’t over-emphasize the negative impact of a professional athlete turning down the chance to play in an all-star event.
And we don’t want to be too sappy and say that “we should just appreciate the players who are doing a good job.” We should appreciate them, but at this point, shouldn’t doing a good job be expected?
Instead, what we should do is demand a better product, just like we do in this country when we buy something that isn’t up to our standards.
One of the advantages the present has on the “good old days” is that we have so many outlets through which to express ourselves. If you have an opinion on anything, you can find somebody else who shares your views and you can find a way to discuss the topic until the cows come home.
So if you love watching sports but don’t like the product you’re getting, say something. Start a blog. Start a vlog. First, do a quick Google search to find out what blogs and vlogs are, like I did, then start them both.
Call in to the talk radio shows. Write in to ESPN, Sports Illustrated, or even The Valley Roadrunner to let people know what you think. When it comes time to vote for the All-Star teams, don’t just punch out the hometown guys, look into it and see who’s actually going to show up and play.
In short, own your fanship.
And maybe next year we’ll see which Major Leaguers truly deserve to be All-Stars.
-- -- --
As always, please write in and let me know what you think about all this. There are lots of sports fans here in Valley Center, and we love talking about the sports we love.
So whatever sport you follow, write in and tell me what you would do to improve it.
Maybe you’re a basketball fan and you’d move the rim up to 11 feet. Maybe you’re a football fan and you’d get rid of instant replay. Maybe you’re a cricket fan and you’d increase the maximum number of overs to 100 for each day of play in a Test Match.
Whatever it is, we want to hear about it, and so does the rest of the community.
Send me an e-mail to sports@valleycenter.com with your comments, and I’ll put it in next week’s edition.
Come out and watch the stars of the game show their appreciation for the fans by showing up and playing a fun, fan-friendly game.
Or rather, come watch one or two big-name players have to play with second-tier players because the “stars” of the game would rather come and hang out, but can’t risk re-injuring that “strained quad” in an exhibition game.
It all started with the Home Run Derby on Monday, which drew the likes of Alex Rodriguez... nope. David Ortiz... uh-uh. Ken Griffey Jr... not so much. How about... Dan Uggla? Justin Morneau? Evan Longoria? I know that home run totals are down from a few years ago, but since when do 16 home runs at the all-star break earn you a spot in the derby?
It ended up being a pretty decent showing; Josh Hamilton added another chapter to his already remarkable story by hitting a ball off the back wall of Yankee Stadium (a storied accomplishment) and at least three over 500 feet en route to a record-setting 28 home runs in the first round. And then he got upset by Morneau in the final round, which proves… something. I’m not sure what, though.
But the big story, unfortunately, is the ongoing reluctance of sport’s major players to be missing in action for games they’re not being paid to play.
That’s really what it boils down to, as much as we, the fans, try to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. Professional athletes are in it for the money, plain and simple. It sounds nice when they give interviews about all the charity work they do, or when they take a sick kid on a tour of the dressing room before the game. But when it comes down to it, the primary motivation for the typical professional athlete is money.
So when it comes time to thank the fans for shelling out the ridiculous ticket prices to an elite-level sporting event, the “regretfully decline” responses come pouring back in.
It happens in other sports as well, most notably in the NFL. The fact that the Pro Bowl is after the Super Bowl is partly to blame; it’s hard enough to gear up for 16 regular season games and, for some, the rigors of playoff football. Playing an exhibition game two weeks after the Lombardi Trophy is hoisted just isn’t that exciting.
But to me, the worst is when a professional athlete turns down the chance to play in international competition, especially the Olympics.
It happens a lot in basketball, where one “star” after another politely declines the invitation to represent his country by playing a game, so he can spend more time on his upcoming rap album or finally beating Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360.
I don’t always feel the nostalgia of “the good old days,” probably because they weren’t always so good. For example, I’m really glad we don’t have to ration things like sugar in this country. I’m pretty sure that I would have used up my year’s worth in February.
But in sports, I can feel a little bit of the nostalgic longing for a better version of the game. Back in the day, players played the game like they were supposed to: like it was a game. Every interview I’ve seen or read from an athlete from before or around 1960 has the same theme – “Sure, I was successful, but I’m just lucky I got paid to play a game.”
Sure, we’re witnessing feats never before accomplished in so many various competitions, but we have to wade through the ticket prices, the over-hyping of every new flash in the pan, the constant stream of analysis, the self-promotion, and the showboating just to get to something great.
And that’s the thing: there are great things happening in sports.
We have the Josh Hamilton story; a blue-chip prospect gets hooked on crack, gets clean and comes back to lead the majors in RBIs. We have the Summer Olympics coming up, complete with 41-year-old Dara Torres setting a new world record in the 50-meter freestyle in qualifying. We saw Tiger Woods limp his way through the U.S. Open and still pull out another impossible win.
There are plenty of things wrong with sports, from steroids to Marv Albert’s toupee, and we certainly shouldn’t over-emphasize the negative impact of a professional athlete turning down the chance to play in an all-star event.
And we don’t want to be too sappy and say that “we should just appreciate the players who are doing a good job.” We should appreciate them, but at this point, shouldn’t doing a good job be expected?
Instead, what we should do is demand a better product, just like we do in this country when we buy something that isn’t up to our standards.
One of the advantages the present has on the “good old days” is that we have so many outlets through which to express ourselves. If you have an opinion on anything, you can find somebody else who shares your views and you can find a way to discuss the topic until the cows come home.
So if you love watching sports but don’t like the product you’re getting, say something. Start a blog. Start a vlog. First, do a quick Google search to find out what blogs and vlogs are, like I did, then start them both.
Call in to the talk radio shows. Write in to ESPN, Sports Illustrated, or even The Valley Roadrunner to let people know what you think. When it comes time to vote for the All-Star teams, don’t just punch out the hometown guys, look into it and see who’s actually going to show up and play.
In short, own your fanship.
And maybe next year we’ll see which Major Leaguers truly deserve to be All-Stars.
-- -- --
As always, please write in and let me know what you think about all this. There are lots of sports fans here in Valley Center, and we love talking about the sports we love.
So whatever sport you follow, write in and tell me what you would do to improve it.
Maybe you’re a basketball fan and you’d move the rim up to 11 feet. Maybe you’re a football fan and you’d get rid of instant replay. Maybe you’re a cricket fan and you’d increase the maximum number of overs to 100 for each day of play in a Test Match.
Whatever it is, we want to hear about it, and so does the rest of the community.
Send me an e-mail to sports@valleycenter.com with your comments, and I’ll put it in next week’s edition.