That’s right! We’re double dipping. Burning the midnight oil. Jumping the shark. Putting all our hens into one basket. Catching the morning train to Jalalabad.
Tonight, for whatever reason, while watching Robert Griffin III put up a monster game on my bench (Hey, I have Matthew Stafford and I’m a Bears-hating Bears fan.) I started to think about my first year of fantasy football. It must have been 1996 or 1997 and the majority of my junior-high friends and I did not own our own PC let alone understand how to use the internet to look up player information, draft kits, rankings, and so on. You know what we had?
Pretty much nothing.
I remember my first-ever draft prep consisted of going through the rosters of all the teams I could find and writing down names that I remembered they said a lot on TV when that respective team played the Bears. Didn’t play the bears last season? Hm. What names look cool? OK. Oh yeah, and draft a lot of Bears. Like Erik Kramer and Rashaan Salaam in the first round. Definitely.
Just getting the rosters of every NFL team was pain enough, in fact, for a not-quite-thirteen-year-old back in 1997. My only friend with a household computer and corresponding internet access that we were allowed to use had an extremely unfortunate 28.8 kb/s dial-up modem and America Online. It was brutally slow. We’d all stand around and pat the side of the tower when we heard the dreaded telephone-dial connection sounds and chant, “C’mon Ol’ Bessie! C’monnnn! You can do it!” It was like a custom, this semi-religious smacking of the tower to increase our connection speed. There was a rhythm and an order to it, almost, and like monks we’d take turns circling the metal icon, drumming on it with our palms.
And then it would load. Page one of the Detroit Lions active roster. After like ten minutes.
And then, after barely getting through the NFC Central in just over an hour, we’d do what typical teenagers were apt to do and lose interest and go off in search of much more entertaining endeavors like NBA Jam, Mario Kart, a driveway game of 32, or engaging in another desperately futile manhunt for so-and-so’s dad’s copy of Showgirls.
I try to explain to people now what fantasy football was like then with no injury updates. No Twitter. No rankings save what the die-hards could find in who-knows-what copy of some random underground prospectus. We’d shout out names like “Vin Baker!” and someone would fire back, “Doesn’t that guy play for the Knicks?” But whatever. It was all in good fun. And everyone bet a dollar so the winner would end up with ten bucks, or in those days, a new Smashing Pumpkins CD.
I don’t know when it all changed. Sometime in college we stopped drafting by phone and did it all with mouse clicks and text messages and sometimes this poor guy named Jon would end up with five quarterbacks, still, anyway because he had no idea what he was doing and those quarterbacks sure are important in real football, man.
To this date, team names with “Jon” in the title usually win our unofficial best-name award.
But gradually fantasy changed, as does everything in life.
Now, there’s so much information out there. So much to-the-second knowledge. And it doesn’t take Old Bessie fifteen minutes to fire up and make a roster move or check the injury report. It doesn’t even take a computer- you can use your phone! And no dial tone! No 28 kb/s! No slapping the hard, white metal casing of the latest IBM whatever-it-was!
No, to be honest, this is not a trip down memory lane. I do not mean to wax nostalgic. I suppose the point I am aiming for is this: it’s damn hard now.
It’s damn hard to win.
NFL football and even fantasy football is so popular, so omnipresent that even a rookie manager can fare extremely well with a few savvy Twitter follows or simply by using ten minutes of their lunch to browse an article or two. Bam. You’re up to speed. Injuries, prognostication, analysis. Set your roster with the pros. The easy button.
And for those of us who have played for years, who used to take pride in our ability to be ahead of the curve, it’s now a lot harder to be that extra step in front. That was our secret. That’s how we used to win.
What we are left with now is analysis. Everyone has caught up thanks to the speed of information but what matters now is how you use it, how you manage. Case in point: last week everything in my gut was telling me to use Chris Ivory- despite his total dud of a week 8- over Ray Rice. I just knew it was the right call. And I didn’t do it. I allowed myself to be sucked in by the vast expanse of fantasy “knowledge” you can find at the click of a button and I went with everyone else instead of myself. It’s a lesson I, as a fantasy veteran, should have learned long ago. Yet even the wise among us succumb occasionally. I can say, “it won’t happen again!” but it will. That’s life. You learn from mistakes and hope you don’t make them again when it really counts.
Look: it’s the stretch run. Somewhere between 70 and 80% of teams in most leagues are still competitive for something- whether it be a points title, playoff spot, or regular season record. To that end, I hope you use this list wisely, but above all my hope for you is this: rise above the information. Rise above the mass onslaught of experts and analysts and yada yada…
Draft Vin Baker. Play Chris Ivory. Give up on Old Bessie for street hoops. Everything changes. Enjoy what you can while you can. Enjoy what you have while you can. Everything changes.
Best of luck this week.
Week 10 Top 75
1. Matt Forte
2. Calvin Johnson
3. Marshawn Lynch
4. Reggie Bush
5. Knowshon Moreno
6. Eddie Lacy
7. AJ Green
8. Lesean McCoy
9. Brandon Marshall
10. Jimmy Graham
11. Zac Stacy
12. Dez Bryant
13. Frank Gore
14. Demaryius Thomas
15. Wes Welker
16. CJ Spiller
17. Antonio Brown
18. Chris Johnson
19. DeMarco Murray
20. Eric Decker
21. Victor Cruz
22. Andre Johnson
23. Julius Thomas
24. Le’Veon Bell
25. Mike James
26. Fred Jackson
27. Andre Ellington
28. TY Hilton
29. Vincent Jackson
30. Keenan Allen
Notables, Part I
Adrian Peterson played Thursday night and Jamaal Charles is on a bye so Matt Forte finds himself a very deserving number one this week. I don’t know quite what to make of the Bills backfield but I actually don’t mind the matchup and like both to have their chances. Yes, I think Julius Thomas plays and plays well. I like him a lot this season and you know what he does? Score touchdowns, that’s what. After seeing what Nick Foles and the Eagles did last week, I have to like Victor Cruz this week against a suspect Oakland secondary. I am really high on Keenan Allen but I think the Chargers will be in keep-up (or maybe catch-up?) mode and remember: Philip Rivers turnovers don’t count against Allen’s tally.
31. Giovani Bernard
32. Danny Woodhead
33. Jason Witten
34. Desean Jackson
35. Jordy Nelson
36. Vernon Davis
37. Antonio Gates
38. Alshon Jeffery
39. Cecil Shorts
40. Tony Gonzalez
41. Ray Rice
42. Lamar Miller
43. Denarius Moore
44. Torrey Smith
45. Larry Fitzgerald
46. Harry Douglas
47. Steve Johnson
48. Greg Olsen
49. Terrance Williams
50. Martellus Bennett
51. Maurice Jones-Drew
52. Trent Richardson
53. Steven Jackson
54. Hakeem Nicks
55. Ryan Matthews
56. Pierre Thomas
57. Andre Brown
58. Darren Sproles
59. Steve Smith
60. Emmanuel Sanders
61. Golden Tate
62. Ben Tate
63. Coby Fleener
64. Anquan Boldin
65. Kendall Wright
66. Mike Tolbert
67. James Jones
68. Marlon Brown
69. Heath Miller
70. Rashad Jennings
71. BenJarvus Green-Ellis
72. Marvin Jones
73. Riley Cooper
74. Mike Wallace
75. Peyton Hillis
Notables, Part II
Aaron Rodgers going down was such a blow. It’s hard to trust James Jones or Jarret Boykin to do anything, though I think Nelson should still be OK. I don’t know what to make of the Houston backfield and maybe if I had more clarity Ben Tate would be higher. I still think Denarius Moore needs more fantasy-love, so I will continue to give it. I think sooner or later the Saints will figure out they are a better team when Sproles is a big part of the gameplan. Maybe that happens this week? It does look as if he has healed from his concussion and will play. Meanwhile, what to do with the New York Giants backfield? Better question: does it matter? I have Andre Brown ranked higher as I think he’s the “upside” play but Hillis has been serviceable and I think is still usable in deeper formats. If I’m starting any Panthers running back, it’s going to be Mike Tolbert. He gets the TDs. Oh and hey, keep an eye on Steven Jackson as he rounds back into health. Could be interesting.
As always you can tweet me: @petethegreekff. Enjoy your weekend!
_PDK