"Where can I enter a fantasy football league" is a common question we hear quite a bit out there.

There are plenty of places, but CBS Sportsline is probably the best place. If you go to cbs.sportsline.com you will see a "fantasy" link and you’ll be able to figure it out from there.

But What Does Cleveland Think?

There’s no way for me to discuss the Pittsburgh Steelers’ highly dubious game-winning touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens in an objective manner. Is there any way to be 100% certain that one molecule of that football crossed the invisible plain that rises up in a perpendicular angle from the very front of the goal line? No, there is not. We benefited from a ruling that was questionable at best and flat-out wrong at worst. And you know what? I’ll take that. Yes, Ravens fans are bitter…   Read more…

Fantasy Football Thoughts on Week 15 - FakeTeams

Fantasy football-related thoughts on the NFL games from Week 15.   Read more…

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The Nfl Draft’s Impact On The Upcoming Fantasy Football Season

Some of these rookies will come in and make an immediate impact in the league. Others will have a more subtle impact and work their way into the lineup. How much playing time these rookies receive will determine not only their value, but also the value of many other proven veterans who could be high fantasy draft picks. Some of these veterans may lose a lot of value due to rookies stealing precious playing time from them. This is especially troubling in keeper leagues.

Rookie Starters

This was one of the more impressive drafts in recent years. Several skilled players should step right into major roles with their NFL teams. Some of these guys will be well worth having on your fantasy team. If you’re in a keeper league, these guys could be very high picks.

Reggie Bush - The Texans might have passed on him, but you shouldn’t. Bush will have plenty of chances to score fantasy points for his owners as he is expected to split carries with Deuce McAllister, whose value drops significantly. Bush will be a big target out of the backfield for new Saints QB Drew Brees and at times he’ll line up as a wide receiver. Bush may also be able to get on the scoreboard returning punts and kickoffs.

Vernon Davis - The huge tight end will instantly become Alex Smith’s favorite target in San Francisco. While the 49ers’ offense is nothing to write home about, they should improve and they will play against some weaker defenses. Some say Davis may be the next Antonio Gates. That probably won’t happen right away, but he could be a top 5 tight end and have numbers similar to Baltimore’s Todd Heap.

Joseph Addai - The Colts moved quickly to replace Edgerrin James by drafting the LSU running back in the first round. Addai will step right into the league’s most potent offense and could be the feature back. Like James, he’s an excellent pass catcher and should have no problem beating out Dominic Rhodes for the majority of the playing time.

Waiting in the Wings

These guys may not start right away, but they will be valuable players for their new teams’ offenses.

Laurence Maroney & Chad Jackson - The Patriots’ top two picks may not be immediate starters, but it won’t be long until they force their way into the lineup. Rated by many as the top wide receiver in the draft, New England was able to grab Florida’s Chad Jackson in the second round. Jackson fills an immediate hole for the Pats after they lost David Givens in free agency. Even if he doesn’t start, New England loves to run 3-, 4- and 5-receiver sets, and you can bet Tom Brady will find the rookie. The Patriots’ No. 1 pick was RB Laurence Maroney. Maroney rushed for more than 1,000 yards three straight seasons at Minnesota. He won’t displace incumbent Corey Dillon as the starter right away, but Maroney will get his share of carries and could develop into a very productive NFL running back in no time. He is an excellent mid-round pick - higher in keeper leagues.

DeAngelo Williams - The undersized running back is the NCAA career leader in all-purpose yards. He will have to battle DeShaun Foster and Carolina’s 2005 top pick Eric Shelton for playing time. Williams will be part of the backfield rotation from the start. Foster and Shelton have both had trouble staying healthy, so Williams could be in line for even more playing time.

Santonio Holmes - The Steelers, like the Patriots, had an immediate need for a wide receiver and filled it with the impressive Ohio State speedster. He should fit in well with the Super Bowl champs and has a great tutor in Hines Ward. Look for Pittsburgh to ease him into the lineup and for Holmes to make his way into the starting lineup by mid-season.

LenDale White - The other USC running back fell to the middle of the second round after a hamstring injury and character questions have come up in recent weeks. On the field, White has been a powerful runner with a nose for the end zone. Tennessee already has two proven backs in Chris Brown and Travis Henry, but both have been susceptible to injuries. Look for White to start the season as the goal-line back and get a chance at the feature back role later in the season.

Best of the Rest

A few other players to keep an eye on this season include: Leonard Pope - The 6-foot-8 tight end will be a huge target for Curt Warner and should get plenty of Red Zone opportunities in the Cardinals’ new high-powered offense; Sinorice Moss - The Miami (Fla.) receiver should be an excellent complement to Plaxico Burress for the Giants. Moss will have to fight for catches in an offense that features Tiki Barber, Jeremy Shockey, and Burress; Anthony Fasano - Bill Parcells hopes Fasano will turn into another Mark Bavaro for the Cowboys. Dallas already has Jason Witten, a solid tight end, but Parcells loves to play two tight ends, and Drew Bledsoe loves to work the middle of the field.

The Quarterbacks

The there’s the three high-profile quarterbacks: Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and Jay Cutler. I think they will all have productive careers, but just not this season. Young has a chance for playing time with Tennessee now that Steve McNair has left for Baltimore. Billy Volek is ready to step up, however, so Young should be carrying the clipboard this season. Leinart fell to the 10th pick, but he couldn’t have asked for a better situation. The Cardinals are loaded on offense with the best young wide receiver duo in the league - Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald - and a stud running back in the newly acquired James. Kurt Warner leads the Arizona attack and still has a good year or two left, but Warner has a history of injuries so Leinart’s time could come sooner rather than later. The Broncos drafted Cutler one pick after Leinart was selected. Cutler will back up Jake Plummer in Denver next year as he is groomed for the starting spot once Plummer wears out his welcome.

Keep track of the position battles over the summer and don’t be afraid to take a chance on a rookie that could be a difference maker.

By: Michael Brody

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Wagerweb.com Contributing Writer

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Confessions Of A Fantasy Expert

Here’s an axiom (and confession) that might shock some folks: All fantasy owners are more often wrong than right when it comes to doing preseason player projections and rankings. From “experts” to novices, from league champions to cellar-dwellers, it is a demonstrable fact for any fantasy player willing to be honest with himself. Or to any fantasy writer who has his preseason rankings printed in magazines for hundreds of thousands of fantasy fanatics to read.

I’ve corresponded with hundreds of fantasy owners who insist on their brilliance. Every player projection is 100% right. Might as well take their projections in August and mail them to Stats Inc. with a note: “Don’t bother waiting until the end of the year to see how it all turns out. Just print this!” From experts to rookies, we all need to take a reality check. Drop the facade, take your thorazine, and make this admission: “My name is ___ ___, and I’m a fantasy football junkie. And I’m more often wrong than right in my player rankings.”

If you need some convincing, simply take a look at a few consensus rankings prior to the 2006 season. They are in order by position according to last year’s Fantasy Football Pro Forecast Magazine Experts Poll: QBs Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Matt Hasselbeck, Marc Bulger and Donovan McNabb… RBs Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Tiki Barber and Clinton Portis… WRs Steve Smith, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Torry Holt, and Larry Fitzgerald… TEs Antonio Gates, Jeremy Shockey, Tony Gonzalez, Todd Heap and Alge Crumpler… Do you realize 9 of those 20 players did not live up to their top-5 billing at their respective positions? And some were outright duds.

Now take heart, because there is a corollary to the axiom that you are more often wrong than right. That corollary is simply this: Championships are won by those who suck the least at making projections. It might not sound as inspiring as Draftsharks.com’s tag line, “Championships are won on draft day!” but it is nonetheless true.

To draw a comparison, think of baseball hitters. What’s the difference between a guy who gets a base hit only 32% of the time, and one who gets a base hit 28% of the time. The obvious answer is “4 percentage points.” But look a little deeper. A guy who hits .320 every year will play in a whole bunch of All-Star games, and probably wind up with a bronze bust in Cooperstown, while the .280 hitter is destined for few accolades. Even though both hitters produce outs far more often than they produce hits (read: they are wrong more often than they are right) the player who performs only marginally better is a Hall-of-Famer! That is to say, “he sucks the least.”

That marginal difference holds the key to winning in fantasy football, as well. Just think back to last summer for a moment. Everyone was wrong last year in predicting that Jake Delhomme would finish in the top-10 at his position. We missed on him badly too. And who would have thought that Reggie Bush, sharing the football, would crank out top-10 fantasy numbers (except Draft Sharks, he was one of our feature Breakout picks) in his first year? Bush wasn’t even in the Pro Forecast consensus top-20 RBs. Absolutely no one predicted that Chris Chambers - 2005’s seventh-best fantasy WR - would barely crack the top-40. Or that the 33-year old journeyman QB Jon Kitna would vault into the top-5 QBs. RBs Corey Dillon, Julius Jones, DeShaun Foster, Edgerrin James, and Cadillac Williams never topped 122 yards in a single game - while Ladell Betts *averaged* 136 rushing yards over a 5-game stretch. WRs Chris Henry and Michael Jenkins had 15 TDs between them, one more than Michael Clayton, Randy Moss, Rod Smith, Drew Bennett & Chris Chambers had combined! Of course, injuries took an unusually big bite last year, but still a lot of fantasy experts and novices looked bad in their preseason projections. The list of examples could go on and on.

Frankly, we weren’t much better than the consensus in overall prognosticating. We were high on guys like Javon Walker (our Co-Comeback pick), and named some big Sleepers in Jon Kitna, Marion Barber, Reggie Brown, and Jerricho Cotchery. Draft Sharks ranked the Minnesota defense #5, higher than anyone, and they finished 3rd. We even continued to endorse Andre Johnson as a Breakout pick after he stunk it up in 2005. The explosive Lee Evans is always high on our list. But talk about flat choking, our #8 QB pick was Aaron Brooks. Gulp. And our contrarian views on Antonio Bryant (another Sleeper, what a loser), Derrick Mason (we overestimated the McNair signing) and Ben Watson (we were a year too early on his breakout) didn’t pan out either. Marques Colston totally caught us flat-footed. However, the salient point is that we were marginally better than the consensus on a larger handful of players.

Clinton Portis was selected in our yearly “First Round Bust” article. We ranked him an astoundingly low #16 - drawing hundreds of flaming emails - when everybody else had him at #4 or #5. We warned our readers about Warrick Dunn coming off a career year and also Jason Witten, who fell to #11 from #5 the year before. We weren’t afraid to endorse Santonio Holmes in the preseason and finished strong when he got a chance to play. Sticking our neck out on Tony Romo later in the season also paid off for DS customers. However, Corey Bradford (who?) was a top-30 WR on our list which could have got us arrested for fraud in some states. Leon Washington and Devery Henderson were nice calls on our part. The Miami defense was a nifty Sleeper pick. I don’t want to make this an exhaustive list, but much like the .320 hitter vs. the .280 hitter, we did marginally better than the consensus. And that marginal advantage is, in practice, a huge advantage in this industry.

The same holds true for hundreds of thousands of fantasy league champions across America. The guy who busted his hump digging up information during the summer was probably only marginally better than the guy who ripped out a magazine cheat sheet the day before the draft. But that marginal difference probably won a championship for the guy who started thinking about his draft in early-May. Remember, football - especially fantasy football - is a game of inches.

Let me draw another comparison. Fantasy football drafting is like one of my favorite pastimes in its elements: It’s like playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker. In fact, it is almost exactly like poker in some respects. Poker is made up of 70% “luck” and 30% skill. What separates the winners from losers is that the consistent winners focus on getting better at the 30%, while the losers whine about the 70%. When our co-founder, Michael Hiban, and I played a lot of poker, we would sniff out the tables where players asked the dealer for a “deck change” because the cards were “cold.” Cards are neither hot nor cold. They are distributed randomly each hand. If you sit at a poker table long enough, you’ll get your share of “bad” cards, and your share of “good” cards. Such is the nature of random distribution. When guys asked for a deck change, we knew we were playing with “fish” — players who focused on the 70% luck, rather than the 30% skill.

It’s much the same in fantasy football. Everybody will get their share of “bad” luck if they play long enough. Just look at last year. The entire fantasy community suffered when countless RBs caught the injury bug - Shaun Alexander, Ronnie Brown, Willis McGahee, Kevin Jones, Laurence Maroney and DeShaun Foster all had problems. In Kansas City Trent Green got hit by a truck in the season opener. Donovan McNabb blew out his knee. Kansas City, Seattle, Denver, and Arizona all failed to crack the NFL’s top-15 offenses. Larry Fitzgerald tore a hamstring and only managed 946 yards and 6 TDs. QBs Chris Weinke and Joey Harrington each had 400-yard games while Matt Hasselbeck never even managed a 300-yard game. Brian Westbrook had a great year but it was deceiving: his knee got him scratched in week #4 and many were pulling him in and out of the lineup due to weekly ‘questionable’ and ‘game-time decision’ warnings. Darrell Jackson’s toe blew up right when fantasy GMs needed him the most. Fred Taylor dragged down a lot of fantasy teams with his erratic production. TEs Dallas Clark and Randy McMichael failed to break out yet again. The cat-quick alien that inhabited Nate Burleson’s body in 2004 (1,009 yards/10 TDs) flew back to another galaxy, leaving us with a very bad football player.

But you’ll also get your share of “good” luck as evidenced by last year, as well. Marvin Harrison, often the 8th or 9th WR picked last year, caught 12 TDs in his last 12 games and pulled out the #1 WR ranking. One of the best value picks in recent memory, Deuce McAllister, fell to the 6th or 7th round and responded with 1,061 yards and 11 TDs. Frank Gore got the starting job when Kevan Barlow was cut and went off for 1,695 yards - the 30th best rushing total ever - with 61 catches and 9 TDS. T.J. Houshmandzadeh was a mid-round fantasy gem as usual, racking up bundles of catches and scores, sneaking his way up to the top-5 receivers. Joey Galloway cracked the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight year and finished as the 19th best fantasy wideout. The old guy cost you an 8th round pick at best. A lot of you picked up WR Mark Clayton on a mid-season waiver and he posted four 100-yard games down the stretch. In fact, Clayton’s 7-108-1 performance in week #16 vs. Pittsburgh helped win a lot of fantasy championships! And of course, anyone who took Drew Brees on a late-round flyer cashed in like Chris Moneymaker. Brees threw for a career-high 4,418 yards and 26 TDs. It was the 18th-best passing yardage total in NFL history. Brees sprayed 300+ yards in 8 different games (6 of them on the road) and finished 2nd in the MVP voting.

These “luck” players are basically spread out randomly, just like those poker cards. And, for better or worse, they dominate (but do not decide) fantasy football championships every year. As I’ve said, fantasy football is 70% “luck.” But the champions pull ahead on 30% skill. So what exactly constitutes skill?

Before I define “skill” at fantasy drafting, let’s start with this historical premise: The turnover in the top-ten at each position is greater than 50% each year. That means that if historical trends hold up for 2006, the majority of the players at each position who were in the top-10 last year will be replaced by other players this year. In 2006, there were only 22 players out of a possible 40 at QB, RB, WR, and TE who repeated their top-10 performance from 2005. The year before, there were only 18 players out of a possible 40 that repeated top-10 numbers from 2004. Each year around 50% of the top-10 QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs stay at the top. Sometimes it’s around 40%. I won’t bore you by tracking the trend back through the decade, but I’ve done it — and with very few exceptions, the turnover rate for top-10 performers is about 50% from year-to-year. Think about that…

Here comes the skill. Your job is to identify roughly 3, 4 or 5 players who will either slide out of the top-10 at their position, or climb into the top-10. Admittedly, this is a difficult task, both from an analytical point of view, as well as from an emotional point of view. But you should stay focused on the payoff. If you’re close to being right on some of those players, you’re going to have a championship season. This is going to take a lot of thinking, a lot of research, and a lot of guts. You’re going to look at your rankings and start to think to yourself, “This just doesn’t FEEL right.” Don’t back down.

Look at last year. Would it have felt right last year to drop Clinton Portis all the way out of the top-15 coming off a season with over 1,500 rushing yards and 11 TDs? It felt right to Draft Sharks. We had a theory combined with a gut feeling that he’d let you down in 2006. Last July we wrote: ‘Did you know Portis added 10-12 lbs back in ‘05 to adjust to Joe Gibbs’ gap-plays? Kudos to Portis, he held up pretty well in the regular season despite his carries going up for the 3rd straight season. But now he’s going back to his lighter Broncos frame because Al Saunders wants more big play rushes out of his halfbacks… The injuries were worse when he was thinner: torn pectoral muscle, bruised heel, bruised ribs, hyper-extended knee, sprained ankles.’ A few weeks later Portis dislocated his shoulder trying to make a tackle after an interception. By the time he broke his hand in November his season was already a wash.

Would it have felt right to raise Reggie Wayne up to the top-8 WRs after his middling 2005 season (83 catches, 5 TDs) when he was outscored by Keenan McCardell, Rod Smith and Terry Glenn? In 2006 Wayne bounced back hard to tie Chad Johnson for 6th in the final WR rankings. Wayne tallied a career-high 1,310 yards with 9 TDs - and could have been a top-3 WR but he got knocked out of bounds inside the 3-yard line a whopping 5 times! The point is, Wayne’s #18 ranking in 2005 didn’t mean you automatically project him around 16th to 18th in 2006. He was a top-8 WR in 2004, why can’t be jump back up there again? Be careful about regurgitating last year’s rankings as this year’s predictions.

Are you going to be wrong with some of your bolder picks? Absolutely. In fact, you’ll be wrong with quite a few. But do NOT be afraid to fail. We’re known for taking chances and taking aggressive views on players we like. We’ve hit big on some of them. I remember Eddie George was our “First Round Bust” guy in 2001, coming off a career-high 16 TDs and nearly 2,000 total yards? You should see some of the scathing e-mails we saved from that summer. ‘You guys are Draft Dorks’ was my favorite… But we had a reason to rank him so low. George had averaged over 400 touches for three straight years and insiders told us early his toe was giving out. Jon Kitna on our 2006 Sleeper list? Going to Detroit this guy was a career 58% passer who was often bailed out by super-talented running backs like Ricky Watters, Corey Dillon and Rudi Johnson. Kitna played gutsy football for Mike Martz, throwing for 4,208 yards with 21 TD passes and 2 TD runs. Yes, his 22 INTs were a big liability in performance-scoring - but he was a useful addition to fantasy rosters for most of the year.

Of course, some of your bolder picks can get you smacked upside the head. Just four years ago we tagged Priest Holmes as our “Bust” due to his injury/contract issues. Thousands of our customers avoided him accordingly. It completely backfired because that was the one year Holmes put it all together. He flat steamrolled the NFL with over 2,000 total yards and 27 TDs. We were the goat. But are we fazed by that botched call? Remember, barely 50% of players will repeat top-10 performances.

Draft Sharks will remain a consistent prognosticator among the experts because of our willingness to accept change. In the annual fantasy magazine polls, we consistently have strong showings despite some unusually bold and dynamic projections. In the Fantasy Index Experts Poll we took 1st, 4th, 2nd, and 4th (out of 25) from ‘99-02, then fell to 10th in 2003 thanks in large part to that (gulp) Priest Holmes call. DS won the Draft Book Magazine Experts Poll three times from 2002-2006, but we also finished 6th once and stumbled in at 12th last season.

We’re still not afraid to fail if the alternative is to run with the herd. You don’t have to swing for the fences on every pick. You don’t have to rank players perfectly either. You only have to do it better — marginally better — than everyone else. And in order to do that, you have to use educated-but-contrarian thinking. You know how all your buddies like to grade each guy’s draft when it’s over? ‘I like Frank’s draft, he’s stacked from top-to-bottom… good value picks at WR, I’d give him an A.’ Well, in my experience, those consensus ‘A’ drafts often sit near the bottom of the standings by October. If the herd likes your draft, chances are you just played it safe and tight. I actually like it when they bag on my draft a little: ‘Lenny is OK at running back, but what’s with Javon Walker in the 4th round, isn’t he coming off a torn ACL?’ Hee hee…

My principle complaint about many writers in the FF industry is that they tend to play “last-year’s-stats-equal-this-year’s-stats” when creating their rankings. In part, I understand why. There is a paradox in doing player projections that most experts do not bear in mind. On the one hand, players will roughly produce as they have in past years - unless factors (coaching changes, personnel moves, etc.) impact that production either upward or downward. On the other hand, we know that barely half the players who finish in the top-10 at each position will repeat their top-10 performance the following year. Remember?

Listen to fantasy expert Tony “The Prognosticator” Holm, who offered this observation in a column written six years ago:

“A magazine, or on-line draft list, often times is nothing more than a politically correct public opinion poll. There are exceptions of course and some of the publishers/webmasters out here really do post what they think and do not give a snot about what other people think. Be sure to scrutinize each list for players that look a little odd where they are placed. If you find one, you will have found yourself someone who truly thinks for themselves.”

Amen! So why don’t many experts follow the historical trends and really try to predict the major shifts in players instead of playing it safe? There are probably several reasons.

The first is that some guys just don’t want to spend time digging. It takes a lot of research and a lot of thought to do projections, and most “experts” do not work at fantasy football as their full-time job. Secondly, nobody wants to really stand out from the crowd and be WRONG. It’s one thing to slot Peyton Manning as your #3 QB. Not really a big deal because even if he’s #1 again, there’s four other QBs that will run with him point-for-point. It’s quite another to say that Cadillac Williams, for example, will have a huge comeback year in 2007. And when you offer your opinions to thousands of people and you’re WRONG, they will let you know that you were WRONG. It’s human nature, or at least the law of the fantasy football jungle, to smack-talk like crazy when someone is WRONG, especially when it’s a self-appointed fantasy expert…

Tony Holm offers a third reason, and I’m inclined to agree with him. Money. Tony says that he had a conversation with the owner of a major fantasy site a few years ago in which the owner admitted to following the herd because he didn’t want to chase away customers. “I can’t afford to look like an idiot because who will come to my site if I don’t have LT at #1 like everyone else.” Tony quotes the site owner as asking. “How can I call myself an expert if I don’t have the consensus #1 pick on top of my draft board?” But it’s true… offering an opinion that differs with the consensus of experts will indeed cost you money. I have absolutely no doubt of it.

This should be the part where I say all the other experts really suck, and you should cough up some cash to hear Draft Sharks’ sage opinion and advice, and ignore everyone else. The truth is, we know fantasy and we cover it with a unique style like nobody else. But you should always look for a diversity of opinion. Search out fantasy football writers who are doing research and thinking for themselves (they still exist) — even if you don’t agree with their analysis. Ultimately, a diversity of viewpoints will help you sharpen your opinion of players.

I can make you one guarantee. If you follow the consensus of experts this year, you will not win a championship. No way. You’re a lamb being led to the slaughter, not a shark in search of prey. As for me, I would rather have Draft Sharks go broke than bend our research and opinions to be more palatable to potential subscribers. Don’t be forced in line by the fantasy thought police. Frankly, far too many experts are doing a disservice to our hobby by regurgitating “last-year’s-stats-equal-this-year’s-stats…”

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** This article took the 2005 “Best Web-Based Article” award from the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. It’s been revised to include updated stats and player analysis, but the thrust remains the same. www.DraftSharks.com

By: Lenny Pappano

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

www.DraftSharks.com

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Fantasy Football Sleepers - Mid-season Edition

Buy These Gam’s a Drink Before They Ankle

Rita Hayworth told me she needed something new once. It frightened me when I heard her say this. You don’t date a movie star, act like an ass and not have the panic all the time. Luckily, she only wanted a dress. I obliged. She still left me months later but what could I expect? I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and it’s hard to be handsome when you think your name is tomfoolery. Rita Hayworth was a calm woman and rarely cast a kitten. I was the upstart and couldn’t believe my luck. When Rita Hayworth was on my arm I was attaboying everything we walked by: humans, bushes, parked cars, aliens, dogs, mailmen, storefronts, stoops. I think Rita grew a little tired of my enthusiasm, hey, this woman was married to a Prince and Orson Wells. I was just a giggle juice drinking, gambling, wide-mouthed sports writer from St. Paul. I have no idea how I got her in the first place. But one thing I learned a long time ago is that when somebody hands you a bottle, you put on your best suit and drink it because you might be wearing a wooden kimono tomorrow.

There four names in fantasy football who haven’t taken this fantasy life for granted
Down in Jacksonville there are a couple of floor flushers emerging on the landscape. Fred Taylor is going the way of Kurt Warner and the whippersnapper on his heels is ready to take it to another level. On just 29 touches this season, Maurice Jones-Drew, has racked up 209 total yards and two touchdowns where as Taylor’s has 336 total yards and 1 touchdown on 82 touches. I’m no Philadelphia Lawyer but it looks like Maurice Jones-Drew is going to be lighting up fantasy scoreboards in the last half of the season while Fred Taylor is going to be leaving for Saturn at any second. At receiver, all of the Matt Jones sleeper talk down in Jacksonville has turned out to be a bunch of twaddle. The real sleeper down there is Reggie Williams. Williams made one of the toughest catches I’ve ever seen in the high rent district of the Washington grid iron last Sunday that made me move an inch in my chaise. Willams has become the favorite target of Bryan Leftwich and is only beginning his ankle excursion in the fantasy universe.

In New Orleans, Drew Brees is proving to be the best talent agent in town. A few years ago Brees made a star out of Antonio Gates. Brees saw something in Gates and rode him to the apex of this fantasy life. While Gates numbers have significantly declined with the departure of Brees, there is a young floor flusher down in New Orleans who Brees has single handedly discovered and taken straight to the top. Wide out Marquis Colston has wracked up 336 yards and 3 touchdowns and has emerged as on of the top young fantasy footballers on the scene. It’s never a bad idea to attach yourself to the most underrated quarterback on the planet and yes, Brees snuck him into the speakeasy in the alley but Colston is telling his own jokes and guffawing with tact.

In Chicago there is a cowboy quarterback who has a little of Dandy Don Meredith’s get up and Brett Favre gun slinging know-how. Butter and egg man Rex Grossman has wracked up over 1000 yards passing this season along with 8 touchdowns. This Johnny Jupiter is using his ray gun to beam passes all over the NFL universe. If this guy can keep his space suit on and act normal around humans, he’s going to be walking undetected, side by side, in the spotlight with the fantasy cake-eaters. Just shove it in your skull that the spotlight can burn you where you stand and if your living the fantasy life you better pay the fare because you never know when you’re going to see those gams walking away.

By: Scoop Chicos

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Scoop Chicos is the senior staff writer for fflcommish.com, the most flexible online fantasy football league service available. His original fantasy football articles are updated several times a week. You can ask him fantasy football questions in his forum, or subscribe to his fantasy football rss feed.

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Love Fantasy Football? Learn How It All Started

The history of fantasy football actually began several years before the first fantasy team was selected. Although the exact details seem to differ according to who is telling the story, there is no doubt that it was one Wilfred Winkenbach that first had the idea of a fantasy sport, wherein participants would formulate their own teams and determine the success or otherwise of these teams by means of the statistics of the individual team members.

-Golf Came First!

In fact, it was not football but golf that was the first sport to be played under fantasy rules. Wilfred Winkenbach devised fantasy golf in the latter part of the 1950s, in which each player selected a team of professional golfers and the person with the lowest combined total of strokes at the end of the tournament would win. Golf is a simple fantasy game to administer and keep tabs on, since you are concerned only with the scores of your team members without anything else to complicate it.

As with many breakthrough ideas, the concept was simple and it was extended to baseball before Winkenbach had the idea of fantasy football. This was not surprising, since he was part owner of Oakland Raiders at the time - in fact, what WAS surprising was that he developed fantasy golf and baseball before fantasy football! The football idea came to him on a wet October evening in 1962, when he discussed his idea with the Oakland Raiders PR man Bill Tunnell and the Oakland Tribune sports journalist, Scotty Stirling.

-Early Scoring System

They were actually spending the night in a Manhattan hotel during a Raiders tour. The original idea was formulated into a football league comprising eight teams, and they also formulated a points scoring system somewhat different to the norm whereby 25 points were awarded for a field goal, a passing touchdown or a touchdown reception. Ten points were given for an extra point, and a massive 200 points for a kick-off, punt or pick-six. The scoring system has changed over the years, and various leagues now have their own scoring systems which offer fewer points than the above.

Once they returned to Oakland the three of them pitched their idea to George Ross, then sports editor of the Tribune. They decided that they would have to formulate a set of rules, and came up with the GOPPPL. This strange-sounding code, which was adopted in 1963, actually stood for the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League. A prognosticator is one who makes a prediction, or foretells results, which describes their activity precisely.

-GOPPPL Rules!

Among the GOPPPL rules were the three prerequisites that participants had to meet in order to take part in the league:

Have an administrative affiliation with an AFL professional team.
Be directly related to professional football through journalism.
Have either purchased or sold at least ten tickets for Oakland Raider’s 1963 season.

The next significant advance was the opening of the Kings X sports bar in Oakland in 1968 that held annual fantasy football drafts. This was done by one Andrew Mousalimas, and provided a kick to the league that continued to enjoy a steady growth through the 1970s and beyond. While its rate of spread did not exactly set the country alight, it was unexpected and the increasing following held promise of spectacular things to come.

The way it works is that participants in the fantasy league buy a team of American football players by auction or draft. The players are chosen according their particular skills or attributes and you score points that depend upon the way that your players perform in the actual games. The performance is generally determined by statistical analysis, and points can be awarded as previously indicated. The players themselves are real football players, playing for their own teams. It is only the team and the league that is fantasy.

Some fantasy leagues are run just like real leagues, with drafts, play-offs, salary caps and so on. Players can be given a value and you can only register players up to certain overall value for your team. This prevents everybody selecting only the very best players for their team, and the possibility of hundreds of teams with exactly the same personnel.

-Fantasy Football Now

Fantasy football simmered for a few years, although never kicked off completely until the personal computer and the internet made the gathering of statistics unbelievably simple. Prior to that, the idea was a good one, but it was not easy to carry out in practice. Teams and scores were difficult to update because you would have had to find all the statistics for each player in your team, how many rushes were made and yards gained. Not easy to do manually, but now real-time scoring is very accessible.

The internet has now made this simple, and the popularity of fantasy football has risen exponentially to the extent that it is popular throughout the entire world, and is participated in by around 20 million Americans, each with their own virtual team, and competition can be either league based, or head-to-head where you play against a specific opponent.

By: Arthor Pens

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

The Author is the owner of maximumfantasysports.com and is an avid fantasy sports participant. After seeing hundreds of different fantasy football sites he decided to create a real time fantasy football league website that included all of the best features he’s seen in internet fantasy football. Join today, membership is free!

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Love Fantasy Football? Learn How It Started

The history of Fantasy Football actually began several years before the first fantasy team was selected. Although the exact details seem to differ according to who is telling the story, there is no doubt that it was one Wilfred Winkenbach that first had the idea of a fantasy sport, wherein participants would formulate their own teams and determine the success or otherwise of these teams by means of the statistics of the individual team members.

Golf Came First!

In fact, it was not football but golf that was the first sport to be played under fantasy rules. Wilfred Winkenbach devised fantasy golf in the latter part of the 1950s, in which each player selected a team of professional golfers and the person with the lowest combined total of stokes at the end of the tournament would win. Golf is a simple fantasy game to administer and keep tabs on, since you are concerned only with the scores of your team members without anything else to complicate it.

As with many breakthrough ideas, the concept was simple and it was extended to baseball before Winkenbach had the idea of fantasy football. This was not surprising, since he was part owner of Oakland Raiders at the time - in fact, what WAS surprising was that he developed fantasy golf and baseball before fantasy football! The football idea came to him on a wet October evening in 1962, when he discussed his idea with the Oakland Raiders PR man Bill Tunnell and the Oakland Tribune sports journalist, Scotty Stirling.

Early Scoring System

They were actually spending the night in a Manhattan hotel during a Raiders’ tour. The original idea was formulated into a football league comprising eight teams, and they also formulated a points scoring system somewhat different to the norm whereby 25 points were awarded for a field goal, a passing touchdown or a touchdown reception. Ten points were given for an extra point, and a massive 200 points for a kick-off, punt or pick-six. The scoring system has changed over the years, and various leagues now have their own scoring systems which offer fewer points than the above.

Once they returned to Oakland the three of them pitched their idea to George Ross, then sports editor of the Tribune. They decided that they would have to formulate a set of rules, and came up with the GOPPPL. This strange-sounding code, which was adopted in 1963, actually stood for the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League. A prognosticator is one who makes a prediction, or foretells results, which describes their activity precisely.

GOPPPL Rules!

Among the GOPPPL rules were the three prerequisites that participants had to meet in order to take part in the league:

- Have an administrative affiliation with an AFL professional team.

- Be directly related to professional football through journalism.

- Have either purchased or sold at least ten tickets for Oakland Raider’s 1963 season.

The next significant advance was the opening of the Kings X sports bar in Oakland in 1968 that held annual fantasy football drafts. This was done by one Andrew Mousalimas, and provided a kick to the league that continued to enjoy a steady growth through the 1970s and beyond. While its rate of spread did not exactly set the country alight, it was unexpected and the increasing following held promise of spectacular things to come.

The way it works is that participants in the fantasy league buy a team of American football players by auction or draft. The players are chosen according their particular skills or attributes and you score points that depend upon the way that your players perform in the actual games. The performance is generally determined by statistical analysis, and points can be awarded as previously indicated. The players themselves are real football players, playing for their own teams. It is only the team and the league that is fantasy.

Some fantasy leagues are run just like real leagues, with drafts, playoffs, salary caps and so on. Players can be given a value and you can only register players up to certain overall value for your team. This prevents everybody selecting only the very best players for their team, and the possibility of hundreds of teams with exactly the same personnel.

Fantasy Football Now

Fantasy Football simmered for a few years, although never kicked off completely until the personal computer and the internet made the gathering of statistics unbelievably simple. Prior to that, the idea was a good one, but it was not easy to carry out in practice. Teams and scores were difficult to update because you would have had to find all the statistics for each player in your team, how many rushes were made and yards gained. Not easy to do manually, but now real-time scoring is very accessible.

The internet has now made this simple, and the popularity of fantasy football has risen exponentially to the extent that it is popular throughout the entire world, and is participated in by around 20 million Americans, each with their own virtual team, and competition can be either league based, or head-to-head where you play against a specific opponent.

By: Bill Parsons

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Bill Parsons is the owner of MaximumFantasySports.com and is a rabid fantasy sports participant. He began creating his own football and baseball fantasy leagues at the ripe old age of seven and tracking stats and standings on paper.After the birth of fantasy sports on the internet, he participated in and evaluated numerous fantasy football sites, only to be disappointed at the generic nature of these sites. Join maximum fantasy sports today by visiting www.maximumfantasysports.com for Free!

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Fantasy Football Tips

Always make sure you have 11 players playing. Most FF games will give you some player points just for time spent on the pitch.

Select penalty, corner and free kick takers as they are likely to get 5 plus goals and assists a season at least.

Defenders who play on the overlap will gain a lot of assists.

Midfielders who play out wide will also gain a lot of assists.

Hot headed players always pick up bookings and suspensions, which can be a major amount of points lost. You may be better off selecting cleaner players.

Don’t pick defensive central midfielders. Priceless in the real world and so expensive in FF, but useless as they rarely score or get assists.

Defenders and goalkeepers from the top 6 clubs will keep more clean sheets. Any defenders from the bottom half a dozen clubs will cost you points in the long run.

Star players from the bottom clubs won’t gain you as many points as you might expect, otherwise the club wouldn’t be down there, and these stars can also tend to cost a lot.

A lot of FF games give goalkeepers points not just for clean sheets, but for the number of saves they make in a game, especially penalties. So goalkeepers who are really good penalty stoppers and/or play for some of the weaker teams can get you more points than some of the top keepers as they face more shots.

Don’t let any personal bias get in the way. Avoiding certain clubs and players will cost you points in the long run. Likewise, filling your team with poor players from your club won’t do you any favours either.

If you have a home banker, you may want to use your main striker or a defender as captain if the FF game has a double points rule.

Likewise, the current league has several extremely gifted attacking central midfielders who are always likely to score or get an assist. Many of these also take free-kicks and penalties so should get the nod for captaincy.

Don’t make your transfers too early in the game week. If there isn’t a game for more than a few days, then a player you have just transferred in may pick up an injury.

If the FF game has a man of the match award, then have a look at who normally picks them up for each club. For most it will generally be their star or most consistent performer.

Don’t forget; if transfers aren’t included or are very limited don’t pick a team full of African nationals who will miss 5 weeks of the season for the African Nations Cup.

If you can choose the formation, a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 is often successful if you can get some attacking midfielders. There are a number of midfielders out there who will score 10 goals plus per season which is as good as 80% of the strikers on offer. They also cost a lot less and probably get more assists as well.

When making your transfers, make sure you know about future fixtures. Are there any teams that have an easy run, or lots of home games, or perhaps a team that has two games in a week compared to others with only one?

For FF games that allow the price of a player to go up and down depending on popularity, it might be worthwhile holding onto a player in your squad even when they have an injury. This is because if you transfer them out, their price may go up and you will be unable to transfer them back again.

If the FF game has transfers, where possible try to use these to maximise the number of players playing that week. For example if 11 played on Saturday, sub 4 more in for Sunday’s games.

By: GoActive Football

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Rob Speksnijder from GoActive Football www.goactivefootball.co.uk

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How To Draft Your Own Fantasy Football Team

If you have been considering starting your own fantasy football there are several aspects of which you should be aware. Fantasy football has significantly grown in popularity in the last few years and there are now a number of different ways you can get involved with fantasy football. If you’re interested in winning some of the larger prizes that are up for grabs, you will need to consider joining one of the fantasy football teams offered by several web sites as well as quite a few football magazines. Most people; however, opt instead to join a small informal league simply for the fun of the game. This type of league can be organized with just about anyone. Such leagues are frequently organized with relatives, co-workers or friends. If you are drafting your first league it is important to remember there is really no wrong or right way to do it because the most important thing is to have fun.

First, there will need to be teams involved in order to draft a league. Generally, a league can have anywhere from eight up to sixteen teams. The number of teams you have in your league will be up to you and what is available in your locality; however, be sure to give some strong thought to the number of teams in your league because it can be extremely important. Too few teams in your league will reduce the level of competition while too many teams will make it difficult for each owner to find enough good players. Try to keep the number of your teams equal; however, for the sake of your schedule.

Regardless of the number of teams you decide upon, those teams will need to be divided into divisions. The number of divisions may depend on the number of teams in your league. Many people; however, find that 3 divisions work fine.

You will also need to decide upon a commissioner. A lot of thought should be put into the selection of your commissioner as well, as this role is critical to the success of your league. This should be someone all of the other owners trust implicitly. He, or she, will be in charge of such things as the draft, scoring the games, setting up the league, etc. This can be a very demanding job with a lot of responsibilities. It may prove prudent to set up a co-commissioner position as well.

When setting up your regular season, try to plan for around thirteen or so games. Remember, this is excluding your playoffs, which will typically last another three weeks or so. The general rule of thumb is for your season to not last longer than a regular NFL season.

Your drafts may depend on the type of league you set up. Some leagues only hold an initial draft when first setting up the league and then for rookies after that. Regardless, when first setting up your league you will need to have a draft to select players. For this a draft order will be selected, typically before the draft itself is held. If you opt for an auction format instead, remember that each owner must be given a salary cap. Of course, this can be any amount you decide upon. The main key is that each team must have their roster filled out; generally with about 15 players per team. From this the teams will need to select their starting players, usually around 7 each. A starting lineup will usually include one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one place kicker and one defense.

By: Joseph Kenny -

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Joe Kenny writes for the UK soccer forum site, FootballTalk.org. Join the football forum for free today and have your say! Visit today: footballtalk.org/

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The New Number 2 Fantasy Football Player

Each year changes in fantasy football rankings are made, most often due to a player getting injured or age finally catching up to the player. Rarely is the change made this high in the rankings when last years leaders are still in their prime. There are many reasons for the elevation of St. Louis Rams RB Stephen Jackson to the second spot. In this article we will look at five.

Reason 1 - Offensive Scheme

The Rams will continue to employ a modified version of ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ in which the field will be stretched horizontally as well as vertically. Defenses will not be able to put 8 or 9 defenders in the box as their defense will be tested on every level on any play. The Rams will continue to spread defenses out by continuing to use 3 and 4 receiver sets along with Steven Jackson. Defenses will have to pick their poison when defending the Rams, keeping both safeties back to protect from the big play.

Reason 2 - Coach/Game Plan

Coach Linehan has always said he wanted to run the ball more than Mike Martz, and last season Jackson made him a genius for implementing that change to the offense. In 2006 Steven Jackson responded by rushing for 1528 yards and 13 touchdowns. The touchdown number should rise as the red zone carries that went to Stephen Davis last year (bad experiment) should go to Jackson this year. Steven Jackson is also involved in the passing game, last season he accumulated for 90 receptions another 806 yards and 3 more touchdowns; those are numbers that bring to mind the old Marshall Faulk season stats.

Reason 3 - Other Options on Offense

Stephen Jackson isn’t the only option when the Rams have the ball. Proven game breaker Tory Holt will team with ageless Isaac Bruce to again provide one of the better receiving tandems in the league and the addition of tight end Randy McMichael stretches the middle of the field. Pro Bowler Marc Bulger makes everything go with his decision making from the quarterback position. The drafting of versatile running back Brian Leonard should provide a backup for the few times Steven needs a breather, keeping him fresh for the entire season.

Reason 4 - Offensive Line

Due to injuries last season, a lot of players got very valuable game experience. The problem from the rotating players showed in the Rams’ pass protection, the running game was decent ranking 17th in the NFL in 2006; with the added experience those numbers will improve. The Rams released the cagey Adam Timmerman, but feel his replacement is already on the team.

Reason 5 - The Schedule

The schedule is conducive to Steven Jackson and the Rams to run for big numbers as they face top ten against the rush defenses in only 4 games in 2007. In 2006 games against the division, Jackson averaged over 90 total yards a game, a trend that should continue in ‘07.

These are are five of many reasons that make Steven Jackson the number 2 fantasy football player for 2007. If you have Steven Jackson, keep him. If you can draft him draft him, he will make an excellent cornerstone for a winning team.

By: Augustine Dashiell

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Augustine Dashiell is a senior staff writer for fflcommish.com, a fantasy football commissioner service providing flexible features for the discerning fantasy football league manager.

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Mock Drafting - A Must For Serious Fantasy Football Owners

Drafting your fantasy football team is a very exciting time for all fantasy football owners. As you begin your draft, you look at the players you are selecting through the first 3-4 rounds and think you are building the best dynasty in the league. As you get into the later rounds, however, you begin to struggle through your selections and the owners who have failed to put the needed research and practice into their planning will generally stand out in a very bad way. Proper planning of your fantasy football drafts, if you want to win, consists of plenty player research and the following of a lot of NFL related news. Just as important to all of these things is practice, and the only way a fantasy football owner can practice for the upcoming season is via mock drafts.

Normally, I start participating in mock drafts in early June and continue them constantly all the way through training camp up until the time I have completed all of my real fantasy football league drafts. These drafts are done online with different people each time, which allows me to face several different scenarios. How does this help? Most importantly, it gives you a very good idea regarding where all of the players you are targeting can most likely be drafted. As you look at different websites for player rankings, as well as making your own fantasy football player rankings, you realize that these lists are much different from one site to another. All of the people you are doing these mock drafts with are studying the same material that you are studying. The mock draft is where it all comes together. It allows you to see just where those later round sleeper picks you are targeting are most likely to fall when it comes time to draft for real.

There are several places to participate in mock drafts. We host them here at SportsOutlaw.com, as do other fantasy football websites. My favorite place to participate in mock drafts currently is AntSports. AntSports has put together an amazing mock draft system. What’s even better is that they take it one step further by combining the mock draft results into a database that shows the average draft position of all the fantasy football players you are targeting according to position, draft type, and other factors. If you haven’t yet participated in mock drafts, give them a try and you will find that they are very beneficial to your success in the great sport of fantasy football.

By: Michael Whitehead

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Article courtesty of sportsoutlaw
www.sportsoutlaw.com

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