Fantasy Football

Join a League

If you have a group of friends who are all interested in competing, you can all band together to create a league. If you are on your own and want to compete, there are plenty of online sites where you can join other people around the world to create a league. Both espn.com and nfl.com have standard leagues you can join that will automatically pair you up with other fantasy football players, keep score for you and the others in your league, and maintain your group’s stats and other information.

Once you have a group together, you’ll have to figure out who is going to maintain all the scoring statistics and keep track of everyone’s fantasy teams. This is most likely a huge undertaking and would be far easier if it was done through a computer program or through a third party website, such as the two mentioned above. Scoring for fantasy leagues can vary, as can the rules for each league, so before you choose your team makes sure you understand the scoring rules so you have the best advantage you can.

The Draft

Before this crucial part of the fantasy football process occurs, you should do some research. If you’re not a hardcore NFL fan, find someone you trust who is and download all the player information you can from them. Or go online and read some articles. Make a list of all the players you would love to have on your fantasy team with several back-up players for each position. You will want to stock your team with the best players from across the league. You get to pick any player from any team to be on your team, but you have to share these NFL players with your other fantasy players, so choose wisely and always have a back-up plan.

The draft is where your other league-mates get together to construct each fantasy player’s roster. Most leagues are comprised of 10-12 teams. Each time is it your turn to pick you are filling a particular spot on your roster and a position within your fantasy team. Just like real NFL coaches and owners, you get to choose your team starting roster each week from the pool of players you have collected, and you can make trades within your league. In order to make informed decisions you should keep up with what is happening to your players in real life; such as if they are currently injured, if you think they will be a starter in the real NFL game, etc.

Let’s Play!

Once your league is set up and your players are chosen, there’s nothing left to do except wait for the first round of NFL games to be played. Scores are usually updated weekly after the NFL games have been played and fantasy scores can be tallied according to what the real NFL players scored in their games. Each week you can adjust your roster according to the real life situations of your players. In order to keep your scoring chances high, it is suggested to stay on top of things going on in the real NFL world. Keep your team in tip-top shape all season

Whether you’re a hardcore NFL fan who thinks you can beat your friends, family and/or co-workers in a friendly fantasy football league; or maybe you’re a football wife looking for a way to connect with your hubby on the weekends, joining a fantasy football league will make you look at the game in a whole different way.