Main > Archives > 2006 > September > Fantasy Football For Dummies: Getting Started
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Like anything new there is a barrier to entry and that is the lack of knowledge. Lots of people tell me they don't know what fantasy football is or how to play and they use that as their reason for not joining in the fun.Fantasy football is very easy play and the variety of systems and sites provide everything you need to get started.
First thing to do is to find a league. If this is your first league, I suggest joining a random public league rather then joining your friends in a league and being the but of all jokes. To join a public league all you need to do is go to one of the many fantasy football sites and sign up. Here are a few suggestions of popular fantasy football sites: FleaFlicker, Yahoo Fantasy Football, ESPN Fantasy Football, MSN Fantasy Football.
Many fantasy football leagues have money at stake. So when starting your league, you will need to decide if you want to play for a prize or just play for fun. If you decide to play for cash, you absolutely 110% need to get the money up front. If you don't, it won't happen.
- Now fantasy football is an estimated $7 billion industry, said Paul Charchian, board president of the FSTA, and it's fueled by free and for-pay sites, TV shows and podcasts, and video games like.
- RealTime Fantasy Sports - Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Basketball, Best Ball, plus One Day Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) games.
- Get instant advice for all of your Who Should I Start? View recommendations from 100+ experts side by side.
- The weekly fantasy football game was launched in 1990 in a number of newspapers across the United States, including the Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald. Players chose their teams by calling a toll-free phone number and entering four-digit codes for each of their selections.
I believe Yahoo Fantasy Football is the easiest to sign up and use. If you have a YahooID you login and then follow the sign up instructions for fantasy football, when you get to the portion where it says 'Join a Public League' or 'Join a Private League' select public league and choose any random league to get into.
When choosing a league you'll notice that some leagues are Auto-Draft and some are Live-Draft. Auto draft the system automatically sets every ones team and Live draft users pick their own teams. I went into more detail in the first Fantasy Football for Dummies post.
There are many fantasy football myths that keep people from enjoying fantasy football so I will attempt to debunk as many as I can.
Fantasy Football Myths
In order to play fantasy football you have to follow the NFL and sports closely. This is not true in anyway. Most every fantasy football website will provide you with more then enough information to play. Sites will rank players for you and provide you with historical stats so you can judge for yourself who to pick, or you can just let the system pick your team for you. Also, with about 20 minutes of research, you can go to any of the top sports sites and read the analysts suggestions for picks and news. Sure it helps to follow sports so that maybe you can find that one sleeper (player who not everyone knows about) but it is not necessary to be competitive in a fantasy football league.
I don't have time to play Fantasy Football. Everyone has time. If you have 10 minutes a week, you can play fantasy football. After the draft which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, there is very little you need to do. Each week you log in and check to make sure your best players are in the lineup for that week and that there is no major news about them and you are done. Sure, every league has that one guy who spends way too much time checking out players or checking match-ups but it is really not necessary.
I don't want to waste my money. Fantasy football is free on just about every website. There are some sites that you can pay for upgrades or some leagues may put money in a pool but you don't need any of these upgrades and there are tons of free leagues to join.
I don't want to pull against my favorite team. If you are Chicago Bears fan, you can still pull for your team to win and play fantasy football, its not against the rules and Bears-Nation will not boot you as a fan if you pull for an extra touchdown from one of your players who happens to be on a rival team.
These are a few of the popular fantasy myths or excuses surrounding fantasy football but if anyone has anymore questions, concerns or comments to add please let me know and I will address them for you.
Fantasy football is fun, don't be scared of it.
By Matt O'Hern at 07:55 AM | Comments (3)
(3) Thoughts on Fantasy Football For Dummies: Getting Started
I dont understand how you first pick your team members and then how you change each week. I have seen these spread sheets and I cant understand why would any one pick any player for a position other than the number rank. Are there limits to who you can pick?
Comments by larry mcnertney : Friday, August 22, 2008 at 06:43 PM
i cant get a yahoo email on my pc why is that?
Comments by Isaac : Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Where are these other articles. I need to read them.
1.) What is Fantasy Football? (this article)
2.) How do I get started with Fantasy Football?
3.) How do I choose players for my Fantasy Football roster?
4.) The best strategies to win your fantasy league.
5.) How the Waiver-wire can help you win your league?
6.) General fantasy player advice and Various other topics as they come up.
Comments by GG : Friday, July 24, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Post a Comment
6
I don't want to waste my money. Fantasy football is free on just about every website. There are some sites that you can pay for upgrades or some leagues may put money in a pool but you don't need any of these upgrades and there are tons of free leagues to join.
I don't want to pull against my favorite team. If you are Chicago Bears fan, you can still pull for your team to win and play fantasy football, its not against the rules and Bears-Nation will not boot you as a fan if you pull for an extra touchdown from one of your players who happens to be on a rival team.
These are a few of the popular fantasy myths or excuses surrounding fantasy football but if anyone has anymore questions, concerns or comments to add please let me know and I will address them for you.
Fantasy football is fun, don't be scared of it.
By Matt O'Hern at 07:55 AM | Comments (3)
(3) Thoughts on Fantasy Football For Dummies: Getting Started
I dont understand how you first pick your team members and then how you change each week. I have seen these spread sheets and I cant understand why would any one pick any player for a position other than the number rank. Are there limits to who you can pick?
Comments by larry mcnertney : Friday, August 22, 2008 at 06:43 PM
i cant get a yahoo email on my pc why is that?
Comments by Isaac : Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Where are these other articles. I need to read them.
1.) What is Fantasy Football? (this article)
2.) How do I get started with Fantasy Football?
3.) How do I choose players for my Fantasy Football roster?
4.) The best strategies to win your fantasy league.
5.) How the Waiver-wire can help you win your league?
6.) General fantasy player advice and Various other topics as they come up.
Comments by GG : Friday, July 24, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Post a Comment
6Nov
You may have heard of fantasy football and that you can make money from it, but you didn't know where to begin.
Here's a few steps below on how to get started.
Find a Site That You Like
1. Find a site such as FanDuel or DraftKings that will allow you to join a fantasy football league on a week to week basis for free. You can also join a free league at ESPN.com or NFL.com, however these are better to use at the beginning of the NFL season.
2. Join a league(a group of other people that play fantasy football that you will be competing against),or let the site you choose auto pick for you (pick the players on your team).
3. If you choose to join a league and not have the site auto pick for you, then you will have to draft players. With this option the site will randomly choose what order you and the people in your league will pick players.
How To Pick A Fantasy Football Team
What Players to Draft
1. Most people in fantasy leagues start by picking a running back, because good ones are hard to come by. Some top running backs at the moment are: Ezekiel Elliott(Dallas Cowboys), Le'Veon Bell(Pittsburgh Steelers,and Devonta Freeman(Atlanta Falcons).
2. Don't pick defenses or kickers too early because you want to pick the positions that will give you the most points first, such as quarterbacks, wide receivers, and running backs.
3. If you are in a league where you choose different players week to week then you want to make sure you do some research and see what teams are playing each week, because a good defense can make a good quarterback or wide receivers numbers to go down. If you are in a league where you keep the same players week to week you want to make sure you start the right players based on the team that they are playing that week.
Start Making Money
How Do You Start Fantasy Football
1.In leagues such as ESPN.com or NFL.com most people keep the same players all season so the league owner will determine how much money each player puts into a pot. Some leagues give all the money to the 1st place winner at the end of the season and some leagues give money to winners that finish 1st-3rd.
2. If you join a league at your office they will most likely follow the same concept as ESPN.com or NFL.com so depending on how much individuals put into the pot you can make a large sum.
3. In leagues such FanDuel or DraftKings you can start from zero and win your way up to bigger events. On FanDuel you can enter a free football league each week where the winner would win an entry into their $300K NFL Bomb weekly guarantee. The more you play you will also receive FanDuel Points in your account for a chance to win more money.
If you are a beginner to fantasy football its probably best that you start of slowly. Choose one of the week to week sites to start off so you won't have to commit to an entire season of football. Also if you're not familiar with players, choose the auto pick option and let the computer do the work for you.
Once you get started, you'll be making money in no time!
