Don't let the beard fool you. I'm a child.
Speaking of such, my childhood friend, Rob, who you all met during our Las Vegas Birthday Bash Weekend back in May 2011 (has it really been that long?!), invited me to join the Fantasy Football league he participates with a group of his friends in Connecticut. He played last year and had a lot of fun with it, and thought I would like to join. They were going to have a live draft on Sunday, August 25th.
Baseball has always been my game, and I had participated in fantasy leagues through Yahoo for a number of years, but nothing in the last six years or so. I tried fantasy football once when G-Bug was still an infant. Considering I didn't have a low level distraction (this blog being more intense and harder to stay current) and missed the chance to meet up with Rob when I was back east on vacation, I agreed to be a part of this league. I had a couple days to get up to speed before the draft.
My first foray into fantasy sports was when I worked for a small marketing firm filled with recent college grads; very similar to my Winners Advertising job, the company name was Innova Marketing. I was 29 years old and definitely of the "old guard." I was invited to participate with several co-workers in a live draft for baseball using just National League players. Every "team" had a pretend budget of $250 or so and as each player was announced, interested fantasy owners would put in bids. The player would go to the highest bidder. What could happen is an owner could "buy" a franchise player, like Mark McGuire in his heyday, for $60-$70 and then have to settle for lesser known players later on, getting them for $1-$2. The process took several hours, usually delayed by bidding wars.
One such jackal would up his bid by $1 right at "going once, going twice . . ." intentionally getting owners to pony up a couple extra dollars to drain his budget for later rounds. I thought I was annoyed with him then, but his offense was quickly forgotten when he gave me my walking papers at work right before the start of the baseball season. I had to manage my team via email with former co-workers. My team came in dead last.
This draft would be much easier. There were 12 owners taking 16 rounds to draft a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker, a flex player, a team defense, and seven bench players. There would be no bidding. Every owner had a position number for the draft and the order would reverse itself each round. The owner who picked first in the first round, would pick last in the second, first again in the third, etc. until all teams had sixteen players. Rob would have me on the phone during the draft and let me know who was left and when it was my turn to pick. My position number was six.
I don't follow football too closely and have rudimentary knowledge of the top names in the game. I can probably name five players on the Vikings today. I reviewed the Fantasy Draft lists on ESPN and checked out some videos. One such video suggested getting running backs in your first two rounds due to the paucity of quality players at this position. Rather than print lists for each position, I went the route of printing the list ranking the top 300 players in all positions. I saw the top 10 kickers were grouped together starting at position 150, so I knew I should chose one in later rounds.
I marked each group of 12 players going through the first 192. Adrian Peterson - MN -RB1 was the number one overall pick and Adrian Foster - HOU - RB2 was second. I figured they would be the first to go, so I didn't concentrate on them, but I also knew I would get at least one player in each group as owners made their selections. I chose four players in each group of 12 and ranked them based on who I really wanted. I had to be prepared should my first and second choices already be picked. I felt I had a pretty good game plan as I went into the draft.
As it turns out, you can only plan so much. Once the draft starts, you're in scramble mode. I was right that the first five owners selected players within the top 12. In this group were 10 running backs (supporting the recommendation I heard in the video), 1 wide receiver (Calvin Johnson - DET - WR1), and 1 quarterback (Aaron Rodgers - GB -QB1). I had missed the first few picks, so I went with my third choice of the round, Doug Martin - TB - RB5). He was already picked. Oh shit! I could already feel myself start to panic and went with my first choice for the first round, Marshawn Lynch - SEA - RB3 (3 overall). He was still available. Whew!
As the other owners picked and Rob told me who was gone, I heard many players I had selected for my subsequent rounds. Peyton Manning, Dez Bryant, Andre Johnson, and that classic of football names, Frank Gore. I also heard top names in other categories getting picked as well. Drew Brees, Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Tom Brady, Jimmy Graham.
My second round pick was number 13 in the top 300: AJ Green - CIN - WR2.
I listened as more players I wanted were getting snapped up by other owners. Wes Welker, Robert Griffen III, Reggie Bush, Eric Decker.
Hearing how quickly quarterbacks were being picked and my top three picks were already gone, I went with a pick that I wasn't considering, but knew he was pretty high on the list. I needed a top field general, even if it wasn't one of my top choices. Matt Ryan - ATL - QB6 (43)
More players I wanted were being picked. As I crossed off names from the list of 300, I was scanning to see the top players remaining in each position. I had an RB, WR, and QB. I needed a TE. I selected Tony Gonzalez - ATL - TE3 (57).
The rounds were starting to slow down as I pictured my fellow owners doing the same thing I was; crossing off names and seeing who was left. I was still relying on some name recognition as I scanned my list and found players I wanted, but were soon picked. Marques Colston, Jason Witten, Ahmad Bradshaw, Sebastian Janikowski. Janikowski?! This last one was a kicker and number 9 at his position, 158 overall. Like breaking hearts for the first time in the card game, this gave others permission to start considering kickers for picks, although we were still in relative early rounds. Similarly, once someone had picked a defense, that position started to come into play in the selections.
I held out a couple rounds before going for a kicker and defense. I wanted to get more players who I felt would offer more in terms of points. I picked up Shane Vereen - NE - RB32 (80) and Sidney Rice - SEA - WR33 (81). As we got to the later rounds and owners were looking for "bench" players, the names were coming from all over the top 300 list. I filled roster spots where I felt I needed help and knew by Round 14 who my 16th and final pick would be. This would be a rookie wide receiver on the Vikings who I had read about when doing some research on the team. He was number 70 for his position, 214 overall and I knew I could wait to pick him. When it was my turn, I announced my final pick: Cordarrelle Patterson - MN - WR70.
I couldn't hear everything that was happening on site and had to rely on Rob to relay information to me. Once I made this pick, however, I heard a loud grown of despair. Apparently another owner was going to use his last pick on Patterson as well, but I beat him to the punch. I almost feel obligated to put him in my Flex position for Week 1.
Here is my full roster:
Quarterbacks
Matt Ryan - HOU - QB6/43
Ben Roethlisberger - PIT - QB14/97
Running Backs
Marshawn Lynch - SEA - RB3/3
Eddie Lacy - GB - RB19/37
Shane Vereen - NE - RB32/80
Shonn Green - TEN - RB48/129
Wide Receivers
A.J. Green - CIN - WR2/13
Sidney Rice - SEA - WR33/81
Chris Givens - STL - WR41/105
Santana Moss - WAS - WR58/175
Cordarrelle Patterson - MN - WR70/214
Tight Ends
Tony Gonzalez - ATL - TE3/57
Brandon Pettigrew - DET - TE14/140
Coby Fleener - IND - TE17/183
Kicker
Blair Walsh - MN - K2/151
Defense
Denver Broncos D/ST - DEF7/143
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