Welcome.

Every year, I get together with some guys I work with, some guys I used to work with, and friends of those guys to have our Fantasy Football Draft. I don't quite remember the year I first started doing this, but I do recall back in the early 90's I did one through the Dallas Morning News. My Dad got me into it and so we both sent off our $15 or however much at the time and it wasn't quite like what I do now, but the thing I remember is actually getting my name in the paper for having a great week. That's it, the rest was pretty much suck-ass mediocrity. I bowed out of the game for a few years following that, until the time I worked with some guys who were participating in a league and they asked me to join in the fun. That was 1997 and so that would make this year my 5th year doing the draft, the trades, the lineups and all that fun.

All of my teams in the past I've run by myself, but this year I have a partner. Mainly due to the cost of the league, as I'd like to keep my spending down a bit. My teammate is a guy I work with every day, so it's a pretty easy pairing to have things work out right. A couple weeks before draft day, we found out that we would be drafting 12th, out of a 12 team draft. That's right - Last. The upside is that our rounds reversed order so we would be drafting 2 players in a row, then wait 22 picks and grab another 2. I've never been in this position at drafting and neither had my partner. It's very difficult to employ a known-working strategy, so we decided that we would go with our instincts and work things out on the day of the draft. We gathered up our resources during the time leading up to the draft... he had a laptop and would connect to the internet at draft day and I'd research players and get a book with 'cheatsheets'.

Yesterday was Draft Day. I showed up, book in hand, with a bit of knowledge looked up online (Yeah, I slacked it... but I'm ME, what should I have to look up??). My partner did not have the laptop... he apparently forgot it. I wasn't all that surprised, but that took a bit of our resources down. We'd have to lean on his older brother (The Commisioner) for injury information and shit like that. That didn't seem to be a problem, so the draft commenced after everyone showed up. I didn't write down everyone's draft picks, but Marshall Faulk (St.L) definitely went first, followed by Ahman Green (G.B.) and Shaun Alexander (Sea). Seeing 3 running backs go early did not bode well for us, as we had decided on taking 2 in a row to start off our picks. When it got around to us, we chose Priest Holmes (K.C.) and LaDainian Tomlinson (S.D.). There were a few other guys on the board, such as Curtis Martin (Jets), but they just didn't seem to tickle our dicks enough to warrant taking them at that point. 22 picks later, Jamal Lewis (Bal) was available, so we nabbed him, followed by Brian Griese (Den). When we took Lewis, that really skewed the draft board for the other owners. In 3 picks, we had taken starting running backs that could produce consistently. My partner and I agreed that we wanted to be strong in that area, especially knowing that a 3 running back lineup was an option. Both of us, in past years, had always had the achilles heal of a shitty RB core, so we hammered that out quickly. We had our starting QB, but no wide receivers. With a minimum of 2 WRs per game lineup, we knew that was next... after 22 picks. Once it got around to us, we picked up Chris Chambers (Mia) and Pearless Price (Buf). I felt those were solid, given the QBs for those teams. We might have been able to hold off on Chambers for a later pick, but when you're at our position, you can't hope. You have to get who you want, because that 'guy you're hoping will be there' WON'T. So, that became our strategy, along with knowing Bye Weeks and things like that.

Our Fantasy Starting Lineup :

We both feel pretty good about our team, and our Bye Weeks aren't too terribly perplexing, especially with some solid backups. After we were done with our picks, I realized that, for the first time, I didn't take any flyers on guys that I 'liked' or players for teams that I liked, even though there was better out there. That may be a good thing, although it's always fun to have that one shitty player on your roster. He's that guy that when people look at your team, they just laugh at you for keeping him out of the pit that is Free Agency.

Before the draft started, we also had to come up with a team name. This wasn't very easy, as I typically like to go with song titles, and my partner really doesn't express interest in music very much. Team names I've used in the past : Damage, Inc., Where The Wild Things Are, and War Pigs. We deliberated for a day or two, and really couldn't come up with much. Then the Commish said we had to have a team name on a certain day, so I said we should use 3 Toed Hookers. Why? Because it's fucking weird and the other owners are all older than us, so it's good to have the team that gets the funny looks. I enjoy that. My partner didn't mind, but the Commish really didn't want that on the sheets, so we compromised. Our team became 3.T.H. Or Thirth, as my partner likes to put it.

That about covers my draft day this year. I hope the best for our team, and maybe we can make some cash money while we're at it. Now, onto something else... last year, in our Forums, I posed the question as to who would be interested in playing in a Fantasy Football League that would be run by myself and be completely free. I didn't get very many good responses, so I let it die. But, this year, I pose that question to you on the web site, so maybe the turn out will be better. For the League, I'll probably use some online service such as Sandbox or NFL.com, but it'll be fun to run through a league with some of the readers of our site. Send me an e-mail if you're interested. Let's get something going.

- Gallion
Fantasy Football Hopeful