triple crown fantasy sport

What Is Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football is a game played by many different people from all walks of life with varying levels of athletic skill and knowledge. It is a game in which the participants do not have to be athletic at all even though they have a team full of athletes.

A Fantasy Football player is basically a mock football team owner in which you decide on your teams name. Which players play for your team is decided by your leagues (other owners playing with you) draft. The draft is similar to a real football draft in which the teams from your league are given a draft order by the "Commissioner" of your league. The commissioner is the person responsible for running your league making all the decisions necessary to make your league run smoothly. He determines the rules of your league and how it is played and then enforces the rules so it will be fair to all participants. Usually he is also one of the owners of a team in your league.

Once your leagues draft order is set (meaning which teams are choosing players in which order) a draft is held. The team owners gather together at a pre-determined location the draft is held. The owners begin drafting the NFL players they would like to play for their team. To decide who plays for their team, many owners do hours of research while some owners choose players they know well or like. The draft consists of rounds determined by the # of players your team will have. Each round the owner's select 1 player to play for their team. This continues until all the teams' rosters are full.

When the Football season starts the owners submit a lineup of players they wish to play that week. Lineups can change from week to week depending on injuries and bye weeks and performance. Your team scores points by each of the players in your lineup's statistics that week. There are many different ways to score and depending on which scoring system your particular league uses, your points are added up each week and used against the other owners. Who ever has the most points at the end of the year is the winner, but there is much more to it than it sounds.

During the year team owners make adjustments to their fantasy teams. If a player gets injured, leagues usually have injured reserve spots where the owners can place a player until he recovers from an injury. Owners also have the option of releasing a player who is not performing well a choosing another available player. Another option available is the trade. Owners are allowed to trade the players on their team to any other owner for those teams' players as long as both teams agree.

In order for an owner to have a winning team, research is key. An owner needs to know all the major players in the league. These are some of the questions a successful owner MUST know the answers to. Which players are good? Who is injured? Who is playing because of injuries to other players? Who is performing like they should be? Is that player a scoring threat every week? Who is that particular player's opponent that week? Which players are still available to be picked up? If an owner knows the answers to these questions they have a better chance at success.

In the end it doesn't matter if you are Male or Female or if you are a great athlete or not. It matters if you are knowledgeable about the sport and the game and your particular league. Like most things in life, Knowledge is Key.

- TCFS Staff