Top 10 Reasons To Love Fantasy FB

By E. Spencer Kyte
Love of Sports Correspondent

As I mentioned in my recent Bandwagon Love piece on Ravens running back Ray Rice (say that five times fast), I’m kind of a fantasy football nerd.

More correctly, I’m a huge full-fledged fantasy sports nerd entirely.

There’s just something about fantasy football that separates it from its cousins; fantasy baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and whatever else.

Hence, I want to spread the gospel, to those of you who aren’t already nerds like myself, of course.

Top 10 Reasons To Love Fantasy Football

10. Preparation

I can’t lie – my heart skips a beat when I walk into Chapters bookstore and see the first Fantasy Football Guidebook of the season sitting on the shelf. August 1st means a month until football season, and that means a month of pouring over stats and opinions and depth charts and scouting reports. I told you I was sick.

9. The Smartest Guy in the Room

It may not ever be the case, but heading into every draft, I feel like I’m the most prepared and most knowledgeable cat involved. With guidebooks and web pages open and at the ready, there isn’t an angle I don’t have covered. Everyone else in the draft probably feels the exact same way as I do, too. That part of what makes it so much fun.

8. Trash Talking

Someone picks the guy you wanted right before your turn? Talk smack.
Someone picks the guy who retired two weeks ago? Talk smack.
Someone picks an absolute nobody you’ve never heard of? Be careful, because the guy may turn out to be awesome, but talk smack anyway.
Ripping into your friends or complete strangers for their selecting Ryan Grant before Tony Romo or letting Ronnie Brown slip to you in the fourth round is a must and turns up the intensity of the league from the beginning.

7. Draft Steals

I recently got Chad Johnson in the fifth round of one of my live drafts! Ocho Cinco ... perennial Pro Bowl wide receiver, one of the Top 10 receivers in the league ... at the end of Round 5. When I made the selection, I asked the assembled eventual losers, “How did that happen?” and they all came back with excuses about Ocho’s contract and attitude. While they were picking up Santonio Holmes and a suspended Brandon Marshall, I got Ocho Cinco in the fifth! Steals like that are what I live for.

6. Sleepers

This used to be where you loaded up on a Denver running back no one had heard of and watched as Terrell Davis or Mike Anderson delivered the Mile High Salute along with your league championship. Now, you need to look a little harder, but there are still guys there. Who have I got tucked away this year? Ahmad Bradshaw of the Giants, Bandwagon star Ray Rice and Bryant Johnson of the 49ers. Yes, the 49ers. Someone has to catch the ball out there ... don’t they?

5. Team Names

As my man DMtShooter from Five Tool Tool and Epic Carnival laid out last month, there are all kinds of ways to come up with the right name for your fantasy football team. I often favor the ridiculously cocky “Betcha I Win This,” “Betcha I Win This Again” or “Can You Say Three-peat?” as the case is this year.

4. Head-to-Head Play

Rotisserie-style scoring is great for baseball – field the best all-around team, only worry about your production and walk to the championship. That’s cool. But getting to tell your opponent for Week 3 you’re going to kick the sweet merciful bejesus out of them or reminding your Week 13 opponent about the 150-point thrashing you put on them in Week 2 is way, way, way more enjoyable.

3. Transactions

Some people draft their team and stick with them, riding out slumps and tough matchups without tinkering with the computer chemistry of the Barrie Cornhuskers. Me? I’m all over the waiver wire. This is where studs like Antonio Gates came from way back when and where consistent point producers like Earnest Graham lingered last season, only to save some cat who drafted Cadillac Williams or Laurence Maroney. The rule of the game is to not commit Fantasy’s Fatal Sin – bailing on your team and your league. Poor form.

2. Winning

Uh, why else do you play the game?

1. This is the Closest I’ll Ever Get To Being a General Manager!

Since no one will ever hire me for a management position in professional sports – those stupid Houston Rockets not even calling me back when I applied for Director of Player Personnel – building a fantasy juggernaut year after year is the closest I’m going to get to a GM gig. As an added bonus, I can work in my underwear without penalty.

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(If you like fantasy football like we do, then you probably like an ice cold beer along with it too! Check out our sister site, The Love of Beer, to see what we’re drinking today!)