How to play fantasy Football

How to play fantasy football

It does not matter if you are a fantasy football rookie looking to learn how to play fantasy football for the first time or a seasoned veteran of the game. These reports provide you with thoughts from experienced, savvy fantasy players on how to prepare for the game as well as making your fantasy football draft day more enjoyable. Along the way, there are also key fantasy football strategy pieces on what direction you should take on draft day to start your fantasy football season on the right foot.

If you're reading this article, it most likely means you've already taken the first steps toward joining the millions of people who invest time (and in some cases money) into the great big world of fantasy football. What started out as an innocent, friendly pastime in Oakland back in the early 1960s has slowly but surely evolved into a multi-million dollar industry with some fantasy leagues paying a million dollars to the top .

League types


The first thing you need to know as you start operating in the fantasy football world is what kind of league you want to play in. There are various league types which can be classified according to several different criteria.


Scoring formats


The most basic type of league from a scoring perspective would be the "touchdown league", which is also known more commonly as "basic scoring" leagues. In this league, your fantasy team accumulates points every time a player on your team scores a touchdown, but that's basically it. No points are awarded for yardage or other statistics, making this a very simple league. The emergence of much more complex scoring systems that add to the excitement and overall playing experience has left touchdown leagues' popularity in decline. This format, however, is clearly the easiest for the very casual fan.

A second type of league - currently the most popular one - is the "Performance League." In these leagues, attention is focused on other aspects of a player's performance besides how many times he can reach the end zone. Touchdowns still constitute the most important statistic to add fantasy points, while other statistics are considered, such as yardage, whether it be passing, rushing, receiving - even return yardage - in some hardcore leagues. Completions, receptions and any other stat that is susceptible of being recorded can be used. Even negative stats like interceptions, lost fumbles or missed field goals can be taken in account as negative fantasy points.

The third type is a variant of the performance league as bonus points are awarded when players reach certain plateaus during the game. For instance, your player(s) could receive points for reaching 100 rushing yards or scoring a touchdown of over 40 yards, etc.

Changes in Football

There have been many rule changes to football in recent years, which were intended to make the game a more flowing spectacle for supporters. In truth, what the rule changes have done is to continually stop the flow of the game and produce a succession of red cards.

In days gone by, a red card in top level football made big news. In today's game, a weekend without a red card in any top league would be far more rare! The supposed purpose of increasing the number of red cards was that it would create more space for skilled players to play in, thus improving the game. In practise, it does the opposite! Instead of having 22 players on a field, you are left with 21 players on half off a field, as the team with 10 men sit back and try to defend for their lives!

Gone are the days when players looked to take on and beat players. Diego Maradona scored one of the best goals of all time against England in 1986, when he picked the ball up in his own half, showed a great piece of skill to beat two England players and start a run down the right side. After leaving other players in his wake, he slipped a tackle on the edge of the box and was tackled again as he took his shot. It was a brilliant goal that simply wouldn't have happened today. In today's game, he would have simply gone down before reaching the half way line. At best, he would have gone down from the challenge on the edge of the box, looking for the free kick, which would be almost guaranteed. In truth, the rule changes of recent years have removed the skillful play from the game, not increased it!

As well as the fact that it doesn't have the required effect of allowing space for skilled players, reducing a team to 10 men also kills the game off as a contest, making it less exciting for the paying public!

The object of the rule changes in recent years, was to allow room for the more skilled players to play. However, the biggest skill in the game today, seems to be the ability to 'win' a free kick.

The purpose of this campaign is to try and find a way to reduce the number of free kicks and sendings off, without increasing the amount of foul play, thus giving the paying public a better game to watch, while keeping 22 men on the pitch as often as possible.

The intention is to gain as many signatures as possible on the petition, which will then be sent to FIFA, UEFA, the FA, the Football League, the League Managers Association, the Professional Footballers Association and the referees association, with a view to asking FIFA to amend its rules accordingly.
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