Draft Insanity

So I'm a pretty big fantasy sports guy. I usually play in at least one fantasy league for every sport. I'm in 4 fantasy baseball leagues, and I'm already signed up for 4 football leagues. I've played fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey, and even fantasy golf. And it doesn't stop there - I'm even in a fantasy fantasy baseball league. The name is misleading, but its a bit more hardcore than a normal fantasy league.

I know, I'm a dork.

Anyway, I've recently stumbled upon the idea of joining 20-team fantasy leagues on Yahoo! Sports. 20 teams is the maximum allowed, and it really tests your knowledge of the sport you're playing. You can't just know the stars...you have to know everyone. In baseball, you have to know most of the starting pitchers. All of the closers. Utility infielders. Part-time DHs. In football, you have to know every QB and their backup. Kick returners. Defensive players. If Player A gets hurt, you have to know who will step up in his place. Who's injury prone, and who is their backup?

It's intense, but it's a lot of fun. But since I can only get 8-12 guys in my own fantasy leagues, I usually just find a public 20-team league. Which means, while I'm with strangers, I'm probably up against some of the more hardcore people in the fantasy universe.

Yeah, I know, I'm still a dork.

But I didn't know how hardcore these people were until last night. I had my 20-team league draft at 8pm, and I'd carved out my night for it. 20 teams and 24 players per team will take a while, and I knew it'd be about 3 hours. But its on the computer...so I wasn't really worried about it.

7:45 comes around, and I try to log onto Ashley's laptop. Nothing. I try my computer (which is famous for crapping out during Yahoo! drafts) - nothing. I even try the computer hooked up to the big TV in the living room. Stuck.

The draft is about to start, so Ashley is helping at this point. He looks around and sees the message board for the league.

And people are freaking out.

Between 7:30 (when the draft opened) and 11:00 (when the draft ended), there were almost 50 posts. There were accusations of cheating. BS-bombs being thrown around. Threats to quit. Other types of threats. And even thoughts of retiring from fantasy sports altogether.

That last one was probably a pretty good idea for some of these people.

It wasn't a huge deal to me. I like fantasy because it makes non-Cowboy games interesting. Before fantasy, there was virtually no reason for me to watch a Bengals-Rams game. But now that I have Laveraneus Coles and Donnie Avery on my team, I can watch. It's fun to win, but I think it's just fun to play.

These guys, though, are in it to win it. Because some of them could never get into the draft, it wasn't "their" team - it wasn't "fair." That whoever won would have a "Bonds-like asterisk" next to the victory. And I just laughed - because there's no reason to take this that seriously. Even if this was their only league, they were taking it too far. This isn't for money, and it's a freakin' public league. There are no real bragging rights except for a column in your Yahoo! profile.

Plus, these guys are probably in 10+ leagues. They should be able to get over it quickly.

As for me, I sat around and waited for the window to open. It finally did right before my pick in the 6th round. And I was pleasantly surprised to see my team. My first two picks were spent on Brian Westbrook (when healthy, a fantasy god) and Reggie Bush (potentially the same situation). My QB was Tony Romo (I've ranted on Romo before but he's a solid fantasy QB), and my WRs were the aforementioned Coles and Avery. I added Ted Ginn Jr. (#1 receiver in Miami and return specialist), and that set up the majority of my team.

From that point on, I was able to make my own picks. I think I got a couple of steals:

Marty B, aka Martellus Bennett, in the 11th round.
Washington's defense, ranked the 10th D in Sports Illustrated, in the 17th round
DeMarcus Ware and James Harrison, the top two sack guys, in the 8th and 10th rounds

I don't know, we'll see. But unlike 19 other humans, I was pretty pleased with the draft last night. Sure, it was annoying to not get in immediately. But the top 100 players are pretty interchangeable...and most of them are going to give similar output. In leagues like these, it's the other 300 players that get drafted that make the difference.

And at the end of the day, it's a game. And as Gordon Bombay famously said, "game should be fun."