Keeper League - Ba Hum Bug, Rebuttal
It was an enjoyable week, eight days actually. The timing wasn't great, not the ideal time to be away on an island without any internet access when you are in the midst of introducing a new website to the world. Not to mention that the first real football games were less than a month away. Alas, my daycare provider was taking the week off, so that dictated that I must take it off as well for our annual Island Vacation. No matter, the house we rented had a television with cable, so I was able to keep in sort of touch by watching sportscenter. (Side note, whoever made the decision to re-run sportscenter all morning should be made President immediately. Seriously. Pick any hour of the morning and you can watch the entire show. Has their ever been a more influential sports television programming change? Genius. And yet I digress...)
A couple times during the week I began Jonesing, I didn't think I was going to make it without logging on somewhere. My wife wasn't sure if I was joking or not when each time we walked past the Black Dog Internet Cafe, I would reiterate what it said on the sign: "Wow, $5 for 15 minutes of internet access". We would chuckle nervously and continue to walk past...neither of us knowing for sure if I was laughing about the cost, or laughing that it was available for me to use and that I would make use of it. Hey, I didn't even know why I was laughing. Every time I would say it out loud, $5 didn't seem like it was that much to have to pay......and yet I made it thru the whole week without getting on line.
In any case, Sunday morning we were back home with only a slight sun burn on the back and an enlarged liver from all the beer and sangria to show for it. A perfect opportunity to get up early and attack the internet to get back into the groove and find out the details of what has been going on. My first peek is to see how our new website is doing, and lo and behold, right there in the headline - I'm under attack! Geez! Talk about blind siding a guy! It appears that my editor Mr. Schare has "dropped the gauntlet." To which I reply: "It's GO time!"
The purpose of the dynasty article was certainly not intended to convince people to forgo their redraft leagues. Like most, I love the redraft and continue to have teams in 3 redraft leagues this year (and probably more by the time the first game kicks off). There's nothing like starting from scratch each season to get your juices flowing. Mr. Editor, I agree with you there. Every player is available and last season's glory/disaster is a distant memory. Unfortunately, that appears to be the extent of our agreement. Let's be honest here, dynasty isn't for everyone. It's really only for those players that are, or want to be, DEEP into the sport of fantasy football. There's no room for the feint of heart, or those that want to "half ass it". In a dynasty league, we don't want those types of people, they are not invited.
The intent of the article was to encourage you to take the next step, and add a dynasty league team to your portfolio since it can only improve your overall fantasy experience thru knowledge. Owning even one dynasty league team will make you a better overall fantasy player. You will have information on players you never dreamed you would. You will know who the 5th running back is on every NFL team's depth chart. And yes, this is a good thing to know. Like Seinfeld, you will be a person that "knows much about nothing". Imagine the scene at the keg party you are at, the guy pumping the keg for you innocently asks your thoughts on the Ravens...you hit him with something like: "Well, I liked what they did at the draft, running back Chester Taylor could surprise a few people, sure he's not the biggest back out there at 5-10, 213, decent speed at 4.62, but for a 6th round pick he could see some action this year but definitely will down the road in 2003 and beyond. Quarterback Wes Pate is an absolute steal in the 7th round, did some great things at Stephen F. Austin while he was there, could be the guy in the year 2005 for them." Hopefully, he kept on pumping for you during that spiel without spilling your brew...after which, much to his horror, the girl that was in his arms is so impressed with your schtick that she is now in yours (we can all dream, right?). More importantly, you will have this and other info in your little cranium that you can AND WILL use to destroy your opponents in your redraft leagues. You will know every little thing about every player in the league. You won't need to "cram" the night before your redraft league draft. You will already know all there is to know.
Now to address a couple of the specific points from the inflammatory "Bah-Dynasty" article...Yes, someone will own Marshall Faulk, this is no different than in a redraft league, he can only be on one team. Yes, the person that has him owns him forever in a dynasty league...but that doesn't mean that if you really want the guy, you can't put together a trade package to get him. Current star players, future star players, and yes, you can even trade future draft picks...mortgage the farm for him (hey, Mike Ditka did it for Ricky Williams, didn't he?). If you try hard enough in either setting, you can get the guy you want on your team.
Ok, each team isn't going to have stud players at every position. So what? That's the challenge! Every other owner in the dynasty league is in the same boat as you. Your only quarterback gets hurt, does that mean your whole season is in ruins? Maybe, unless you have the skills and the desire and the foresight to have done, or now do something about it...make some trades, keep some players on your roster that may or may not pan out three or more years down the road, deal away your future #1 draft pick for someone you can use in the present. You think Mike Holmgren is throwing in the towel because Trent Dilfer is going to be out for a significant amount of time? I don't think so. A dynasty fantasy league is just like real football, stuff happens and if you are not prepared for it, your team will suffer. Yet those teams that are really poor, will be "rewarded" with top draft picks in the rookie draft. Someone like William Green or DeShaun Foster can quickly turn any franchise around - real or fantasy.
The idea of rosters not being submitted in a dynasty league is absurd. You have a conglomeration of die-hard owners that hate to lose no matter what their record is. You know the other owners, you talk trash with them all season, you probably have mini-bets going on each time you play certain teams. You know, the loser treats the winner to lunch at Lewis' or some other similarly seedy burger joint that has naked pictures on the walls. Or at the next get together the winner will enjoy a 6 pack of top shelf beer while loser must quaff a 6 pack of black label or some other poor quality sud. Good times. Teams that aren't going to make the playoffs would like nothing better than to play the spoiler and take someone else down with them. Believe me, I've been there. Won only four games one year but beat the same team twice and kept them out of the playoffs. Sure, it's not as sweet as getting to the post season myself, but nice to be able to ruin someone else's hopes. And really, how different is this than in a redraft league setting? No difference at all. If there's an owner that doesn't submit a lineup late in the season in any league I'm in, I thank them for playing and tell them not to bother coming back next year, fair weather owners need not apply here.
And let's address the issue of money, probably a topic worthy of it's own article at some point, but I'll briefly touch upon it here. Again, this area is no different from a redraft league, if there is money involved, the stakes are going to be high. Owners will whine and try and bend the rules in their favor - there's no way around that, even among friends, it happens in all settings. That said, in all the dynasty leagues that I am in, we don't play for money. We might agree that in lieu of an entry fee and winnings being handed out, that each team donates some amount of money to a charity of their choice...or maybe the winner donates something to a charity in the name of the league. If you think it's going to create problems, keep money out of it, there's nothing wrong with that.
That's right, we don't play for money, we play because we WANT to play. The PRIDE. The JOY. The TRASH TALKING....To BUILD THAT DYNASTY!!!!!
