Bomb - Week 4 Sep 29, 2004 | More

I finally had my first week with wins in both leagues thanks to Rod Gardner! The bad news is that I have to miss softball because of a work obligation, so will miss out on the smack talk. Ugh.

I had a great question this week so am just going to go straight into it:

Deer beer (love the name, by the way!):

I got my start in fantasy football through my brother. He would travel a lot and sometimes call me to make changes in his lineup. Once I saw and understood the game I paid attention and thought it was interesting. Then when my boyfriend’s league needed a 12^th I stepped in, and am hooked.

I think the most important factor to get your female coworkers involved is that they are interested in football to begin with. And I mean really interested, not just watching it to spend time with boyfriends/husbands, etc. Then tap into their motivations – for competitive women really emphasize that they can whup up on the boys. Point out the statistical element to the ones who are "number-crunching" thinkers. For the more social females point out the interactivity within the league. If you get a nibble, then get online and show them how they would actually play, as well as some of the tools they can use for research (like the sharks site, of course!!). You could even team ladies interested up with current managers to play along with them for this season. They can watch the team along with the owner and make suggestions and hopefully buy into the game.

It sounds like you have a good league – the price is affordable, you have a representation from all levels of the company, and I’m assuming that by being kind to rookies you mean that current members don’t take advantage of rookies. I don’t know the details of your setup but can make one suggestion that might help. As I said last week, I hate the first come, first serve wire system and would recommend avoiding it. Firstly, myself and the other females I talked to don’t necessarily want to have to be at home every Sunday in order to stay competitive. It’s much more fun to be out with friends watching the games, especially if some are in the same league. Or if there’s a great shoe sale I don’t want to miss it to add and drop players! Secondly, in general women take their time to make a decision and the rush to make a move gets discouraging. If something happens over the weekend, I want time to research my options instead of having to rush to make a move.

I hope it works out for you. Just remember that recruiting women isn’t much different than recruiting men, as long as you find the ones who are as obsessed with football as the guys are!

Bomb