Dear Bomb Aug 30, 2004

One trend I've been noticing lately is the large influx of women who are beginning to participate in Fantasy Sports.  What used to be a male dominated hobby is slowly attracting more and more women.  There are many ladies only fantasy leagues in existence and we have a great many ladies frequenting FantasySharks.com.  The disconnect is that the ladies still have to play in a male dominated industry.  All the writers associated with this site are male and for that matter, any other site on the net.  In our effort to constantly provide useful and entertaining information for all our readers, I thought it was time we changed all that and it was time to give the ladies a voice.  One of our top contributors in our forum is know as "The Bomb" and she's well known around these parts as a woman that knows her stuff.  The Bomb has graciously offered to answer questions, chat about your male dominated league and enjoy some banter with the ladies over "losing to a chick" when you ridicule your husband or boyfriend's team so badly that he stops talking to you.  We hope to provide another side to fantasy football, from a ladies perspective, and hope you ladies enjoy the feature and take this opportunity to get out in the open your fantasy football experiences.  I think we'll also have a few guys reading with fear in their eyes!

-Tony Holm

It's that time of year when the seasons change from the boys of summer to the men of the gridiron.  I feel the crisp in the air and see the fallen leaves and I know it time for some football.  It is now my absolute favorite time of year. time to indulge in my biggest obsession "Fantasy Football". 

This year is shaping up to be one of the most interesting fantasy football seasons! As you may have guessed I am a girl, and I'm "invading" a man's world.  I've chosen to drop the pom-poms and picked up the gauntlet and ventured forth where few females go (though I do still don the cheerleader outfit, why not - it's hot!!).  I have been invited to play in the "serious" fantasy football league with the boys - and I'm the first girl EVER to play in their league. Talk about pressure!

I was thinking that all the pressure was on me but the more I notice the signs I think that the "pressure" is more on the guys.  If I lose, I lose. but if they lose, they lose to a GIRL and the poor schmo has to take being heckled all week. All in good fun of course, but the fact remains that the news of losing to a girl spreading throughout his world faster than a brush fire in California.

In all honesty, I don't think it matters much what sex you are. The winners are the ones that do their research, pay attention, and have lady luck smile on them at opportune times. While I do believe those guys that used to play have an advantage of knowing the game inside and out in a way that I, as a girl, never will - I have an advantage called "women's intuition" that occasionally seems to work in my favor.

In general, to quote Tony Holm, is that "when a woman has a question about fantasy football in today's world, she generally has to turn to a guy". Too true. The girls that I know that play aren't really competitive about it so I do end up turning to guys a lot. And they often blow me off or give me lame answers to my questions because they don't believe I'm "for real".  I don't know about the rest of you gals, but I personally would love to have other women to talk to, especially ones from this site that really know their football.

So I'm here to chronicle the coming fantasy season with my fellow female stars out there! Send me a "Dear Bomb" Private Message through the FantasySharks message board or drop me a line at bomb@fantasysharks.com and let's talk - we'll air each other's questions and issues, and brag about beating our boyfriends (mine's currently dealing with me beating him out for a "largest redfish" trophy in a recent fishing tournament).

Editor's note: OUCH!

For starters, how are you doing on the draft? I admit that I'm panicking a little; I was without a laptop for a while and am just now starting my research with only a week before my draft. Augh! I hope your situation is better than mine. and I'm off to go work on my cheat sheet!!

Bomb