The Ten Commandments Sep 6, 2007 | More

It all starts tonight! The beginning of the 2007 NFL season. I’m already weak in the knees and salivating since it also means all the talk and all the arguments about Portis, MJD, Moss et al will finally be settled as we gird ourselves with weapons of the modern ages… our wireless laptops and 3G phones… and get plugged in for another season of fantasy football.

Meanwhile shark and chum are stirring up the tank with the inevitable mass of “Who Should I start?” threads, so I thought this would be a good time to dredge up part of a column I wrote in 2004, with liberal doses of advice, often contentiously given, from the tank. Not to mention it makes it easy on me to regurgitate old content with a deadline looming.  

What follows then is what we lovingly call

"The Shark Tank’s Ten Fantasy Football Commandments"

Thou shalt draft a running back in the first round

Thou shall not bench thy stud players, no matter what match up they have (This is the rule of ASYS… Always Start Your Studs)

Thou shalt avoid any team that 'runs by committee' (see rule No. 1... if you ignored it you will be haunted by the results of Rule No. 2)

Thou shalt not rely on no-name wide receivers who post huge games in Weeks One through Four... never to be heard from again

Thou shalt never draft someone else's handcuffs until you draft your own

Thou shall not take a sleeper early......... then it is no longer a sleeper

Thou shalt stick by thy draft strategy regardless of what the unenlightened opposition may do

Thou shall stick to your rankings while drafting

Thou shall never let your feelings for a certain NFL-team have any impact on how you manage your fantasy team

Thou shall not have faith in anything anyone tells you without research

So it is written...so it shall be!

The most important commandment is ASYS. There is nothing worse than sitting Willie Parker against the Chicago D efense only to have him go off for 150 combined yards and a score, and it happens all the time. When in doubt, start your studs. It’s pretty simple yet sage advice for shark and chum alike.