FLASHBACK: A week in the life of a fantasy football degenerate
Originally published Sept 27, 2013
“My name is Colin and I am a fantasyholic. I am cursed with a disease that eats away at my time like a cancer. I neglect responsibilities and ignore my family in the name of imaginary victories over fictional opponents each and every week. “
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My name is Colin and I am a fantasyholic. I am cursed with a disease that eats away at my time like a cancer. I neglect responsibilities and ignore my family in the name of imaginary victories over fictional opponents each and every week.
Mine is not an obsession that is limited to Sundays. Every single day of the week is consumed to one degree or another by my overpowering need to be the most informed, prepared player in my leagues. The following is a sadly detailed break down of my pathetic life as a fantasy football junkie. For me, new weeks begin each Tuesday.
Tuesday:
8am:
As soon as I get home from driving my kids to school it’s time to pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down at my desktop machine to review the final weekly scores of my games in each of five leagues, checking for overnight scoring adjustments (Yahoo! is notorious for changing your results as you sleep). I keep a spreadsheet in which I track my wins and losses in each league and make notes pertaining to my player performances. Wins are highlighted in yellow, losses in green. Players I will consider dropping when I make waiver claims receive an asterisk beside their names.
It’s during this session that I update that spreadsheet and create a new tab for the following week, listing each of my future match-ups and noting each player scheduled of Thursday, Sunday night and Monday (non Red Zone games) in a special area.
10AM:
Once I arrive at the office I hop into yahoo, bring up a list of available free agents and sort it my scoring for the previous week to continue my waiver wire preview, which began the previous Sunday in the hour between the afternoon games and the NBC evening match-up. I pay special attention to DSTs and their opponents for the following week as I tend to “stream” DSTs from week to week. During this session I will usually place 3-5 claims on each of my five leagues with the understanding that I will resort their priorities later in the evening.
3PM:
Tuesday afternoons three podcasts pertaining to waiver wire players become available at Itunes, the Audible (the Footballguys.com podcast), ESPN Fantasy Football Today and the CBS Fantasy Football podcast. Each of these gets loaded onto my Ipod to be heard in the order I just listed them. As I do my household chores and prepare for the South Stands Denver Fancast I am shuffling through these.
10PM:
When I return home after recording the South Stands Denver Fancast I spend the hours between ten and midnight hammering my lineups and setting my waiver claims. In some weeks there is very little to choose from, in other weeks there’s more. Either way I make sure to leave no stone unturned. Since I rarely have a top priority I have to dig pretty deep. The process begins by knowing who on my teams are disposable. There’s no sense in dropping guys who could be pickups later. My IDP (individual defensive player) league is the most time consuming.
Wednesday:
8AM:
Kids are gone. Time to visit every league home page and see who I got off the waiver wire and to reset my lineups if any gems showed up. It’s also time to see who went unclaimed and who was dropped. Sometimes players panic and drop a player like Hakeem Nicks who’s off to a slow start. Naturally, if I see good scraps I snap them up. In Yahoo leagues that means placing claims that won’t clear until Friday morning.
10AM:
I arrive at the office, post some crap like this article at my web site, answer a few phone calls, deal with whatever bullshit my stupid employees are complaining about that day, and review my lineups. By this point in the week the rankings are posted at FootballGuys.com so I can compare my thinking against theirs. If I see a glaring difference between my rankings and theirs I call my friend Castle Rock Josh and compare notes with him. He’s always got an angle.
3PM:
There are more podcasts to be downloaded. I don’t bother with the ESPN one. Too hokey. I snag the CBS “Buy or Sell” and mail bag episode and the Audible IDP round table.
10PM:
Wednesday is a light fantasy day compared to the rest, but it’s also the deadline for firing off trade offers in leagues with a two-day waiting period. Between 10PM and midnight I look for value in underperforming players and try wooing their owners into selling them for a discount.
Thursday
8AM:
On Thursday mornings I check to see if I got any trade offers accepted or if I received any counter-offers. In cases where I had initially low-balled someone and they did not counter I will fire off a second offer.
10AM:
My lineups are pretty tight by this point in the week but that’s no reason not to scroll through them one more time. This is also a good time to check injury reports, although they can be misleading since it’s the Friday practices that really matter.
3PM:
Time for more podcasts. By now the FootballGuys weekly previews parts one and two should be available for download.
7PM:
I race home from the Mile High Sports studios (where I co-host the Renaud Notaro show each week) to watch the Thursday night game on NFL Network (even though I know it will be a terrible football game) and track the performances of whatever players I may have going. I have learned to limit my expectations for guys going on Thursdays because of the short week and the limited recovery time. This is also my last chance to hustle trade offers for the week.
Most weeks I live stream the Audible LIVE! Two-hour weekly show and log into their Blog Talk Radio chatroom. This is a great place to observe banter amongst brilliant players and pick up tips.
10PM:
I’ll review my Thursday player performances and get super pissed that I didn’t know better than to start them, then I will look at my opponents’ Thursday starts. In cases where I am already in a big hole I know I need to “swing for the fences” with some high-upside flexes in for the coming weekend.
Friday
Friday is the lightest day on the fantasy schedule each week. There’s not a ton to do besides rehash the trades I have been hammering away on and start preparations for my weekly fantasy show, the South Stands Fantasycast on Mile High Sports Radio which I co-host with John Reidy. Segments include “dead to me” “420 specials” and “solid number twos”
Saturday
10AM
Saturdays are my busiest days at work so, depending on just how busy I am, I may barely have time to finish my notes for the South Stands Fantasycast before I have to rush off to the studio. There I will get in about 45 minutes of prep before we go on air.
8PM
This is when I make my final lineup changes. Except in cases of injury I don’t like to make changes on Sunday mornings. I feel like I have already put the requisite thought into my lineups and that Sunday moves are knee-jerk.
Sunday
8AM
Time for Gametime Decision with Cecil Lammey on 102.3 ESPN. I listen while I play Barbies with my daughter for a full two hours (while guzzling coffee).
10AM
I like to listen to Cecil’s last hour while soaping myself down in the shower. I will call in occasionally but, like I said, my lineups are solid before Sunday morning. Unless I hear about any surprise inactives I am not changing anything. I listen to Gametime Decision purely as entertainment.
11AM
Time to open live scoring interface, turn on NFL Red Zone and not plan on moving very much for the next seven hours.
2PM
Switch from Red Zone to CBS for the Broncos game. Open first beer.
6PM
There is about one hour between the Sunday afternoon games and the NBC night game to rest my eyes, eat dinner, make the kids lunches for Monday, do some dishes and other chores around the house.
6:40 PM
The NBC night game begins – and so does my waiver claim process for the following week. It’s during the night game that I begin to evaluate the performances of potential claims and look at my existing players to decide who I can live without. Much of my weekly prep begins in this three-hour period.
10PM
Although the Monday night game is yet to be played, chances are I can now determine which games I have lost and which games I have won for the week. In some cases I may have to wait and see, but that’s rare. Usually it’s pretty clear.
Monday:
8AM
After I drop the kids of at school I review my weekly games, check my Monday night players and start working the waiver wire. I will also start firing off weekly trade offers, giving special priority to players my opponents may be ready to quit on but that I feel will eventually live up to potential (Cj Spiller for example).
6:30PM
Monday Night Football. During the game I will set my initial lineups for each league. This is when I figure out who’s got a bye the following week, look at who got injured and who lit up my bench and might be worthy of a start the following week.
That pretty well sums it up. I’m sure I left something out. On average I spend about 14 hours a week working on my leagues. That doesn’t include the time I spend actually watching football. Now you know why I wanted to start a fantasy football radio show. There’s no other way to justify my obsession.
To my credit, I have pared down from twelve, to none, to eight, to six, to five leagues over the past few years.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check to see if Robin has responded to my trade offers. Hakeem Nicks will be mine!
