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Fantasy  Football


The Game: (Beginners, Game Types, History, Forums)
Selected Game links  Support Sites 
Kid's Sites  Experts Sites
Software    Fantasy Football Radio

Other Information Tickets
 

Fantasy Football can be traced back to a hotel in New York City late in 1962, when the late Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, a limited partner with the Raiders devised and played precursor fantasy games. Fantasy football, followed on from earlier (1950's) PGA golf tour game and a Baseball gameAccording to the well publicised information, Winkenbach met with two writers for the Oakland Tribune -- Scotty Stirling (the beat reporter) and George Ross (the sports editor) -- they created a scheme of organization and a set of rules by which sports fans could draft the skill players from pro football teams onto their own imaginary teams, and play weekly games against their friends in a league that rewarded the team with the best record. Read more from  The Birth of Fantasy Football from Fantasy Index and A nod and a Wink by fantasy Sports Publication

There are no overall organising bodies, as these are mostly commercial games, but there is a  fantasy Sports Players Association (FSPA)  representing the  leading fantasy sports companies and institutions

Need any help with fantasy Football? Ask Patti our Librarian from  MaxQ  Fantasy Football

The concept   Here is an opportunity to get involved with every aspect of the game of Football, from your own armchair.

"As the general manager, the fantasy football league owner assembles his team of stars and scrubs, making sure he has the right mix of passing, rushing and kicking. In some leagues, the fantasy general manager even has to assemble a defense. Then as the team's coach, the fantasy league owner has to pick the right starting lineup for that week¹s games, making sure that his best players aren't sitting on the bench. For anyone interested in starting a league, all you need are a few basic rules to get going. The beauty of fantasy football is that there really isn't any set guideline you MUST follow. It's your fantasy league, so fantasize any way you want. The main thing is to enjoy NFL games and enjoy them the best way you know how. And that way is through a fantasy football league." 
Patti

   

The Game

Beginners Types of Games  HistoryForums
 

  Beginners

know the game; here is a quick resume of the basic components of Fantasy Football.
Terminology  Other information for beginners
 

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  Here are the basic components of most of the Fantasy Football games               see How to Play  from FSTA
 
  The League – needed to compete against others (6-12) say, even numbers for regular head-to- head.
The Commissioner
.  Decides constitution, rules,  and makes all final decisions
Scoring. Knowing how scoring operates is essential to choosing a team to optimise performance.
Players  Play 7 players at start ( One quarter back, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end and one kicker.) Total players in team can be 15-17. Defense teams can also take a part, similarly coaches, depending on the complexity of the game
Draft.  How players are acquired -one player at a time for a team, with schemes for evening up selection
    Or like (Rotisserie Baseball) – bidding with dollars within a fixed (capped) budget
Schedule.  Head to heads with playoffs, 4-6 teams per Division, followed by Superbowl
Counting scores Result based on head-to-head scores.– can be done yourself. Software products and services available
Transactions. Trade of players may be allowed throughout the season + free agents; various rules controlling this.
 
    Need more information to get started?       check out the information on the websites below:
 
 

Types of Fantasy Leagues  from the About team
Fantasy Football for beginners   from Fanway
Tutorial For Beginners by Fantasy Gamez
Beginners Guide by Phenoms Fantasy Football
Fantasy Football Newbies  an article by David James Didion
Beginners guide to drafting  by Clayton Gray

   

  Types of Games

 'You Pick em', Non-keeper Leagues, Keeper Leagues, Salary cap 
 
   
You Pick 'Em Leagues  
The simplest of the leagues - no player selection
    All you do in this type of league is look at the regular weekly lineups between the NFL teams and choose who you think is going to win each game or another version is which team will score the most points each week
 
      Examples Fantasy pro Football Pick'em  from Yahoo Fantasy Sports
                     
H2H Football  from Head to Head
                     
Office Football Pool   
 
  Non-Keeper Leagues    -  you join the league and draft a different team each season
  Trades and waivers are allowed during the season but once the season is over, the players go back into the draft pool for next season. These types of leagues will either offer a live draft or automated draft. Live drafts are generally the most popular because people usually like to pick their own players. With an automated draft you choose your top players in order of how you would like to draft them, then the drafting software will choose your players according to to where you rank in the draft order and who was chosen before your turn in the draft.
 
Non-keeper leagues are good for owners and commissioners just starting out. It avoids any issues in tackling the keeper league problems, but lengthens the draft to a the full length every year. Another advantage is that every owner needs to start fresh - giving a better picture of how good an owner someone really is
 
  Examples   CBS Sportsline Fantasy Football 
                 Sportingnews
Keeper Leagues   This is for real hardcore fantasy players. - keep  your players each year, as a real NFL team
  After you have drafted a team you then can make changes to it with waivers and with trades with other owners. But each year you come in with basically the same unit of players. This gives a good feel for a long-term franchise. The huge advantage is that the drafts in the following years are shorter since the teams hold on to a core team from the previous season
 
The biggest challenge here is determining how many players can stay on a team each year. If teams hold on to too many players, you'll end up with teams staying in the same position each year. Too few and you lose the flavor of a keeper league. It's up to the owners to decide how many players can be held and what restrictions there are.
   Examples: Keeper fantasy leagues  League One
                 Fantasy Time Sports
                      KFFL  Empire
 
Salary Cap Leagues  introduce picking players within financial contraints
  This is where you pick players from a pool of players available and each player has a dollar value assigned to them. Your team itself is allotted so much money that it can spend to build a team. Very similar to the NFL's Salary cap. Everyone chooses from the same draft pool and may even have the same players on their teams, very different from the keeper and non-keeper leagues. Each week up until the leagues specified deadline, you can change your players by selling them first, to get their value put back onto your salary cap then you can go and pick and pay for another player to add to your team. The limit to how many trades you can make in one season is up to the individual league. This is one of the more difficult leagues to play in because of the salary cap stipulations put on each team owner
  Examples   Sandbox
                      Fantasy Football Megachallenge
                      Sporting News
   History know the background

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  The Birth of Fantasy Football from Fantasy Index Bill
A nod and a Wink - a downloadable pdf file, by fantasy Sports Publication
 
   Forums get answers to questions or air your views...

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  Fantasy Football Forum  discuss the real action, trading, injuries, your mock draft......
Fantasy Football Jungle Forum NFL activities and forums for each team, draft, mock draft; discuss your strategies, shiow off your skills or needs...
Coachbox Fantasy Football Forum give opinions ask questions and discuss strategies; keep everyone updated with the latest Fantasy football news.
 
Selected Games         Support sites  Software sites

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Al Year Football If you need to play FFB all year round, check out this site- it uses a computer simulation to generate games and outcomes in the off season that will give the team winners and losers. The game is played like any other FFB game with drafts, creating your starting line-up, dealing with injuries, etc The game is absolutely free unless you want to play their premium game to be able to create your own players for just $3.00.
American Fantasy Football League -  for those who are truly FFB, high stakes fanatics. The entry fees range from $150 American dollars to $1,200 American dollars! Now that's what we call hardcore, serious players. Play for Waterford Crystal trophies. It's a good site, very easy to navigate and their instructions on how to register and play are direct and to the point.
Extreme Fantasy Football League This site is for hard core FFB players. They charge per team entry, so you really need to be serious about it. Nice site, simple design and very easy to navigate. Includes a nice chat room and message board as well. Something interesting they have that no other site seems to have is a sports card forum. That's a different twist
Fantasy Football Games from CBS SportsLine; guide to participation; lots of resources and news online supporting the games; Columns, Player News, Injuries, Experts League tablesMessage Board  
Fantasy Sports 'R' Us The largest fantasy sports site on the internet has leagues in football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. The offer Keeper and non-Keeper leagues
Fantasy Headquarters play American Football (and other sports). Want to own your own football team? Choose the players you want? Make all of the decisions?...Try this. It's a great way to really interact with your sport and other sports fans. Wide choice of games.

Fantasy SportzGames Live Online Drafts with Chat, Realtime Stats, Depth Charts and Injury Reports, all on your own customizable team page. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Nascar Leagues available and more. Futile Four tournament for #1 pick (Keepers)
Heysportsfans Fantasy  Football and other sports leagues with unlimited free trades, lots of winners, and a free game. The pay leagues consist of non-keeper leagues, hi-lo league where you pick the team that will score the most and the team that will score the least each week and then a playoff football league where you pick players from the teams in the playoffs each week.
Sandbox  Fantasy Football; Various exciting and challenging Fantasy Football games as part of the 25+ games provided by Sandbox memberships. They offer non-keeper, salary cap and pickem leagues.
Sporting News Fantasy Football Games Free; choice of games (offers free and fee versions of their non-keeper and salary cap leagues) ; stats, rankings updates etc online.
Fantasy Football Commissioner This is a great site if you don't want to join one of the numerous online leagues and would rather run your own private league with family and friends. If you don't mind paying for this service, which is a lot less than some other services you'll probably enjoy this one. It has a lot of great features for the person who would be the commissioner to use to run the league such as Roster Positions, League Teams, League Schedule, League Scoring, League Finances, Homepage and Transactions all customizable. You'll also find Q&A Forums, Football News, Resources with cheat sheets, injury reports, etc, as well as links to other FFB source
Quest Fantasy football Leagues  Very good site for those players who are really into FFB and don't mind putting out a few dollars in order to have a chance at winning some decent prize money. Offers two different types of drafts, an email draft as well as an online draft and they have several different types of leagues that should keep the interest of a variety of players. They offer money leagues with entry fees from $50 to $1000 and trophy leagues  with am entry fee of $14.95.

Alternative NFL game Types
NFL Gaming  A different approach to gaming with the NFL.  Combines computer generated NFL Picks with traditional  handicapping and analysis. Requires paid membership.
 
Wall Street Sports Sign up for your Wall Street Sports portfolio and wheel and deal shares of your favorites from American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and golf. Play for Fun! Play for Free! Play for Prizes
Support to Fantasy American Football games

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 MaxQ Fantasy Football now in it's 8th year offers  personal leagues via  NFL.com and Yahoo Sports. Along with offering 3 different leagues to join, we also have an interactive newsletter site with original commentary, useful links, reports on games of the week, up to date weekly NFL information, as well as an interactive format where visitors can post comments and/or questions that can be answered right on the site, no need to wait for an email reply.  Membership is not required  to access this site, or to post questions or comments.
 
Fantasy Football Breakdown   Great site for those who play FFB. The site offers many helpful categories and news sections to help keep you apprised of what is going on around the NFL which should make it a lot easier for anyone playing FFB to decide who to play, bench, trade or who to put on waivers. Easy to navigate and it's free. Definitely worth checking out.
Next Gen Pro Football  is an information packed site that could be good in helping you decide who to have on your FFB team or who to get rid of. It offers you a different twist on things by having a more personal approach to the NFL and Fantasy Football, with their own opinions on players and what's going on in the NFL and Fantasy Football as well as links to professional opinions. They offer depth charts for all the NFL teams which will help you decide who you might want to have on your FFB team.
Fantasy Football Advice - NFLXperts.com  Free Fantasy Football Advice, Rankings, News, and More! Very nicely done site, easy to navigate and really seems to have just about any kind of advice you might need for managing your FFB league or team. What's great is that all the advice and tips are completely free. Can't argue with that! Would definitely recommend this for anyone who is looking for an informative and helpful site that will make managing their team easier.
Fantasy Football Stats   Fantasy Football blog that has interesting articles and appears to have helpful statistical help for those who love participating in FFB. To have access to anything other than their blog articles you must become a member first.
Fantasy Football Starters.com This site is good for the true die hard FFB fan who not only wants help with their drafting and lineups but wants to have it delivered right to their cell phones. This site is not free so if  you're looking for freebie info and help you won't find it here. But if you're high tech and want to spend a few dollars on some good and helpful information, then this is probably the site for you
Fantasy Football Files - a nice little Fantasy Football Blog that is set up like a bulletin board you might hang on your wall, which makes it kind of unique. It has good info on what's going on around the NFL so that Fantasy players will be up to date on players during the off season as well as during the season. The site is free and gives some good free advice as well. Nice place for those who don't want to spend anything for ideas and help with FFB
Ask The Commish:Free and fee site that has a bounty of info such as who to sit and who to start, expert picks, weekly picks, headlines, injury reports, points allowed, power rankings, team analysis, message boards, mock drafts, player rankings, etc. All around very good site
Dominate Your League Easy to navigate site with free signup to acces all their features and to choose whether or not you would like to receive updates and news from their site. They offer pertinent NFL news that helps you decide whether to draft a player of hold onto them, projections, rankings various drafting tools, articles and forums. Good site to have in your favorites for help with your FFB team.
Dr Fantasy Football Nice site that offers player analysis, injury reports, player rankings, cheat sheets, depth charts, mock drafts, NFL news and links to other sites. You need to be a member to access everything but there doesn't appear to be any sort of fee. So for those who are looking for free guidance in their FFB leagues might find this a helpful site

Fantasy Football.com a brand new FFB site that is superbly designed, with a very user friendly interface. It's loaded with information that would be of help to any level of FFB player, including free articles, depth charts, links, weekly Internet Radio Show, Trade Assessor.... and more detailed information available with a membership fee
Fantasy-football-resources weblog  check out what new information is available and contribute to the discussion and support in Fantasy Football..
Fantasy Insights Very comprehensive site for those who are looking for help with their FFB leagues. Giving insights into free agency, what FFB is all about, depth charts, stats and much more. They offer free and fee services.
Fantasy Football Times America’s Fantasy Football Newsletter - Delivered To Your PC Doorstep. Has some free information, with more available on subscription
Fantasy Football Toolbox  Great site giving you free access to free cheat sheets, draft tips and even FFB discussion boards
FootballDocs Fantasy Football "Where the Geeks Meet the Gridiron". Comes highly recommended with great support and offers draft software, cheat sheets, bench/start advice, pick / up drop advice, and more. Questions answered
Dr Stats for fantasy sports especially American Football and Baseball; player news, injury reports... Ask Dr Stats that question burning you! Relatively extensive FFB stats, cheat sheets, draft companions, player capsules, rookie analysis, etc -for a fee. Site is relatively easy to use and would be good for the truly serious FFB player.
Fantasy Football Cafe  A free cafe site catering to the fantasy football community with news, cheat sheets, sleepers, NFL player rankings, strategy tips and advice, predictions and forums. A useful site that offers some good free FFB information along with tons of links to other sites.
Fantasy Insights stats to support fantasy American Football.
FF Spiral Great new site filled with valuable information for all FFB players from the seasoned vets to the newbie. Site includes cheat sheets, fantasy football advice, statistics, FFB forum, and much more. All for free! Worth checking into!
Fantasy Gas   A useful site with all kinds of important information to help any FFB team owner, with both free and premium stats, cheat sheets, injury info, player info and much more. What's different about this particular site is that they recognize and honour independent FFB leagues by allowing league owners to submit their league to be reviewed and to be added to their Gallery of Fantasy Football Champions. Nice little added feature and unique to most sites of this nature.
Fantasy Sports publications Online Source For Reliable Fantasy Football Information; headlines, articles, team notes, weblinks, flash updates...
Fantasyology.com  It's completely free and offers detailed player profiles, rankings, projections, sleepers & busts, and more. This site  has loads of information for the fantasy player. Player profiles, cheat sheets, stats, injury reports, mock drafts and more.
Football Guys  Hardcore statistical analysis of NFL football. Also, fantasy football cheatsheets, projections, statistics, and articles. Nice site with lots of free helpful information for fantasy players including archives from previous years.
GroganSports fantasy football,  fantasy football tools and resources; archived articles, newspaper links, resource sites directory  
Gridiron grumblings Fantasy football support specialty with player rankings, news, articles, stats, message boards, mock drafts, advice. Really nice site loaded with all sorts of useful information for the fantasy player. Most of the features on the site you need to pay for but even the free info is worth checking out.
Monster Draft - an online fantasy football tool that creates a customized draft guide or cheatsheet tailored to each user's specific league format. It is easy to navigate, has a lot of helpful FFB info  for only a small sum to be a member to use the draft tool. They even have a demo set up so you can see how it works.
MoSneaky  - Fantasy Football Draft Magazine. The free online fantasy football virtual magazine. Really nice site loaded with all sorts of useful information for the fantasy player. Nice site with lots of information that most fantasy players would enjoy reading and it is free.
Not Just a Game -  find all the information you need to win your fantasy football league. Nicely done site with fantasy articles, player rankings, predictions and analysis all for free.
Sporting Knowledge a new, nicely produced site, with good navigation offering both free and fee Fantasy Football tips and advice. The free options offers the visitor Player Rankings, Strategy Tips and Trends, Players on the Rise, Players on the Slide, Trade Bait, Trade Prey, Quick Fixes, Weekly Line-up Rankings, Injury Reports and even Weather Conditions. The Fee section offers Ask the Expert, Team & League Evaluation, Personal Phone Consultation, Co-GM For Your Team, and The MoneyMaker.
The Huddle articles, stats, weekly features; members only at $1 per week for a full fantasy football sport. Nice layout and lots of fantasy information for the hard core fantasy player for a fee.
Fantasy Football Xtreme  Year 'round fantasy football tools and information. This site requires that you pay a yearly fee but does have a lot of information included on the site. From a draft simulator for your league to "Ask the Experts". They provide services year round for the FFB enthusist which is different from most sites. If you are a true hard core FFB player then the fee they charge for their variety of services will probably be worth it for you.

Fantasy Software

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Fan Draft  The first ever fantasy football digital draft board. Make your fantasy football draft feel like the real thing!
Fanstar - run your own fantasy leagues for American sports with the ultimate fantasy league commissioner and coach software -automated web page generator, analysis features that will blow your mind and generates  professionally designed reports, forms and newsletters and emails reports to your league members. Demo version available.
Fantasy-Compusports free software for use by league commissioners with new or existing leagues, as well as by individual team owners who want to keep track of rosters, stats, and standings (Faq); chargeable weekly stats service; latest fantasy information A great free software program if you run just one league.
Fantasy Football Commissioner. If you're looking to pay someone else to handle all your headaches in running a league then this is a nice site to consider. It's got everything a FFB commissioner would need all on one website. And nothing to bog down your own computer with. Very user friendly and nicely documented on how to use all of their features on the site. Even includes a sample league so that you can see what you're getting before purchasing.
Footballdocs Draft  Advisor - software designed for your fantasy football draft. This  can be used to build a highly competitive fantasy team by itself. For the seasoned veteran, the Draft Advisor can be used as a consultant during tense moments of your draft.
Football Software to automate all the tasks that you do manually to run your fantasy football league; customize to fit your leagues rules and scoring system; automatically download the NFL stats and calculate your leagues game results; create more than 20 reports that can be uploaded to a web site, e-mailed, or printed. Demos available. Annual fee.
The coordinator  Expert analysis and fantasy football NFL draft software. Offers drafting help and fantasy football analysis.

 Fantasy
Football
  Radio

All of the sites listed below either offer a feed to a FFB radio show, or their site actually has their own show. All of them claim to give you last minute, up to date information and help with your FFB teams via a live broadcast during the regular season and the playoffs.
 

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  4for4.com, Dr Football, Grogan Sports, ESPN Sports Radio, Fantasy Football Radio, Sportz Radio, Fox Sports, Fantasy Football Radio Show
 
Kids Sites

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Grid-O-Matic the fun, free, fantasy football league for kids - the best way to learn about and follow your favorite NFL stars. Select your own football dream team from over 80 of the NFL's top stars. It is stat-driven, so the better your players do in real NFL games, the more fantasy points they score.
Sports Illustrated Kids fantasy Baseball, one of 3 sports offered; Here's your chance to draft your own team of baseball superstars and play  against other kids for free all over the world; Rules
Pendleton Fantasy Baseball - score the most Pendleton Baseball Kids Points (PBKP) with your team of players, who will be playing real-life games during the Terry Pendleton Wood Bat World Championships. All leagues will be competing for great prizes including two incredible grand prizes
 

Experts Sites

When you reckon you know it all and want to prove it, there are sites out that that give you the chance to do just that.
 

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  Fantasy Sports Are us Invitational Challenge  The FSIC is made up of invited participants from fantasy, rotisserie and sports related sites. Only the most relevant individuals/sites will be offered an invitation. Each year, the sites that come in 11th and 12th in the FSIC National League, FSIC American League, or FSIC Football League will give up their memberships in those individual leagues and two new sites will be invited to compete in the Fantasy Sports Invitational Challenge. You must be a member of one of the leagues invited to this Invitational to access any of the information provided on the site.
Expert Sports  This site is for those who are top notch in their knowledge of professional football as well as FFB. Their public leagues cost $200.00 to join.
Fantasy Football Tournament of Champions They offer what they call tournament style FFB which means there is no draft. You can start any NFL player you want - but only once.  You start a QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 PK and 1 Defense each week  Teams compete in the twelve week FFTOC regular season;
   Six teams per bracket and each bracket winner doubles their money
   Head-to-head matchups replaced by local rivalries
   Top 33% of teams advance to play for four weeks in the Finals
   The highest ranking teams from the Finals win cash awards
   The catch is you can't start the same players twice in a row. This league is not free.
World Championship of Fantasy Football - a true high stakes league and the draft actually takes place in Las Vegas and you must be there to participate. There are sixty leagues comprised of 12 teams will hold a simultaneous draft, with each league champion vying for the title of "World Champion…" and over $200,000 in cash.$1,450 Championship Entrance Fee -- plus a $285 Events Fee for Friday night accommodations at the Hilton hotel and casino, a seat at the Saturday draft and a ticket to the Saturday night ESPN Zone party.
 
    Other  FF Information
  Demographics of Fantasy Football from Anton Kazubowski - the next big events for Sportsbooks?
   
  Football Tickets
  BuySellTix.com is Your Source for the Best NFL Football and NCAA Football Tickets!


If you need further information on Fantasy Football, fill out the details below and contact Patti, our  librarian.
Please make sure that you have checked the above links first and that your email address is correct.


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