Powder Puffs
By Kelly Bichkoff
Usually when women think of the word “fantasy,” it brings to mind a particularly satisfying shopping experience where everything cute is not only your size but it’s also on sale! However, when the dog days of summer start turning to the days of early autumn, the word fantasy applies to football. Now, most of the time the term fantasy football brings to mind images of your husband/boyfriend/brother/dad sitting in front of the flat screen on Sunday shouting things like, “Come on you bum! I only need 2 more yards from your broke a** to win this week!” And until now, you may have had a vague idea of what that means, but perhaps feel a bit confused or intimidated by the whole concept of fantasy football. Fear no more, ladies! You too can understand (and even enjoy) fantasy football.
Fantasy football is a game where a group of people (usually 8, 10, or 12) has teams that compete against each other each week of the regular NFL football season. Each person is called a “manager” of a team. The group of managers makes up the “league.” The teams are made up of players from different NFL teams, which the managers choose for their teams during the draft. The “draft” is the time where each manager selects players for their team in a pre-determined order. A basic fantasy football league has teams that consist of the following players: quarterback (QB), running back (RB), wide receiver (WR), tight end (TE), place kicker (PK), and defense (DEF). Each of these positions scores points for your team. If your team scores more points than the team that you are against for that week (in a head-to-head league), you win. It’s very simple, and the best part of all is that the points are calculated by an online site such as Yahoo!, CBS Sports, or nfl.com so that you don’t need to do any math or keep track of any points.
Stay tuned for the next article in this series on fantasy football where I will give you some tips on drafting strategies and explain variations on scoring in different types of leagues. Until then, don’t be afraid to pick up and peruse that fantasy football magazine that your man left lying next to the dirty socks that he didn’t pick up and put in the hamper…….!
