First Fantasy: Finding the right league for you

Published 8:08 pm Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Fantasy football is like nothing else. It gives mere mortals like yourself an opportunity to own — and more importantly — be general manager of a national football league team.

Basically, you are Jerry Jones.

Fans whose football careers ended in high school or never started and/or who don’t have a masters degree in business management can draft, add/drop and trade players at their whim.

Newcomers to this growing phenomenon, I congratulate you on your decision “to try it” and welcome you to the most fun you will ever have during an NFL season.

But there are some important things you need to take care of before you start buying fantasy football magazines and pre-ranking your players.

Namely, choose the league best suited for you and choose a commissioner who is going to make your league fun and fair for everyone.

I can’t stress this enough.

I have been playing fantasy football for almost 20 years and have dealt with some brutally unfair and basically cheating commissioners.

My first league in college featured a commissioner that had to agree on any move an owner made. If you wanted to pick up a player or make a trade, you had to call him on the phone and make a request.

He would approve it — unless he wanted the same player or went behind your back to make a trade with the same owner. In that case, he would just say that you were late on your request and he had already made the waiver claim or trade.

Ridiculous, but I agreed to be a part of that league, so I had to deal with that kind of stuff for an entire season before leaving it.

Something that has happened as recently as last year, which drives me crazy, is my fantasy baseball league’s commissioner changing our scoring settings before the season because he wanted to add more stuff.

That is not a crime, but it would have been nice to ask the other owners in the league what they thought before doing it. 

The league I am currently the most passionate about is, of course, “Dereliction.” I joined it in 2004 and it is without a doubt the most fair, fun and passionate league I have ever been a part of.

It is a 14-team league that is democratic. We do not make any decision without a vote. Our commissioner does not make any decision without asking the rest of the owners how we feel and voting on it.

The biggest thing that can kill your fun in fantasy football is a commissioner you can’t trust.

We have a trustworthy and honorable commissioner and that is a big reason our league is healthy and has a waiting list to join.

Dereliction is a snake draft without keepers. We have had keepers in past years but voted with a majority agreeing to go back to no keepers (keeping a player that you had the previous year, which means no one can draft him) because it gives every owner a chance to get anyone they want based on their draft position.

We draw for that position minutes before our annual draft.

It works for us.

There are auction leagues, keeper leagues and many other types, and each have their own set of rules, so make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

Next week I will start delving into the players and positions to target in your draft as preseason football begins. For fantasy veterans and regular readers of this weekly column, thanks for the chance to introduce the newcomers to the club.

It has begun.

Chris Parry began playing fantasy football in college in 1996 and he has won numerous titles in both fantasy football and baseball. His column appears each Thursday on Page Two. Email lineup questions or comments to cparry@tylerpaper.com, tweet to @CParryETFS on Twitter or post on the ETFinalscore.com Facebook page.