Nothing is more exciting than the week leading up to fantasy football heaven, known as THE DRAFT. Twelve guys, one room, lots of food, lots of beverages, lots of talking and yapping, but most importantly.... it's draft time! The day is finally here! Best day of the year!
Saturday August 29th will be my draft. We've been doing this for 8 years now and it gets more and more exciting every year. When we started doing this a lot of us were still in college and lived close to each other. We all have jobs now, wives, children, and very few of us still live near each other. Four live in Washington DC, 1 in Columbus, 2 in Chicago, 1 in Syria (imagine that), the rest live in the wasteland known as Michigan. Nonetheless, we are all connected by this one annual event and the message board that keeps us all in tune to each other's lives, thoughts, and ramblings. Facebook also helps, but two of our neanderthals haven't figured out how to get on facebook yet.
It's pretty amazing, that back in 2002, we thought we were throwing together a quick, short lived league. We all knew each other pretty well, but not that well. It was an interesting collection of players from different walks of life and different circles. Some of us were still in our teens and barely in college at the time. Very few of us were married, and maybe only one of us had any kids to speak of. Some of the guys had never played fantasy football before, some had been playing since it was mostly tracked on paper. When we joined the league, we didn't think it would turn into a lifelong commitment and no one thought it'd go on for so long. I thought it'd be a one year deal and then fizzle out like so many other leagues I had joined before. What an amazing ride it has been!
As time went on, we got married, had kids, got real jobs, moved out, but ultimately, we somehow maintained this strong bond and strong league. It's a very competitive league with some very intelligent people. In this league we have a PhD, two physicians, two very successful businessmen, and seven lawyers. That's what makes this league fun! It's very competitive and the collection of personalities and perspectives make it very engaging. The message board is never boring! Nearly every topic humanity can think of has been discussed. Rarely is the topic just football. It's a very active message board. I mean very active! It's not unusual to see over 200 new posts/responses a day at the peak.
The draft is this Saturday and I am as giddy and excited as ever! So much so that it's hard to maintain composure and not think about the draft every day. Rethinking strategy, re-mocking, trying to figure out who everyone will draft, looking at past drafts, looking at past draft tendencies, figuring out which direction the draft will go in, all the while trying to concentrate on not going insane and looking normal at work.
Is the draft everything?
No. But, I feel that the draft is a good third of how your team will fare. The other third being in-season management (free agents pick ups, waiver wire, and sit/start decisions), and the last third being things that are out of our control (injuries, matchups, unexpected breakouts, random scoring, etc). But out of all of these, the one that gets the juices flowing the most is the draft. It's live, it's in one room, it's unpredictable, and it is the one day a year where boys can be boys and block out the rest of society! Just Food & Football!
What makes the draft a little more complicated is that we are all fasting. The past two years the draft has landed in the middle of Ramadan. Or, Ramadan has landed in the middle of our draft. So we just hold the draft after break-fast time. Simple solution. But it does add a nice, unique flavor and touch that is rather rare. It should be another great year!
Some memorable moments from drafts in the past include the very first draft which was held by teleconference. The next year we had the draft in my living room in my apartment in Chicago. We had a lot of drafts in conference rooms of hotels around Chicago's O'Hare airport. Those were probably among the best drafts we've had. We held one at the grand offices of the Harrison Alo law firm in Columbus, Ohio. Last year's draft was held in Flint, Michigan at the home of one of the guys. This year's draft will be held in Troy, Michigan at one of the guy's homes. Can't wait!
Food has always been memorable as well. Pizza, wings, pop, nachos, samosas (occasionally), sandwiches, grilled chickens, and all kinds of delights. One year we actually had fruit (someone requested it). This year will be more of the same. I am not sure how much everyone will be able to eat due to fasting all day (your stomach shrinks), but it's an all night event, so it should be good and people have time for the stomach's to outstretch. An unforgettable memory, a few years back at O'Hare, one of the guys decided that the salsa tasted so good, that he put the remaining salsa in a cup and drank it later in the wee hours of the morning as a meal replacement. Wow!
The weeks leading up to a draft are always interesting. The message board fills up with misinformation, posts about various guy's keepers and why they were so bad, taunting guys for bad picks, quotes from websites about how certain NFL players did in preseason games, and all sorts of babbling and lying. No one wants to show their hand or tip their hat. It's fun watching all the gyrations and misinformation, and people's reaction to it.
As the draft nears, everyone will be reviewing their cheatsheets, perusing websites, clinging to radio broadcasts of NFL news to see if they can gain any kind of advantage before Saturday. Then Saturday will come, and all of that is out the door. The weeks of smokescreens and misinformation and taunting will all be over. You will finally see who everyone wanted to draft and who they will draft.
The draft itself brings lots of memorable moments as well. Although, the first few rounds are fairly predictable, it really starts to get interesting after round 4. Of course, people will always reach, but it's interesting to see who reaches and on which players they reach. We have a lot of Detroit Lion fans, and every year someone reaches on Detroit Lion players, thinking that this is going to be the magical year where they take off. I am sure someone will reach this year on Stafford, Best, Smith, Burleson, and Scheffler. Of course, we have guys that like the Bengals and Browns, due to a strong Ohio contingent, and someone will reach on those players. We have a number of guys from the DC area, so expect a lot of Redskin players to come off the board where they shouldn't be. And of course, I like the Broncos, and will probably draft one at some point.
This group of guys, the comradery, the friendships, the uniqueness, the attitudes, the personalities, the bonds, and the clashes will all come to a head this weekend in epic format in a live fantasy football draft! Should be an awesome extravaganza! Can't wait!
(Stay tuned for a draft wrap up on how I think I did and the team I end up with.)
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