Fantasy Auction

Well, we had our draft today. It didn't go exactly how I planned, but I think it worked out for everyone- had two no-shows, gave one a premade team that seemed fair (she really wanted to play this year) and just dropped the other team (he told me repeatedly that it's "not a big deal", and I can see him being frustrated if he were stuck w/ a team he didn't create).

Anyway, the real interesting part centers around a somewhat abstract concept. Taking a step back from fantasy football, I should explain that I love competition. I love to win, but more than that, I just love to compete. Whether it's something physical, a video game, poker, or monopoly, I love the feeling of developing a strategy and refining it. To be honest, in the moment, I will try as hard as I can to win, but I'm now almost numb to the outcome. Anyway, what this has to do with fantasy football is I feel like I have to limit myself a little bit, and I hate that feeling. I hate not calling plays that I know will work in Madden, I hate people not wanting to trade in Monopoly, I hate checking down hands against my wife if we play poker together. Since I'm numb to outcomes, (for the most part; I'll still take your winning lotto ticket if you don't want it) removing skill from games makes them boring. Here, I feel as though I could make a trade or two and give myself about a 60% chance to win the league, but doing so would probably just piss everyone else off.

Anyway, I apologize if that last paragraph wasn't totally clear; I didn't articulate the point especially well. I'll have more to say about the draft in the next couple days. BTW- if you care, my team is this (12 team league):

Schaub

Gore

Portis

Houshmandzadeh

Royal

Pierre Thomas

Carolina D.

Akers

Bench:

Bowe

Marshall

J. Stewart

F. Jones

Lee Evans

Bernard Berrian

I'm in the process of trading Bowe, Marshall, and Thomas for Steve Slaton, which seems more than fair. The reason I'm doing it (paying two talented WRs for a slight upgrade at RB) is my bench is full and I need to take another TE (b/c I don't want to drop Vernon Davis during the bye), so I was going to lose someone for nothing within a few weeks anyway. Also, in Royal, Evans, Berrian, and Housmandzadeh, I have four receivers that I would be comfortable starting, and I like the potential of both Jonathon Stewart and Felix Jones.

More to come soon...