For the first time, I got my feet wet and tried daily fantasy sports. To be more specific, I tried FanDuel for the first time. I was a little skeptical about the whole daily fantasy sports situation from the jump, even though I had heard about it a few years ago. The reasons being is for one I didn't like the salary cap game. I had played it a few times back in the early 2000s but not in a daily fantasy format. Secondly, I didn't want to get caught up in losing money playing daily fantasy. For a long time I had felt that Daily Fantasy was kind of like playing the lotto or something, or entering into Publisher's Clearinghouse or something like that. Even though it had always been in the back of my mind to do it, I let it slip by for a while. This year however, it was very difficult to pass up. FanDuel and Draft Kings both upped their marketing efforts this season. Every commercial is either for FanDuel or Draft Kings. Not to mention, I had some peer pressure too. So I decided to give it a go. For my first week, I sucked dramatically, but now that I got my feet wet and I have an idea of what I winning team looks like, I've become even more intrigued. I entered at the last minute, but this week I'm going to make sure I do a little more research so next week hopefully I can win something.
Speaking of research, that's something I definitely haven't been doing. Usually just like everyone else, I'm on different websites, watching or listening to different fantasy football podcasts/shows, reading Matthew Berry's Love/Hate column, downloading apps and all kinds of things to make sure my lineups are good for the upcoming week. I've glanced at Berry's column a couple of times this season, but mainly for entertainment as I've developed a habit of not paying attention to these so-called experts. Apparently, I'm no expert either, so I should start doing a little more research on a weekly basis... not only for informational purposes, but also to network with other fantasy football people. There's so many though, including this blog, to choose from. I'll probably stick with the mainstream sites such as ESPN, Yahoo and NFL.com, but if any of you who are still reading have any good links feel free to let me know.
I usually talk about some teams that I'm currently running and while I do intend to continue doing so, I won't cover every league. Just Roughing the Picker and the other one... the one with my friends from Dillard whose league name I can't recall... oh yeah, it's Coast2Coast Ballers. Anyhoo, In Roughing the Picker this week, I had a fabulous trade set up to receive Peyton Manning and send over Brandon Marshall and Latavius Murray. Now, I know Manning hasn't been "Rocket Laser Arm" this week, but I believed that when it cam down to it, and Denver was ever behind, it would be Peyton Time. That hasn't happened yet and this could be the reason why my peers decided to veto the trade. No one has come clean and admitted they were the ones who vetoed the trade, but they way I see it, it may have looked like I was giving up too much for a declining Manning. However, I feel I was getting the better of the trade because regardless Manning is still Peyton Manning, top 5 quarterback in the league. Plus, even though Marshall has been consistent, Murray has not, so I thought it was a fair enough trade. When the trade was vetoed Saturday night, it threw me off because Manning was supposed to be on my team by the 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning. The trade was vetoed, and I ended up having to pick up Colin Kaepernick. The Kaepernick pick actually worked out, but I still ended up losing by 5 freaking points.
The other league Coast2Coast Ballers, I'm in a 3-way tie for third place. This league is funny because I started off 4-0. A couple of weeks ago my Samsung Note 3 was stolen and this shut down my whole operation. I rely on my Note 3 for everything, including hotspot as I do not pay for internet service in my home. Without my Note 3 I was helpless... well not totally because I could always jump on when at work, but at work I'm unbelievably busy working the graveyard shift. I'm not trying to use this as an excuse, but things haven't been right ever since. Mr. Hindsman, my fantasy football rival, made a comment about me going on a serious losing streak, and I hate to say it but he might be right. I've lost the last two weeks putting me at 4-2. The problem? I think it's I have too many Green Bay Packers on my squad. I got Rodgers, Lacy, Cobb, and Richard Rodgers who I should've benched this past week. In fact, everyone except for Rodgers could've been benched. Cobb isn't taking advantage of Jordy Nelson being injured, and Lacy is injured himself. I'll make some adjustments, but these studs are turning in duds early on in the season. The Packers have a bye this coming week, but I'm going to have to figure out what to do with these dudes. Richard Rodgers is most likely gone, but I'll most likely hang on to Cobb and Lacy... for now.
