Fantasy Football Archetypes
Thanks for all of your suggestions for my fantasy football team name and I’ve finally decided on one. “Big Ben’s Reno Girl”, it’s topical, it’s original, and I’m sure it will offend the lone Steelers’ fan in my pool. The pool, I haven many but the pool I care about most is with a group of guys who have been together since 2003. A few of these guys I haven’t seen in 5 years but each season we get together online and play a little fantasy football. The cash that comes along with winning is nice but with this bunch, it’s the pride and satisfaction of eight solid months of unanswered trash talk.
One thing I’ve noticed after being in literally hundreds of fantasy sports pools there are similar owner philosophies and personalities in play. I’ve broken down a few of the most popular, and I’m sure you’ll recognize them from your own pool.
- The Super Fan – This is the owner in your pool who will draft the entire Seahawks starters even though Matt Hasselbeck hasn’t been good for a couple of years and Shaun Alexander is looking for a job. The Super Fans name will be a call back to the glory years, “72Dolphins” or “Buffalo 66″. Beware the Colts and Patriots Super Fan.
- The Draft Guru– The fantasy football draft guru comes prepared with 22 single spaced, cheat sheets, 8 web browsers open with all the top fantasy football cheater sites. Before you laugh at this geek, watch in awe as the FFDG drafts a 3rd string RB, who is promptly traded to a team with who loses their starter and the 3rd string runs for 15 TD’s and 1300 yards. I hate this guy.
- Day Traders– Just like the market these guys want to improve their team through trades. They come in two forms, one that you can manipulate and the second will screw you without buying dinner first. The first guy wants to trade for the sake of trading, he’s like an action junkie, if his roster isn’t changing he’s not happy. If you play it right you can catch one of these trade happy owners in a lopsided deal in your favor. I recommend following the second philosophy, the formula goes like this; you offer a trade for 1 superstar while offering 1 star and one good player. He who gets the best player wins the trade. Check the waiver wires for good players so you’ll essentially be giving up waiver fodder and a star player for a Superstar.
- Waiver Hawk – After a huge game by a player no one has ever heard of everyone leaps at the chance to grab this one hit wonder after the game but the waiver shark has had this player on his roster for a week and a half. The worst part about this is that chances are it will be the nobody players that beat you.
- Just Happy to be there – This owner is usually new to fantasy football, they are still figuring it out. They won’t win, they know they won’t win so they play just to have fun. These guys are dead money but every pool needs a few to build up the prize pool.
- The Phantom Owner – This owner pays his money, drafts his team and then that’s the last you hear of them. They add to the prize pot, but I’d rather be in a league with a few bad owners than a league where half of the owners give up long before the season is over.
If you have some personalities or owner archetypes I missed, please forward them along, and I’ll be sure to mention them in a future post.
I had one of those Phantom Owner guys in our pool last year and that guy jammed out like 3 weeks into the season leaving his team high and dry….the crappest part about this whole thing….that guy still ended up winning over me!!! *&^*%&$^%$^
Hahaha…Damn tell me about it, A friend of mine is in a league where they fine anyone who doesn’t complete their roster each week. It sucks when you play a phantom owner early in the season and they book out before they play a team you’re chasing for a playoff spot.