Remember me?
Yeah, I’m talking to you.
How ya been? That’s good. Having withdrawals from Fantasy Football? Yeah, I understand that. I am too. But that’s why Viz, Joe MacDonald, Smokey and Ralph, JB Gilpin, and the whole team at Razzball Baseball (and plenty of other Razzball writers from Basketball) are here to help with those withdrawals. Never tried Fantasy Hockey? Soccer? Golf? Check out those guys, because they make it the offseason little easier and a whole lot more enjoyable.
Well, as the Deflate-Gate Court Battle is underway, and the combine a couple days removed, this is the perfect time to reflect on how the season went. And, it has been a very unique, interesting, awful, sad, awesome, complicated and happy year. We have had ups and downs, injuries, great sleepers and Andrew Luck.
On a legitimate note, this will be the first article of two where I will break down the season to see what we did right, and what I did wrong. The first one will be titled, Things I’ve Learned While Barely Writing About Daily Fantasy Football, which will the the lighter of the two, and the second will be titled Things I’ve Learned About While Playing Daily Fantasy Football, which will be a more in-depth, factual article about what I’ve learned, and how to implement these things into the 2016 season.
And on that note, let’s get started…
The Hot Takes are (Very) Cold
I sometimes like poking fun at the expense of others, but I truly enjoy poking fun at myself. I have written up some great plays (barely), but on some days, I just didn’t have it. So here are some that I thought were very, very bad decisions, and ultimately funny ones. Enjoy!
Hot Take #1- Colby Fleener, Week 2 vs. New York Jets (7.1 pts)-Â 7.1 points isn’t too bad because it’s better than what Andrew Luck averaged over the first couple of weeks.
Hot Take #2- Percy Harvin, Week 4 vs. New York Giants (4.1 pts)-Â At least I know when to stop believing in Harvin, which happened a minute after I wrote him up. News broke in early January that the Bills GM would love to re-sign Harvin.
Hot Take #3- Ryan Tannehil, Week 13 vs. Baltimore Ravens (8.54 pts) – All jokes aside, Week 13 was the most frustrating of the entire year. All Dolphins were supposed to do very well against a very weak secondary and overall D that was the Ravens. But nope. That week was not good for my stress eating.
Hot Take #4- Kai Forbath, Week 15 vs Detroit Ravens (10 pts)Â – Yeah! 10 points! Yeah! Oh wait, that’s the kicker position.
Hot Take #5- Jared Cook, Week 3 vs. Pittsburgh (1.2 pts)Â – And it was at this moment that I knew IÂ was done. Absolutely done. 1.2 fantasy points?!?!?
Twitter Rants
A very crucial aspect of Fantasy Football is Twitter. Here on this wonderful social media website, you can find numerous beat writers, fantasy sports writers, and NFL-related accounts. Below I have acquired some of the best tweets written by the staff of Razzball. Remember, this is how many fantasy owners get their info, so it is important for every tweet to not only be informational, but accurate.
That taste of what life is on Twitter should give you an idea of why it is not only important, but the hotbed for Fantasy Football writers. Make sure to follow these accounts I have chosen, as you will not only get great insight, but oh who am I kidding, what are these people doing? How do I have only 140 followers? What have I done wrong?
We… Are… The 99%!
During the past year, Daily Fantasy Football has grown very much. This has quickly prompted many people to stop and think about the legality of Daily Fantasy. Many states over the past year have declared Daily Fantasy a form of online gambling, and therefore, illegal.
However, these DFS players often turn to the fact that the top players are consistently winning, and the lower-level players who aren’t successful consistently lose. They say DFS is a game of skill, and when you grind the numbers out, you can make educated decisions.
In case you were wondering what my take on it was, I believe that it is a mix of both. Yes, you can grind out the numbers, make spreadsheets, tables, graphs, analyze yearly, weekly and daily data to tell you to play Zach Ertz in Week 6 (By the way, what a great sleeper this week!). You can look at matchups, Red-Zone targets, and whatnot to tell you that he will be a great play.
This is the first part of Daily Fantasy. What I just wrote is the main thing pro-DFS arguments rely on. However, even when the numbers are crunched, things can happen. Ertz could pull a hammy. The Eagles could be behind, so they air it out deep to Jordan Matthews. Things happen.
So here is my hot take on the matter of the legality: I play Daily Fantasy as a hobby, but take my write-ups very seriously. Half the time I am not rooting for my Daily Players, or my players in my NFL.com Season-Long leagues, but I am rooting for who I wrote about to you loving folk. And I can say that I witness both arguments about the legality firsthand. I myself crunch the data to write that Colin Kaepernick is a good player, but sometimes things happen. I embrace this, and learn from it.
As long as people enjoy themselves and realize that the number 1 thing why they joined FanDuel or DraftKings was that they enjoy sports. Or make money. Or both.
Well, because that got very serious quick (and this is a light article!), I have compiled a great and hilarious clip about Daily Fantasy from the likes of and The Daily Show. Also, Last Week Tonight with Jon Oliver went very in-depth, so check that out as well.
Bad Beats
During the course of the 2015 NFL season, the DFS world experienced many bad beats, which is a part of fantasy football. Some of them are very agonizing, however most are purely funny. Here are some of the best, or worst, of the bad beats, all experienced over the course of 4 weeks, 12-15.
Week 15- DraftKings’Â $5M Millionaire Maker Special ($20 entry)-
With a $20 entry and many many entries, $1M would be awarded on Monday Night, which featured Lions-Saints. For user lazgetsfit, it was a good Monday Night for most of the game, as going into Monday, he was sitting in 9th, but had Tim Hightower still going. Hightower did really well for most of the game until the 4th Quarter, placing lazgetsfit into 2nd place. Then, a Hightower Touchdown secured a $1,000,000 winning… until it was called back for holding. But hey, $500,000 is still acceptable, right?
Week 14- DraftKings’Â $5M Millionaire Maker Special ($20 entry)-
User 00oreo00 was deemed to win big, as he was a good 25 points up on the next position. Monday Night featured Miami-NYG, and for most of the game, it seemed as if Oreo would win. Until an 80-yard TD pass to Odell Beckham Jr made him plummet to 20th, and that’s where he would finish. He did 20x better than I did though. But that is still painful.
Week 13- FanDuel’s $2M Sunday Million ($25 entry fee)-
User trigga1982 seemed to have the contest wrapped up with a mild score of 221.56 points, which got it done, nonetheless. Kicker Dustin Hopkins nailed a late FG, and seemed as if Trigga would walk home with $200,000. But, Dan Bailey had other plans, as Bailey hit a 54-yard game-winning FG to get it done for user okieboy211, who ended up with 224.56.
Week 12- DraftKings’ $600k Blitz ($300 entry)-
I wrote about this in my Week 13 article, yet it still amazes me to this day. User GregieC03 would have won $100k without a doubt if Cleveland would have kicked the game-winning FG. However, as you know, the Baltimore Ravens blocked the kick, and returned it for a TD and the win. That should amaze you alone. However, user underjones had the Ravens D/ST on his roster at only 1.0% owned, and beat GregieCo3 with a score of 217.84. Gregie ended up with $50k and a final score of 217.64. Unbelievable.
Well, that about does it for me. Stay tuned for the in-depth article Things I’ve Learned While Playing Daily Fantasy Football as I will elaborate on the tools needed to succeed, as well as lifestyle tips, stats to look at, and how to research.
Go read a book.
You Can Follow Zachary on Twitter @ohuhave12
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