Once a year, a holiday comes. Excitement grows as you prepare. Your lists are all made. You get a good night’s sleep. The day finally comes, your shiny new present is waiting for you to open. Yes, I am referring to the fantasy footballer’s Christmas. THE DRAFT!
There are many kinds of drafts (i.e. auto-pick, online, auction, snake, etc). The best draft to have is a LIVE one, with everyone there to celebrate the holiday season together. But there is a Grinch lurking right behind the door, waiting for your draft to end to swoop in and diminish all the time, energy and loving care you put into crafting your team. Why would you ruin this holiday by making it pointless?
That Grinch waiting to kick down your door is rampant waiver wire movement.
Your fantasy season does not begin Week 1, it begins the minute the first owner is on the clock. Nay, it ends when the last second expires from the season prior’s championship game (hopefully with you hoisting a big fat trophy over your head, tears streaming down your face, hugging your significant other and realizing the deal you made with God now beholds you to name your firstborn son LaDanian). But I digress.
"Ummm, yeah. Maurice Peyton Miles Alge is a family name."
You pick your team from the entire pool of players (unless it’s a keeper league) and begin anew. Leagues with no restrictions on waiver moves, or dare I say unlimited moves (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit), makes the draft irrelevant. When you can pick up and drop players willy-nilly it gives no consequence to the draft. When your team turns out crappier than you thought when you called their name out on draft day, you should be punished. Craptastic owners should not be able to replace their entire team with waiver wire fodder.
Not only does it make the draft pointless, it doesn’t reward the people who drafted good teams. The owner who took a leap of faith in the 5th round, picking a rookie who blows up doesn’t get the props (that’s short for PROPERS) he deserves. Waiver wire weasels are just playing the match ups week to week. That isn’t fantasy football, it’s just betting the odds.
Waivers are a necessity, though. If you are battling bye weeks, or in the unfortunate situation when your star players breaks himself (i.e. Steve Slaton ’09, Tom Brady ’08, Shaun Alexander ’06, Curtis Martin ’05, Marshall Faulk ’02, Edgerrin James ’01 – Oh, looky there, folks. I owned 5 out of 6. Lucky me!). Every year, there are stand out players who perform well left undrafted. Our league gives everybody four offensive and four defensive waivers (four defensive since we use Individual Defensive Players, we don’t suck). Use them wisely, kiddies. If you draft well, you shouldn’t need much more than that (we’ve been around for 11 years and we’ve had one champion go an ENTIRE SEASON with no waiver moves. That’s FANTASY BALLS.).
It’s no fun when you have people picking up people one week and tossing them back to the wire the next.
Show some respect for the draft.
