I'm still trying to understand Fantasy Football. Can you help?

Question

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I still don't understand how fantasy sports work.
I asked about them in Yahoo Answers before and was told the players are evaluated on how they play a game. There are drafts and fantasy teams and leagues. However, that is all meaningless to me without further information and a concept of fantasy sports.

What is a draft?

How do the players play?
How are they evaluated?
Who evaluates them?
Are there real games?
Do they go outside to the sandlot and mash it out?
Are the games real or fantasy?
Is there a fantasy touch-down or fantasy score?

If a guy has a player from Detroit and another player from Dallas on his fantasy team, how do they play a single game together as team mates?
Aren't they rivals that play against each other?

How does the whole fantasy sports thingie work please?

Please do not assume I know anything (including terminology).
Who - What -When - Where - Why & How?

Please answer as if I just came from Mars. Or China!

謝謝 and 和平 - ♥

Answer 1

In America, we love sports. One of the most popular sports is a game called football. Football used to be played by just kicking the special, oblong ball but now you pass, run with and kick the ball to score points. Football is seasonal in the US, starting in August or September and running through January - though unorganized games can be played all year. The field is 100 yards long in America, with ten yards extra on the ends (called the "end zones") to keep players safe as they try to move their team across their opponent's line. Doing that with the football scores a "touchdown". More on scoring later.

Football requires two teams, with the organized teams usually having at very least 22 players. The object is to move the ball up and down the field by a combination of running, throwing the ball or kicking it to gain field position and ultimately scoring points. Taking the ball over an opponent's goal line (across to the end zone) is worth six points. You get a chance at this moment to kick a ball between the goal posts in the end zone for one point, or try the harder chance of scoring again on one play from two yards out for two points bonus. If you have the ball and can't get to the end zone, kicking the ball between those uprights from farther away gives you three points - it's called a "field goal".

Once you have played on some winning teams that aren't professional (to get noticed) and go to college for one year, you can play as a professional and get paid. Most of the good players are chosen in a draft, or where each of the 32 professional American teams gets to choose one player at a time. The players not selected in this draft can still be brought in to play as a "free agent", but will have a harder time making each team's final roster of 53 players.

Once you are selected to try out for the team, you sign a contract for a certain length of time and possibly some bonuses or incentives. If you play well and don't get injured or have a bad attitude, you usually get another contract when the other expires. If you don't do these things, you get "cut" (released) from the team or traded to another team who still thinks you can play.

How does fantasy football work? The players who are professional make statistics every week they are active. The public can get together and pick players based on the players' positions played on the field and their actual statistics, and try to come up with a "fantasy team", a team of real players scoring fantasy (statistical) points who really don't play together on one field. "Fantasy players" score points based on statistical values everyone in one fantasy league who wants a team agrees to. These rules are in place before the fantasy draft is done to decide who gets what players. Fantasy drafts can be live in a chat room or somebody's house with refreshments, or done by a list-ranking system in computers.

Real football has a championship match at the end of the season, usually called a "bowl" because the stadiums they are played in are usually very large. There is either a points system or a head-to-head matching of the best teams called a "playoff" to decide who can go to a bowl. The professional players have a Super Bowl at the end of every year. The fantasy leagues also have their "fantasy bowl", usually occuring just before the end of the regular season before the playoffs.

Send me an E-mail if you need more detail. I assure you that both fantasy football and real football are exciting and fun as a player and as a spectator. I am both.

Andrew
Real football player, and
Owner, fantasy football teams
"Death By Bad Karaoke" (record 31-1)
and "Riverside American Dreams" (record 119-48)

Answer 2

There are lots of scoring variations, but basic play is the same.

Before the season starts, all of the owners in a league gather for a draft. The order is drawn at random. Most leagues use a "snake draft" where the order is reversed every round- the last person to pick in one round picks first in the next. You draft actual players from different NFL teams. In some cases you would want players from the same team (a starting running back and his backup, or a quarterback and his top receiver), but for the most part you don't want too many players from the same team simply because the NFL has bye weeks, so all of those players would be off the same week. The draft would continue until every team has filled their roster. Some leagues require specific rosters (you must have 2 players at each position for instance) while others leave it up to the team owner to decide how many players they want at each position. Most leagues have 16 man rosters, with one starting quarterback, tight end, kicker and defense, and some combination of 4 or 5 running backs and wide receiver. Only the players in the starting lineup count towards your fantasy point totals, so you have to keep track of injuries, bye weeks, match ups and more.

There are many variations of fantasy scoring, but basically you would score fantasy points based on yards gained, touchdowns scored, field goals and extra points, and defensive stats like sacks and turnovers.

A basic scoring system might give 1 point for every 10 yards rushing or receiving and 6 points for a touchdown. So, if a running back had 112 yards rushing, 45 yards receiving and 2 total touchdowns they would score 27 fantasy points in that system. There would also be points for passing yards and touchdowns, field goals and points after tds, and defensive stats like sacks and turnovers and special teams touchdowns. There are a LOT of scoring variations. Most leagues use online services which compute all of this automatically. Once the rosters are inputted, each owner manages his or hr own team and the results are posted on the website.

I assume you were being facetious about the teams actually playing with and against each other, but maybe not. Fantasy teams have nothing to do with real teams. In fact, one of the things that makes fantasy sports fun is you and I could be playing each other in our fantasy league and you might have a wide receiver from the same team as my quarterback. If you have the lead on me, I would be cheering for some pretty specific things to happen- my quarterback would have to produce fanatasy points for me, but NOT throw the ball to your receiver too often, since you would get points too.

Answer 3

First off the draft is when you select players from any team in the NFL to be on your fantasy team
Each week when the NFL teams play their REAL LIFE GAMES statistics are translated into points based on the leagues settings by points which you can see for yourself in a league you are in.
Yes you can have players from different teams on your team because only individual stats count
hope this gets you started

Answer 4

Im in a league but I never watch LOL Dont worry Just have fun You can sign up for free leagues on Yahoo

Answer 5

wow....if you dont know sports then you are in over your head in fantasy sports

Answer 6

yes, i am quite the "riot".