By Bob Moser
July 14, 2010
For American ex-pats who still ache inside on Sunday afternoons for our brand of football, I'm offering the best remedy possible while living in São Paulo: A local Ex-pats Fantasy Football League.
I've been a fantasy football fanatic since my early teens, and long for the camaraderie that stems from weekly competition with coworkers or friends through fantasy football. This will be the second year of the Sao Paulo Ex-Pats Fantasy Football League, and we‘ll have a few openings to fill due to past owners moving away.
For those who've never played fantasy football, 10 or 12 coworkers, classmates or friends (we prefer these even numbers) form a league together, with each person as "owner" of their team. The group gathers for a live draft together, often at a restaurant, house or office, where owners take turns drafting real NFL players to fill their teams. Draft night is usually the most fun part of the whole season, as the group setting invites jokes, heckling and optimism for every owner who walks out thinking they drafted a championship-caliber squad.
Then during each week of the NFL season (17 weeks, Sept. 10-Jan. 3), your team will face off against another owner's team, with each owner choosing his best players to start. Those players earn points based on how they perform in the real NFL games that weekend, and your team earns a "W" if it amasses more points than your opponent's team.
For those with experience, for simplicity I'm encouraging the traditional starting lineup of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 Def/ST (8 players starting, with 16 players overall on a team). Scoring would be the standard combination of touchdowns and yardage, and the league would be managed on Yahoo Sports, which is free.
If you have never played fantasy football, no worries. The winner of our league last year was playing for the first time. He made the effort to read up and study beforehand, but caught quite a bit of luck along the way as well, which is usually the deciding factor in this game, anyways. As long as you care enough to read about the NFL results each week online, I will help all new owners prepare before the draft, offering a variety of Web sites where you'll find fantasy tips and "cheat sheets" that rank NFL players based on their expected fantasy performance.
To keep league members interested and competitive through the whole season, each owner will pay an entrance fee, likely R$100 this year. The fees would stay within the league, used to buy pizza for draft night, and as a cash prize for the league winner.
I'm eyeing the weekend of Aug 29 for owners to gather for a league draft. If interested, e-mail me ASAP at bobmoser333@gmail.com to reserve your spot.
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