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| How to play fantasy football |
| By: Rob Heffelfinger |
Editor: Angelia Greenwell |
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SO, you want to be a fantasy football coach, but you don't even know that much about football?
Don't sweat it; it's not that tough.
We could give you long, involved drawn-out dissertations about blocking schemes, and 3-4 defenses, and blitz formations; but that wouldn't be very helpful, to you, at this stage of the game.
So, we at Fantasy Sports Tech are committed to bringing you the game of football, broken down in its simplest terms.
Football is a proxy for war, replete with two clans, each with the goal of capturing chunks of the other clan's territory and eventually, taking the other guy's treasure, or in this case, getting into the other's end zone, and capturing points from the other squad.
In football, you line up eleven big, burly guys on one side of an imaginary line, all outfitted with ample padding and thick, plastic helmets, to absorb the shock of "warfare”. Take eleven more big bosses, all with equal world-class athleticism, size, strength and talent; and face them opposite the first 11.
Set a small, pointy-ended, air-filled leather ball in between them; and watch them knock the living begeezus out of each other, as they try, each in turn, to move the ball down the field, to the eventual promised land. And that, in its simplest terms, is the game of football.
OK! It's a little more involved than that, but now, you've got the general abstract.
Football is made up of four periods or quarters each, 15 minutes long. Ask any women, who considers herself a "football widow," however, and she'll tell you that each of these periods last, approximately, 2 hours [even though they generally only span about 30-45 minutes, each]. The reason for this is simple: time, in football, is measured in game clock time. The game clock starts on the officials' cue and stops, at the sounding of an official's whistle.
The "officials", in question are known as referees and judges. These are the supervisors of the battleground. They decide the beginning of play; the conduct of play; the fairness of play; the plays that count and don't count and they ultimately decide the outcome, by virtue of signaling the point at which the game clock has officially expired.
Each series of plays sees the clash of an offense, and a defense. The clans take turns, in fielding their respective offensive and defensive units.
FIRST, however, play must be initiated, with both clans' "Special Teams" (ST) units on the field. The place kicker (PK) of what would be defense is at the vanguard of the play. He sends the ball sailing, on the strength of his massive leg, to the chief special teamer of what would be offense: the Kick Returner (KR).
The two squads clash, and the KR's ST unit tries to help him advance the ball as far into the opponent's territory, as possible, to gain good "starting field position" for the offense. The kicker's special teamers, in the meantime, are determined to stop this positive advance, and hold ground for what would be defense. At the same time, they are trying to create a turnover [TO] and knock the ball free, from the KR, in which case, they may be able to recover possession of the football, at which point, the roles would be reversed, and the would be defense, becomes the offense, and vice-versa.
This situation is rare, and most ST plays end, as they begin, in terms of which squad will play offense, and which defense.
In another rare instance, the KR will break free of the oncoming defenders, and will be able to take the ball all the way to the other's end zone, for a kick return touchdown.
The touchdown, in football, is the pot of gold at the end of the pigskin rainbow. When an offender, or special teamer the KR, in this case breaks the defender's goal line, with ball in hand and gets into the defender's end zone, they capture 6 points from the other team.
As I said this is a rare occasion. Typically, the would-be defenders' ST stops the KR, and play is set to begin, at the point on the field, at which the KR was determined, by the official, to be stopped--or, "downed”.
The two teams' regular offensive and defensive units take the field, each, again, with a specific goal, in mind. The KR's team is now the offense, and the PK's team is now the defense.
The offensive unit gets 4 tries or "downs" to accomplish one of two feats: they can either advance the football, through a series of run and pass plays, at least ten yards; at which point, having successfully accomplished this feat, they will begin another set of four downs.
In an even more desirable turn of events, the offense will advance the ball all the way down the 100-yards length of the field, and score or, capture a touchdown from the defense. This succession of events repeats, as long as the offense either continues to advance the ball at least 10 yards, and start another set of downs or records a score.
All the while, the defense is attempting to slow the offensive progress, and re-capture possession, by stopping the offense from either scoring, or attaining the necessary ten yards, to achieve a new "set of downs."
At any time, when the offense has not either scored, or reached its goal of ten yards, to get a new set of downs, they have the option of "kicking the ball-away" on fourth down.
This, too, can result in a pair of eventualities: the offense, coming to the possible end of its possession, may bring out its ST, headed up this time, by the punter (P). In this scenario, the ST tries to kick the ball as far into opposing territory, as possible, to keep the defensive ST "pinned”, and make the goal less attainable, when its offense takes possession of the football.
Or, if close enough and they have enough faith in their PK's leg strength and accuracy, they may send him out to attempt a field goal [FG]. This, too, is considered a score, even though it is only worth half of the six points' value for scoring a TD (3 points).
It should also be noted that, any time that either of the teams score a TD the PK will be brought out for an extra point attempt [XPA]. This formation resembles a short yardage FG, but is only worth one point. Depending upon the point’s gap between the two teams; the time remaining and a myriad of other strategic factors, the team which has just scored a TD may also opt to run, or pass the ball into the end zone. This is worth two points, if accomplished, since the odds are far greater against this play ending in a score, than the conventional XPA.
When a TD or FG is scored, the opposing ST's line up, and play begins anew, this time, with team who's just been scored against, acting as the would be offense, or receiving team; and the team that has just scored, as the would-be defense, or kicking team. Play continues, as such, until game clock time expires, and a victor is declared.
Certainly, there is much more detail to the game than this, and hundreds of scenarios to explore, but this is the essence of the game of football; and the foundation, on which fantasy football is constructed.
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