Yahoo! Sports - Fantasy Football Live Review - 5 Stars

I love fantasy football. Which in a way also means I hate football. Or more correctly stated, I hate it when the guy I bench scores 3TDs and I hate the taunts from the other fantasy owners when I bench a guy who scores 3TDs. Many fantasy football league owners will not make a move out of fear of the taunts and loathsome retorts they would hear if that move turned out to be boneheaded. Let me share with you an example of an email taunt in our FFL.

To Stelzegrampa,

WTF1. Stop drunk dialing me. Don't you have an x-girlfriend to call?
WTF2. You have 3 TE's. Hello?

Three TE's? How did you get to be so sucky at fantasy football?

Seriously? Who the hell needs 3 TE's? Dude, NO ONE. Not a soul. You are the only team in all of America that has 3 TE's.

You worry me. Didn't you just trade Chris Johnson for a TE too?

WTF3. You traded Chris Johnson for your third TE!?!?!?!? You are a bonehead!

-----------

You don't want to be on the Stelzergrampa side of this discussion. So if you are a good owner you seek out advice of experts. You look at rankings, check injuries, verify your lineup selections against various start-bench lists - Y'know, the usual pre-game rituals. But then most of you submit your weekly lineup and then get ready to sit by the TV and watch a network pre-game show.

Big mistake. If you are spending that last hour before the games watching a group of men in business suits playing big boy on green turf then you are not getting the full fantasy experience. And you are cheating yourself and your team the opportunity to get last minute useful advice. I mean, watch Howie go long if that floats your boat but the serious fantasy football enthusiast is tuned into Yahoo! Sport Fantasy Football Live.

I give it 5 stars. Why?

Star 1- John Weisbarth, the (new as of 2011) host of Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Live each Sunday. His duty on the show is to keep things moving and to minimize the bickering from the other Yahoo analysts. He's new. He seems ok. At first, I was a bit grumpy that it wasn't Schwartz again or back to Biel but the new guy is ok. I'm sure by mid season he'll be better than ok. He'll be good. He is still the voice of reason amongst the fray, the expert analysts, who are my next 3 stars.

Stars 2-4. The analysts, Brandon Funston (http://sports.yahoo.com/top/expertsarchive?author=Brandon+Funston), Brad "The Big Noise" Evans (http://sports.yahoo.com/top/expertsarchive?author=Brad+Evans) and Chris Liss (http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/expertsarchive?author=Chris+Liss), round out the show. There is much bravado and bickering, especially between Funston and Evans, with Liss giving up to the minute injury reports and tid bits of late breaking news. There are questions from the Live audience which includes phone calls, emails and a chat interface which are answered quickly and efficiently. The arguments and disagreements remind you of draft day all over again. The chemistry is perfect between the guys. Much better than Bradshaw harassing the weathergirl.

Star 5. The Live audience including the chat interface. You can ask questions along side of the live feed which are answered by Yahoo! staffers. Although they've ignored my questions so far, the ones from Queso Malo... I still forgive them. Just not enough to mention their names now in my article. OK, OK I will mention them - manning the chat lines are Andy Behrens (http://sports.yahoo.com/top/expertsarchive?author=Andy+Behrens) and Scott Pianowski (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs?author=Scott+Pianowski). They also are responsible along with Funston and Evans for providing Yahoo! Weekly Rankings.

And is the advice good? I don't know. Good as any. Better than watching the hosers on TV. If you haven't figured it out yet... fantasy football is a big dice roll. A crap shoot. I'm the third highest scoring team in my league but I'm in the basement. Our top teams are at the top more out of lack of scoring from their opponents than anything. It's a crap shoot. You put in healthy 1st stringers and 2nd stringers where you have to and then hope for the best. Do you really need someone to tell you that you might want to sit your guy when he's going against Champ Bailey (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4655)?!? Either way, it doesn't matter much. The thing is, these guys on the Yahoo! Live show are entertaining and will keep you from starting someone who just got hurt when you haven't found that out yet. And they wont go out and play like boys on green carpet!

Yahoo! Sports - Fantasy Football Live is the only way to start out a Sunday of fantasy football games. To miss it is like missing the kickoff of a Packer game. Unforgivable. I highly recommend you give them a look.

http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/ffl - 1 hour prior to kickoffs on Sundays.