Just need to ask fantasy super veterans, ive been curious. (1 Viewer)

[Montana16]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

 

[socrates]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I've been playing since 1991. Back then, we used the newspaper to score the games, we actually called or mailed in our weekly lineups and free agent bids.

 

[hostile]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

FF has been recent for me (~1999-2000), but I did hockey pools LONG before that, and yes, we did by using the newspaper for stats.Why is it so hard to believe that FF was played before it was popularized by the Internet?

 

[renesauz]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

Since about 93...and yes...we used pen, paper, and the newspaper.

 

[Montana16]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

FF has been recent for me (~1999-2000), but I did hockey pools LONG before that, and yes, we did by using the newspaper for stats.Why is it so hard to believe that FF was played before it was popularized by the Internet?

Because I have a strange habit of thinking that if im not doing it then nobody is doing it, and when I do something, its the first time its ever been done. Even as a small child I did this. Smushing up ice cream to make it creamy and soft? I was the first. Putting granola in yogurt? I was the first. Taking two pieces of pizza and putting them toppings to toppings? I was the first. LOL!!

 

[CalBear]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

It's been played since 1962, hosted at a pub up the street from where I live in Oakland. (Well, it used to be a pub; a few years ago it turned into a tiki bar. I'm not sure where the football league dispersed to, or whether it just died). It was calculated from the newspaper box scores.

 

[Couch Potato]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I started in 1981. The league began in 1980 and is still going uninterrupted.Fantasy Football Index first published in 1983 or 1984 I believe.

FF had been loooooooong established waaaaaay before the Internet.

 

[Nagle2998]

I knew fantasy football started before I started in 1999 but I didn't know it was played in the 80's and even before that I thought it started somewhere in the early 90's.

 

[SoopaCee]

ive been playing about 10 years

missed the playoffs once :-(

2 titles though

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

This is my 16th season and Every MOnday morning in the computer room we would grab a USA today and hand calc the stats. I only played in one league for like 8 years until joining my second.

 

[Godsbrother]

I started my league in 1994. First season I used the newspaper & spreadsheet to calculate scores. The next season I found a site that supplied me raw data and I wrote a Visual Basic program to calculate scores -- I used that for a couple years before moving to CBS. We've used that ever since.

 

[Bri]

yes USAToday monday's paper. In fact, since the WWW, I've noticed alot of FF veterans all had USAToday's monday paper in common as the stats to roll with. Kind of odd that so many people had the same idea separately but then again not many papers listed full stats. 20th year for me

 

[Bri]

FF had been loooooooong established waaaaaay before the Internet.

yeah. Most people I've come across called it the same thing we did a variation of rotisere baseball

 

[Banger]

This is my 16th season and Every MOnday morning in the computer room we would grab a USA today and hand calc the stats. I only played in one league for like 8 years until joining my second.

We've been going for about the same time and while we've morphed our rules over time we still have the same guys. We'd call in the lineups before the games (or leave them on the answering machine) or most of us would meet up at the bar each sunday to watch together. Pickups were first come first served by calling them into the commish. USAToday was the bible for scoring and every Wednesday the commishs mom would fax out scores, recaps and standings to our offices. Things have changed a little...funny stuff.

 

[Jason Wood]

I didn't break in until 1946, but got lucky as a rook by drafting both Don Greenwood and Spec Sanders. I CRUSHED it.

 

[zadok]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I've been playing since 1991. Back then, we used the newspaper to score the games, we actually called or mailed in our weekly lineups and free agent bids.

Same for me. I was a junior in High School when I formed my first league in 1991; I did the scores during my classes when the teachers weren't looking...

 

[Warhogs]

My first year was 1987 and I played in a league run by a company called Boxscore Sports which I think was run by a gentleman out in Idaho. He several years later sold the business.

I also used to play baseball, football and basketball through another company located somewhere in Texas (the company name escapes me) probably starting around 1990.

In that time frame there were several businesses that popped up that would run and score leagues and you typically paid a fee of around $100 per team to have them run the leagues. Without the internet it was well worth it especially for sports like baseball and basketball. They would send out results via mailing through the postal service and also run transaction updates and standings updates for weekly results via a call in number where you could access your league results.

 

[Couch Potato]

I didn't break in until 1946, but got lucky as a rook by drafting both Don Greenwood and Spec Sanders. I CRUSHED it.

You old geezer.

 

[FavreCo]

Since 1992.

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

Since 1991 for me - we were playing a dynasty league before we even knew that was called "dynasty". GB Barry Sanders and Christian Okoye

 

[RTB1]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

Yes, I began playing in '89, and I know people who played for years prior to that.I was a commish back then, and it was all done by hand using USA Today box scores. I'd have guys stopping by my house to pick up copies of the final scores and standings. Fax machines were used. When I learned how to use Excel, I thought that was revolutionary, especially coupled with email. Then the internet happened and we all know the rest of the story.Literally, my "workday" on Monday was taken up until about noon doing fantasy football scoring on the sly.I still remember some of picks from that first draft. Emmitt Smith, Warren Moon, Andre Rison.

 

[Hooper31]

1993 for me. First player I drafted was Dan Marino who quickly blew out his Achilles tendon. Good times.

My buddy Dug has been in a league since 1979. LINK

 

[roadkill1292]

Roto baseball was born in the late seventies or early eighties, I think, with ff following soon thereafter. I was in my first league in '91 and started my own local league in '92, which still has 6 of the 12 charter members participating. Internet services just rode the wave of the original boom but certainly helped to expedite the volume of today.

 

[buck naked]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I've been playing since 1991. Back then, we used the newspaper to score the games, we actually called or mailed in our weekly lineups and free agent bids.

Same with me, since 1990. You had to call in your lineups. I used to fax out the weekly results in 1992 to everyone because noone else knew who was starting who.

 

[PhantomJB]

This is an interesting thread. In a lot of ways it seems FF has a similar trajectory to poker, which also exploded with TV and the internet after being played since before the days of Wild Bill Hickock.

My question for the (say) pre '98 crowd is this:

Has the game gotten so competitive with so much popularity and access to information that you find it increasingly difficult to win championships OR do you find your experience over such a long time gives you a major advantage over the relative newbies and you are actually more successful?

The analogy I'm thinking of here is Doyle Brunson, a legend in poker but didn't win a bracelet since around 1976 while near-rookies were winning WSOP left and right (maybe a poor comparison and definitely no disrespect intended but I believe everyone gets my point).

 

[Futz]

This is an interesting thread. In a lot of ways it seems FF has a similar trajectory to poker, which also exploded with TV and the internet after being played since before the days of Wild Bill Hickock.My question for the (say) pre '98 crowd is this:Has the game gotten so competitive with so much popularity and access to information that you find it increasingly difficult to win championships OR do you find your experience over such a long time gives you a major advantage over the relative newbies and you are actually more successful?The analogy I'm thinking of here is Doyle Brunson, a legend in poker but didn't win a bracelet since around 1976 while near-rookies were winning WSOP left and right (maybe a poor comparison and definitely no disrespect intended but I believe everyone gets my point).

I've been playing since 92' and I'd say that FF has been dumbed down quite a bit for the average fan. We used to have to buy multiple mags, do some serous research and formulate our own drafting strategies because there were no such things as the internet, mock drafts, or FF related content on TV to lean on.Back in the day ldmanvoice: The people who put in the time and serious effort usually won annually. Now, luck has become the deciding factor more times than not. There's still seperation in managers when it comes to drafting, FA pickups etc.... but the gap has been closed quite a bit.

 

[FunkyTeaParty]

My league has been going since 1995. I can remember getting up early on cold Monday mornings with my roommate and combing the Poughkeepsie/Hyde Park, NY area looking for a USA Today that had the Sunday night game. I seem to remember there being a Holiday Inn in Hyde Park with complimentary USA Todays that usually had the late game. I would pull up at like 7am and Matt would run in, grab it, and run out. Our problem was we played IDP even back then and sometimes you would get the offensive box score for the Sunday night game, but not the defensive stats.

The massive amount of information has definitely made it more competitive because back then the lazy owners would have no recourse but to start guys that had lost jobs or were slightly injured because if it wasn't mentioned on SportsCenter they didn't know. Now all you have to do is take 5 minutes to look on any og hundreds of sites to see a player's status and you're on your way. We went online in 2000.

I have some old stats here. In 1997 our high scorer had 2021 pts and he was the only one to break 2000. Our low scorer had 1491.

In 2009 our high scorer had 2374 and 8 teams broke 2000. Our low scorer was 1810.

 

[Faust]

I have been in my primary league since 1993 when it started. The waiver wire has become very competative, as with a few clicks, even a new player can sort a huge amount of data and make good pick ups on available players. I remember when I had my own spreadsheets tracking weekly player performance while most of the other guys were looking at boxscores in the newspapers and the weekly newspaper columns with the league leaders in each category.

 

[WVU Alum]

My first league I joined in 1991. It had 6 teams. I played until 1993, it was too much effort for a high school kid. Didn't get back into FF until 2000.

 

[Mark Wimer]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

My first league began in 1989, the Heartland Football League. We used USA Today to score the games (they were the only paper we could get with complete box scores at that time - most others just published compressed boxes with the top players and a few stats - nothing like what you see on all the NFL news sites now-a-days). The commissioner used an excel spreadsheet to track weekly results (he still does for archival reasons), and we all called him for results on Tuesday evening. Early on, we called in our lineups and left them on his cassette tape answering machine. In 1989, there was one fantasy magazine, Fantasy Index, which was on the news-stands where we lived. If you wanted more information than that, you read the regular, non-fantasy NFL preview magazines like Street and Smiths or Sporting News. I think we started seeing Grogans/Athlon Sports magazines early in the 90s. There have been 3,176 fantasy games played in this league (regular season) with 103,527 fantasy points scored by the various franchises over the years - an average of 32.6 fantasy points per game. Here's the division winners (there are 3 divisions, one divisional entry into the playoffs yearly) and wildcards (the fourth team into the playoffs) over that 20-year time span, total appearances by franchisesivision Championships Day Traders 7The Black Watch 7Sharks 7Punitive Damages 5Pit Bulls 5Dragons 5Plucks 4Ferocious Fox 4Sixty-Niners 3Vikings 3Abominations 2Black Jacks 2Right Thinking Americans 1Celts 1Gridiron Legion 1 Wild Cards Vikings 5The Black Watch 4Sharks 3Day Traders 3Pit Bulls 2Dragons 2Celts 1Plucks 1Punitive Damages 1Black Jacks 1

 

[Hooper31]

You know you are old school fantasy football when....

- you remember getting the Fantasy Index updates and TFL report from Bob Harris via fax.

- you know what RSFF stands for.

- you had a special relationship with the Monday morning newspaper.

- you remember how Randall Cunningham changed the game long before Michael Vick.

- submitting lineups via phone call.

Feel free to add your own.

 

[mozzy84]

This is my 16th season and Every MOnday morning in the computer room we would grab a USA today and hand calc the stats. I only played in one league for like 8 years until joining my second.

I can remember going home for lunch on mondays and adding up all the stats, circling guys names, calling the commish with my lineup sunday mornings, ect. ect...it was fun doing it that way

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Used to run on Monday Mornings to grab a USA Today or the St Pete Times back in 1992 which was when I started playing. Pencil and paper for sure. The Sunday Night ESPN countdown show used to actually mean something. I would hang out in the bars after the games and make the bartender turn that show up loud so I could jot down as many of the stats as possible. In many ways the internet and these type of sites have made it much easier for the casual person to get involved and actually have a lot of success. Luck is the big factor now when all is said and done.

The reality is that a handful of players make the biggest difference and you really need to get lucky on your middle round picks, hopefully finding guys that play 4-5 rounds better than where you drafted them. Kurt Warner in 1999 in the 20th round made me a lot of money, but that was luck over skill.

Good thread topic.

 

[socrates]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I've been playing since 1991. Back then, we used the newspaper to score the games, we actually called or mailed in our weekly lineups and free agent bids.

Same with me, since 1990. You had to call in your lineups. I used to fax out the weekly results in 1992 to everyone because noone else knew who was starting who.

I used to have every team owner give me 16 self addressed stamped envelopes at the league draft each year to receive the weekly results, which I would compile Tuesday when the Monday night stats were published. Sundays at noon, I would receive at least a half dozen calls so people could get their opponent's lineup.Back in 1991, Dan Marino, Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham were the top QBs taken, if I recall correctly, Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas were the top RBs to own, and Jerry Rice was the king at receiver. My team featuring Jim Everett, Rodney Hampton, Andre Rison and a host of names I have long since forgotten won the league title that year!The most distinct advantage to having played for a period of time is in identifying trends, not just with NFL teams and players, but trends with fantasy team owners as well.

 

[TheDirtyWord]

My first year was 1987 and I played in a league run by a company called Boxscore Sports which I think was run by a gentleman out in Idaho. He several years later sold the business.I also used to play baseball, football and basketball through another company located somewhere in Texas (the company name escapes me) probably starting around 1990. In that time frame there were several businesses that popped up that would run and score leagues and you typically paid a fee of around $100 per team to have them run the leagues. Without the internet it was well worth it especially for sports like baseball and basketball. They would send out results via mailing through the postal service and also run transaction updates and standings updates for weekly results via a call in number where you could access your league results.

No kidding. I used him too for football, baseball & basketball. His update was the most awaited piece of mail I looked forward to in college.

 

[Black]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I started in 1981. The league began in 1980 and is still going uninterrupted.Fantasy Football Index first published in 1983 or 1984 I believe.

FF had been loooooooong established waaaaaay before the Internet.

How has your league reacted to managing their teams via Fax, or the Internet now? Have you changed the rules much to bring in PPR, etc? Is it/was it redraft/keeper/dynasty?

 

[crowe1130]

Started in '92. Lineups and roster moves were left on an answering machine. Box scores, pencil, and paper every Monday/Tuesday!

League is still going strong. Some turnover, but about half of the original members are gearing up for season 19. Lots of great long-term rivalries.

 

[Couch Potato]

Ive been playing since 99 when i used the nfl.com/cbs game most of that time. I consider myself a veteran but I hear chatter every so often about people who played a lot longer. Are these people lying just to sound old and wise? It seems to me that no one played ff until the internet became widespread. Did you keep track by pen and pad? Looking at the newspaper for the stats? I never heard of it till around when I started playing.

I started in 1981. The league began in 1980 and is still going uninterrupted.Fantasy Football Index first published in 1983 or 1984 I believe.

FF had been loooooooong established waaaaaay before the Internet.

How has your league reacted to managing their teams via Fax, or the Internet now? Have you changed the rules much to bring in PPR, etc? Is it/was it redraft/keeper/dynasty?

The first FF league was the GOPPPL, which was started by a limited partner of the Raiders, some Oakland Tribune guys, and others, in 1962. Here's the story from an old Fantasy Index article: http://www.fantasyindex.com/toolbox/birthIn 1981 I graduated college and went to work for the Arthur Andersen & Co CPA firm (now gone thanks to the Enron debacle). The guy who started our league in 1980, the Arthur Andersen Football League, was a young pup audit staff member at AA&Co. named Rich Rogers. The Raiders were a client of the firm, and through that connection Rich learned of fantasy football. GOPPL was either still ongoing, or he learned of a descendant league there, I'm a bit unclear. But Rich decided to get one going for AA&Co. Since I didn't arrive at the firm until its 2nd year, I'm not an original owner but I am the longest standing member now. Rich moved on after many years, and by the way he eventually became President of the Oakland Football Marketing Association (the Raiders' PSL and ticket selling arm).

The league was a scoring-only league from 1980-1982, and at that point I became co-commish and we introduced performance scoring of sorts. We didn't really have a guide as to scoring rules, so we winged it. Our rules have been basically the same since 1984 except for a few minor tweaks, and although at times we contemplated sweeping changes, after awhile we decided that part of the charm of our league was the strange and unique scoring and lineup format. We decided we could always find other leagues to complement AAFL for normalcy, so we've kept it as is all these years and I suspect always will.

Here are our primary rules:

10 team Redraft league

Live draft always held the Tues before the season, pizza and sodas provided. $240 buy in hasn't changed in ages.

20 round snake draft. For a few years we had 16 initial rounds and then a 4 round supplemental draft 4 weeks later. It became too hard to get everyone together for just 4 rounds and we consolidated the drafts into one.

No specific roster requirements other than every team must draft exactly 2 D/ST.

12 total starters. A minimum of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR/TE, 1 PK, 1 D/ST must be played each week.

The remaining 5 lineup spots may be filled with any position except defense (we have been a super-flex league from the start and you may see a lineup that includes multiple QB and PK!)

17 week regular season, no playoffs

Standings are determined based on won/lost record, ties broken by total points.

Offensive Player Scoring

Passing Touchdowns:

0 - 19 yards 3 points

20 - 39 yards 4 points

40 + yards 5 points

Rushing Touchdowns:

0 - 9 yards 6 points

10 - 29 yards 7 points

30 + yards 8 points

Receiving Touchdowns:

ALL 8 points (this was scored the same as rushing TDs for several years but we decided to bump WR scoring to balance values at some point in the late '80s)

Field Goals:

ALL 3 points

No scoring for extra points

Bonus - Passing Yards: 1 point per 100 yards (.01 per yd)

Bonus - Rushing Yards: 1 point per 25 yards (.04 per yd)

Bonus - Receiving Yards: 1 point per 25 yards (.04 per yd)

Bonus - Field Goals > 30 Yards: 1 point per 5 yards (.20 per yd)

No PPR

Defense / Special Teams Scoring

Fumble, Interception, Punt or Kick Return TD: 8 points

Safety: 3 points

Opponent Scoring < 10 Points: 1 point for every point < 10

Opponent Yardage 0.04 point per yard < 350 allowed

Free Agents

Free agent requests are emailed to me (used to be phoned in before email) by 2 PM Thurs and I report results to the league that night. Once Thurs games begin the deadline is moved to Wed. If multiple teams want the same player, I do a random drawing. Very simple. $10 cost per free agent added. Total free agent money paid out to 1st through 4th place finishers pro rata at end of year.

Payouts:

First Place $900*

Second Place $510*

Third Place $305*

Fourth Place $240*

Weekly high team scores $170 ($10 per week)

Top scorer at each position $50 (QB, RB, WR/TE, PK, DS)

High scorer overall (MVP) $75

Website Fee $150

Total $2,400

*Free ageny money divided among 1st through 4th, pro rata based on 1st - 4th payouts.

League has been hosted on CBS Sportsline since 2000, was done on Excel, 1-2-3, and Visi-Calc before that.

 

[5Rings]

You know you are old school fantasy football when....

- you remember getting the Fantasy Index updates and TFL report from Bob Harris via fax.

- you know what RSFF stands for.

- you had a special relationship with the Monday morning newspaper.

- you remember how Randall Cunningham changed the game long before Michael Vick.

- submitting lineups via phone call.

Feel free to add your own.

SF Chronicle Sporting Green on Monday morning was awesome.

We started in 1983. We still used newspaper scoring up until 98 or so...

 

[Mixlflick1]

Started in 1985 as a sophomore in HS. First draft was during study halls. Used a spiral bound notebook to keep track of the scores. Anyone could come up to me during the day and see the results. Used the stats in the local paper to keep track. I hated when Monday night games would go so late that the results weren't published until Wednesday's paper!

The same group (minus one to cancer) has played since the beginning, and we will begin our 26th season this fall. We've drafted in a dozen different cities. One year, a guy drafted, via telephone, from India. One guy drafted from a pay phone one time. D.C. this year (3rd time).

Our game has changed substantially. We started as redraft, then changed to keeper with a lot of players, and now keeper with just 3. Originally had no TE or Defense. Began as TD only and now is performance. Started as total points only, but now have two champions -- total points and head-to-head.

The one thing I have learned -- whoever has that year's statistical outlier has a 75% or better chance of winning. Think Emmitt Smith, Terrell Davis, Priest Holmes, Shaun Alexander, Marshal Faulk, Tomlinson, DeAngelo Williams, Chris Johnson, Tom Brady.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

I got invited into a league in 1990 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the USAF. No magazines at the time (at least that I had access to). Played 4 years in the AF, then for the last 16 years back here in Omaha - my how the game has changed.

 

[Couch Potato]

You know you are old school fantasy football when....

- you remember getting the Fantasy Index updates and TFL report from Bob Harris via fax.

- you know what RSFF stands for.

- you had a special relationship with the Monday morning newspaper.

- you remember how Randall Cunningham changed the game long before Michael Vick.

- submitting lineups via phone call.

Feel free to add your own.

SF Chronicle Sporting Green on Monday morning was awesome.

We started in 1983. We still used newspaper scoring up until 98 or so...

Hey 5Rings, we started as I said above in 1980.. in San Fran. I started a copycat league a couple years later (around 1983) for local bowling and softball friends.You say you started in 1983 in Bay Area. Dang, do we know each other? Couch Potato aka Bruce Hammond

 

[BuckeyeChaos]

I've been playing since 1992 with pen/paper and USA Today box scores.

I have to say that I don't feel this gives me any advantage. I've seen people come in completely fresh and simply follow ESPN fantasy advice (or any other of the hundreds of sites for that matter) and be competitive and win leagues.

I do think some of the luster is off the apple so to speak now for that exact reason. It is way to commercialized and covered and therefore comes down too much to luck of the draw.

 

[PhantomJB]

Used to run on Monday Mornings to grab a USA Today or the St Pete Times back in 1992 which was when I started playing. Pencil and paper for sure. The Sunday Night ESPN countdown show used to actually mean something. I would hang out in the bars after the games and make the bartender turn that show up loud so I could jot down as many of the stats as possible. In many ways the internet and these type of sites have made it much easier for the casual person to get involved and actually have a lot of success. Luck is the big factor now when all is said and done.

The reality is that a handful of players make the biggest difference and you really need to get lucky on your middle round picks, hopefully finding guys that play 4-5 rounds better than where you drafted them. Kurt Warner in 1999 in the 20th round made me a lot of money, but that was luck over skill.

Good thread topic.

Very well said and the highlighted part has been my observation having played about five years. It seems just a natural phenomenon that as access to information increases and skillsets converge that the luck (i.e. non-controllable) element would increase as an overall influencing factor on outcomes. Similar to a maturing industry in business or the stock market where achieving outsized returns becomes more difficult over time. Not at all trying to cop out here but getting grizzled vets' philosophy on success factors as they have evolved over time is awesome.

 

[Warhogs]

I think that the internet has helped level the field a lot since the early days and it is much more difficult to dominate the leagues I play in. The casual fan who can not spend a lot of time on research can now stay very competitive with all the resources. I do still believe the owners who can dedicate a lot of time to the hobby still hold an advantage as they tend to watch their squad much more closely and maybe understand the importance of managing some areas that others might dismiss as not important.

I think that even today our 1/3 best owners probably fill 75% of the playoff spots with the other 25% being shared by the other owners.

 

[Don Quixote]

I started in 1988. Newspaper box scores and spreadsheet was generally what was used. We had software at one point, which required to manually enter in the stats, but only used that for a year or two before going to back to spreadsheet.

 

[lynx4ben]

I've been playing since high school. Roughly 12 years. We used NFL.com and pen and paper to run our league.

I used to play around 8-10 redrafts a year. I was introduced to dynasty four years ago. I've eliminated all but one of my redrafts since.

 

[Couch Potato]

I've often thought back on one particular day in my life. I was sitting in a San Fran sandwich shop in August 1983 with my buddy and co-commish of our league (it was the first commissioner year for us both) and talking about implementing rule changes for performance scoring and some other stuff.

We were talking about how nice it would be if we knew anyone who was also doing this to serve as some sort of example for our own scoring. But there were no mags, no sources for networking, no one else we knew even doing this fantasy football stuff. Even mainstream football fans looked at us like we were nuts when we tried explaining fantasy football to them. But we knew we had something good here. On that day I said to my friend it seems that with all the niche magazines popping up, maybe I should start a fantasy football magazine. He laughed and said it was bad enough friends who know we do this think we're geeks, don't tell the world by starting a magazine no will even buy. After all, how many people like us could there possibly be? Certainly not enough to support a magazine.

The next year I spotted my first Fantasy Index magazine on the newsstand and I just shook my head. If I had just started my mag all those years ago... oh well.

There are more than a few of us geeks now, and I don't have to hide the fact that I play FF from my friends and family.

I just don't tell them I'm in 13 leagues.

 

[-jb-]

Been playing since 1836. We used to gather at Chief Runs With Buffalo Hide's teepee for the draft. Could barely fit everyone. Once the season began we would smoke signal free agent moves in. Scout Laughs at Pick would always send up a signal about picking up Shaman Sits on Bench. If you ever saw Shaman's skills that would be funny. What a card.

 

[Doug B]

You know you are old school fantasy football when....

- you remember getting the Fantasy Index updates and TFL report from Bob Harris via fax BY MAIL

- you know what RSFF stands for.

- you had a special relationship with the Monday morning newspaper.

- you remember how Randall Cunningham changed the game long before Michael Vick.

- submitting lineups via phone call.

Feel free to add your own.

"Yep" to all of the bolded. I can only assume that "RSFF" stands for "Rotisserie Sports Fantasy Football"....

As many have mentioned, the Internet has levelled the FF playing field a ton. It used to be that most owners scored their own teams from the newspaper, but looked no further. For a while, you could gain a real advantage by scouring the small print and seeing where an unknown guy, for example, had a bubbling-under performance -- and that guy was your brilliant WW pickup.

Here's an actual example, using the actual boxscore from a 1994 Wk 2 game between the Chargers & Bengals (GB profootballreference.com). Mark Seay (remember that guy?) was a popular sleeper pick and was predicted to be the Chargers' top WR that year ... and Seay did have some decent performances early. I was constantly churning the bottom of my FF roster, and saw in the agate type that that undrafted (in FF) Charger wideout Tony Martin had a 61-yd grab in the Bengals game (his only catch of the game). Since it cost nothing to pick Martin up, I did so. In Wk 3, Martin had 152 yds and a TD ... and ONLY THEN did anyone else in my FF league think about picking him up. Too late -- and Martin went on to lead SD's wideouts that year in yards & TDs, and afterwards remained a legit starting fantasy WR for another five seasons.

These days, Martin's catch would've been all over the post-game shows, and 50 FF website would post articles touting Martin as a WW gem. These kinds of guys NEVER fall through the cracks any more.