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I think the timing aspect that annoys me are the late inactives or oddly spaced games like a random London at 9AM. People get burned by not setting a lineup.
This 100%
That was 20 years ago.
I realize that, but each year seems to be more and more, from MNF doubleheaders to searching streaming services for the games.
Well put.
That ain't it. I've been playing fantasy football since I was in college. I was good. For a while real good. So it became all about the edge. I stop short of calling myself hyper-competitive, but when I get into something I go all in. For a moment in time that was fantasy football then it sustained. Then as other responsibilities accumulated so did the others access to information. Gone were the days in which the league was won on draft day - now the best left a draft with at best a B and those that did no homework and just drafted based on what AI told them to do were only marginally worse. To create an edge now you have to be engaged all offseason, thread the needle via waivers, or ideally both. It's...a lot. Before, just by staying up to date and watching games you could develop a massive advantage. Now, that effort, doesn't move the needle. The law of diminishing returns has kicked in.
Sometimes I think you struggle connecting responses to the words you write. You asked a question. I went into detail why, for me, it's the wrong question. If you don't want individual feedback, and are more concerned with consensus, then I suggest reassessing how you frame questions.
Sometimes I think you struggle connecting responses to the words you write. You asked a question. I went into detail why, for me, it's the wrong question. If you don't want individual feedback, and are more concerned with consensus, then I suggest reassessing how you frame questions.
Zero problem there. I asked a specific question about how much time people were spending on it. If you'd rather ask a different question, all good there. That doesn't change the fact I was looking for answers to the question I asked. 
It appears you don'tThat doesn't change the fact I was looking for answers to the question I asked.
I'm still in my local redraft league from the 1980s. My brother & I co-own a team. If it was just me with a team, I'd have gotten out several years ago - but he still wants to plays and, honestly, he does most of the grunt work. We'll discuss draft strategy, lineups, add/drops, etc..... but he's driving the bus.
I was in 4 Zealots dynasty leagues for years and those were fun. But they took a lot of effort (I was commish in one) and real-life stuff had me bow out of them about a decade ago.
I'll do the BB subscriber contest here. As usual, I will also get a visit from the Turk on the first-cut week
That's basically it, Joe. If my brother had told me in February he didn't want to do it anymore, I'd have dropped. I still enjoy it, just not enough on my own anymore.I'm still in my local redraft league from the 1980s. My brother & I co-own a team. If it was just me with a team, I'd have gotten out several years ago - but he still wants to plays and, honestly, he does most of the grunt work. We'll discuss draft strategy, lineups, add/drops, etc..... but he's driving the bus.
I was in 4 Zealots dynasty leagues for years and those were fun. But they took a lot of effort (I was commish in one) and real-life stuff had me bow out of them about a decade ago.
I'll do the BB subscriber contest here. As usual, I will also get a visit from the Turk on the first-cut week
Thanks, GB. That makes a lot of sense.
Is the primary draw now mostly a fun activity with your brother and staying connected to the other people in your league while also enjoying the game the football?
Nearly impossible these days imo for a normal redraft league. Even the free to use league management sights send you info daily.
It's guesses and hunches that pan out more than anything else.
That's basically it, Joe. If my brother had told me in February he didn't want to do it anymore, I'd have dropped. I still enjoy it, just not enough on my own anymore.I'm still in my local redraft league from the 1980s. My brother & I co-own a team. If it was just me with a team, I'd have gotten out several years ago - but he still wants to plays and, honestly, he does most of the grunt work. We'll discuss draft strategy, lineups, add/drops, etc..... but he's driving the bus.
I was in 4 Zealots dynasty leagues for years and those were fun. But they took a lot of effort (I was commish in one) and real-life stuff had me bow out of them about a decade ago.
I'll do the BB subscriber contest here. As usual, I will also get a visit from the Turk on the first-cut week
Thanks, GB. That makes a lot of sense.
Is the primary draw now mostly a fun activity with your brother and staying connected to the other people in your league while also enjoying the game the football?
Tying into that with your question above about how much time do we spend on FF, I'm not sure how to quantify that.
If it's just cruising the Shark Pool at random and reading various articles on the internet about the NFL, it's a lot of time.
If it's in-season, and just I'm concentrating on my players' (or potential waiver adds) threads and the team threads associated with them, it's much less. Add in talking to my brother about team management, and I'd guess I spend maybe 6 or 8 hours a week on my particular squad.
8-10 years ago, that's about right. Now? Way too much. I probably spend more time now searching for angles in dynasty in and off season than I do anything else. If I can gain any edge on the competition in redraft it's from that same work. I think the only advantages that can be gained now is getting in front of Wed practice reports (waivers), surprise injury disclosures (Friday), and an hour or two before kickoff. The problem with the latter 2 being available at those times (I'm usually not).
I can see where dynasty would take more time, that is probably a 365-day job keeping up with everything.
Not 365, but 52? Yeah, it spreads out the time commitment though. I don't do more than scroll through a couple email newsletters for most of Jan-Aug. When I do it's only because something caught my interest. I'll temporarily ramp up a week or so before FA until about a week or so after then again a week or so before the draft until my own (they start right after ~May 1) conclude. Otherwise it's autopilot until a week or so before Aug drafts and there's no cramming for a test, it's just refreshing myself with where I was 4 months earlier and whatever entered my orbit during the idle summer season.
Agree with all this.For me, draft day alone was fun enough to make it worth it back in the day when it meant all getting together with our sheets and magazines, food and drink, making fun of each other, etc. Gradually, more and more people wouldn't show up but be online instead, and those that were there in person were too busy looking at their computers and entering info into spreadsheets instead of actually conversing, to the point where it didn't make sense to meet in person for it at all. Things like the Draft Dominator (while seeming great to me at the time when I used it) actually served to make the draft much less fun in the long run. And then without a live draft and the banter that goes with it, this seemed to really put a damper on the interactions that would take place throughout the season as well.
Then when you did have social interactions where FF would come up, guys in my league would invariably talk about their other leagues they were in as well (other than maybe two years where I played an extra league, I was striclty a one-league guy) and there's not much less interesting to me than listening to talk about FF leagues you're not involved in.
Whenever anyone says, "I don't have the time" they really mean, "I don't have the desire to prioritize this with my time." And it wasn't just the total amount of time you'd put in during the week, but how often you'd have to think about it, even if for only a few minutes at a time. Waiver wire deadlines, Thursday night games, Saturday games, etc. All requiring attention when other aspects of life as you get older demand more attention and priorities change.
So I was all in for years, but now it's been years since I played. Once in a while, I think I miss it enough to start up again, but then I hear people talk about their leagues and it all sounds so silly and uninteresting.
And it's nice to be able to watch my actual NFL team without worrying about who exactly scores for/against them, and to pay some attention to the NFL in general without caring about the name and status of the backup RB on some team I don't normally even think about.
Yes, with my last TV. Recently got a new one, and haven’t watched a game on it yet, but will definitely try.
This. I take pride in my lawn. I generally mow every 4 days or so. Friends laugh at me saying they just dont have time. I say we all have the exact same amount of time, we just prioritize things differently.
