Fantasy Football Strategy as a Parable for Life – Lessons from a Poppo

Yahoo Fantasy Football strategy first attracted my interest as an older person. I wanted to keep connected with grandsons, so I tagged on a family league. I greatly enjoy my connection with grandsons and Fantasy Football as my hobby during the football seasons. I enjoy grandchildren, pro football and playing with stats, so it’s right up my ally.

As I’m into week twelve in my fifth season, I realized as I spend time on waiver wires, trades and free agents, that Fantasy Football has also become a parable for life. I have learned, and am solidifying, some powerful personal and family lessons. This blog is my attempt to pass these on to other FF fanatics in order to develop a healthy life journey.

Fantasy Football Strategy #1: Begin with the end in mind.

When I prepare for the Fantasy Football draft, draft and change my roster, I have “make the playoffs” squarely center-stage. I do not draft to come out of the gate fast. I want players who excel in weeks 12-16, not 1-11. Once I’m fairly certain to make the playoffs, I pick up waiver wires by going to week 15 and 16 (playoffs in the ten team leagues I play in). Even if my team may have a bad game in an earlier week, I still care more about the long term perspective, what my team looks like in the playoffs.

Having a clear end in mind really does change my choices over the sixteen week journey. In life, it’s crucial to “begin with the end in mind.” I have been a growing Christian for forty-four years. When I was twenty-five, I knew I could not live my life well on my own. I prayed, “Jesus here is my life just as it is. I’m giving it to you now and taking Yours in return.” Shortly after, I began making choices in the light of the end results He wants…and I don’t regret a moment.

Fantasy Football Strategy #2: Build a strong base.

When I draft, I draft for “high floor” and “not injury prone” in the first four rounds. As I have watched, a good team is built on a strong draft in the early rounds. This year my flexible strategy for my team’s first four rounds was tock solid; all in the top five at their positions. Except round four where I had a “senior moment” in the middle of the draft, and did not look at my plan. I missed out on the top TE, and struggle this year at TE, averaging 3.41 FP instead of 10.35. UGHHH!!!!

From a strong base, it makes it much easier to pick up others along the way. What is your “philosophy of life,” your mental map through which you look at life. We all have one. I have made my faith in Jesus Christ and my family my highest priorities. I have four married children with four superb spouses (they pick well!) and fourteen grandchildren. We get along wonderfully and enjoy being with each other. This is my strong base for life.

Fantasy Football Strategy #3: Carve outspace for change.

I watch other teams draft two each of QB’s, TE’s, DE’s, and at time two kickers. With six bench players, this would squeeze my flexible bench down to two or three slots. This would destroy my flexibility to adapt to changing conditions…and each week is massive change, like life is! I prefer a strong, everyday QB and TE with no backup, and one DEF until after the first 6-8 weeks. I load my bench with potential upside, especially at RB and WR.

Every week I drop any backup when a waiver wire pickup appears to have more upside. I have already missed 40-50 times, dropping them the next week. However, every year undrafted stars emerge. If my bench is crowded, I have no room to stash a player for a couple weeks to see if they are on an upward trend. Every year I mine one or two who thrust me into the playoffs. I keep my attitude flexible, with eyes wide open looking for opportunity. Yes, FF kicks me in the backside over and over again, but I remain optimistic that opportunities lie out there, and prepare for change. This also works well for me in life.

Fantasy Football Strategy #4: Maximum effort toward high-leverage returns.

I’m not sure why it took me so long! This year I noticed how some teams won a week mostly because their defense went off. I started tracking defenses. For the playoffs, I have loaded up on high-upside defenses during this year against teams that yield high FP’s to defenses. Contact me after Christmas to see how I did!

This is also a powerful life lesson. We can invest our time, energy and gifts into what does not release much life (you fill in the details for yourself). We can also take the same time, energy and gifts and leverage that towards what brings a high return of what matters in life…for me relationships and joy, love and care, giving away my life to those who will outlive me. I hope you have learned that often good things in our lives can become the enemy of the best. Reflect! What brings most value to you? These are high-leverage priorities. Investing in healthy priorities is a golden key to life!

Last Thoughts:

I have not shared all my emerging thoughts on Fantasy Football because my grandsons may read my blog!

I’m also still gathering my thoughts on life, enjoying writing for the first time in my retired years. I would be glad to have you start reading some of what I offer for free on my website, whether my blogs or the free, downloadable PDF’s (with some books available inexpensively on Amazon.com). I hope you enjoy your next Fantasy Football season, although I’m even more interested to have this website be a caring companion on your life journey.

If you enjoyed the tips about FF or about life, please comment. I may have some more tips to offer.

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