Well, if you're a fan, it certainly makes some uninteresting stuff interesting.
For example...if you dont live in new yawk...do you care whether kurt warner will return to his old form and win the starters job? If you arent in St. Lou...is Marshall Faulks flakey knee of much interest? As someone who isnt a bronco's fan wondering if Tatum Bell will be the next denver running back to go wild? Is Rex Grossman the next coming of Brett Favre?!?
All of these questions interest me, because any one of these guys might be a steal pick in a later round, or the 3rd quarterback I take in the 11th round that I end up riding to the championship game.
You have to plan your draft. Either you make up a list of players at each position in rank order and let the computers at yahoo do it for you, or you choose a time and day to "meet" online at the draft board and you each choose your players. Some are no-brainers. The people who win are the folks who pick up that bright rookie or 2nd year player thats ready to break out in the 10th round, or that broken down guy with nothing left that proves everyone wrong and turns in a pro-bowl season.
Next, week after week you look for breakout players, players other team managers might have given up on too easily, and other waiver wire fodder. You can propose trades with other team managers. You have to decide which players have the most favorable matchups and who to play and who to leave on the bench.
The real difference is on sundays and monday nights. You might end up watching 3-4 "dog" games. I have at least a couple of players in almost every game that I want to score or stop the other team. It can end up with some perverse situations, like wanting one teams quarterback to throw a couple of touchdowns, but not wanting that same teams star receiver to catch them because your opponent has that guy. In this light, even the cardinals vs the chargers can be an interesting game if you have anquan bolden on the cards and ladanian tomlinson of the chargers in your starting lineup. However, my buds come over to watch the game and invariably have to ask "ok, what weird combination of players are we rooting for this week, and who do we want to have a minor but non serious injury early in the game?"...
You generally play head to head against 9 other people in a standard league. Points scored by each of your players vs the other guys players determines the win. At the end of the season, the top winning teams advance to the 'playoffs'.
Now its round 2 for strategy...the fantasy playoffs are usually played a week or two before the end of the "real" season. Your yearlong "studs" might have already secured a playoff berth and may not even play, or might get pulled in the 2nd quarter. You need a deep enough "bench" to make sure you're running players that are still needing another win.
Of course, theres message boards so you can trash talk before and after games, kibitz with other managers, and gloat your championship win.
As a nice side effect, I've met a lot of cool people that are fans, and we've stayed in touch.
You can spend an hour or two a day or ten minutes a week setting your strategy. It can be a lot of entertainment, and amplify your appreciation of each and every game...for free.
If you really like football, and/or you really like to compete, its a good time.
