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Sporting News, The, August 26, 2005 by Vinnie Iyer

Even though winning a fantasy football league takes almost as much commitment as a good marriage, that's no reason to treat draft day like your bachelor party. If you come away embarrassed and unable to remember what happened that night, your wedding--make that your season--could crash in a hurry. Although I'm about as qualified to give marital advice as Dr. Phil pretends to be, I can tell you that you should look "deep inside yourself" to avoid these draft disasters:

Stalling for time. As much as you want to confer with the voices in your head you call a war room, you're not diffusing a bomb here. When you spend an eternity deciding on a mediocre defense, you're dragging the rest of us down with you. Pick already.

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Don't be hating. It sure can be fun to jab a draftmate for making a ridiculous pick, but don't get carried away. You need to keep everyone happy so you can hose them in trades later.

Don't spill. This applies to both adult beverages and blurting out the name of whom you're planning to draft next. A beer-battered cribsheet is bad enough, but there's nothing worse than your (now former) buddy stealing your sleeper pick.

Rookie mistakes. Just because an anchor on a major sports cable channel hypes all these kids as "playas" doesn't mean you should load up on rookies. Let the 49ers draft Alex Smith first--if you draft him, your team will be irrelevant.

He's broken, you bought him. Take a guy on injured reserve and you might be considered mentally unable to perform. The draft has no return policy on damaged goods, so you'll be hurting if you take players who will have more surgeries than touchdowns. Homers strike out. You'll disrespect the blind bard of Greece if you show blind loyalty to your favorite team. Even if you think Cleveland rocks, you should know the Browns' offense doesn't.

To participate in our online mock drafts, go to fantasygames.sportingnews.com/football.

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Sporting News, The, August 26, 2005 by Vinnie Iyer

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