We as humans tend to be a bit dramatic. We wear our hearts on our sleeves, to borrow a cliche. People yell, cry, overreact and get mad at things over and over on the daily. Emotion is what sets people apart from robots. Robots don’t understand why moving away from your hometown is hard or why breakups hurt. In a similar fashion, robots don’t understand why drafting a player like Tyreek Hill could cause some issues for people. Wait, what? That’s right, I am going to talk about emotion in this article and how it can apply in drafting your fantasy football team. The world of fantasy football is intimately connected with the world of the NFL. Anything that happens in the NFL immediately has an impact on the fantasy football world. Take Hill for example. An absolute stud on the field, but the allegations he faced this off-season may have some fantasy owners wary of drafting him. In this article, I will attack this dilemma head-on, and hopefully, give you a blueprint on how to handle emotion in fantasy football.
Fantasy Football: Drafting With Emotion
Get All the Facts
First and foremost, it is a good thing to have opinions on players that are not just “he’s a sleeper” or “he’s a bust.” You have to take a player’s personal life into account when drafting, in my opinion, for the sake of your team. A player with a past criminal record, for example, may be more likely to be a repeat offender (looking at you Josh Gordon). It’s important to have all the facts about someone’s life when drafting them to your team. If someone has a tendency to be a diva *cough Antonio Brown cough*, maybe you don’t want to deal with the headaches that that player may or may not bring. It is all personal preference of course, but having all the facts is absolutely crucial to forming an opinion on a certain player.
Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Wild
Once the facts are laid out in front of you, make a judgment using your head, not your heart. As hard as it may be, not letting your emotions cloud your judgment will actually give you the clearest opinion on a certain player. Take the aforementioned Brown as an example. He was the sole reason one of my teams made the playoffs a few years back, so obviously he has a special place in my heart. However, in a recent draft, I avoided Brown like the plague. Why? Because I judged him only using my head, and I wasn’t willing to take a 30+-year-old receiver in a new offense with frozen feet and helmet issues at his current ADP. Use your head and don’t let your emotions run wild while drafting.
Trust Your Moral Compass
After using your head, use your gut. Some people can’t stand to have certain players on their roster. If that’s you, that is okay. If you believe that having a player such as Tyreek Hill on your team wouldn’t be right, then don’t draft him. It’s that simple. Most of the time, your moral compass and your emotions will go hand in hand. Trust your gut and do what you believe is right. I will never draft Le’Veon Bell ever again because of previous pain he has cost me. I could never look at my roster and be content knowing that someone who screwed me like Bell did was now on my side. Now, that could change if Bell slipped. Personally, it’s all about value for me. Which brings me to my last point.
Value Is Most Important
If you take anything away from this article, it should be this. When it comes to fantasy football, everything is about value. No matter what opinions you have in your head and your gut about a player, sometimes the value can be too great to pass up. I’ll say it again: when it comes to fantasy football, everything is about value. Previously I said I wouldn’t touch Antonio Brown at his current ADP (WR9 according to FantasyPros). However, if he fell to, say WR16, right around the likes of Julian Edelman and Robert Woods, then that’s a different story. Sometimes value is too good to pass up, regardless of what your personal emotions might be towards a certain player.
In Conclusion
Using emotion in drafts is not a bad thing, but tread lightly. Use your emotions as a tiebreaker of sorts. If you are between two players but feel personally better about Player A, then take him. Gather all the facts, use your head, then your gut and you will be on the right track to mastering emotion in fantasy football. And always remember, it is all about value.
