Step away from the cheat sheet, slowly
This is a bit of advice I’ve given before, and it helps me after weeks of preparing for the draft: Take a day off.
Depending on your level of dilligence/fanaticism, you’ve been a fantasy football junkie for at least a few weeks now. You have stopped reading books in favor of fantasy football magazines. You’ve stopped randomly surfing the Web in favor of fantasy sites. You go straight for the NFL notes in the newspaper’s sports section. The only reading material next to your toilet is a football magazine.
For just one day, take a step back. It’s easy to get to overwhelmed in all this before your draft(s). On your day off, do something football-related. Play Madden (or if you are a classic videogamer, Tecmo Bowl). Watch old NFL Films or a Super Bowl you might have on tape, or a classic football movie. Throw a football around with your kids. Anything except look at a cheat sheet or NFL Web site just for one day. All that news will be there the next day. Take this one day to get psyched for the upcoming NFL season for something other than fantasy football.
I’m going to pull out an old set of football cards this week, maybe Topps 1979. This is a great time of year, when football starts, not just on the pro level, but college and high school, too. Don’t overload your brain too much before fall even begins.
1979 Topps. I remember.. that was the very first set I ever completed. Loved that year (Earl Campbell Rookie… he was one of my favs that played the game back then).
Thanks!
GIC
August 26th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Yes. Good idea. By draft time I was so scrambled that I drafted Gostkowski in the 6th round. A cascade of lol filled the chat room. Cramming stuff the day of the draft was a bad idea. Well, that and all the beer.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I stopped collecting football cards in 1980, and all those past cards are long gone, any complete sets I own now I bought off eBay. That 1979 set was the first one I looked for. I posted on getting Earl Campbell’s autograph when I was 10, I got it on his rookie card, and I seem to recall Topps not making an Earl Campbell card in 1980 (possibly similar with Barry Bonds not letting his name be used on baseball cards today). Unfortunately, I lost that card! I don’t know how much it would have been worth autograph, I wish I had it just for nostalgia value.
JG
August 30th, 2007 at 1:19 am