(photo from bluechipcustoms.com)

I’ve played virtually all of the fantasy sports, with the exception of NASCAR and fishing. They all have good points and bad points, but in my mind nothing beats football.

I first started playing in 1980, as a school project. Mr. Stassfurth at Douglas Alternative Elementary formed a league of sorts with me and some of my fellow third-graders. He wanted to use it as a tool to teach us math, and every Friday we would draft a new team: one QB, two RBs, two WRs, a TE and a K. Touchdowns were worth seven, FGs were three and XPs were one.

We had to add up everyone’s scores and provide averages. It was a blast – after all, I still have vivid memories from that time. A couple of years ago, I talked to Stass and found out his first experience in fantasy football was back in the late 1960s.

Brian Sipe (my favorite player) from my beloved Kardiac Kids was my first ever pick in fantasy football, and even though we drafted a new team every week I grabbed Sipe as often as possible. I was in the third grade, and the Browns were my favorite team so naturally I drafted others from Cleveland.

Sipe had his greatest season of his career, going for over 4,132 yards and 30 touchdowns. I believed that Sipe had his best year because he was on my team, along with guys like Rucker, Logan, Pruitt and even Cockroft.

I leaned on Sipe and the Browns in ‘81 as well, but I learned my lesson that holds true today – don’t grab players just because they play on your favorite team.

Luckily, the lesson was learned before the Paul McDonald era began.