NFL Fantasy Football: Divisional

January 25, 2013; Ko Olina, HI, USA; NFC players pose during the team photo at NFC media day for the 2013 Pro Bowl at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort. Pictured Top Row (L-R): NFC wide receiver Victor Cruz of the New York Giants (80), NFC tight end Kyle Rudolph of the Minnesota Vikings (82), and NFC tight end Jason Witten of the Dallas Cowboys (82). Middle Row (L-R): NFC fullback Jerome Felton of the Minnesota Vikings (42), NFC long snapper Don Muhlbach of the Detroit Lions (48), NFC outside linebacker Chad Greenway of the Minnesota Vikings (52), and NFC inside linebacker Daryl Washington of the Arizona Cardinals (58). Bottom Row (L-R): NFC punter Thomas Morstead of the New Orleans Saints (6), NFC quarterback Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints (9), NFC quarterback Eli Manning of the New York Giants (10), and NFC wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals (11). Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

So after winning my league Super Bowl following the 2006 season, I quit playing Fantasy Football for a few seasons. Honestly, I must say I did NOT miss it. It’s nice to enjoy football for what it is, and not end up screaming at the TV and ruining a Sunday over something stupid like “Damn, why did Brady throw it to Hernandez? I started Gronk!!!” That said, I’m still an idea man… and I’ve got a great idea to breathe new life into Fantasy Football for anyone getting bored or looking for a new twist:  Divisional Fantasy Football.

Each of the 8 players gets one NFL Division and can field his team from any players in that division. So the person with the NFC East could choose from Eli Manning, RGIII, Michael Vick, and Tony Romo at QB. Meanwhile the guy with the AFC North could pencil in Ravens RB Ray Rice and Bengals WR A.J. Green every week. Whoever drafts the AFC South would boast a team featuring Texans RB Adrian Foster and Colts QB Andrew Luck. You get the idea.

It would sort of take the fun out of the draft, since there’d only be one round, but the guy with the first pick still has to strategize… does he take the NFC North so he’ll have Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, Vikings RB Adrian Peterson, and Lions WR Calvin Johnson? Or take the NFC West just to have Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson available at QB to be paired with Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald and Rams WR Tavon Austin? And of course you’d still have week to week strategy of who to start/play.

Besides semi-killing the draft element, another stumbling block is the bye week. Usually the NFL schedule has most or all teams from one division on a bye at the same time. If one division does NOT have several teams on bye the same week, then that team would have an advantage. BUT, what if you had an active/inactive roster, so you could keep most of your top players active, but still leave plenty of “free agents” for other divisions to use one-time only when their division is on bye? Maybe you’d have to leave X number of QB’s available… Maybe each week you could move players to/from inactive list.

So I have the NFC South, and they’re all on bye except New Orleans. Maybe I start QB Drew Brees the best of the Saints players and then fill in with the unprotected players from the other divisions. Maybe force everyone to leave 1-2 QB’s from their division on an unprotected inactive list so the talent pool was decent….

Not sure if this format would work in head-to-head style of play, or more suitable to a “rotisserie” format where you don’t play against anyone, just accumulate points each week. Maybe it could be done either way.

Not sure how this idea could make money. Unless you could have a website where people would play for $10 and just spread the word around until it’s really popular. Perhaps I could copyright the concept so I could cash in if ESPN and Yahoo wanted to start offering this. Probably not, who knows. But consider this date/time-stamped blog entry from 2008 as my official claim on the idea; feel free to contact me with big-money offers.