Beginner’s Guide To Fantasy Football

I just joined my first fantasy football team, and we had our draft last night on Yahoo! Sports online. Our FF league is created and maintained by 12 women who have absolutely no idea how to do fantasy football. We searched high & low for helpful tips and videos, but it was like trying to cram in some French before taking off to Paris, France for 2 weeks--it is trial by fire! And none of the "helpful tips made any sense, by the way.

So I have taken my experience being a FF virgin, to save you hours upon countless hours fretting what to do or having your male sports freak pals attempt to take over your draft for you.

Here are 6 basic & easy steps. Good luck, and bon voyage!

1. Get a Commissioner to round up 10 or more people to be The League. The Commissioner's job is to verify "Draft Time" and come up with a League name. Preferrably, your league's name will be rated suitable for all audiences.

2. Each person is her/his own team, so come up with a fun name for your team. This is where you can get raunchy, use puns, or name it after your favorite food group, boy band, etc.

3. Create a "cheat sheet" with a list of players you want in the following categories: Running Backs (RB), Quarter Backs (QB), Wide Receivers (WR), Cute Butts (TE), Kickers (K!), Defense Team (Oops, I forgot the abbreviation for that one), and finally, the "Seat Fillers Who Serve No Purpose Whatsoever Because You Can't Use Them For Your Score" (BN). You need the list to save you time when it's your turn to nominate axplayer up for auction.

4. Spend several hours trying to out-bid your pals for the "right" to claim your desired players. *Please note: This gets really old after 30 minutes.

5. Turn on the Auto Bid when you are ready to pass out from boredom.

6. Celebrate a job well done by trash-talking your friends who out-bid you for Russell Wilson and either of the Manning Brothers. *Please note: Fantasy Football Ettiquette dictates that all trash-talking occurs in the chatroom only. This is called "Fantasy" for a reason, ya know!

Still confused what to do? Join the club!