Five Top Rated Fantasy Football Platforms – Fantasy football has become either a virus, which no doubt it is to thousands of wives and girlfriends out there who practically every day between the first weekends of September to the mid-point of December have to wait for their men to write down stats before enjoying a romantic dinner at a four star restaurant, or a blessing to all of those former football gamblers who have found a less costly way to enjoy their hybrid passion of football and money.
Okay, this is being hyperbolic. I mean, my friend Amy is dating a fella that I doubt plays this goofy, child’s game. Then again, Amy lives in the Dominican Republic. But, then again, I have female friends who love, and by love I mean on a higher scale then what you might find in a grade school full of eleven-year old girls swooning over Eddie Cullen from the Twilight book series love, fantasy football.
I met a young lady last year at my favorite watering hole that had Drew Brees on her team. Being a New Orleans Saints die-hard (talk about love, passion…okay, flat out obsession), I immediately gained utmost respect for this young lady.
So, Fantasy Football isn’t just about old men writing down stats on the back of their Daily Racing Forms or old cigarette packages in decrepit bars and smoky filled OTB outlets. Fantasy Football is mainly a game played online. It involves all sorts of gadgetry and computer-savvy skills. Not really, but it feels like that sometimes.
I took user interface, among other things, into account in deciding my Fantasy Football Platform rankings. My rankings are based on what I prefer. You will notice that most of these platforms are a lot alike. Some are better than others in smaller ways, but they all do the same thing – – they help you run your league and get you off the ground in the world of Fantasy Football.
Fox – MSN – – http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football/commissioner – – I love this platform for the simple fact it’s free, easy to use, and doesn’t have all of that ancillary stuff that I don’t have time to pay attention to. I mean, you won’t get your stats via your mobile phone. The stat tracking is exceptionally simple and it’s easy to set-up a league, join a private league, or play in a public league. There are some customizations, of course, but the customizations are not nearly to the point of excessiveness that you will find in other platforms. Fox-MSN is trying to make Fantasy Football easy for us non-computer savvy folks. I appreciate that and the information from their writers is, like all of these sites, absolutely fantastic. Plus, you could win a chance to meet LaDanian Tomlinson. Hey, that’s worth it, right?
ESPN – – http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/football – – Sticking with this idea that simple is better, ESPN has three different platforms, all simply managed, that you can choose from. The first two are free. The third is a free league that you can set-up to deliver prizes at the end of the season. Of course, you have to be in a state where Fantasy Football prizes aren’t illegal. Still, it’s easy to navigate around their pages and even though I’m not a real fan of ESPN sort of hiding the fact that in order to get up to the minute stats on your mobile phone you have to become an ESPN MVP member, I do believe that this platform is worth taking a look at. Nobody is going to have as up to the minute stats as ESPN. Another built in advantage is that most sports fans are used to ESPN’s platform. Their fantasy football platform isn’t much different.
EA Sports – – http://fantasy.easports.com/eaexperts2008.asp – – This is a super-cool league. The navigation is terrific and even though the commentators aren’t what you might find on ESPN, Fox-MSN, or CBS Sportsline, no Chris Mortensen’s on this page, the podcasts and blogs are still full of important information. I like the fact that EA Sports has decided to let regular joes like you and me discuss Fantasy Football. Nate Lundy, Grant Ramey, Rishi Daulat – – these guys aren’t op known NFL analysts, but they really know their stuff when it comes to Fantasy Football. Everything is free on this site. No mobile, but you can win EA Sports prizes, and you can download your fantasy team into your XBOX 360 or Playstation 3 and receive live scoring. That’s either super-awesome or super man-child nerdy.
Yahoo – – http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/signup – – I played in this league last year and will probably play in it again this year. My friend Duane runs a league on Yahoo. I actually like the league a lot. You can either set-up a free league or pay money to have a special league going. Either way, you’re going to have fun. Why low on my list? No reason other then I found myself going to ESPN for ESPN’s Gamecast last year on Sundays. You know, where the ball goes up and down the computerized football field? A lot of that might have to do with familiarity. There’s no real knocks against any league on this list. So, if you are a fan of Yahoo then, by all means, sign-up.
CBS Sportline / NFL – – http://www.sportsline.com/fantasy – – CBS Sportsline and the NFL sort of have a partnership. The platforms aren’t exactly the same, but since they are partners in this thing I wanted to group them together. Both platforms do have the same issue from my perspective – – way too much information. Not just too much information but way to many choices regarding what type of league, how much the league will cost, and how much control you want over it. I mean, this is fantasy football. Football is an easy game. You catch the ball. You run with the ball. You throw the ball. You kick the ball. You tackle the guy with the ball. You draft players in your fantasy league that can do one or more of those things. Some guys and gals love the idea of logging onto the CBS Sportsline site and checking out the plethora of information. Again, I’m not one of those guys. It’s not really a knock. It’s more of a preference. If you can navigate the CBS Sportsline fantasy football page, and I had trouble doing it, then you’d see that amenities galore are at your fingertips. Of course, some of it will cost you a pretty penny, but if this is the only gambling you do on football this season, it might be worth it.
