Technology turns out to be a key player in fantasy sports

Technology has changed quite a bit since I last played fantasy sports a decade ago.

In 1997, Google didn’t exist (born in ’98), Motorola’s hot product was the StarTAC (the first flip phone, introduced in ’96), and the battle lines still were being drawn in the Browser War between Netscape (72 percent market share) and Microsoft.

Technology, on the other hand, was in its infancy as a tool to manage a fantasy team. In my baseball league, our stats were tabulated by hand, updates came out weekly and people bickered about all the errors. We weren’t a tech-savvy group, even as the tools to manage a league more efficiently were starting to emerge.

Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a hobby that has benefited more from technology than fantasy sports, particularly for football. Stats are updated as soon as a tackle is finished, Web sites from just about every major media company offer some flavor of game, and if you type the term “fantasy expert” into Google, you’ll get 2.4 million results. And those don’t refer to the Web’s seamier side.

The computer is only one tool in the fantasy player’s draft kit.

Several services offer mobile phone text alerts if your running back breaks off a touchdown run. Or, by pressing a few buttons, you can make a roster change a minute before kickoff or swap underperforming wide receivers with a fellow owner.

If you have DirecTV, you can watch any game you want as a subscriber to its satellite service. Better yet, this year, those subscribers can get all the games streamed to their laptops, too, if they choose.

I’m jumping in

So, after a decade removed from my last foray with fantasy baseball, I’ve decided to give football a try. With all those tools at my disposal, it can’t be that hard. Right?

My league is being put together by Jeffrey Thomas, the president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and owner of the Kenosha, Wis.-based Sportsbuff.com.

But what really got my gadget gene going is that our league will be using Sprint phones with access to NFL.com and the NFL Network. The phones tie directly into the up-to-the minute stats provided by NFL.com.

To prepare, I called one of those fantasy experts, ESPN’s Matthew Berry, who likes to refer to himself in the third person as the Talented Mr. Roto. He can get away with it, too, as his services were purchased in February by the cable sports giant.

Now, he’s ESPN’s director of fantasy — yes, that’s a real title — and you can see him on SportsCenter or find his columns, and running back rankings, at ESPN.com.

He provided some key insight when I told him I was jumping back into the fantasy pool, and that it was my first time playing football. More important, he didn’t snicker when I told him I was partnering with my wife. (Hey, she won our Pick ’em football league last year.)

“Since you’re a newbie, it will be something fun for you guys to do together,” he said.

Then we got down to the nitty-gritty.

“Set up your war room.”

“Take running backs in the first two rounds.”

“A little smack talk at the draft is good — ’You passed on that guy? Wow.’ — to get the other guys off their game a bit.”

I explained our rules, as far as I could understand them. We’re using the Sports Buff scoring system, whatever that means.

“Interesting rules,” Berry said. “A little different than most.”

Going over details

We went over the scoring system and why, based on modifications Sports Buff made, the Talented Mr. Roto would adjust his top running back picks. (I would tell you, but this column runs before my draft. And, yes, these guys like going by their nicknames. It’s a fantasy thing.)

Berry, who’s an avid user of his BlackBerry to keep up to date with his teams, left me with one crucial piece of advice I could have used 10 years ago, when I took fantasy baseball so seriously that I knew the batting average of every backup middle infielder in the American League:

“Do it for fun. Many people beat themselves up playing this game,” he said. “Make the best choices you can and remember there’s always next week.”

We’ll see how it goes. For now, I’m just trying to figure out why a quarterback whose team won three games last year (Jon Kitna, Detroit Lions) is valued significantly higher than a guy who got his team to the Super Bowl (Rex Grossman, Chicago Bears).

If you’re interested on how my team is doing this year, send an e-mail.

Ain’t technology great?

XEric Benderoff writes about technology for the Chicago Tribune. Contact him at ebenderofftribune.com.

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