Sadly, the 2011 Fantasy Football season has come to a close. BUT WAIT!! If you are a fantasy junkie like me, you know a group of guys, maybe guys in your regular season league who would be interested in keeping the fantasy fun alive with a Playoff Fantasy Challenge. Why not? Its football, fun, and you stand to make some more money. So just when you thought the fantasy chaos was over for another year, THINK AGAIN!!

 Incidentally, before ESPN and other outlets embraced this or even fantasy football in general, my group has been extending the fantasy fun into the playoffs. It’s funny to see how it has all evolved, as finally the major networks realized the passion and money (probably the most important part, no?) involved in the world of fantasy football.

Yes, I come from the days of manual scoring, tracking your player results through the box scores in the sports pages of the USA Today . There were no scrolling updates, websites, television shows, nothing. Just a newspaper, a draft sheet and a handy-dandy fantasy magazine that was sorely obsolete due to the fact it was printed in late May. Of course, that never stopped me from shelling out $7.99 for it at the drug store, but I digress.

Anyway, once the playoff teams are all set, it’s basically like any other fantasy football draft. You can use the same scoring, but you may have to go back to the dark ages and manually track your scoring on one of the various websites out there. There is no head to head, it’s a roto-type system, meaning the team with the most points at the end of the season is the victor. Regarding participants and rosters, ideally you’ll have 10 teams, and the roster breakdown can be similar to the regular season, with 2 quarterbacks, 4 running backs, 6 wide receivers, 2 tight ends, kickers and defensive/special team units.

After the main players are selected, remember that this is not a sprint. It’s a journey through the entire playoffs. In other words, you want players that will be sticking around for more than a game or two. Obviously you won’t forgo a top talent on a likely “one and done” team, but as you craft your roster, pick players that you know will have some playoff longevity. You want players that will supply a steady flow of points as opposed to players that may get out of the gate quickly and then fade to nothing as their respective teams are eliminated.

It makes for some very interesting decisions as you select your players. Sure, Tim Tebow makes for an interesting selection but if you look at the matchup, the Broncos are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round. It would be safe to say that Tebow’s playoff run will be more like a quick walk. Just like that, you lose one of your two quarterbacks in the first week.

Of course, this is just my take and opinion regarding strategy and setup, you may have your own. Either way, even though the regular season has ended, we can all still revel in some fantasy football hijinks and keep the fun going for a few more weeks.

Then folks, you can dive into all of FGD's top notch fantasy baseball madness!!

Enjoy!

Makes you want to do a flip - like this:

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