Fantasy Strategy: Demeanor

In a fantasy auction, your draft demeanor makes a big difference. As the Hazelweird League auction takes place in ten days, however, I can't tell you any draft demeanor strategies (because as I've said repeatedly, all the rat-bastards in my league would love to screw with me).

However, pre-draft demeanor is important too; your attitude going into the draft can have an impact on the goings on of the draft. If you're hanging out with your competitors part of the day before your draft, you have to know: the game is already started. And I'll share my pre-draft strategy with you.

My pre-draft strategy is what I call the Response Rave.

It has two parts.

1. Don't bring up any players yourself. Let other people mention players (and pay close attention), but don't initiate conversation on any player.

2. Rave about whatever players are brought up. I mean, rave. Talk about how excited you are about the player. Talk about how great you think that player will be. And don't just rave generally, but individualize each discussion.

"Ladanian Tomlinson? I actually expect him to do better now that Norv Turner is the coach. He always feeds it to his feature back."

"Marvin Harrison? He's so reliable, and it doesn't matter to me how old he is: I'm really excited about him."

And don't just rave about the good players; rave about any bad players that come up, too. And don't be afraid to just make up statistics about each player.

"Bobby Wade? You know he actually has a really good catch percentage in his career; now that he's a starter, he should put up good numbers."

Ideally, you should play Madden video games with your competitors before the game. This naturally brings up conversations about the players on the screen, and you can spout about how great that player is.

This strategy has multiple uses.

1. At first, people will think they're learning your attitudes about different players. As you continue to rave about any and every player, they will realize that nothing you say means anything, and they can get confused.

2. If they are excited about said player, they might get nervous hearing somebody else rave about that player, expecting they'll have to pay a lot. Even if they eventually think you're lying, they'll still be slightly edgy about those particular players.

3. Multiple people will hear these conversations, and might get confused about what people actually think.

4. You might actually plant some seeds, getting others more excited for some players, and possibly altering their draft strategy. If some of the reasons you state for why said player will be great sound plausible, you might actually convince others to think that.

5. You might plant some reverse seeds: if you rave about Charlie Frye immediately after raving about Tom Brady, people might think you don't value Brady much.

6. Or none of these things could happen, but you might be able to entertain or irritate your competitors on draft day.