Things didn’t work out between Elway and me. In the ensuing years, there would be more bad decisions. Lots of them.

24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football shows you how to fail at fantasy. So you can succeed, by doing the opposite of everything that’s in this free e-book.

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Expert advice won’t give your team an edge in fantasy football anymore. Today, anybody with a pulse can download a draft guide or pull up a cheat sheet on an app.

Back in the early 1990’s, 12 friends formed a league and got together to draft. They brought hand-scribbled notes and a few copies of Fantasy Index magazine. There was no online draft, no real-time data, no smartphone apps.

Over the ensuing two-dozen seasons, the Internet fueled a fantasy explosion. Participation leapt from 3 to 57 million fantasy players. Connected devices, automated scoring and ubiquitous stats brought fantasy into the mainstream.

As the 12 friends scattered across the country, they moved their league online and kept playing together. For the UndaDawgz, one thing remained constant for nearly a quarter century: losing.

Discover what makes a team lose, so yours won’t.

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Bad drafts, dumb trades, and a revolving roster of regret. was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are the Washington Area Fantasy Football League. It’s been at least a decade since we all lived in Washington, D.C. But we still compete like mad every year through the magic of the Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, I am geeking out on data stored in our league’s online archive, courtesy of CBS Sports Fantasy. My mission is to solve the riddle of why my team consistently sucks every year.

Here are a few nuggets gleaned from the WAFFL archives. We use a 12-team snake draft with a standard scoring system based on TD’s and yardage.

WAFFL Draft Trivia

Q: What position do future WAFFL champs overwhelmingly select with their first round pick?

A: Running Back. Eleven of the last 14 teams (79%) that went on to win a WAFFL Bowl chose a RB with their first pick.

Q: Is this trend changing?

A: Maybe. Rich, the fearless Irishman, broke the mold in our most-recent draft. In 2016, Rich drafted Odell Beckham with his first round pick. It’s the first time, going back to 2003, that a future WAFFL champ drafted a WR in round 1.

Q: True or False: A WAFFL champion once drafted a kicker in the fourth round.

A: True! In 2004, en route to a WAFFL Bowl victory, “The Gods” drafted Mike Vanderjagt in Round 4.

Q: Which QB was drafted most frequently by future WAFFL champs: Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady?

A: Manning. Manning was drafted by 4 future WAFFL champs. Brady was drafted twice. Rodgers was never drafted by a WAFFL Bowl winner. More on this later.

Q: Which TE was drafted most frequently by future WAFFL champs: Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Jeremy Shockey or Jimmy Graham?

A: Shockey. Shockey was drafted by 3 future WAFFL Bowl winners. Gates and Graham were each selected once. Gonzalez was never drafted by a WAFFL winner. More on this later.

Draft Tactics of the WAFFL Winners

#1: They usually draft a running back first

Of the 14 WAFFL champs since 2003, 11 drafted a RB with their first-round pick, 2 took a QB and 1 took a WR.

Rich shook things up this year by taking a wide receiver, Beckham, with his first pick en route to winning the WAFFL Bowl. Does this mean that Rich initiated a new trend in 2016?

It’s hard to say, but consider this: Rich also won a WAFFL Bowl in 2015. He took a RB (Marshawn Lynch) in Round 1. He took a WR in Round 2: Odell Beckham.

#2: They are patient when drafting a QB

Among WAFFL champs, the most-popular round for taking a QB was round #5: 36% of WAFFL winners drafted their QB in the fifth round.

The next most-popular round for taking a QB? It’s tied at Round #1 (14%) and Round #7 (14%).

Teams that won multiple WAFFL Bowls have a special knack for patience when it comes to drafting a QB. In each of his three WAFFL Bowl wins since 2003, Brett drafted his QB in the 5th round. Those 5th-round picks were: Favre (2003); Favre again (2010); and Manning (2012).

The same goes for Rich. He drafted a QB in round 5, en route to winning the past two WAFFL Bowls. Those 5th-round picks were: Russell Wilson (2015) and Drew Brees (2016).

Sweet Lou is the riverboat gambler of WAFFL champs. He once waited until round 9 to take a QB! In his five WAFFL Bowl wins, Lou took a QB in the following rounds: 7th (Brady in ‘05), 6th (Matt Hasselbeck in ’06) 4th (Brady again in ‘07), 3rd (Manning in ’13) and 9th (Newton in ‘14).

There were five instances (out of 14 drafts) when a WAFFL champ drafted a QB earlier than round 5:
1. Daunte Culpepper was a first round pick in 2004;
2. Brady was a fourth-rounder in ’07;
3. Manning was first-rounder in ‘08;
4. Manning was a second-rounder in ’09;
5. Manning was a third-rounder in ’13.

#3: They prefer a WR3 over a TE1

WAFFL champs aren’t particularly anxious to draft a Tight End. The most-common draft position for a TE among WAFFL Bowl winners is round #9.

WAFFL champs frequently draft their third WR before drafting their first TE. This happened 71% of the time between 2003–2016.

There were three instances (out of 14) where a WAFFL champ drafted a TE1 before drafting a WR3:
1. Jeremy Shockey in ’04 (he was drafted in Round 8);
2. Shockey in ’06 (drafted in Round 5);
3. Jimmy Graham in ’11 (drafted in Round 6).

#4 WAFFL champs make their own draft rules

I thought I might find a consistent drafting pattern among WAFFL champs. But no pattern exists. WAFFL winners certainly have a draft plan each year, but it varies by team and by year.

For example, here’s a list of Lou’s first five draft picks from each of his championship seasons:

2005: RB; WR; RB; WR; WR
2006: RB; WR; RB; WR; TE
2007: RB; RB; WR; QB; WR
2013: RB; WR; QB; WR; RB
2014: RB; WR; WR; WR; RB

There’s no discernible “magic formula” here.

Also, sometimes “best practices” — like waiting until the late rounds to draft a kicker and defense — don’t apply. In 2004, “The Gods” won the WAFFL Bowl in a season where they drafted a D in round 3 and a K in round 4.

#5: Parting shot: Are there any “must-draft” players?

Among the WAFFL champs, six players and one Defense were drafted three or more times between 2003–2016. Manning was drafted four times. Lynch was drafted three times. So was Alshon Jeffrey.

Here’s the full list of players that were drafted three or more times by future WAFFL champs. You can decide whether or not they are difference makers.

QB: Manning (selected in 4 WAFFL-winning drafts).
RB: Lynch (3)
RB: Jerious Norwood (3)
WR: Alshon Jeffrey (3)
TE: Shockey (3)
K: Adam Vinatierri (3)
D: Steelers (4)

What does any of this mean for your fantasy team?

WAFFL is one league of 12 teams, in a fantasy universe with 53 million players. So, of course, your league’s result may vary.

A lot of fantasy content is short-term advice on who to draft, who to start, who to sit, etc. My goal is to provide data-driven examples that your team (and mine!) can use for long-term success.

I’m posting all of the nuggets that I uncover from the WAFFL archive — all of my data, charts and tables — online as I go. You can access it all here.

Draft tactics of WAFFL champs was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Several guys in our league are fantasy studs. Our league commissioner, Sweet Lou, is a six-time champion. He co-hosts a live online sports show. He could go toe to toe with any so-called fantasy “expert,” if he wasn’t such a modest dude.

I am not a fantasy stud. I’m writing a book based on my league experiences. It’s called 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football.

As part of my research, I analyzed our league drafts going back 12 years. I wanted to measure the impact of draft position on a team’s chances for reaching the postseason and beyond.

Here’s what I found:

First pick vs. Last pick

Our league uses a 12-team snake draft. Over the past dozen years’ drafts, teams with the first pick reached the postseason 50% of the time. Teams with the last pick also reached the postseason 50% of the time.

In other words, picking first or picking last was a push. Teams with the first pick and the last pick reached the postseason the same number of times.

So what’s the best draft position?

Mid-pack is where’s it at. Teams drafting in the #6 and #7 position (out of 12) had the most success at reaching the playoffs.

Pick #6 and pick #7 each reached the postseason 75% of the time. Additionally, teams with the #6 pick were most likely to reach the championship game.

And…what’s the worst draft position?

There’s no competition. The worst draft position was #11. During that 12-year span, the #11 pick reached the postseason…once. That’s an 8% frequency.

By comparison the next worst position, pick #10, sent four teams to the playoffs during that same period. That’s a 33% frequency.

There’s a silver lining. That one time when pick #11 made the postseason? Sweet Lou took it home, all the way to a league championship.

Parting shots

Over the past 12 years, teams in our league reached the playoffs from every draft position on the board. But, draft position alone guarantees nothing.

For example: teams that picked first, middle and last all won league championships during that period. But, teams picking in those same Fpositions also finished dead last.

Like Rihanna says: To win a fantasy title, you gotta werk werk werk, all season long.

Want more insights into winning and losing in fantasy football? Enter your email to reserve your free copy of “24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football.”

All charts and data used in the book can also be downloaded for free here.

Is it better to draft first or last in fantasy football? Try middle. was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

That’s a 4% success rate. The other 96% of the time, I’ve been bad.

My team is named the UndaDawgz. A more appropriate name might be the UndaPerformerz, since I finished in dead last place 29% of the time.

This season was going to be different. For starters, I had more time to prepare: 67% of all fantasy sports players have a full-time job. I had no such distraction. Suckers!

The average player spends $9 on fantasy magazines. I had no desire to be merely average. I spent twice that amount.

Advanced scouting

A good fantasy draft strategy is critical. I created a spreadsheet of nearly 250 players that stack-ranked, color-coded and annotated all of my potential draft picks.

Jen and I even attended the real NFL draft in Chicago. Talk about next level preparation.

I had the #11 pick in my fantasy draft. Statistically speaking, #11 is the worst draft position in our league.

How do I know this? Because I analyzed our league’s historical data. I might have too much time on my hands.

I was confident on draft day. My draft headquarters, the couch, were distraction free. I had good snacks.

The first 10 picks proceeded as I expected. My spreadsheet was on point. Then it was my turn.

I chose Le’Veon Bell, star running back for the Steelers. Almost immediately, I started second-guessing my decision.

Bell was suspended for the first four games of the NFL season. He’s a high-impact player, but did I draft him too soon? He wasn’t even going to step onto the field for another month.

As a backup plan for Bell’s suspension, I drafted his backup, DeAngelo Williams, with my fifth pick. More hand wringing and second-guessing. Did I just waste a high pick on a part-time player?

I wasn’t the only one second-guessing my decisions. CBSSportsline gave my final draft a mediocre B-minus grade.

Reality bites

In week one, the backup Williams had a monster game. Unfortunately, the rest of my fantasy team lived down to its B-minus rating. I lost the first game by 12 points.

My second game was against another team that received a B-minus grade. I lost by 16 points.

I made reactive changes. My team reacted by losing in week three by 21 points.

I made more changes. In week four I suffered my worst defeat yet, by 34 points.

It took five more weeks before I finally won a game. By then, all hopes of making the playoffs were gone. I won two games the entire season.

New technology, same results

Fantasy sports have changed significantly in 24 years. When our league began, roughly 3 million people played fantasy sports. Today, it’s 57 million.

We relied on the newspaper for stats and we calculated points by hand. There were no fantasy football websites. We submitted our weekly roster via a landline.

Today, stats are available in real-time and scoring is automated. Nearly 40% of all fantasy players get their information via cell phone.

My (lack of) fantasy success hasn’t changed much over the years. But I keep coming back. Our league began as a tight group of friends living in the same city. Today, we’re flung across the country. Fantasy football is the one remaining thing that we all have in common.

There’s always that tantalizing thought that this could be my year. Historical data suggests that my future fantasy prospects are dim. But who needs data, anyway?

Fantasy data doesn’t lie. I wish it would. was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Fantasy sports bring out peoples’ passion. Roughly half of the people I met in Nashville, at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) winter conference, started their business because they love playing fantasy sports.

Ballers

I met The Footballers, three longtime friends who podcast about fantasy football all year long. There’s no offseason for them. Because they love fantasy football.

I shared a breakfast table with two guys from Mexico who built a daily fantasy service to satisfy Latin Americans’ passion for football — American football and soccer.

I pitched an idea for an eBook dedicated to sucking at fantasy football. My pitch was funny.

The two Canadian brothers who won the pitch contest were funny too, plus they have cool technology that curates all of your fantasy news. Dang those Canadian overachievers.

What do you do when you’re a doctor who’s passionate about fantasy sports? You create a company that projects injury risk for every NFL and NBA player. Here’s Tom Brady’s recent prognosis:

Inside Injuries on Twitter

Tom Brady clearly had a lot of success in 2016. One big reason why? The #Patriots' O-line. The group has a "peak" health rating.

Another pitch showed how big data is improving the fantasy experience with customized, SportsCenter-like highlights reels. Check out this version for NASCAR fantasy:

No love for kickers

Speaking of SportsCenter, an ESPN writer provided my favorite stat of the conference: Over 70% of fantasy players think that kickers should be…kicked out of fantasy scoring.

I agree. (Nothing against kickers).

There was free pizza during the conference. And hot dogs. And bottomless bags of my favorite food, popcorn.

I’m passionate about fantasy sports and about writing, so pitching a book idea at the FSTA conference was a golden opportunity. Throw in a fantasy buffet of endless ballpark food and, well, that definitely does not suck.

Relentless forward sucking was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Relax folks, they don’t mean it, they’re only robots

Does your fantasy league website send out automated stories that critique your league’s weekly games? Our league’s website does this. Apparently, we fantasy players are thin skinned.

I interviewed a customer care expert who works for a fantasy sports website. He told me that he receives angry messages from fantasy players whose feelings get hurt by those automated stories.

“People have gotten quite upset. They take it personally. We get emails.”

C’mon people, lighten up. Remember this is still fantasy football. :)

Here’s a typical automated story about my team:

UndaDawgz had a bad week, and nobody is more at fault than Coach Mike Harms. Ouch.

“I will play WAFFL ’til the day I die, because of you guys”

“Sweet Lou” is the most successful player in our league’s 24-year history: He’s a 6-time league champion who’s never lost in the finals. Sweet Lou is also the co-host of the weekly SLZE Sports podcast. Oh, and he televised the past six presidential inaugurations.

I love the above quote from Lou because it captures the thing I enjoy most about playing fantasy football: Competing against my friends.

Our league started in 1993. We were 12 guys living in Washington, D.C. We named our league the Washington Area Fantasy Football League (WAFFL).

Over time, we scattered from D.C. to places all around the country. A woman finally joined the league. A quarter century later, we’re all still playing together.

The thing that keeps us playing together is friendship. That, plus the desire to beat the crap out of each other.

“I want to win so bad it hurts me inside.”

That’s a quote from Mark, a long-time WAFFL member and co-leader in playoff appearances with 11*.

In the U.S., 43 million adults aged 18 or older play fantasy sports. That’s a lot of passionate people.

The majority of us who play fantasy sports care more about sports because of fantasy. 64% of us watch more live sports, and 61% of us read more about sports because we play fantasy**.

Anyway. Sweet Lou is a fantasy expert in his own right. Here’s one of my favorite excerpts from our interview:

“It’s about winning games by the week. How are you going to get 100 points every week?”

Lou credits Matthew Berry for this principle. But Lou executes it extremely well: his team reaches the postseason 64% of the time, plus he’s got those six championship rings.

To give his team a legit shot at reaching 100 points (or more) each week, Lou follows these tactics:

He drafts a “Big 3”: A stud QB, RB and WR. These are his point machines. In 2014, his most-recent championship year, Lou’s Big 3 consisted of: LeSean McCoy (1st round pick), Antonio Brown (2nd round) and Cam Newton (9th round).

He goes for depth at WR and RB. A stable of steady performers supplements the Big 3 and helps Lou to accumulate points every week. Lou will wait as long as the 9th round to take a QB: This lets him use more of his early-round picks to stock up at the RB and WR positions.

He does his homework. Lou uses multiple information sources to inform his decision-making. During the draft he still uses handwritten notes to stay focused. And it helps that he reviews every NFL team for his sports podcast.

“I was not terribly comfortable going into the WAFFL Bowl* with Tebow.”

I gave Brett a ton of shit when he picked up Tim Tebow off of waivers in 2010 and started him in the championship game. The joke was on me when Tebow threw for 300 yards and a touchdown and rushed for another TD, leading Brett to the title.

*The WAFFL Bowl is our league championship game. Not to be confused with the tasty DQ treat.

I suck at waiver wire moves. I constantly second-guess myself, which leads to endless roster tweaking and frequently leads to disaster. Like the time in 2005 when I cut Thomas Jones, starting RB for the Bears, to pick up Chris Baker, a part-time TE for the Jets. That move killed my season.

Brett runs the second-most successful team in WAFFL history, with four championships, two runner-up finishes and a 64% playoff frequency. He’s also a VP at a major investment firm. It’s fascinating to hear how he uses his financial experience to make fantasy football roster decisions.

“Being in investing, you have to be unemotional. Make a decision and go with it. There are always going to be chances that some other investment would have gone better.”

I thought Brett would follow a conservative “buy and hold” philosophy toward the waiver wire. But he’s more aggressive and it works for him.

“I’m pretty opportunistic. If I think someone on the waiver wire is better than someone I have, then I’ll pick him up.”

Gronk if you’re horny

Rich is the reigning WAFFL champion. He’s also an experts league champ over at FFToday.com. Perhaps most important, Rich wins at best team name pretty much every year. My interview with Rich was a no-holds-barred affair full of gems like this one:

“I never draft wide receivers that just changed teams. It’s always a dumpster fire.”

I’ll share more of my interview with Rich, plus more tips from Lou, Brett, Mark and those awesome customer service folks, in the near future. I also keep a running commentary on the LoseAtFantasy.com blog. Finally, all of the in-progress book data (with charts and tables) is available here for download.

Three and out

Before you completely close the book on your 2016 fantasy season, The Fantasy Footballers have a timely podcast and article addressing 10 Things to Remember from 2016.

Speaking of look backs: I loved reading Atlanta, Mike Vick’s honest, sometimes raw first-person piece about playing for the Falcons.

Draft edge: Add Inside Injuries to your Twitter feed for deeper insight into players’ health. I got to watch this company pitch itself at the Fantasy Sports Conference last month. Good things happen when a group of doctors form a fantasy company.

That’s about it for this issue. If you like what you just read, I would be stoked if you forwarded this newsletter to a friend.

Please do me a solid by adding me on Twitter and Facebook to receive a recurring dose of “WAFFL breaks,” quick stats to help you not suck @ fantasy.

Thanks for reading. Only 80 days ’til the NFL draft.

Footnotes
*Playoff frequency percentage for Mark, Brett and Lou is from CBS Sportsline league history, 2003–2016.

**Demographic data citing 43 million fantasy players in the U.S., with 64% consuming more live sports and 61% reading more about sports, comes from a June 2016 report presented to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association by Ipsos.

That time Tebow won a WAFFL* Bowl was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

All ads aspire to such heights but few achieve them. Except the eTrade Baby. He was next level.

The Most Interesting Man in the World was someone I wanted to emulate. He was Mysterious. Worldly. Dangerous. He was James Bond with flavor.

Then they exiled him. Sent him off in a rocket ship. Gone for good, I thought.

Except he’s back, but not in a good way. The Most Interesting Man in the World was body snatched and replaced with a younger, hipper, Grecian Formula version.

The makeover is a transparent effort to engage Millennials. It’s transparent even to me, and I wear corrective lenses. But Millennials see through overt pandering too, sans bifocals.

The Most Interesting Man in the World was a seasoned wanderer, a grey haired rogue. Version 2.0 has jet black hair and a bro beard. He looks as seasoned as…Michael Phelps?

The original version traveled to exotic lands and had epic adventures. Version 2.0 travels to exotic places, so he can tailgate and watch college football on TV.

In other words, the Most Interesting Man in the World, v2.0, is a frat guy on safari.

Grey hairs, rise up.

I’m not mad at Dos Equis for trying to get hipper. But swapping out one actor in his late 70’s for one 25 years younger, to play the same role, is kind of…uncool. I say this as someone who chucked his own Grecian Formula years ago to let his freak flag fly…I mean, let his grey hair gleam.

I work with folks in their 60’s and 70’s who constantly inspire me. Aging isn’t easy; passage of time take its toll on our bodies and minds. But it’s the experiences accumulated over time that help to make life truly interesting.

Age brings experience and authenticity. Good advertising, like good content, feels authentic too. Judging from recent comments on social media, the new Dos Equis ads don’t feel authentic for many people.

Meaning, v2.0 of the Most Interesting Man in the World might soon be riding off into the sunset on his electric unicycle. But what a story he’ll have to tell, when he gets older.

The least interesting man in the world was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m a Richard Sherman fan. “You Mad Bro?” was my Facebook cover photo for a minute. My best pal, who’s also my #1 rival in all athletic competitions, called Sherman an asshole following his infamous Michael Crabtree interview. I loved it. And my best pal being grumpy, well that was gravy.

Still, I didn’t bother reading Sherman’s weekly column. I get it in my email inbox but I never opened it.

Then the kerfuffles happened with our local Seattle media, and Sherman skipped a press conference. Mainstream media outlets got up in arms, too. This got me thinking. About press conferences.

I’ve attended a few of them plus I watched The West Wing in the late 1990's, so I know what a press conference is: A bunch of journalists crammed into a room asking questions to a person(s) who’s in front of a microphone. Then, those journalists all rush like mad to take the exact same comments from the exact same person(s) and crank out a story that’s … unique.

Except it often doesn’t work out that way. Instead, press conferences frequently yield the same story, one that gets published many times across many different media outlets. Also, press conferences are boring, leaving reporters desperate to glean a moment — any moment — that rises above the mundane. Ironically, when that “moment” occurs, frequently it involves an athlete being irritated by a press conference — like Cam after the Super Bowl; or Iverson following the death of his close friend.

I wasn’t mad (bro) when Sherman skipped his press conference. This isn’t the late 1990’s and media has changed a bit since The West Wing. Heck, even presidential candidates and president elects rarely do press conferences anymore.

Then, Sherman gave one of my favorite quotes since “You mad bro?” when he Tweeted this:

If I have something to say then I will write it myself.

He’s right. Athletes are their own storytellers. This is old news — social media and platforms like The Player’s Tribune have been around for a minute, giving athletes the ability to bring their content directly to the public. When Kobe announced his retirement, he didn’t hold a press conference. He published a personal note.

Sherman is taking the athlete storyteller to the next level — the athlete as journalist. He Tweeted as much when he said:

I understand that I can write my own story

Right again. Sherman is smart and articulate. He has a platform, The Players Tribune, with millions of readers. He has millions of social media followers. That combination of eloquence plus audience scares some journalists. Because no one can get the inside story on an athlete, like an athlete himself (or herself).

I went back and read several of Sherman’s columns. They are good. Some of his columns are really good, like when he takes the NFL to task. Sherman calls out the NFL for throwing a flag on Antonio Brown for “sexually suggestive” twerking, while cheerleaders gyrate through similar moves every week. He notes the double standard of a penalty on Josh Norman for “shooting” a bow and arrow, while Norman’s team — the Redskins — won’t change its name despite offending many people.

Sherman also provides a nuanced takedown of the “poopfest” that is Thursday night football, with this classic quote:

I’d like to put Roger Goodell in pads for a late game on a Sunday, in December, in Green Bay, on the frozen tundra — then see what time he gets to the office on Monday morning, knowing that he would have to suit up again on Thursday.

Hell, yes.

I read this recent article which says that first-person athlete stories are heavily edited:

Athletes — who have dedicated their lives to their sport of choice, not writing — often rely on behind-the-scenes help when it comes to public communications. If you see your favorite athlete or celebrity’s byline on a surprisingly eloquent piece, well, there’s probably a reason why it’s so well-written.

Good writing and good editing go hand in hand. That’s why reputable media outlets employ copy editors. Writing is a craft that one hones over time, just like any skill. I don’t know how much editing goes into Sherman’s columns but, his spoken words are similar to his written ones — clear and concise.

The NFL would do well to empower more of its athletes to be storytellers. NFL ratings are down this year, which suggests that people are growing tired of the standard storylines. Embracing new content platforms isn’t enough. The league should embrace new content creators. And some of the most interesting creators are the people who actually play the games.

One straightforward way to inject more life into NFL storytelling is: Allow players to post to social media during the games. Yes, I said it. Let them Tweet, Snap, Insta, etc. while a game is happening. It won’t ruin the games — the teams and players will police themselves against Tweeting from the huddle or Snapping from the bottom of a pile. But Instagramming one’s self after a touchdown, that would be some cool content. Imagine a selfie of Zeke from inside the Salvation Army kettle.

Players and coaches already give in-game interviews. And those are extremely boring. So why not change it up a little?

The press conference is a dinosaur. By now, we all know that the only reason a player shows up to a press conference is…say it with me…“So I won’t get fined.”

I’m not mad (bro) at Sherman for skipping a press conference. I’m not mad, either, at a reporter who asks an athlete tough questions. There will always be a push-pull between athletes and reporters to tell meaningful stories. That because many good stories require a level of exposure that’s not always comfortable.

Technology has lowered the barrier for content creation, empowering more people than ever to be their own publisher. Which means, among other things, that high-quality storytelling is more precious today than ever before. Those who excel at storytelling will find their audience, without needing to hold a press conference.

Richard Sherman knows content, bro was originally published in 24 Years of Sucking @ Fantasy Football on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.