With the NFL lockout over, teams are finally able to start preparing for the 2011 season. The preparation process includes things like signing draft picks, signing free agents and starting training camp. All of those things will happen this week in a rushed manner, but hey, it's better late than never.
For fans, the end of the lockout means the resumption of lots of news about their favorite team, as well as thinking about fantasy football. Despite being the back-to-back Pride of Detroit Fantasy Football League champion (yes, I'm bragging), I honestly haven't even thought about fantasy football for one second this year. Even in non-lockout years I don't put too much thought into it until late August, but this year I have put zero thought into it until now.
With the lockout over, now is the time to start thinking about putting together leagues and getting things ready for the 2011 season. For POD, we only had one official league last year compared to three or four the year before. This year I'm not sure how many leagues I will be running, but there will at least be one -- a continuation of the main POD FFL from the past few years.
One reason I may just run one league and let you guys organize others is because this year SB Nation is partnering with Yahoo! Sports for fantasy football. I'm really excited to move the main league to Yahoo!, which is considered the best fantasy football provider by many. Since it's so easy to get leagues set up, I'm sure you guys would be more than happy to organize your own leagues, which would free up a lot of time for me.
As for the main POD FFL, 11 spots are currently open. The people that have been in the POD league over the last few years will be considered for the open spots (and, to be honest, have a bit of a leg up on everyone else for consideration), but none are guaranteed right now. I'm opening it up to everybody to express interest in participating in the main POD league. To express interest, simply leave a comment on this post. A week from now I will put up another post as a sort of last call for anybody who is interested. After that I will decide on the 11 users that will try to stop me from a three-peat, and we will work out the rest of the details about the league once all spots are filled.
Even if you're not in the main POD league, feel free to use this post or the FanPosts to set up your own leagues. Like I said, it's very easy to set up a league on Yahoo!. Just go here and create a league and follow the steps to customize it however you want. It's all free and completely customizable, and this year you can even use an app on your phone to manage your team no matter where you're at.
Yahoo! Fantasy Football supports SB Nation and pigskin awesomeness. It’s also the #1 Fantasy Football game thanks to dazzling player research, instant stats with free live scoring, iPhone, Android, and iPad apps this season. Plus, new scoring categories for long receptions and rush plays. (Yes!) Sign up yahoo.com/fantasyfootball.