Your first ever fantasy football pick

[RareN64Dream 8]

My first money league I drafted Peyton Manning in a 2 QB start league before the 2004 Colts season when Manning threw for 49 touchdowns. Thanksgiving was definitely memorable from what I recall.

[sderk 1,040]

I think it was 1995 when I was in my first real league. Pre fantasy football for me and my friends was mostly gambling (poker, etc.)  and staying up late nights drinking beer and playing Tecmo Bowl for money against each other.

In '95 we played PPR and I drafted Herman Moore and Chris Warren as first couple picks.

That year Moore had 123 receptions on 206 targets - 14TDs

Warren had over 1300 yards rushing and 35 receptions - 16TDs

I didn't have him but Emmitt Smith had nearly 1800 yards with 62 receptions and scored 25 TDs that year.

To this day I'm in a league with two other guys that were in my first league back in '95. Most of the guys in the league have been in it since around 2002.

[Kopy 489]

Year 2000.

Curtis Martin round 1, and Corey Dillon round 2. I don't remember if I had the swing pick (12 teamer) or not, but it was definitely a late pick. And yes, back then I subscribed to the stud RB theory.

 

[LaChup 154]

1986 - Top 5 picks

1.1 - Ditka

1.2 - Ditka

1.3 - Ditka

1.4 - Ditka

1.5 - Da Bears D

[Flint5 4]

1998 standard league which I am still in with some original members.  5th pick Kordell Stewart.  Obviously I didn't know what I was doing at the time.  I do recall the first pick of that initial league draft was Jerome Bettis.  

[jimaveli 119]

1.07 Lamont Jordan. His first year in Oakland. He was a bust that year but was much better the year after. The 2nd year wasn’t much better 1.10 S. Alexander the year his foot fell off and the Seattle oline went way downhill. Bust!

[Uncle Leo 16]

1997...Brett Favre

 

I took him #1 overall. 

[SAA 12]

1989 Warren Moon

Scoring was TDs only, based on length of TD. 1 pt for every 10 yards. In other words, 1x 5o yard TD weighed the same as 5x 1 yard TDs= 5 pts. Long TD scorers highly valued- Tyreek Hill would be great in that league. I can't imagine anyone plays in such a league today. Kickers were the safest and often highest scorers every week. Can't remember how they scored. 

Weird scoring system. Had to wait until Monday to view the box score in the paper to see the stats and figure out the scores by hand.

[Cretins 21]

Geez, can't tell you my first year, but pretty close to 2000.  Around years 3-4 I rode Priest Holmes to two consecutive championships. Hard to remember who else was on those rosters. 

[Cloaca du jour 2,064]

John Riggins....1984.  Junior in high school.

We played based on a board game...draft one of each skill position...including a rookie.  No backups...if a guy went down...too bad.  Every 4 weeks had a supplemental draft to replace injuries and pick up players..overall total score won...no head to head.

Ff has never been as pure as those years.

[polecatt 399]

On 10/27/2019 at 2:34 PM, Cloaca du jour said:

John Riggins....1984.  Junior in high school.

We played based on a board game...draft one of each skill position...including a rookie.  No backups...if a guy went down...too bad.  Every 4 weeks had a supplemental draft to replace injuries and pick up players..overall total score won...no head to head.

Ff has never been as pure as those years.

Wow, 1984! That's experience!

That's another fun thing about this thread, outside the topic, seeing how the game has evolved over the years. I know it used to be mainly just TDs and long TD plays.

Now all kinds of stats come into play, as well as roster management, It will be interesting to see where it goes in the future.

[Ehlana 25]

How the heck do you guys remember remember your first picks? I have no idea who I drafted 20 years ago.

[weepaws 2,452]

Heck I remember what I had for lunch 20 years ago. 

[zftcg 84]

2004. I had no idea what I was doing but I took Shaun Alexander in the first round (I think around 1.05). It was the year before his massive breakout, but he was still pretty good. I made a couple of other good picks, got Muhsin Muhammad in his career year off the waiver wire, and absolutely pantsed my friend in a trade (I gave him Corey Dillon and someone else who was totally forgettable in exchange for Tiki and Tony Gonzalez) but overall my team was pretty terrible. I also remember I tried to draft Boldin and my leaguemates were nice enough to inform me he had torn up his knee and was out for the season.

ETA: Just looked up my profile in Yahoo. I went Alexander/Dillon/Vick, which wasn't terrible, but for some reason I practically went Zero WR, which totally killed my team. Laveranues Coles and Charles Rogers? What was I thinking?

[sderk 1,040]

I remember drafting Brian Piccolo in 1968. I loved Brian Piccolo.

[oldtimer 84]

My first pick was back in either 1992 or 1993.  I can't recall which.  There was no internet, so we could either mail in our lineups or call an 800 number that charged like $1.99 per transaction, but sometimes you had no choice.  There were no PPR leagues back then and Running Backs and QB's went off the board super early as most all your points came from TD's.  WR's didn't start to take over fantasy football until the 2000's and various types of PPR rules were put into play.  My first overall pick was Steve Young.  I was sort of lucky as John Elway went the pick before me.  His rushing yards were pretty awesome, and back then, coming close to 30 TD's passing was not common.  I remember Emmitt Smith went #1 overall and I had a late first round pick.  I did end up with Jerome Bettis later in the draft and it was his rookie season.  I ended up finishing 2nd, losing in the finals by something like 2 points.  I recall there were no WR's taken in the first round, but I went with Rice in the 2nd.  Andre Rison went the pick before me in the 2nd round.  I recall thinking that guy was an idiot, but Rison had an awesome season. 

[mgs316 14]

1998 - Jeff George, end of first round.  Think he got hurt, ended up riding Marino and Eric Moulds to the championship.

[Pogs23 6]

Rudi Johnson...

 

After like 4 years of awesome numbers I take him and I think he ran for like 500 yards.

[Sean Mooney 1,184]

My first fantasy draft was 1997 before we started doing it online we did it via the paper and stats we could find. We met at a Pizza Hut and did the draft. Late 1st round pick and I grabbed Dorsey Levens. I remember my QB on that team was Jeff George

[phins1921 10]

Barry Sanders 

[rotisserieking 34]

Ah, a trip down memory lane. Started my league in 1999 and here's my post draft roster (no clue what order) I pulled up:

QB: Peyton Manning, Rich Gannon

RB: Natrone Means, Curtis Martin, Barry Sanders, Olandis Gary, Terrell Davis (IR)

WR: Rod Smith, Albert Connell, Darnay Scott, Rob Moore

TE: Ben Coates, Byron Chamberlain

K: Al del Greco, Steve Christie

DEF: Jax, NE

It's funny looking through the names in that draft. Who could forget Panthers RB Tim Biakabatuka!

[polecatt 399]

32 minutes ago, rotisserieking said:

Ah, a trip down memory lane. Started my league in 1999 and here's my post draft roster (no clue what order) I pulled up:

QB: Peyton Manning, Rich Gannon

RB: Natrone Means, Curtis Martin, Barry Sanders, Olandis Gary, Terrell Davis (IR)

WR: Rod Smith, Albert Connell, Darnay Scott, Rob Moore

TE: Ben Coates, Byron Chamberlain

K: Al del Greco, Steve Christie

DEF: Jax, NE

It's funny looking through the names in that draft. Who could forget Panthers RB Tim Biakabatuka!

Natrone Means!!!!

I remember going and watching him play in college at UNC. The Tar Heels actually had the most 1,000 yard rushers in college football history at the time, no idea if that's still the case. I remember being at the game where he broke the record. He broke off like a 70 yard TD run to put him over 1,000 for the season. The place went crazy!

Great set of RBs there overall, especially back in those days.

Ben Coates, he was a gem at TE too.

Good team

[Raider 84 29]

Bart Starr

[shutdown 40]

Great question.  It was 1991 season.  We bought a case of bud light and it came with a pamphlet on how to play fantasy football. 

Distance based TD scoring only.  No head to head, total points format.  3 of us played.

My first pick was Barry Sanders. 

The next year we found the Cliff Charpentier books and the rest is history.  One of the guys from that original 3 is still in the league I started in 1998 today.

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/12/19/meet-the-minnesotans-who-launched-fantasy-football/

 

[The Road Warriors 3]

S. Alexander 1st

B Farve 2nd