To watch football is to understand football. I cannot stress enough how important it is to actually watch the games. The fact is not many people understand the game of football. I don’t mean to be snide or condescending here, but that is the truth. This is primarily due to relatively small number of people that played organized football growing up. Think about it. Everybody reading this played little league baseball at some point, right? Ok, now how many of you played Pop Warner football? I would guess that the number would be around 25 percent or less. So it stands to reason that very few people who play fantasy football also played organized football growing up. This is why watching the game is so important to learn about the game. You can see how good offensive line play really leads to offensive production. You can see how the quarterback never looks the way of a certain wide receiver. You can witness whether or not a running back can pick up yardage after contact. So much can be learned from watching and all of it will help you become a better fantasy football player.

So what do you do if you cannot watch all of the games every week? That is where I come into play. If you can’t watch the games yourself then you absolutely have to put your faith in somebody that does.

You would be stunned to learn how many fantasy analysts actually do not watch games. I won’t call anybody out in these pages but I hear all of the time that my fellow fantasy analysts are doing everything BUT watching football on Sundays. That really bothers me too because if you don’t understand the game, never have played the game and don’t watch the game, then what exactly gives you the right to advise people about the game? Honestly, nothing in my opinion.

In fantasy baseball you can read the box scores and get a pretty good idea of what transpired. It isn’t perfect, but that along with our basic knowledge of how baseball is played helps us understand how everything fits together. Reading a football box score is a whole different experience.

Giovani Bernard 11 Yard Run (Mike Nugent Kick).

What does that scoring summary tell us? Honestly, nothing. Why was Bernard getting the carry instead of Jeremy Hill? Why were the Bengals running the ball at the 11-yard line? To which side did they run the ball? What type of running play was it? There is so much vital context lost in an NFL box score or game recap.

The next time you have a fantasy football question, I urge you to put your trusted fantasy analyst to the test. Ask them specific questions about why they have formed the opinion they have. You’ll be stunned how many very general answers you’ll receive and how quickly you’ll be rushed off of the phone lines or chat.