PODCAST: 5 Running Backs You Must Start in Week 8

I've decided to incorporate my own Podcast into this blog. I named the Podcast, "Fantasy Football Knowledge With Asam City." My intention is to give Fantasy owners some last minute valuable advice, on who to start in your fantasy football matchup this week. My hope is that my research and opinions that I provide you with, will allow you to win your weekly matchup.

In this weeks Podcast, I discuss 5 Running Backs that you must start. Here is a link to the podcast:

Asam City Podcast: 5 Running Backs You Must Start in Week 8

In this Podcast, I gathered information from various sites such as:

Fantasy Football Cafe

Football Guys

Roto World

Roto Wire

FF Toolbox

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

DeAngelo Williams Angrily Tweets Back To His Fantasy Owners

It was a warm day at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, where DeAngelo Williams and the Carolina Panthers hosted the Seattle Seahawks…. DeAngelo Williams was set to have a splendid game on the ground, with the Seahawks run defense being ranked in the bottom half of the NFL .

Williams would end up with a porous 6 yards, on 6 attempts, and a fumble….. Fantasy owners were annoyed, to say the least! They were so annoyed that they expressed their frustration through the use of social media outlet, Twitter. In there tweets, they used profanity and harsh remarks that are unacceptable for me to show examples of in this blog. Williams, like most human beings would be, was unhappy about the vicious remarks that were being tweeted about him. In many cases, a professional athlete would keep quiet, but in this case, due to the high engagement Williams has on Twitter, he decided to retaliate, by posting a tweet saying:

 

@DeAngeloRB     
 

“Dear upset fantasy owners with the bad language you are a fantasy owner for a reason because you can't play or apparently fantasy coach!”
 

By Williams taking a shot at his fantasy owners, Williams essentially said that they are fantasy owners because they can’t play the game of football, and they are fantasy owners who can’t coach, because they were dumb enough to play him. 

This produced a lot of re-tweeting and many angry responses that made DeAngelo feel as though he may have put himself in hot water. Fans now were stewing in his words and hurled hurtful epithets at Williams. They re-tweeted his response and started threads of their own, that lambasted the Carolina running back.

 

 

Picture taken from: Fantasy Knuckleheads

This Twitter outrage definitely showed the influence that Williams had on his fans and followers, due to the high volume of responses and other Twitter activity. Fantasy owners were no longer just pissed off at Williams because of his poor play, but now, because of his own tweet that he tweeted. 

After the consequent reaction from his owners and followers, DeAngelo backed off his initial tweet and assured fans and fantasy owners that the 1-4 Panthers would bounce back from this poor start. Below is the tweet in which he begins his attempt to resurrect his Twitter persona: 
 

 

@DeAngeloRB

“As fans u have every right to be disappointed, but just know that we are even MORE disappointed, and we WILL get this thing turned around”
 

Overall, this is a great example of how Social Media is used in Fantasy Football. While there was no breaking news or important injury report, this was a case of a Professional athletes emotions getting the best of him, and how it effected his fan base and those that owned him in Fantasy leagues across the world. Williams could have chosen any social media platform, but he decided to utilize Twitter because of the many relationships and engagements he already had there.

5 Fantasy Football Twitter Personalities You Have To Follow

We are already over a quarter of the way through the season, and by now, there are definitely some Twitter personalities you’ve began to heavily rely on. These personalities have supplied you with up to date and current fantasy football news, allowing you to stay on top of the action in your league.

These inspiring twitter personalities have also caused fantasy GM’s to do a great job at using social media to find out this valuable information, which will lead us to the ultimate hope, a fantasy football championship.

I have decided to compile my own list of people that allow me to stay on track towards winning one fantasy matchup at a time.

 1.) Peter King 

           @SI_PeterKing   

Peter King is a guy that I’ve always liked and respected, becuase he writes the famous Sports Illustrated article “Monday Morning Quarterback.” He knows his stuff, thats for sure, and his twitter insight gives juicy fantasy tips, while also just giving a broad view of how the NFL is looking at that particular moment in the Twitter World.

2.)  Matthew Berry 

         @MatthewBerryTMR

Matthew Berry might be a bigger fantasy guru than @ASAMCITY himself.... This guy is about the most legitimate source of fantasy information we could ever come by. Berry gives great info on who to draft and why, answers fans questions through direct messaging and by replying and always posts up to the minute knowledge, that all fantasy GM needs to utlitize. The best way to do this is to follow him on Twitter, and constantly check your Twitter account for his tweets! You will thank me when he starts regularly showing up on your timeline.

3.) Brad Evans

          @YahooNoise

If you’ve ever done a Yahoo Fantasy league, you know who this guy is. Evans is fantastic fantay football writer and can be seen regularly on Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Live. Following his Twitter helps integrate his quality info into your timeline and I personally follow Mr Evans because of he is a great source for injury updates.

4.) Stephania Bell

  

          @Stephania_ESPN

Stephania is ESPN’S Certified Orthopedadic Clinical Specialist, and is the best form of information you can get regarding injury updates and there severities. Her twitter feed lists injured athletes, and for athletes that are questionable game time decisions, she is the perfect Twitter personality to follow to determine who needs to play and who needs to be benched.

5.) Evan Silva

          @evansilva

Evan is a guy I’ve read on various fantasy football sites such as RotoWorld, and is a Senior NFL Editor at a site called ProFootballTalk which is a site I’ve read since my fantasy football beginnings. This guy is about is well versed as it gets and his tweets are times humorous too.

Of course, another great fantasy football Twitter personality is me, @AsamCity! Please continue to follow this blog and on Twitter, and while I don't post as much as Matthew Berry, my info is just as juicy!

Hope you all had a great fantasy week!

Turner Gets Busted for DUI

      I’ve just found out that the Atlanta Falcons starting Running Back, Michael Turner, was arrested on charges of a DUI and speeding. How did I find this info out? TWITTER!
     Twitter, along with other forms of social media, keeps me up to date on my players. Now that I know Michael Turner got into some off the field issues, the player I own, by the name of Jaquizz Rodgers, his value increases because of the possibility that Turner is now in the doghouse and Quiz will be grabbing more carries.
     It is also a bonus piece of knowledge just to keep track of which players are getting into trouble and which players are not. Whatever the result, social media has provided me with this valuable information… Here is a link to the article that was tweeted:

Turner gets popped for DUI

 

(Here is the actual link)

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8394092/atlanta-falcons-rb-michael-turner-charged-dui-speeding

Matt Forte Has High Ankle Sprain

Thanks to social media, NFL on Twitter has just revealed some disappointing information to me, in that my best fantasy running back, Matt Forte, suffered a high ankle sprain. I knew that he got hurt in last night's game, but did not know the severity of it....
Once again, this is a way in which social media has had a tremendous influence on my Fantasy football team. Recieving this knowledge on Twitter, allowed me to be ahead of the majority of the public, which allowed me to pick Forte's backup off of Waiver wires. Now, instead of being stuck with a stud Running back on the bench and no replacement, which would have happened if I had waited for a major newsource such as ESPN to let me know of the injury, I instead capitalized on the injury was able to score Forte's backup Michael Bush, who is quite legitimate to say the least.
Twitter saved my fantasy week today.

NFL Players and Coaches Use Social Media To Influence Fantasy GM's

            It’s very interesting how willing an NFL player is, to put their personal information out on the open social media market. Pro football players have used Social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, to report about their injuries and personal lives.

            Last year, superstar Running back Arian Foster, of the Houston Texans, had a knee injury during training camp. Before the injury, Foster was targeted to be possibly the top overall pick in the average fantasy football manager’s draft…. While the media put a scare in GM’s saying that he would be out for a long time, it was Foster that revealed the scariest information! He posted a picture of a knee x-ray and talked about the “white stuff surrounding the knee, known as anti-awesome stuff.” This caused him to go much later in drafts, for owners were afraid to take a gamble on him for the fear that he would be injured for most of the season… It turned out, he only missed a month, but this is a prime example of how an NFL player used social media to influence Fantasy football managers.            

Another example is a guy like Chad Johnson…. Yes, this is the guy that formerly changed his name to OchoCinco, (which I always thought was pretty moronic.) Anywho, he got cut from the Dolphins for allegedly head-butting his wife. His way of defending himself was by posting on Twitter, saying he just “got in her face” and didn’t actually headbutt her….. Whatever he “actually” did, it was not right, and because of this, it led to him being cut from the team and without a job. In this case, Johnson’s intention of defending himself on Twitter, did not work at all, but it was a “solid” attempt to influence the media.

There are so many other cases of NFL players using Twitter and other media outlets to talk about their personal lives, or injuries they’ve had. It’s not just players, it’s columnists, coaches, owners and GM’s. These thoughts that the players and others put out their have significant influence in the decisions a fantasy GM makes. I know that if I have Antonio Gates on my roster and he is listed as questionable, but then he (Gates) posts on his facebook status that he WILL be playing, I’m going to listen to the player and plug him in my lineup. The same goes if it is the other way around. People listen to social media, and base their General managerial decisions around what the social media buzz are. And if a player or coach who we love posts something, 9 out 10 times we will listen to them.

Fantasy Football Season Has Begun!

Ahhh, it's that time of year.... Fantasy football season has begun! A way for you to compile your own roster of actual NFL players, and compete against your friends, or complete strangers. Whomever the competitor is, Fantasy football is a phenomenal way to be interract with other Fantasy football GM's that have the same exact interest as you, and that is: WINNING A FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP!

It's what everyone wants, and there are many suggested steps to take in order to do so. Or, you can do it your own way, and perhaps get lucky! Lots of luck is involved in fantasy football. Do you start a running back that is guaranteed to get 10-15 touches, but has historically been lackluster against a particular run defense? Or do you start that Wide Reciever that might only get targeted 3 times, but one of them will be a 40 yard touchdown? It's a gamble, and there are various elements one needs to take into account.... Are you managing your team with realistic expectations? Is your management purely emotion based, or do you just rely on crunching numbers and projecting statistics? Or perhaps you can take the hybrid approach (which is how I approach each fantasy week.) Do I start Eli Manning against my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles, knowing that he will produce big numbers against my hometown squad?

Or do I start a lower tier quarterback that has a high probability of producing, where I won't have to root against my team in order to get points....
Decisions, decisions, decisions! This is why I love fantasy football! I live it, breath it, and am told that I am quite the guru. Friends of mine call me every Sunday morning, asking me "Who would you start....." or, "Out of these available players, who do I pick up?" Essentially, my answer is as good as yours.... As noted earlier, much of fantasy football is a gamble. A lot of your decision making is purely based upon a crap shoot. But historically, I'm pretty good at craps, and this has elevated my fantasy football knowledge, or what people perceive it to be. Thus, some colleagues of mine have developed a name for me..... Asam City: The Fantasy Football Guru.... Here I am:

Stay tuned all season for the most up to date fantasy knowledge.... I can't guarantee a fantasy championship, but I will certainly try. :) Let's do it!