The Wright Stuff: Managing imaginary teams is fun challenge

Fantasy sports are great for any type of fan of the game.

Whether you have ever played the sport or not, it gives you a chance to be the almighty decision-maker for your own team in your own league.

It also makes other games more important to fans, rather than them paying attention to one team.

Right now, it's fantasy football season, and I love it. I feel that way because fans always talk about how they would do things differently if they were in charge (because we're so much smarter than the men who do this for a living, right?).

Of course the players can't actually play with each other, and you don't have to worry about paying them millions of your dollars, but there is plenty of competition amongst your peers to take it very seriously.

Last year was my first fantasy football season, and it surprised me by how much I got into it. I found myself checking the web site for any kind of edge I could get on my competition by picking up better players.

Needless to say my team was pretty bad.

It's hard to choose players in a draft your first go round, or any time for that matter, because you want to make sure your team is balanced, but effective at the same time.

This being my second year as a fantasy football manager, I am in two different leagues.

I approached my drafts with the idea to build from the ground game out. My first pick had to be a running back (unless Aaron Rodgers was available), then, depending on who was still available, I'd choose another running back or my first quarterback.

In the subsequent round, I'd select whatever I didn't pick in the previous round.

Where I messed up was the fact that I didn't even think about taking a wide receiver.

Now, every week I'm scrambling to find a decent group of receivers to play every week, and a lot of the guys that I have (Terrell Owens, Eddie Royal and even Wes Welker) are hit and miss each week. To say the least it's a crapshoot.

So, in one league I have the second ranked team out of 12, and in another I'm eighth out of 10 teams. The only difference is the people you are playing with.

If you're in a group with some folks that really know what they are talking about, some players will be hard to come by, where on the other hand, if you are playing against some rookies and people who don't know what they're doing, there's more of a chance to be successful.

In the end, it's important to have an idea of who you think is going to be good before a season starts, and a lot of the time, the biggest impact players are not guys who you'd expect them to be before the season.

Football's an unpredictable sport, but it's fun to make an attempt to manage, now that the opportunity has been presented to us.