For those of you unfamiliar with the whole fantasy football thing, basically it is some sick obsession with tracking football stats and creating your own virtual team of real, live, breathing point scoring players. You go to a site like NFL.com and join a league and then you pick your players and hope that they outscore all of the other teams you play. If you love football, it’s a lot of fun. If you hate football, well then it probably seems like a pointless waste of time.

One important thing that you must do when playing fantasy leagues is create your own team name. Usually people want something that is funny, creative, unique, maybe even a little raunchy. It can be tough coming up with something witty and something that might sound cool to you but not lame to everybody else. Some people go with generic names – IE, they’ll call themselves the Dolphins or the Raiders. That’s not funny or creative at all though!

So, if you want some fantasy football team ideas that will make people laugh, then try some of my fool proof ideas below:

1. Pick an Obscure Animal: Calling yourself the Tigers is pretty boring. But if you pick an obscure animal that most people know nothing about, then it can potentially be funny. For example, how about a jellyfish? An aardvark? Why not a star nosed mole? If you go with an animal, make sure it’s a good one. Choosing something snugly like an angora rabbit will likely make the other players in your league think you’re a big wimp.

2. Think Pop Culture: I hate pop culture, but lots of people like it. Think to some movies you’ve watched lately or a song you’ve heard. Lady Gaga is really big (and disgusting in my opinion) these days so you could be the “Lady Disgust-ga-gas”. That’s not really funny, but it serves as an example of something wittier and funnier you can hopefully come up with on your own.

3. Something Menacing: It can be really funny if you have a menacing name and then it turns out that your team is totally terrible.

4. An Old Cliche: Simply head on over to the Cliche Finder and pick whatever word you happen to like. Voila – You can be the “Crazy Sack O Cats”.

5. Something Football Related: Pick a player name and find some play on words with his name. I suck at this to give you examples but at least once a year I see a name like Farvenators and I’m sure you can think of something much better.

6. Add in a Ridiculous Adjective: Add more power to your name by picking a very strange adjective. The Handsome Lizards, the Menacing Angora Rabbit, the Precious Flip Flops, the Bamboozling Pandas…you get the idea.

Anyways, that’s all my big ideas for coming up with funny fantasy football names. I do not claim that any of the made up team names here are any good ones or even actually funny. I hold no responsibility if you use one of my ideas and you end up with a lame fantasy football team name. But I have confidence that you can do better than me. And remember: sometimes names are so bad they become funny.

Have any good fantasy football team names you want to share? Tell me your ideas or ones you have seen/heard before in the comments section below!

Last night was our Best of Stupid Fantasy Football live draft and I thought I’d share my fantasy football draft picks with everybody.

Part of the secret to getting the best fantasy football draft picks is to be reactive to what the other players in your fantasy football league are doing. When I’ve been playing, it seems the first people to go are the running back fantasy football picks. If you have the first few fantasy football draft picks then you should certainly go for the running backs. But if you’re in the middle or the last spots, then you might as well forget about the running backs and try to pick up some high scoring wide receivers or quarterbacks.

The reason you should do this (and that is what I did) is so the other teams in your league won’t have an unfair advantage against you in case these players are gone by your next turn to make your pick.

I made a few basic mistakes when doing my draft picks – I grabbed my quarterback Derek Anderson early on in Round 3, even though I probably could have waited until the 4th or 5th Round since most people have no idea who he is or that he consistently beat or matched Tom Brady, Carson Palmer & Big Ben week after week last year. I probably could have had slightly better running backs or maybe one of the top 3 tight ends – but as I learned last year these guys aren’t always as good as promised. Last year I had some very promising running backs, who ended up getting hurt and not playing most of the year.

Anyways, here’s my fantasy football draft picks, I think I have a pretty solid team this year:

Quarter Back Fantasy Football Draft Picks:
Derek Anderson, Cleveland | Marc Bulger, St. Louis
Derek was my quarterback last year who I picked up as a free agent in the waivers after Carson Palmer wasn’t living up to my expectations. He had a concussion a few weeks ago, but I don’t anticipate this to really affect him in the long run. I could have picked him up in the 4th Round, but decided to jump on him since I didn’t want to take any chances and there wasn’t anyone else that really appealed to me at that point. Marc Bulger of St. Louis is a back up for the bye week or in case Derek doesn’t heal from his concussion for the first game – he’s predicted to be one of the top 5 QB’s this year.

Running Back Fantasy Football Draft Picks:
Willie Parker, Pittsburgh | Fred Taylor, Jacksonville | Kenny Watson, Cincinnati
My running back fantasy football draft picks aren’t the greatest. But as I said before, unlike most people who go after running backs first I drafted wide receivers in the first round. Still though Parker’s pretty decent running back, and who knows what Fred Taylor will surprise me with. Kenny Watson I may or may not keep, towards the end I really didn’t care who I picked. He played fantastic the few times he made it onto the field, and with Rudy Johnson being hurt, he may have a few early season plays which makes him sort of my secret weapon backup fantasy football draft pick. But he’s risky – there’s a good possibility he may not play that much at all, so he is who I drafted in the 11th round.

Wide Receiver Fantasy Football Draft Picks:
Randy Moss, Patriots | Roy Williams, Detroit | Donte Stallworth, Cleveland | Laveranues Coles, NY Jets
Randy Moss was my #1 Draft pick, and if last year continues he should bring me at least 20 points per game as Tom Brady’s right hand man. Williams and Coles both have pass-happy quarterbacks Kitna & Favre, so I’m thinking they should be consistent 10-20 points each week. I noticed Stallworth way down at the bottom of the draft (somewhere around the 8th or 9th rounds) and after seeing he’s at Cleveland this year I know he will do much better than last year, since he’s no longer competing with Randy Moss for the passes.

Tight End Fantasy Football Draft Picks:
Heath Miller, Pittsburgh | Zach Miller, Oakland
Heath Miller was my tight end last year – he gets some fairly decent playing time, though he’s not one of the “top” tight ends – I know I can expect him to get anywhere between 6-15 points a game and he is rarely hurt. I know nothing about Zach Miller, who I picked up in the final round.

Defense/Special Teams Fantasy Football Draft Picks:
Colts, Indianapolis | Browns, Cleveland
I learned last year that you won’t really know who a good defense is until the season starts. The Colts in general have been pretty good and so far they don’t have a lot of injuries. The Browns though may end up being better – it’s predicted they will do pretty well.

The best thing about this draft is that out of the 12 players in the league, only 5 of us showed up. This means the guys on Auto-Draft didn’t get any really good players, since they were set up by default to go after running backs the first two rounds. Having strong wide receivers when you’re in a 3 wide receiver league can give you anywhere from a 10 -15 point advantage, even if you’re playing against a team with LT or AP. I will also be keeping my eyes on the free agents and rookies on the waiver wire to see how they’re doing, I picked up some great players that way last year.

I can’t wait until the season starts! Feel free to share with me your thoughts on my fantasy football draft picks or your fantasy football advice in the comments below.