Each week the ladies of Her Fantasy Football will dive into the women and men behind some of the best fantasy football resources on the web. Fantasy Selfies will give you some insight into how each of these fantasy fanatics think (or don’t – ha!) This week we got to know a little bit more about one of our own, Brandon Marianne Lee of Her Fantasy Football. You may have heard of it…
1. In your own words, how did Her Fantasy Football get started? Why did you decide to take on this venture?
When I first moved to New York in 2009 I started a bitty blog called Her Fantasy Football and even claimed the twitter handle @herfantasyfb. On the blog I wrote one entry, kickers rankings, and I realized that a fantasy football blog is way too much work for one person so I stopped. Fast forward four years and I’m chatting with my sister, Ashley, about how we need a profession boost. We need to move forward. We came up with an idea for a podcast. But what to talk about? Well, fantasy football, of course! Our other sister just had baby #2 so we weren’t quite sure if she would want to take on more work, but Courtney was all in. And then suddenly, it just felt right.
2. What is it like working with your sisters?
The good news is that your coworkers have to love you, no matter what. So, when that blog entry is a couple hours/days late no one is going to get fired. The bad news is that your coworkers know that you ironed money alone in the middle of night when you were in middle school. I’m not going to tell you which one of us did that, but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
3. Who is your favorite real football team and how did you fall in love with them?
If you listen to the show you know that our family was raised on the Denver Broncos. That’s how our family bonded and that’s how all three of us became interested in both regular and fantasy football. It’s hard not to love the Broncos when you had season tickets during the Elway days. However, I’m a lone wolf. I left Colorado at 18 and I haven’t lived there since. I still bleed orange and blue, but I do love rooting for a home team. The Minnesota Vikings are my second favorite team (I went to college at the University of Minnesota and I met my husband in Minneapolis) and the New York Jets are my third favorite. My husband grew up in South Dakota without a team, and now that we live in New York he’s decided the Jets are “his team.” He’s a strong man.
4. How did you start playing fantasy football?
Funny story: I was part of a theater chat room for artists in Minneapolis and one of the guys put up a notice for people to join a fantasy football team. I was the first to respond with, “YES!” I didn’t even know what fantasy football was, but I loved football so I was in. I ended up being the only woman in the league filled with guys who do theater. To this day, it is the only league I have not won. THIS IS MY YEAR! Anyway, the story doesn’t end there, because I can’t do anything one step at a time. Once I google “fantasy football” and realized it was pretty much the game of my dreams I signed up for yet another league with theater people and called up my family and said, “Hey, we should do this!” Little did I know that my sister, Ashley, already played in multiple leagues and my dad used to play fantasy in the 90’s – before the internet scoring system! That’s bananas. So we started our family league and it totally changed my life.
5. How do you prepare for your fantasy draft? How do you research? Do you go in with a set system or does it vary by league?
Now I print off the Her Fantasy Football rankings and I go off of those. Seriously. As far as research for how I do my part of the rankings (Quarterbacks and Tight Ends), I print off a list of how each player scored last year and I print off rankings from fantasypros.com because they just average all sorts of rankings online. The list seems the least slanted one way or another. Then I have my personal notes about each player and I move people around accordingly. Once the list is set I check the news for each team to make sure I didn’t miss any injuries or roster changes. It’s a lot of work, but that’s how you get it done. And when I do all of that the draft comes naturally. Well, I’ll be more specific. This year in round one I want a tier one Running Back (Charles, McCoy, Forte, Peterson, Lacy, Murray) or a tier one Wide Receiver if I’m later in the draft (Johnson, Thomas, Bryant, Green, Marshall, Jones, Brown). After that I’m targeting set player available. I know the mantra all over the internet is to take a Quarterback late, and I agree, but if I can get Manny, Brees or Rodgers in the third round, I will. Elite is elite.
6. How many leagues do you play in and what are their formats? Standard, PPR, daily, etc.
I normally play in three or four. It looks like this year I’m already at five, so there’s that… I play in both standard and PPR. I am looking to join a dynasty or a keeper league this year and I’m also going to do some daily games so I can better chit chat with our listeners that do the same.
7. During the season, when you need to decide between two players to start, what attribute/stat/news item will normally tip you one way or the other?
Roster indecision is the WORST and I am totally guilty. I’m a match ups girl, but I never bench my studs. However, studs can change throughout the season. Around Week 5 I stopped considering Victor Cruz a stud (even though it broke my heart). He wasn’t performing like a stud. However, in that same league I had Josh Gordon and I realized that he was actually my stud, so I started him every game instead. Studs give you week in and week out stud performances. There may be a bad game or two, but overall- stud. For everyone else on my roster I look at how many points the defense normally allows to a player at that position. Last year I always started a tight end against Arizona because they gave up far and away the most fantasy points to guys at that position.
8. Please name five players you think have a major chance at stud-dom and three players that scare the crap out of you this year. Eek!
Five potential studs (that aren’t already there): Joique Bell, Giovani Bernard, Rueben Randle, Terrance Williams, Jace Amaro
Three scary dudes: Doug Martin, Percy Harvin, Jordan Reed, and for a bonus- the backup, Johnny Manziel
9. What are you drinking, booze or otherwise?
Yeah, a little too much. Right now I’m drinking black coffee. Normally I do drink water, but also Magners, any form of wine you can find or whiskey. I’m a whiskey woman at heart.
10. What’s your favorite book / tv show / movie? It can’t be all football all the time, right?
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is still my favorite work of fiction. My favorite non-fiction book is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. My favorite play is The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. Everyone should read that play. My favorite television series of all time is Breaking Bad. There is no comparison. If I’m low browing it, I love So You Think You Can Dance. I’m a sick person who likes to be reminded about my lack of physical talent. My favorite movies of all time are Dumb and Dumber and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Bonus Round: Pimp your wares! Tell us where we can find you, follow you, read you, etc.
Luckily you are on our site, so that’s a good start. You can follow me on twitter @BrandonHerFFB and the show @herfantasyfb We’re recording video to go along with out podcasts so you can subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also find us on Facebook. But most importantly, please subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and listen in each week. It will be fun.