Separating fantasy from reality

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2022 (1492 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s no shortage of so-called fantasy football experts.

The number of books, blogs, podcasts and everything in between to help people win their leagues is endless. And of course, most of it ends up being wrong as few things are as unpredictable as an NFL season.

Then there’s 22-year-old Winnipegger Noah Lieberman, a recent University of Manitoba Asper School of Business grad, and his idea for something different.

Lieberman recently published a book titled If You Think You Know Fantasy Football… Think Again.

Is fantasy football healthy competition? How does fantasy football affect us on a psychological level? And why do people obsess over the game and take it so seriously?

Those are some of the things Lieberman — who’s been drafting teams since he was 12, back when names like Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster, and Calvin Johnson were the players to own — tries to answer in 242 pages.

And for those who are unaware, fantasy football has exploded into an industry worth more than $18 billion dollars.

“Fantasy football can be such a polarizing game and can be so contentious. I wanted to find a book out there that talked about everything that happens kind of behind the scenes of that and discusses the industry and how it affects people, rather than just things like ‘Top 50 Tricks to Win Your League.’ And to my surprise, those were the only kind of books that I could find,” Lieberman told the Free Press on Tuesday.

“… So, I said, ‘You know what, I think the book needs to be written, so why not write it?’ I thought it could help a lot of people, so I got on my computer and said what needed to be said.”

One of Lieberman’s biggest sources of inspiration for the project was firsthand seeing the negative side of fantasy leagues. When you mix friends with competition and money, which is essentially what fantasy football is, things can get ugly. He hopes the book can explain not only how to play, but how you can set up your league so that you can avoid conflicts between members.

“There was just argument after argument after argument in one of my leagues. If it was just one or two, which I think every league goes through at some point, it’s fine, but it was every week where there was something else. It was getting to the point where it was legitimately fracturing relationships between people in the league,” said Lieberman.

“Something as fun and entertaining as fantasy sports shouldn’t be breaking up relationships, it should be bringing people closer. That’s really the point of the book… It’s meant to open people’s eyes to the psychology of it and the philosophy of it so that you can at least understand it. Once you do understand it, the book goes into how we do something about it and fix it.”

Jakob Sanderson is another fantasy football diehard from Winnipeg. The 25-year-old, who now lives in Vancouver and is pursuing his law degree at the University of British Columbia, is making a name for himself with nearly 11,000 followers on Twitter as the lead analyst for Player Profiler — a website with advanced stats and metrics — and co-founder of the Full Tilt Dynasty Podcast Network.

Sanderson was one of the first people to review Lieberman’s book.

“What I thought was interesting is sort of the ingrained aspect of fantasy football in life. I thought it was interesting commentary and I was really glad that he sent it to me for the chance to read,” Sanderson said.

“… You’re playing against people. Not against football players, not playing against a spreadsheet. So, I think rooting that we play a game against people with football and statistical inputs but trying to put the human side kind of first is, I think, an interesting read and also is probably good in terms of establishing your playstyle.”

Since it was Lieberman’s first book and he had just finished school, getting his work published was a challenge. After half a year of getting rejected by literary agents, he opted to publish it himself through Amazon. It quickly gained some buzz as it was Amazon’s No. 1 newly released book in the sport science category and held the No. 2 spot out of all new fantasy sports books.

It sells for $19.95 and can also be purchased in person at Indigo on Kenaston Boulevard and Chapters on Empress Street. Lieberman will be doing a book signing at Indigo on Sept. 10 from 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.

“I actually didn’t tell anyone I was writing it until I was done. One day, I went into my family room and looked at my family and said ‘Guys, I wrote a book.’ And they’re like ‘What do you mean you wrote a book?’ And I was like ‘Yeah! I wrote a book.’ (My family) watched me go through the whole process, the good parts, and the bad parts, and as it got closer to the release date, it became more and more real,” said Lieberman.

“Now it’s definitely here.”

Lieberman won’t catch his family off guard next time as he’s already working on his next two books and neither of them relate to fantasy football. But since most fantasy managers draft this week as Week 1, which begins on Sept. 8 with the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Buffalo Bills, is right around the corner, the question had to be asked: who does Lieberman recommend people go out and pick?

“Since one of my drafts is tonight, I can tell since this story will be published tomorrow,” he said

“… I’d really like to target both (Denver Broncos receivers) Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. I don’t know which one is going to turn into the alpha, but one of them is going to have a ridiculous year, I think.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31