I won my fantasy football league....

[Humans]

...with an ALL WHITE roster.<div>
</div><div>So allow me to brag. And this is no romper room league. All adults, experienced, active, competitive 20 team league.</div><div>
</div><div>This was my 5th time participating in this league (3rd football season, 2 in baseball). I always draft and field all white rosters. I have finished with the best record in baseball twice, but never really expected much success in football given the fact that probably less than 15% of all offensive NFL players are white. I think most people in the league write my team of as a joke or a lark.</div><div>
</div><div>But I actually pulled it off this year. Here was my primary roster:</div><div>
</div><div><ul style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-: disc; list-style-: outside; list-style-: initial; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Drew Brees<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Wes Welker<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Marc Mariani (return man for the Titans)<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Austin Collie/Blair White<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Danny Woodhead<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Peyton Hillis<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Zach Miller/Jacob Tamme<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Adam Vinateri/Nate Kaeding<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">St. Louis Rams DEF[/list]<div>(and of course the occasional desperate plug-in of a John Kuhn or a Kevin Walter or whomever on bye weeks/emergencies)</div><div>
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Edited by: Humans

 

[Don Wassall]

I've never seen a scoring system so tilted toward Team Defense. 81 of your points came from the Rams D. Also, your opponent started Bo Scaife at TE and the legendary David Reed at WR. Curious. Anyways, congratulations to your Mighty Whiteys!

 

[Humans]

Yes, it was a point of discontent throughout the season. DEF was granted points for return yardage...not only did this result in occasional lopsided scores, but it also had the unintended effect of often rooting AGAINST your own DEF teams...because in certain scenarios, the return yardage was worth more than points-not-scored.<div>
</div><div>Anyhow, every team had to deal with it, but hopefully it will be fixed next year.</div><div>
</div><div>I'm not sure why he went with Scaife, because he also had Celek who was clearly the better option. David Reed would have scored him some good points (we also counted individual player return yardage), but he wasn't active for the game (concussion).</div>

 

[Don Wassall]

Caste Football sponsors two longstanding fantasy football leagues. There's usually an opening or two each season so maybe you can join one of them next year if you're interested. But if you do you'll have to fight some of the other owners for the good White players.

 

[Anak]

I came in second in mine with an all white roster. Final week wasn't too good for me when Peyton Hillis and Wes Welker didn't really score and my opponent had the kicker Janikowski and Patriots D.

Championship roster was:
Big Ben(Played Peyton Manning all but 2 games)
Welker
Shipley
Blair White
Hillis
Woodhead
Rob Gronkowski
David Buehler
Green Bay D

I had my pick of white players.

 

[Humans]

Yes, it was definitely a good season for white players compared to most. <div>
</div><div>Normally you can't scrounge up even a remotely decent (consistent) running back, which pretty much negates any realistic change of winning.</div><div>
</div><div>But I remember at one point this year I was debating over FOUR. (Hillis and Woodhead obviously, and then Gerhart with Peterson injured and Kuhn getting so many red zone touches down the stretch) It was a situation I never could have foreseen, having too manywhite running backs to choose from!</div><div>
</div><div>Hell, one week I used Hillis and Gerhart, and plugged in Woodhead at WR.</div>
Edited by: Humans

 

[whiteathlete33]

I'll never try an all white roster. I know Dixie has something very close, with one player (Nate Clements) for good luck. With the limited amounts of whites at multiple positions it's almost impossible to create even a semi-competitive team.

 

[Liverlips]

Good job, Human! What do the other members of your league think of your all-white team? Does the topic of race ever come up?

 

[DixieDestroyer]

I'll never try an all white roster.  I know Dixie has something very close, with one player (Nate Clements) for good luck.  With the limited amounts of whites at multiple positions it's almost impossible to create even a semi-competitive team.

Ol' Nate was on the roster when I took over the team. I could have won a few more games this year, but was buried with work & forgot to update my line-up for the Thursday game(s) a few times.

I'm a few players away from a real good team I believe. I'm also confident I can compete with an all-White roster.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I'll never try an all white roster. I know Dixie has something very close, with one player (Nate Clements) for good luck. With the limited amounts of whites at multiple positions it's almost impossible to create even a semi-competitive team.

Ol' Nate was on the roster when I took over the team. I could have won a few more games this year, but was buried with work &amp; forgot to update my line-up for the Thursday game(s) a few times.

I'm a few players away from a real good team I believe. I'm also confident I can compete with an all-White roster.




Oh ok!! I thought you would have replaced him with a white safety by now.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I usually field the Whitest team in the Riggins League, and I've made the playoffs just once, back in '08. This year I finished almost at the bottom of the league. Injuries and the caste system usually kill my playoff chances.

 

[Kaptain]

I got second in the Riggins league with a mostly white line-up. Not bad.

 

[GWTJ]

So much depends on how the draft goes. If you can get talented white players in the proper round you can win, but reaching for white players, or any favorite players, will doom a team.

The big money league that I am in is a 16 team league so few teams have studs at all positions. But by drafting Hillis and Collie late it gave me a powerhouse. I lost in the playoffs but dominated my league by a wide margin. I lost Collie but he single-handidly won some early games for me.

 

[Humans]

Good job, Human! What do the other members of your league think of your all-white team? Does the topic of race ever come up?

<div>
</div><div>No, never overtly in the smack-talk or message boards. Most of the people in the league are friends-of-friends that I don't personally interact with very often, or ex-co-workers that I haven't hung out with in several years, but the commissioner has been my best friend since grade school. </div><div>
</div><div>I don't really bring it up or point it out, because I'd rather avoid any racial debates or accusations and ruin the fun atmosphere. I think the lineup I field every year speaks for itself. If someone wants to assume I'm a bigot, that's not my problem, though it is untrue. I do it as a challenge and I think most everyone appreciates that.</div><div>
</div><div>There's a couple of black guys in the league but we've always gotten along. Hey, I don't rag on them for having an all-black team, do I? </div>

 

[Humans]

So much depends on how the draft goes.....reaching for white players, or any favorite players, will doom a team.

<div>
</div><div>Sometimes. But drafting ONLY white players usually makes for a very stress-free draft, for me. Seriously, no one else is realistically going to try and grab, say, Wes Welker in the 2nd or Collie in the 5th, but I am, because I don't have any other options.</div><div>
</div><div>In football and in baseball, I almost always get the exact players in the exact round I plan for, simply because I am selecting from such a smaller pool. And if there is any question, I ALWAYS reach for the player I want. I'd rather have the precise team I want, rather than one cobbled together by lottery pick.


I was actually discussing the finer points of this with a friend the other day. I've done unexpectedly well in both sports in the league these last couple of years, so the "All-White Team" now appears to be less of a gimmick, and, believe it or not, more like a truly viable strategy.</div><div>
</div><div>I don't believe this actually has anything to do with race, but more to do with the unforeseen benefits of staying focused on an arbitrarily limited pool of players. By disallowing myself to draft or pickup non-white players, my only option is to research, study, and keep track of almost <b style="font-style: italic; ">every single white player in the NFL, [/b]with even the slightest chance of playing time, no matter how unlikely or insignificant, and thus I know them inside and out.</div><div>
</div><div>This has many benefits, but perhaps most importantly it grants advanced awareness of good free agent waiver wire pickups. I believe I won my league this year because of my pickups. I grabbed Tamme the second Dallas Clark got injured, well before he became the darling TE pickup of the month on every blog in the universe. Because he was already on my radar. Same with Woodhead, Blair White, etc.</div><div>
</div><div>Peyton Hillis would have gone undrafted in almost any league...but not mine, because who else am I going to target?</div><div>
</div><div>Works in baseball, too. I was all over players like Boesch, Neil Walker, Posey for the same reasons.</div>

Edited by: Humans

 

[Don Wassall]

In the two CF leagues I rarely get White players outside of QB and TE because they are taken too early by other owners. My teams make the playoffs every year but they are mostly black. I have a number of other teams in leagues with no CF folks that can get pretty hard-core -- restricted free agent auctions, free agent auctions, franchise players, salary caps, rookie drafts where players are signed to contracts depending on where they're drafted, etc. -- and my teams almost always make the playoffs, in part because White players other than QBs and TEs are undervalued which lets me cherry pick the best ones on offense and defense. Edited by: Don Wassall

 

[white is right]

In professional gambling and stocks to an extent. Going contrary to the public view yields a profit. Ie if NY teams are in big game there is usually value on the other team.

 

[TwentyTwo]

Wish me luck...I am starting Danny Woodhead tommorrow...wish I had known he would get 13 carries last week...had him on the bench...

I looked like a genius taking Hillisat our draft with the very last pick..figured he would split carries; after becoming the feature back Week 3 or 4 and missing out on his points; started him ever since...but being questionable tommorrow went ahead and benched him (it pains me)I started Woodhead in his place.Edited by: TwentyTwo

 

[JReb1]

Woodhead will probably play very little tomorrow since the Pats have nothing to play for and they don't want to risk injuries to their key players like last year when Welker was lost in the last game.

 

[Don Wassall]

Belichick is so unpredictable. It's possible Woodhead will get most of the carries, or few or none. I have a choice between playing Danny or LaGarrette Blount in a championship game tomorrow as my second RB and I'm going with Blount because Tampa still has an outside shot at the playoffs.

 

[Westside]

I suspect Danny will get approx 5 to 10 touches. All low risk plays ie: plays in the open to exploit his play making and athleticism. Then time to rest and examine other players who have to be relied upon if the Lawfirm and Danny get injured.

 

[Don Wassall]

I found this blurb at the end of a long article at a fantasy football site interesting, not because the writer, as usual, gets it wrong when it comes to race, but because it indicates what we have beendiscussing here, an increasing awareness among a segment of football fans that the NFL and the media are anti-White:

Can we please stop accusing NFL analysts of being racist and specifically anti-Caucasian when it comes to pro football players? I've been around a ton of NFL beat writers and analysts, and I'm 100% sure these people are simply calling it like they see it. I heard a lot of comments from fans this past summer about how the media was discriminating against Viking RB Toby Gerhart because he was white, citing his stellar numbers in college. No, they were discriminating against him because he runs like he has a load of crap in his pants â€" a very large load. I understand how it seems like people are always comparing white athletes to other white athletes, which can seem disconcerting at times. But it's usually simply a matter of convenience of comparison, not racism.

 

[sport historian]

I found this blurb at the end of a long article at a fantasy football site interesting, not because the writer, as usual, gets it wrong when it comes to race, but because it indicates what we have been discussing here, an increasing awareness among a segment of football fans that the NFL and the media are anti-White:
<div> </div>
<div>&lt;SPAN style="COLOR: black"&gt;&lt;FONT face=Verdana&gt;Can we please stop accusing NFL analysts of being racist and specifically anti-Caucasian when it comes to pro football players? I've been around a ton of NFL beat writers and analysts, and I'm 100% sure these people are simply calling it like they see it. I heard a lot of comments from fans this past summer about how the media was discriminating against Viking RB </font>[COLOR=#0066cc size=2">[i]Toby Gerhart[/i][/COLOR"> because he was white, citing his stellar numbers in college. No, they were discriminating against him because he runs like he has a load of crap in his pants â€" a very large load. I understand how it seems like people are always comparing white athletes to other white athletes, which can seem disconcerting at times. But it's usually simply a matter of convenience of comparison, not racism. </font></font>&lt;/SPAN&gt;</div>

This awareness probably didn't exist 5-6 years ago.

 

[Observer]

I found this blurb at the end of a long article at a fantasy football site interesting...
<div> </div>
...I heard a lot of comments from fans this past summer about how the media was discriminating...

This awareness probably didn't exist 5-6 years ago.

I agree, but I'd say even 2.5 years ago. And this awareness is because of Caste Football (oftentimes it is possible to detect this because of the way the arguments are framed). I would not have thought it possible for such a small website to have such a large effect.

 

[Don Wassall]

Weenieworld and the great Dan Pompei

find racism in the NFL draft -- not against White players but rather against Nigerians.

I find this amusing; as a long-time IDP fantasy football player, when I can't find a Whiteplayer to fill a needed position on one of my teams, I often try to get a Samoan or an African with a name like Amukamara or other exotic non-White last name because on average they are more consistently productive and have better work ethics than American blacks. It's the same dynamic at work when it comes to White football players vs. black ones, but not as pronounced. From Weenieworld:

The National Football Post's Dan Pompei suggests that Prince Amukamara fell in the draft because "a lot of NFL people are skeptical" about football players from Nigeria. If so, it's blatant racism. Here's what Pompei writes: "The word on Nigerians: they are soft, not tough enough and too educated. It would be a pity if that's what cost Amukamara." It certainly would, and we highly doubt this was the case. Here's guessing no one questioned the toughness of Christian "Nigerian Nightmare" Okoye, or doubts Jeff Otah's physicality. Osi Umenyiora, born to Nigerian parents, forced ten fumbles last season playing the entire year hurt. Other Nigerian-born NFLers: Isaiah Ekejiuba, Samkon Gado, and Adimchinobe Echemandu.