I have been thinking a lot lately about what really distinguishes StinkBall from other fantasy football websites.  My conclusion is that StinkBall challenges you to get back to the basics of fantasy football.  What I mean is:  You have to know the Scoring System of StinkBall in order to succeed at StinkBall.  This forces you to think about how players and teams score fantasy points.  So how do fantasy points get scored?  Well I’m glad you asked :)

First rule:  To score fantasy points a player or team has to been on the field.  Yes I know this sounds obvious but when I talk to people about the concept of StinkBall I get this response A LOT:  ”Well I would just put in a lineup of players who don’t play because then I would get 0 points instead of all of those negative points.”  There is a misconception that StinkBall uses negative points in the Scoring System because StinkBall focuses on the negative aspects of fantasy football.  Let me be clear:  You accumulate positive fantasy points based on negative outcomes that occur during the NFL season.  This is a tough leap for many people to make because if you have experience in fantasy football, you are used to get minus points for these negative outcomes (i.e. -2 points for every interception your QB makes).

So the first hurdle you have to overcome when playing StinkBall is this paradigm shift of scoring positive points for negative outcomes and scoring negative points for positive outcomes (i.e. in the StinkBall Scoring System you get -6 points for touchdowns scored by a player in your lineup).

Second rule:  In order to score fantasy points, your player not only has to be on the field but he also must get in some touches.  With the StinkBall Scoring System you have to be careful.  Each position has its own penalty (-10 points) for a player not meeting certain positional requirements (i.e. QBs have to have at least 10 passing attempts to avoid the -10 point penalty).  So this means that even good NFL players can be valuable in StinkBall contests.  Keep this in mind:  Even Peyton Manning throws an interception every now and again.  Other factors that can keep your players from scoring fantasy points are suspensions and injuries.  When I was coming up with the StinkBall Scoring System, I considered giving bonus points if a player in your starting lineup was injured during his game and/or suspended from playing in the league for whatever reason.  I decided against this because at the end of the day:  I love the NFL and I love fantasy football.  I couldn’t rest easy at night knowing that I was hoping for an injury to any of the NFL’s world class athletes.  It just didn’t feel right to me and I’m not going to change my stance on this issue so please:  Don’t ask me to change the Scoring System to include these bonuses.  It’s not going to happen.

There are other “back to basics” rules but for now, I think this will be enough.  If I gave you too many hints, it would take away the challenge and the mystery behind the StinkBall contest.  I mean come on:  At the end of the day don’t we all want to win our fantasy leagues, StinkBall or otherwise, based on our own “gut” instincts and genius player selection?  So welcome to StinkBall, have fun and send me your comments and suggestions.  But don’t expect me to fill out your starting lineup for you because at the end of the day:  Just like the hair club for men guy “I’m not on the CEO of StinkBall but I’m also a player.”

Jason aka “The Real McCoy”