Is Teamwork Really Important in the Game of Football?

Any football team has eleven first team players. Every other member of the squad is often regarded as a substitute. But the question is whether it is really important for a football team to apply teamwork. Read on and you will definitely find out what I think about teamwork in the game of football.

A football team is made up of individual players with individual talents and skills. A great football team has great goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, wingers and strikers. A great team can hold the ball very well, defend very well and score good goals.

Research by top football experts has shown that the game of football is one sport that requires collaboration.

This means that a team may have seasoned goalkeepers, wonderful ball jugglers, fantastic dribblers, and mind blowing strikers but if these individual talents and skills don't blend into a team then there's no team.

By extension, they don't stand a great chance of winning matches.

I am yet to see players that can dribble all the 11 players of an opposing team no matter how weak the opposing team may be. However, if there are players that can do such, they stand a chance of sustaining life-altering injuries and consequently, having permanent disabilities because of the workload.

There is the word "team" in a football team just to show you that teamwork is very important to any team irrespective of the abundant talents in the team. No team in the world can do without teamwork because the team is bigger than any individual player just like any country is bigger than the President of the country.

If you really want to know the latest news in the world of football, visit Football Club Transfer News [http://footballclubtransfernews.com]

How Important is an Elite Quarterback to Your Fantasy Football Team

Just how important is it to have a top tier quarterback on your fantasy football team? We have heard time and time again that the running back position is the most important slot to fill on your fantasy football team. In recent years with the emergence of the running back by committee we have begun to see the argument that a top WR may be worthy of a pick over a running back. The common belief on quarterbacks is that it is a deep position where you can still get acceptable performance from the average starter. This article will challenge that thesis and explore the fantasy football quarterback position in depth.

The one statistic that trumps all in fantasy football is the league championship. That is what we all strive for and is the ultimate measure of success. Taking a close look at my league over the last five years yields interesting results (Table 1). Every championship team over the past five years had a top tier quarterback. In fact, in three of the five sample years the championship team has had the number one ranked quarterback at the end of the season. In all five seasons, there was a never a champion without a top three quarterback. While the overall sample size is small (one league, five years) we still think the results are significant. So not only do you need to get lucky and avoid injury to win a championship, but you will also need maximum performance from the quarterback position to have a shot at the title.

Table 1.

Yr	        Player			Overall Rank

2008 	Aaron Rodger   		#2

2007 	Drew Brees			#1

2006 	Drew Brees			#1

2005 	Matt Hasselback 		#3

2004 	Brett Favre 		#1

Next we took a look at the top 25 quarterbacks from 2008 to see if we could determine a cut off between the various grades of quarterback. The goal here is to answer the question: "Do you really need to go out and draft the #1 ranked quarterback, or are their other players who can be had later in the draft with an equal chance of finishing the season in the top 3? Looking at the top 25 quarterbacks from 2008 we can separate the distribution into 5 cohorts (Table 2). There is a clear difference in performance across the cohorts. What this tells us is that ranking quarterbacks based on tier is a valid methodology. Furthermore, selecting a quarterback from the first cohort (top 5 qb) should help to ensure that you finish the year with a top 3 quarterback and a shot at your league title. Another thing the distribution really emphasizes is large difference between the top and average quarterbacks.

Table 2.

Cohort		Avg Points	  Ranking

1	                266	          1-5

2	                223	          6-10

3	                191	          11-15

4	                173	          16-20

5	                145	          21-25

Lastly, we wanted to take a look at the variability in week-to-week performance across the top 25 quarterbacks. We have already established that the top tier quarterbacks put up more points over the length of the season, but just how consistent is this performance? If the top qbs are getting their numbers in a handful of games that should not really contribute as much to consistent fantasy winning. Table 3 breaks the top 25 quarterbacks up into 5 cohorts. Analyzing the standard deviation in weekly fantasy points across the 5 buckets indicates there is no difference in variability from the top cohort and bottom cohort of quarterbacks. What that means is the best quarterbacks in the league are just as likely to have a bad game as the mid-tier/lower-tier quarterback options. However, since the top tier qb's output is consistently higher they will produce more points throughout the season. In other words, a bad game from a top qb is a lot better than a bad game from a bottom tier qb.

Table 3.

Cohort		STDEV

1	                30

2	                24

3	                34

4	                32

5	                38

So what have we learned? It appears that you need a top tier quarterback to win your league. The top quarterbacks put up more points and are no more erratic in the distribution of their scoring than an average quarterback. Drafting a quarterback projected to finish in the top 4 is a safe bet to ensure your quarterback is a top ranked player at the end of the season and you have a chance to win your fantasy football championship!

BleacherCreatureRotoTalk.com is a Fantasy Sports site intended to bring a scientific approach to player evaluation for fantasy baseball, football, basketball and now boxing! BCRT.com provides free news, statistics, and expert analysis of interesting trends which can give your fantasy team the competitive advantage it needs to crush your competition.

read more at BleacherCreatureRotoTalk.com Fantasy Football.