New Ideas for Using Cards with Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football and card collecting seem like a natural match. Like Manning to Harrison: in step. Owners essentially collect players when they build their teams in annual drafts.

Wouldn't it be cool to combine these hobbies?

What if each owner had to buy a card of their eight starters?

Such a mandate could bring about a boost. A lot of football fans might purchase a pack for the first time in decades or enter their first digital marketplace in search of singles. A lot of non-QB cards might start to move. All those base cards tossed aside during live rips might find happy homes.

What happens to all the base cards? Has set building gone extinct?

These days some cards are worth small fortunes fresh out of a modern pack. Collectors don't have to wait years for an unsung player to rise to the top. Or for an overlooked insert set to emerge as an aesthetic champion. Once packs are cracked there's little incentive to hang on to the non-insert dregs. Even inserts. Where do all the undesired cards go?

Fantasy football owners track their commodities closely. They are invested in them. These players may win them bragging rights over childhood friends or cause them great shame. The annual draft dangles sweet redemption. Owners may spurn an aging running back who cost them dearly or select a trusted flanker way ahead of their ADP. Assessing one's brand new roster is a precious perspective. Hubris will often remain at least until opening Sunday's 4 o'clock games kick off.

Upon building a roster I think it would be fun for owners to build a little collection. Imagine opening a pack and flipping through in search of your guys. Using actual cards to shuffle one's lineup would put a throwback spin on the familiar interface used by apps and sites. Could it even simplify the process of finalizing starters? Might it help owners go with their gut rather than spend extra time analyzing experts' overlapping advice? Might it cut down on the Monday morning sting of regret. I doubt it.

But in the spirit of fantasy football's cornerstones of wagering and trash talk, I did come up with a fun model.

To begin, when owners pull their draft slot out of a hat, there's a second hat. In it are slips with names of sets scribbled on them - Score, Mosaic, Phoenix... This will be their team set from which they accrue their eight players' cards. As always, a fantasy win or loss is at stake with each head to head match up. In addition, in this new format, the victor also wins a card from their opponent! Week 1 each owner bets a QB. Week 2 RB1. Week 3 WR1. Week 4 RB2 and so on.

Owners have to mail or hand deliver forfeited cards. Humorous notes would be optional but encouraged.

Then the artistry really kicks in. Any card that is won becomes eligible to score points in a side competition. So, let's say I lose my first matchup. I'd have to surrender my Anthony Richardson Donruss Optic. He would remain on my fantasy team, but his weekly fantasy scores would now also be added to a separate total for the new owner of the card.

Only players whose cards have been won can contribute to this total. It would accumulate throughout the season.

Any cards a player owns can be wagered.

Say some unlucky or pathetic team goes 0-8 in the first half - they're out of cards and have no chance of winning either title. Whereas a hot starting squad that avoids injuries and runs out to a 6-2 record would have a frontrunning score and be trotting out six active scorers for week 9.

Some funds could be set aside to buy a higher end (graded) card of the overall winner's MVP.

I haven't worked out all the kinks. But I'd like to see my friends give it a pilot year trial. Maybe your league could also adopt some unorthodox wrinkle that involves football cards.

I'm always trying to innovate our our long-running running association. To return us to 6th grade when we'd spread out the Monday Boston Globe agate page and put pencil to paper to score our weeks. There were 11 categories, two of which - average yards per carry and QB interceptions - are largely unaccounted for in modern, rather formulaic scoring formats. Well-balanced teams were best suited to secure the 6 categories required for a win. Ties were more common. Though how amazing is it when they occur in today's age of fractional points.

Last season my league mates nearly went for my madcap idea to have two extra picks once our draft was complete. In these bonus rounds, owners would choose a throwback player from 1999 and a college team. These players and schools would brand your team and, of course, compete in fairly confusing parallel competitions.

I selected Marvin Harrison with the hopes of securing the father/son duo the following season. I think we even turned the corner to round 2 before things inexplicably fizzled. I'm disappointed to report that my scheme to eventually introduce a college player to the weekly roster has stalled.

I'd say there's an outside shot that they'd go for this 8 card contest. Probably best to plant a seed for next season. Slow play it. I know - I'll mail them each a card of a player on their team.

Innovation takes time. But it's worth the calculated efforts to try and spice up fantasy football.

Experimental ways to collect could benefit the card hobby too.