If you have found yourself in a fantasy football league and know nothing about football, you are probably wondering how you are going to do well against the sports-crazed people you’re in the league with. If you don’t follow sports as closely as I do, you might be asking yourself a multitude of questions: Who should I pick? What should I name my team? How do I trash talk with the guys? I am here to help you with all of your fantasy needs.

Survival Tip #1: Research.

Whether you are familiar with football or not, you are going to want to research. If you aren’t familiar with football, you’re going to want to (at the very least) brush up on the different players, and which teams they play for. You’re also going to want to familiarize yourself with the positions they play and what those positions mean. Next, you’re going to want to find out how “good” those players are. You’re going to want to look into their stats, and figure out what their strong points are. I find that making a comparison chart can come in handy. Researching might not influence your decisions much and that’s okay. But I find it is a good ground to start on because you familiarize yourself with the people you are going to be drafting.

If you are familiar with football, you'll still probably want to follow the steps listed above. But, you're also going to want to research how well the players played last year, and how they are looking this year. You’re going to want to compare them to the new talent coming up through the ranks, and the old talent.

Survival Tip #2: Draft smart.

During the draft, the computer automatically ranks the players according to last year's statistics. Sometimes, this is a good thing to follow. Other times, it is not. What the computer doesn’t take into account is if the players have been injured. So, this person might be ranked really high, but they might still be in a surgical rehab. This is not necessarily someone you want to waste your first-round draft pick on.

While we’re on that topic, we should talk about draft order. I find that wide receivers and running backs are the best things to draft first. Personally, I like to pick one of each until 2/3 of the slots are filled. However, you always have to keep an eye on the players your opponents are drafting. If everyone is drafting a quarterback, you should probably draft one, too. Otherwise, you will end up with someone who is not nearly as good as the people you play against.

Always pick your defense and kickers later in the draft. They aren’t nearly as important as the other positions, and you can get yourself into trouble if you pick them too early.

Survival Tip #3: Get familiar with your opponents’ teams.

Whoever you happen to be playing that week, you need to compare your team to theirs. If they have a strong quarterback, and you happen to have a wide receiver that plays for the same team as their quarterback, you play that wide receiver. If their quarterback is strong, you need your other positions to make up the difference in points your players will have. Simply picking whoever has the most projected points will not always work out in your favor.

Survival Tip #4: Make a clever team name.

When you first join the league, you are given a team name. It most likely will be “(Your name)’s Team.” Looking at that all season is not fun. The more creative you can get with your team name, the more fun it is for everyone else. Feel free to change your team name as often as you’d like. In the leagues I’m in, everyone always changes their team name to poke fun at whoever they’re playing that week. It makes things lively, and keeps everyone laughing.

Survival Tip #5: Brush up on your friendly banter.

What is any sport without a little friendly banter? Just keep in mind that some people do offend easily, so there is a limit to how far you can go. But, if you’re in this league, there’s a good chance you’re pretty good friends with everyone already. You should easily know what each person’s limit is. If you happen to be in a league with your significant other, and all of their friends: It never hurts to ask. You don’t want to offend their friends and then end up being on their hate-list.

Survival Tip #6: Never take things too seriously.

This should be a no-brainer. People who take fantasy sports too seriously can ruin it for everyone else in the league. No one likes someone who is going to be extremely bitter about a team name that pokes fun at them. People are going to be hesitant to invite you back into the league if you’re an extremely sore loser. So keep things lighthearted. Otherwise, you may not enjoy your fantasy football season.

Survival Tip #7: Have fun with it.

Last, but not least, just make sure you have fun. There isn’t some big parade for whoever wins the league. It truly doesn’t matter if you finish in first, or last. Speaking as someone who has finished in just about every place possible, it’s fun no matter where you end up. The worst that could happen is you lose a little bit of money. Sure, that might not be what you want, but you still had fun doing it. The memories you make in the league are going to out-value the amount of money you might lose. Now that you've got a little bit of background on how Fantasy Football works, it's time to get out there. Start researching! Get your draft lists together! Have some fun with it and may the best one win.