Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Eric from DLF

"I have a feeling I won't be able to keep up w/ my timeline once FA actually hits...gonna be exciting."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

With great power comes great responsibility. One man controls the Twitter feed for the dynasty fantasy football Web site Dynasty League Football, or DLF. Eric Dickens wields that power wisely. The best Twitter users combine their own content with highlighting the quality work of others. Eric is a retweeting/favoriting fool. Not a real fool, mind you, because who would want to talk to one of those?

Let's move on to the interview, shall we? All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Eric's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I had been the commissioner for a local keeper fantasy league for several years and just got bored with setting lineups and waiting for the outcome. So I started picking a game of the week and writing a prediction article to go with it. From there, I just continued more writing for the specific league until I stumbled across DLF. I asked if they would consider letting a novice like myself write from time to time and they were just waiting for someone to ask.

You're a writer/Twitterer (lots of ers there) for DLF. How did the site get started? What's the goal of the site? Who are these crazy hotshots?

The site was actually started over 5 years ago by the three co-founders of DLF, Jeff Havelack, Ken Moody, and Ken Kelly. You can find out more about them here. The goal of the site is to be the premier source for dynasty league fantasy football information, strategy, and conversation. We want a dynasty owner to be able to have a place they call home and have access to the information they need to truly create a dynasty.

We appreciate the "crazy hotshots" label, but actually the account has been on Twitter for a while now, just under-used. Back in late March I began working as the Twitter voice for DLF and haven't looked back. My main goal is to not piss too many people off with my constant tweeting. [Zach note: that's Chet's job.]

Tell me about being the Twitter voice of DLF.

I love it! Interacting with crazy fans of both fantasy football and NFL teams lends itself to great conversation and debates. I try to use the account to do two things; help dynasty owners discover the DLF site and provide fantasy football information that gives them an advantage over their league-mates. The forum at DLF is an invaluable resource and the best forum I've found on the internet (and believe me, I've been surfing it since Al Gore invented it back in the 90s).

One of your first efforts with DLF was an interview with fantasy football legend Matt Waldman. How was that experience?

It was incredible. Matt is extremely gracious with his time and football knowledge. He made it easy on me and provided some insightful info you can only get from watching tape like a madman.

You've been "pimping" a Dynasty Essentials Guide for a couple of months. Sell me and my audience in the low dozens on it. What does this guide provide?

A better question is what doesn't it provide. In all seriousness, it's over 230 pages of dynasty football goodness that will pave the way for many championships. It covers everything from separate rankings for contending versus rebuilding teams, team capsules on all 32 teams, cheat sheets, dynasty debates, strategy articles, rookie rankings, IDP rankings, etc. At $6.99, the Dynasty Essential Guide may be the best investment you could make as a dynasty owner.

I’ve been talking it up on Twitter quite a bit, but frankly I don’t really want my league-mates to buy it for competitive reasons. If you are new to dynasty or been doing it for 10+ years, the DLF Guide is a great resource.

All right, enough about the site. Let's talk about Mr. Eric Dickens.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I hesitate to say anything, because ultimately dynasty football shouldn’t have anything to do with who you root for. When I’m speaking as the twitter voice of DLF, I try to remain as impartial as possible. [Zach note: Wuss] When I’m not in that role, I’m rooting for the Denver Broncos. I fell in love with them when I was 4 years old and the rivalry it created between my dad and I probably fueled the fire. [Additional Zach note: now I pity you. Wait, the Broncos beat the Titans last year. Never mind.]

Where do you live?

I live in Liberty, Missouri which is a suburb of Kansas City. I've lived here my whole life with the exception of a couple of years spent in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When I look in the crystal ball though, I can see myself twittering from a beach in my near future.

Tell me about your day job.

I currently work in the insurance business, while going back to school to become a high school history teacher and coach. It took me a few years working in the corporate world to figure out my passions in life.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Absolutely! Long term, I'd love to have more time to write while teaching, especially with summers off. I would love to get paid for it, but if that never becomes a reality, I'll just "suffer" doing it for fun. Dynasty fantasy football is my thing, so DLF is a perfect fit for me as a writer/contributor.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

This is a great question. Up until now, I haven't had people banging down my door, although I have been asked a few times more than Fantasy Douche. Recently, with the DLF account, I've had more requests than I can possibly say yes to. I've had to say "no" more times than I care to, limiting myself to just three dynasty leagues and my local redraft league I've been a part of for years. I've also recently joined a crazy upside-down redraft league called "Race to the Bottom" headed up by EyeoftheGator.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Yes, my wife is not the biggest fan of dynasty football, although it was just a few years ago she met me in the fantasy Super Bowl as the clear favorite to win it all. Now that you mention it, maybe the two Super Bowl losses in three years to her husband was the breaking point. Actually, she's very supportive of my passion, while being equally disdainful of the time it takes away from the family.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

They say a tie is like kissing your sister, but can we all agree that we root for overtime anyway? I'm not sure what that means, but back to the question, can I say both?

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I passed up a trade early last summer where I would have given Greg Jennings for Vernon Davis, Mike Wallace, a 2nd-round pick, and a future 1st-round pick. Okay, so enough about that.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

One of my personal favorites occurred early last year where I gave Mike Sims-Walker and Beanie Wells for Roddy White and a future 1st-round pick. Roddy helped lead the way to a dynasty championship.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

Actually, kind of the opposite of a man cave. If I stay home, it's a family room in the attic with the flat-screen TV on as well as my laptop open beside me. The man cave is still a few years off. Luckily, I have plenty of buddies with man caves that live close.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Hold on, other than sex? Seriously, I really enjoy almost every sport, but not to the level of football. I get pretty involved with March Madness, but sports are the main hobby, outside of time with my kids.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

I could probably fill several pages with names, but some of my very favorites are Matt Waldman, Bryan Fontaine, Sigmund Bloom, Chris Wesseling, the aforementioned Fantasy Douche, and of course the fellas at DLF.

Another shoutout should go to Fantasy Taz, who has been extremely kind to me and DLF, as well as supporting anyone wanting to get into the field of fantasy football. All the guys at Pro Football Focus do a tremendous job as well. Two of my recent favorites are Rumford Johnny and Ryan Forbes, who manage to be incredibly insightful and wonderfully crude at the same time.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

While a fantasy "expert" league may provide better competition, there's nothing like the ribbing and trash-talking of a long-term league with friends. Especially if the league includes your wife.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

The site you'll find me spending most of my time at is DLF, but we do have a new sister site that makes it very easy to find tons of fantasy football info with just one click, Fantasynewsnetwork.com.

Other than DLF and FNN, you'll hopefully be hearing from me on a few podcasts in the near future, including Jim Day's Twitter Roundtable, the Big F'n Dynasty Show, and 2MugsFF podcast.

Thanks to Eric for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche