A shenanigan is a deceitful confidence trick, or mischief causing discomfort or annoyance.

Ahh, yes… it’s that time of year again. Get excited. Get very excited. With the start of training camp comes the month of August and this is when we football enthusiasts get fired up. Right now is when the fantasy leagues are forming. This is when your draft is being set and league settings are being finalized. This is the infancy of the new season. Everything is fragile and new. Yet even now at this early stage you want to be taking action to ensure your eventual victory.

But what kind of action should you take? Heath Ledger, in his tremendous performance as The Joker in the new Batman movie, gives a wonderful demonstration of the kind of spirit to embody when you play the strategically rich – and often misunderstood – game of fantasy football. Notice, we love The Joker as much for his creativity and dogged determination as anything. This guy has a wicked sense of planning and execution (no pun intended.) Aside from all of his antics, The Joker matches Batman’s intensity and ability to get the job done. He is very effective at what he does.

Fantasy football is a game much suited to the maniacal approach that The Joker demonstrates. In a virtual fantasy realm, it serves you well to think about things on a level of psychological manipulation akin to what a villain like The Joker is doing in a comic book. I go into this subject in detail in my new book, “The Art of Fantasy Football: Mastering the Metagame”, in my discussion on fantasy role playing games and their similarities and contribution to the game of fantasy football. Much as the way you utilize witches and sorcerers in Dungeons & Dragons, you seek to utilize your Chad Johnson or Ladainian Tomlinson in an attempt to destroy your opponent.

Now is the time… now, in the early stages of your fantasy football league, to begin infecting your league with the psychological qualities that will set the tone for things to come. As I detail in my book, there are specific actions you can be taking right now to make sure things unfold in your favor. You should be utilizing all of the psychological tools at your disposal to tilt the outcome in your favor.

This isn’t an esoteric or ephemeral concept. Just ask The Joker. Like Batman, this guy doesn’t just show up. The Joker comes prepared. Both he and Batman conduct spectacular planning sessions. They take their craft seriously. What we see in the end result is the artistry unfolding. But make no mistake. Nothing comes easy. As Sun Tzu pointed out, victory is insured long before the battle. This is actually the crux of The Art of War: who wins and loses is determined early on in the planning stages.

So just as the entire NFL is warming up and strategizing and preparing for the season to come, you too should be operating on a grand master-plan type of level. Focus on what you aim to accomplish and determine a plan to attain that goal. (You’re goal, by the way, should be to scoop the cash and nothing less.) My book will show you exactly how to accomplish this. And don’t be afraid to emulate the carefully plotted shenanigans of The Joker. His brand of psychological manipulation over his opponents, combined with careful planning and deliberate action, is the mindset of the master in this crazy world of fantasy football.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the Brett Favre soap opera then you have either been in a coma or dead. There is simply no way to avoid the constant media circus; this combined with a total lack of anything else to report. True, it is an apparent dead zone right now, just before the opening of training camp. All the players, coaches, everyone, is off vacationing for the last time before six months of non-stop football.

The Brett Favre drama, though, can teach us a valuable lesson about getting our priorities straight. In my new book, “The Art of Fantasy Football: Mastering the Metagame”, I explore in depth the concept of maintaining focus. The idea is that in order to dominate your fantasy league, year after year as I have done, you need to use the power of intention to make things happen. This simply means that you have a goal in mind and you refuse to allow obstacles to get in your way. In order to harness this intention, however, you must first utilize the power of attention. The trick here is that whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger (guided to a specific end through your intention) and conversely, whatever you take your attention away from will wither and die.
 
The enemy, then, is lack of focus: distraction. Whatever diverts your focus away from your desired goal can be considered a blockade. This brings me back to good old number 4. It’s not that I don’t like Brett Favre. He’s a swell guy. Gunslinger’s arm, plays for the love of the game, blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard all the Brett Favre clichés; so much in fact that I think there is a book of them out there that the media outlets go to when they do a piece on the man.
 
It is also not that I think he should stay retired, or that I think he should come back, or that I think he should do another blue jeans commercial. The fact of the matter is that when it comes to fantasy football: I don’t care. Not only is Brett Favre a historically mediocre (to poor) fantasy QB to begin with, the question of his retirement is irrelevant to the work you should be doing right now fantasy-wise.
 
There are a million things you should be focused on right now and Brett Favre is at the bottom of the list. While the media chatters on and on about this one situation, you should be analyzing the upcoming NFL schedule, looking for good matchups and researching the teams and the players you will potentially put on your squad. In short, you should be preparing for the season, using all of your fantasy time for that purpose.
 
True, it is tempting to get caught up in drama. After all, diversion, distraction, procrastination, these are all moods we humans easily get caught up in. But we also know these are enemies of our intended goal. It makes it even more difficult and confusing because the media is where we look for our information. And as I point out in my book, information is the key to fantasy football. The lesson Brett Favre can teach us, though, is to always be on the lookout for a bad seed. Focus on what you should be focused on, not only now… but throughout the entire season. In “The Art of Fantasy Football” I show you specifically, what those things are.
 
Beware of distractions. They will destroy even the best intentions. When you get the impression that something is irrelevant, it probably is. Trust your intuition and maintain your focus. Pay attention to what’s important. This will ensure your intended goal: crushing your opponents and taking down the league trophy.