Issue #300: 300!
By Derrick Ernst
August 13, 2026
State of TDF
I had thought the more I did this the more I’d be desensitized by the milestones. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Doing something 300 times over is special, I don’t care what anyone says. I’ve said this before, it’s not so much the writing, rather showing up and coming back day-in and day-out. I bet you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there have been many days I didn’t feel like writing, where the words weren’t flowing, and there were more distractions around me than I care to admit, but, I powered through. I still got it done. It might not have been my best writing, but I did what I set out to do. In a lot of ways, it has been you guys who have been my motivation all the way through, especially during those times.
When I reflect on how much TDF has evolved throughout the years, I realize the heart and identity of it has never changed. I set out for TDF to be something completely different to what we’re all used to seeing in the industry. Even though I’m moving away from PDF’s, I still don’t think anyone else is doing what TDF is. That’s something. While there’s nothing saying this won’t eventually be the case, from the moment TDF began 300 issues ago, I wanted it to be this big, groundbreaking publication with a massive following — of course, you put so much time into something, you want it to be as big as it can be. It’s never reached that status (in my eyes) and in a lot of ways I’m ok with that. The more I do this however, the more I begin seeing other fantasy outlets do the very things that made/make TDF different. Take this from Yahoo Sports. I don’t know about you, but that sure resembles the logo for our Sunday Scramble issues.
Do I think it’s a coincidence? Maybe. The reason I don’t vehemently say “no” is because I’ve sent issues of TDF to other fantasy outlets for exposure. None have ever amounted to anything (this speaks to the “selfishness” of the industry I’ve written about before), but it does make TDF susceptible to impersonators. This also gets back to TDF not being this massive behemoth. If it was, it may be enough for the competition to think twice before acting. This is partly why I’m motivated to get all of my prior work onto the website. Receipts go a long way — no more hiding in old PDF’s. If I’ve written it, it will have a link and I encourage you to share/post/quote that link as many times as you’d like. Truthfully, this is where my head has been this past year. I felt like I’ve become a better writer, have been bringing more value to the table, and pushing the envelope more than ever, yet I’ve felt like I don’t have anything to show for. It has been an intention of mine for awhile to make TDF public and it’s now the perfect time to do so.
Switching gears, I wanted to talk a bit about TDF’s next “phase,” something I briefly touched on on Sunday. There were a few things that I mentioned, but what I primarily wanted to focus on was the book. I’ve come to the realization that I’m a writer at heart. No matter how many times I’ve explored expanding TDF into the podcasting or short-form video space, it’s failed. Truthfully, I’ve never been happy doing either. Another reason they’ve never lasted. If there’s one thing that holds true with every book it’s that it lives in infamy. Unless it gets banned, but that’s a conversation for another time.
I’ve been talking about writing a book for awhile and yet another year has passed and there is yet to be timeless fantasy football book released. I mean, you search “Fantasy Football Books” on Amazon and pretty much every result is a magazine time stamped with 2026:
I’m not saying there are some timeless pieces in these magazines, but what I am saying is time stamping it likely means no one is every returning to it the next year — it’s viewed as being outdated. Remember what I said about magazines? It’s all about the cover. I think we can all agree:
Magazines are temporary
Books are timeless
One of the ways to truly get better at something is to do it over and over again. The same goes for learning. The more you exposure yourself to whatever it is you’re trying to learn, the better off you’ll be (even if you don’t realize it in real time). I want my book to be one that people come back to year-after-year and have those aha moments that get them in the right headspace for the upcoming season. Fantasy football has very little to do with this player vs. that player or having this draft position vs. that draft position. It instead has everything to do with knowing your league mates, how they operate, what their tendencies are, and how you can exploit them.
You play the game long enough and it becomes clear that success isn’t about what Justin Jefferson does — you don’t have any control over him. It’s about you and your emotions and how you respond against the manager you’re facing off against. That’s something you have control over. That’s an aha moment and one worthy of being reminded of coming back to every summer.
Source: Facebook (Cleveland Browns Nation)
Oh, and by the way, timeless doesn’t speak to whatever “flavor of the day” stat is all the rage. You know what I think, people are so thirsty to gain an edge that they’ll make things so overly complicated and analytical that they forget the basics. Did you know that you can’t build upon a foundation without having a strong base? That’s basically what this is — spend all your time building floor upon floor upon floor without realizing that you’ve forgotten to make your base sturdy enough to support the building.
At the heart of TDF’s next phase is the desire to have my work live on forever. I want to remind all those who play the game we love that:
It’s only as difficult as you make it out to be
Most of everything shoved onto us is noise and fluff, and
To, “Take the wins where you can get them.”
It’s a game where a lot of things are out of your control, yet recognizing this is one of the first steps to being successful at it.
By this time next year my hope is to have a book locked down and moving through whatever editorial process it finds itself in. TDF’s next phase begins now. It’s a blessing to have you here for it.
Reminder, Sunday’s issue (and every issue thereafter) will only be viewable on the website.
You don’t have to subscribe to the site to read/access/navigate issues. But if you want a notification when a new post is published, subscribing is the only way how. Thanks for all the support from you guys with the change — the best is yet to come!
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