Fantasy football man’s ‘great escape’ from horrors of 9/11

Fantasy football helped Ian Ritchie escape from a very dark place.

He and his wife, Torie, were on their honeymoon in New York and sleeping in their 12th-floor room in the World Trade Center’s Marriott Hotel on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower.

“We were woke up by the first plane hitting. Then there was all this debris flying by the window on fire,” Ritchie said. “It was the worst day of my life.”

The couple escaped the 22-story hotel that adjoined the twin towers and was one of the buildings destroyed in the terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.

But the trauma from the terrifying events of 9/11 haunted them.

“For the next year, I literally never left my house,” said Ritchie, 53. “I was so scared and paranoid of everything in the world. My wife and I would hear a plane fly over the house and run out into the yard. OK, there it is, we’re safe.”

After a year of isolation, Ritchie, a Seattle native, said he was almost at his breaking point when a friend invited him to go to Las Vegas for the fantasy football world championships.

“My buddy said, ‘Dude, this is a chance to get you out of your house on September 11 every year,’” he said.

Ritchie and his wife took the trip with his friend, and it ignited a deep passion for fantasy football.

“We immediately had this epiphany that every year I’m now doing this on September 11,” he said. “I’m going to be down in Las Vegas for this thing that distracts me from everything.

“Fantasy turned my life around into something a lot more positive at a time when I needed it. For me, it was my great escape getting me out of the house on September 11.”

Ritchie went on to become the world’s No. 1-ranked player in high-stakes fantasy football before becoming owner of FullTime Fantasy Sports. The company recently partnered with Circa to host the Fantasy Football World Championships and Las Vegas Fantasy Championships.

The live Circa Draft Series starts Thursday at the downtown Las Vegas resort and will run through the NFL’s opening weekend, with drafts taking place at Stadium Swim and other spaces at the property.

The Las Vegas Championships have a $349 entry fee, $2,500 in league prizes and a $50,000 grand prize. The World Championships have an $1,850 entry fee, $12,000 in league prizes and a $150,000 grand prize.

“To be embraced by Circa has been absolutely amazing,” Ritchie said.

Draft tips

Ritchie shared some general draft tips and strategy for fantasy football.

“The scoring system dictates how you draft,” he said. “Do the quarterbacks in your league get four points or six points per touchdown? If you get six points per touchdown, quarterbacks start getting drafted a lot earlier than four points per touchdown.

“Is your league a point per reception (PPR) league or half-point PPR? Those things come into play.”

FullTime Fantasy (fulltimefantasy.com) offers customized rankings and a cheat sheet for different scoring systems.

“You can put in your league’s scoring system, and then it customizes the rankings for your draft,” he said. “It’s one of our most popular tools.”

Wait on QBs, WRs

Ritchie recommends waiting on QBs.

“There’s a lot of parity at quarterback, so draft your quarterbacks later this year,” he said. “Load up on running backs earlier. There’s not a lot of great depth at running back. There’s a lot of split situations. If you can get two guys that are bell cows, grab them early.

“There’s a lot of depth at wide receiver. Normally, I take a lot of receivers early. But this particular season, my personal opinion is you want to go running back, running back early and then adjust from there. And then always take your kicker and defense last. It’s a crapshoot.”

Undervalued players

FullTime Fantasy had the most accurate draft rankings last year, as ranked by FantasyPros. Ritchie singled out several players whose stock is higher in their high-stakes drafts than in drafts by the general public.

One of them is Raiders rookie tight end Michael Mayer.

“We think he has the potential to be a top-1o tight end this year where other people are sleeping on him and have him as tight end No. 25,” he said.

Detroit’s Sam LaPorta is another tight end sleeper.

Ritchie said three players flying up the high-stakes boards are Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who is going in the top 18 despite an average draft position of 40 in public drafts; 49ers wideout Deebo Samuel (going 20, ADP 39) and Saints running back Alvin Kamara (going 40, ADP 60).

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.