Fantasy Football Craziness
Written by Nolan Thomas, Thursday December 10 2009
Fantasy Football is a phenomenon that in the last decade has taken the country by storm. It is very rare these days to not know a football fan who is not actively involved in at least one fantasy league.
Then you have the absolute fanatics who are involved in numerous leagues and spend every waning moment of their free time working their teams, adjusting their rosters, and wheeling and dealing on daily basis in order to gain supremacy in each of their respective fantasy leagues.
We all have our own little peculiarities in how we run and maintain our teams throughout the season. Some people load up their teams with players from their favorite pro teams. Which I always thought was a dumb move personally, but it works for some people. It works for those whose favorite teams this season happen to be the Colts, the Saints, or the Vikings anyway.
Some fantasy football team owners add and drop players every week, only to have Murphy’s Law take over and the dropped players outperform the recently added players. It never fails to happen for the most part. It must be the same Gods that make sure that whatever lane you change to in during a traffic jam is the lane that stops moving.
In addition, some fantasy football team owners stand by their players on their team from week to week, never changing players even when they lose so many games and they were wishing that their players would live up to their expectations. Then you also have the owners that without doubt, want to make a trade every week.
However, which ever type of fantasy football fan you may be, if you are still playing fantasy football in week 14, you should be either congratulated because you are in the playoffs in your league or it is the last week of the regular season and you are praying, scraping and clawing to get a victory this week in order to make the playoffs in your leagues. Either way, it is yet another week of football to psyche yourself up for, so just remember, do not give up and it is not over until the fat lady sings.
Of course for some of you, the fat lady is already howling out the notes and you are sitting in your favorite lounge chair with your head between your legs in embarrassment wondering how much slack you are going to have to put up with from the other team owners in your leagues.
Hey, think of the bright side, if the playoffs have not started yet in your league, you might just have one more week to gain a little pride and at the same time, knock someone else out of the playoffs. So take your head out of your butt, and adjust your roster so that you can at least have some bragging rights over the loud mouth who has been talking trash all season and gain a little ammo by knocking him out of the playoff picture.
For some of you though, the season has probably been over for a few weeks now and you probably feel like former Colts head coach Jim Mora Sr. standing at the podium uttering “Playoffs? Don’t talk about Playoffs? Are you kidding me? Playoffs?” For those of you with no chance at your leagues playoffs and who remember this famous rant, I am sure you feel his pain.
However, I am sure that none of you who are in the playoffs or have a shot at this point will be displaying the same rant, considering that if you have made their league playoffs you are that much closer to winning their league’s Super Bowl, having bragging rights, and maybe even a certificate, plaque or even little bit of moolah for your pockets.
As wild as this season has been so far this season, I have actually made the playoffs in one of my leagues and if I win this week, I will be in the division winner and be in the playoffs in my other league.
Most leagues playoffs start this week, with the rest starting next week. It usually depends on how many teams, divisions, and how the playoff structure is set up. Either way, it is gut check time for some of us and R&R time for others who are out in the cold at this point.
I still wonder why fantasy football has become such a phenomenon or why I enjoy it so much.
Is it a further expression of my love for the game of football and the competition of it all, even though the outcome of the games have absolutely nothing at all to do with me?
Is it because I am trying to live out my own fantasy of being a professional sports owner through the statistical accomplishments of a professional football player?
Is it because it makes me feel as if I am somehow in charge and responsible for these performances and that I actually benefit from the players performances in some weird and consequential way?
Is it because it has gotten me more involved with the game and what other teams besides my favorite team seems to be doing on any given Sunday, Monday, and sometimes Thursdays?
You can always tell who the fantasy football owners are if you ever happen to be watching a game at a bar on Sundays. They are the ones moving from set to set, watching all the games with no apparent or particular team to be rooting for.
They are the ones who seem to be cheering and complaining for both teams in the same game who are playing each other. They cheer if one of their players on one team scores or makes a big play, but complain when on the next play someone from the same team scores a touchdown. It is evident that their player did not score. And then when the other team has the ball, they are doing the same thing.
A fantasy footballer is the one who when you ask them which team they are rooting for, they answer with “I don’t care, I just need so and so to score.”
Fantasy football is also a game that is filled with an abundance of mixed emotions.
Your favorite team just happens to playing a team in which one of your fantasy players is on. You want him to score, but deep inside it hurts to root for him, it really hurts. Your only hope is that your team has a big lead, like 3-4 touchdowns so your player will not hurt your team if he scores twice late in the game.
Or the defense special teams unit that you have on your fantasy team just happens to be playing your favorite team this week. Oh the misery of it all. Your head feels like it is going to explode.
Of course there are those that go to great extents to make sure this never happens, or at least as little as humanly possible by not activating those particular players that week and still hoping they win both the real game and their fantasy league game.
Of course this may come back to bite them in the ass if their real team loses their game and that particular player which they decided not to play has a big game and they lose their fantasy game too only because they had him on the bench that week.
However in the end, none of us can control what our fantasy teams will do each week. It is all luck of the draw. Sure you can study stats until your head turns blue, or you can study tendencies players have against certain teams and strategize all you want, but in the end, it is all a crap shoot.
But we love it anyway!
Tags:
Leave a comment
Not So Fast! To publish your comment, you have to login
Not Registered? Register now as it only take 20 seconds!
Click here to browse
2 comments
Please sign in to rate!
Just had to remind me didn't you?
Please sign in to rate!
Great article Nolan. I'm in four leagues and I made the playoffs in all of them. That doesn't mean I'll necessarily win, but it's fun to still be playing for something. And I'll never understand drafting players because they're on your hometown team. I hate the Cowboys with a passion, but I drafted Witten this year and had TO twice as a Cowboy. By the way, thanks for dropping McNabb this year. He's worked out well in our fantasy league.