Well this season there has been little ecstasy! My fantasy football league isn’t made up of a bunch of middle age men or college frat boys addicted to the game of football. The core of my league are the girls I went to college with. Related spouses and friends have been included. We are a small league with simple rules (whoever has the most wins, wins) but these girls are ridiculously competitive. It’s a wonder its taken them so long to find fantasy football, they are gamblers and will bet on anything. I have sat in restaurant or bar and Cyndi will bet you the gender of the next person that walks through the door. We can’t go out to dinner with out playing credit card roulette or betting closest to the bill.
I’m in my sophomore year of fantasy football and though I feel quite experienced compared to last season I still suck. Last season I showed up to the draft with my top 10 players. That’s it, I had 10 names. I had no idea how a draft worked. This season I had ranking and stats from Yahoo, ESPN, NFL, Sports Illustrated and the Christian Science Monitor. I was prepared! My top 10 selected players all ranked in the top 10 of their positions. I got the #1 defense and I got Adrian Peterson!
But if you play fantasy football, you quickly realize none of that matters! The fantasy football gods will play with you cruelly. I won my first couple of games decisively! This was going to be my season. I was beginning to count my portion of our $750 prize pool. I was feeling the ecstasy (and doing the appropriate amount of smack talk!). My 3rd game was the game where the ref made terrible calls and apologized for it publicly. I would have won had the calls been correct. From that point on my season has gone to hell. Plaxico to the Maxico Burress gets suspended. My #1 defense, San Diego, has given me negative points on more than one occasion. Adrian Peterson get’s hurt and is iffy for several games. Oh the agony!
After losing for several weeks in a row I come roaring back with a 100+ point game. Nobody in the league was even close to me. Of course, that was just the fickly fantasy Gods. I’ve lost so much I’m so far behind that spectacular showing has done little for my standings.
Fantasy football ruins the way watch football. Before my first fantasy season football was simple. You loved the Cowboys even though they sucked and you hated everyone else. I could name the key players on the Cowboys roster and that was it. I didn’t know the ranks of any teams except the Cowboys or the name of any other player unless he was hot, was in the movies or was in the news. I can now name not only the top 10 players for nearly every position but the records for each NFL team. What is happening to me!
Its changed not only the way I watch football but how I watch. I have refused to pay for any of the stat tracker utilities. I think there’s too much immediate gratification these days. Surely I can wait until Monday or Tuesday to get my football results. However, I watch the Cowboys with my league (friends) this weekend and they all set there with the tv and laptops getting minute by minute updates. How could I have kept myself suffering for no good reason. Next season I’m getting stats tracker.
Fantasy football makes you suspicious of your closest friends. If someone in the league offers me up a trade I think why do they want my player? Is it because my player is so good and I should hang on to him even though he hasn’t done crap in 3 games or are they trying to foist their crappy players on me which makes them evil and vindictive? Are they trying to screw me over? Aren’t they supposed to be my friends? Is the CIA listening to my phone calls?
We still have several games left but I’m afraid my season is over. This is the agony. Have to stand back and watch everyone play out their season. The dancing of winning and losing and picking up a free agent someone didn’t see the value in. The close calls and the major setbacks. I have to sit back patiently and wait for next September. The days and weeks go by so slowly. It sort of like going through a breakup. You watch everyone else be happy and you know eventually you will but time seems to go incredibly slow in the meantime. Now try going through both at the same time. Thankfully there’s always next season, on both accounts, and I get a little smarter and little better each time.
