About the Browns’ Wide Receivers and Tough Decisions Coming
August 8, 2011Return of Fall Camp Provides Welcome Distraction For OSU
August 8, 2011
In the late summer of 1992, three friends hashed out a fantasy football scoring system and drafted players over breakfast at McDonalds. I do not remember if there were just three teams that first season, or if we had the vision that first morning to draft ‘the ghost team’. I do remember the ghost team sticking around for a couple of seasons. They had one win in their existence. We teased John for a long time about that loss.
This was before the age of the internet. So every Monday morning we gathered at McDonalds and grabbed a USA Today, with the boxscores from all the games the day before. No live scoring updates for us.
It was also before the networks even acknowledged fantasy football. No last minute injury updates. No tickers on the bottom of the screen with fantasy friendly updates. We would see game scores and hope that our players were the ones doing the scoring. We’d watch Sportscenter, but even they didn’t always tell who scored every touchdown in a game. That boxscore was the only way to know for certain.
I’ve been playing fantasy football ever since. Kept the same team name through the years as well. But this year I won’t be making any selections. No draft, no trades, no scouring the waiver wire for me.
I realize that it is difficult to judge a writer’s mood or attitude when reading a piece. Let me assure you, that I make these comments without a hint of animosity, nor any judgement on those that love the game. I went back and forth on whether this was even worth writing. I was encouraged to share, so here’s why I’m not playing anymore.
First and foremost, it is no longer fun.
To be honest with you, it hasn’t been fun for a while now. The best part of a fantasy football league for me has always been the live draft with good friends. Nothing tops it. Hands down the best. My original league hasn’t been together for a few years now. People move. Jobs and families take priority. It is nobody’s fault, it just is what it is. The beginning of the decline of fantasy football for me can be traced to this I’m sure of it. I’ve still played. Even took part in some live drafts. But it wasn’t the same- through no fault of anyone’s.
While some love that fantasy football gives them something to root for in games involving teams they don’t ordinarily watch, I still don’t really enjoy those games any differently. When I watch a game strictly because of fantasy players that doesn’t keep my interest. It also strikes me as odd that I am rooting for things that aren’t even the goals of the rest of the crowd or the players and coaches themselves. It’s kind of strange. The NFL game itself really should be enough to entertain me, otherwise I shouldn’t even bother watching.
I hate when players on my fantasy team are going against the Browns. Even more, I hate that I know as a fantasy team owner it is a smart move to plug in any running back at all against the Browns for about the last decade. As I get older, I am just sickened by the fact that none of our three pro sports teams have won a title in my lifetime. All I’m rooting for now is that championship.
Maybe it just speaks to my situation in life as well. I don’t really need the diversion of fantasy football. I don’t really have the time or interest to comb through the waiver wire looking for the next running back coming from nowhere. Maybe I’m already struggling with the priority that following sports has taken in my life.
How about the rest of you? Â Anyone else feeling this way?
Regardless, I’ve been thinking about it for the past two years, but kept hanging on thinking I might get the interest back. That just hasn’t happened.
25 Comments
same as you Rick. 1st year since I started playing fantasy that I’m not in a league.
It’s a little bit of being busy, along with watching the last 3 minutes of the MNF game to see if Frank Gore scores a TD to win a matchup just isn’t in my gameplan any more.
I know there will be times where I’ll miss it; but life’s like that.
I was feeling much the same way about fantasy football. I was especially sick, too, of the fact that one of the top 4 teams in the draft tended to win the league due to the value of the elite RBs in fantasy football.
So we made some changes in our league. We switched to an auction keeper league, and it has really made the league more interesting. It’s a lot more enjoyable when you have the same chance at every player as everyone else.
I will continue to play for now, I like how you got started. For me, my start can be traced back to my brother and me in our bedroom. Although it was slightly different. We played baseball, we would pick our players based on the baseball cards we owned. We would then sit down and roll the dice. This is how our games would play out. Each number had a meaning, 12 was a HR, 7 was a K, etc. We made our scorecards and kept track of all our games and players results. Dont tell my wife but I secretely still have the game pieces hidden in a closest (like someday I will actually play again). And while I still enjoy fantasy sports, it will never compare to those games my brother and I had in our bedroom.
I am still in on Fantasy Football for this year, but I did quit fantasy baseball. I am still hanging onto the ability to follow football like crazy once per week. The grind of working the waiver wire during a long baseball season was just too much for me though.
I’ve been in the same fantasy baseball league (NL only) for more than 20 years. Only four of us charter members are left, but that’s okay. We’ve added some terrific new guys. We’re now spread out all over the country.
We buy the CBS Sports.com stat service. That thing is great. It does all the drudgery work. It makes it really easy for owners to run a team and for whoever is commissioner to run the league.
I love checking the NL box scores in the paper the first thing every morning, and I really miss it during the off season. Overall, it’s still fun.
However, I would like to win the damn thing for once.
Are you going to be the Brett Favre of Fantasy Football?
I stared in 1999 (Bandwagoner!!!), quit in 2005 and never looked back. Although we did make a fantasy scoring system for techmo super bowl well before that.
1) People like to talk about THEIR team and their sob stories. You might as well tell me a story about your dog, or how you hate AA in poker because you always loose with it.
2) Final straw was a friend who like the Steelers and I tried to congratulate him on a last second TD win from McGahee and he immediately got excited because the TD won him his fantasy game.
It is borderline overshadowing the actual games and I find it very annoying.
/to be fair I would be wagering on games if it was legal
I think my fantasy football life can be summed up with one word… apathy, and much like your Rick, the only thing keeping me hanging on is the live draft with by best friends.
As we get older, a lot of us have gotten married and had kids. I was the first, and only, to move out of state. In some cases, I only get a chance to see some of these guys a handful of times a year and this was the one of those days. Anymore, if this is one of the only chances to see them, I don’t really want to do it while I am deciding over Jerrico Cotchery and Lee Evans.
The talent pool is another problem. There has been almost no way to project the vast majority of players seasons other than the high end talent. the last half of the draft is scouring some two-bit magazine and what they think is a sleeper and in all accounts, I could pull a name out of a hat and they would have just as good of a chance of succeeding. I spend half my afternoon filling a roster up with also-rans who had one good game the previous season and now I am justifing drafting him in the 9th round because his coach will be targeting him more in the offense, according to some website.
I think the biggest reason is my interest in the NFL. It has dwindled into nothing. Other than watching the Browns, and we all know how exciting that can be, I almost have no interest in any other team/games. That may have something to do with the team I consider my favorite, the Browns or I would rather spend my football watching time on Saturday watching college football from all around the nation. By the time Sunday rolls around, I am tired and bored with football.
I will keep doing it because it is a connection to home, a home I hope to get back to some day.
Rick, I’m actually in the opposite boat…Fantasy Football has given me a way to keep in better contact with my buddies that have all moved away. The online live draft works perfect for allowing us all to be in the “same room” even though I’m in Columbus and my buddies are in Dallas, Chicago, California, Cleveland and Cincy.
The weekly games give us an opportunity to send trash talk emails to one another and interact on a much more regular basis than a monthly “so…how’s life…and the wife….and the job?” phone conversation. Maybe this isn’t such a factor if your’e playing with people in your office, neighborhood, or even family.
I guess there’s a point to be made about watching games for only the sake of following your players, but what else are you going to watch on Sunday/Monday/Thursday nights? Tell me you’re not giving up watching football games you don’t care about for the Amazing Race and Bachelorette?!
While I definitely understand the sentiments in the post, I’m in agreement with some of the other commenters and have my own reasons.
Firstly, for groups of friends who are spreading apart, fantasy is a great way to maintain a connection with them. It gives a fun reason to call or email and it’s just fun competition.
Yes, people who let it get past their enjoyment of a game are missing the point (unless that’s just what they’re into) – it’s why I try to avoid taking players from certain teams (AFC North, AL Central, NY teams) even if they could “help” me, just because it would conflict with my true rooting interests. One of the nice things about having guys who are all over is that they’re also fans from all over. If you care more about fantasy then you probably aren’t in our leagues.
A lot of friends do want to start up an auction keeper league – it’s more GM-like, more sophisticated, and our friends who’ve done it say it’s WAY more fun.
I think it helps and is important to have a league of guys who are on the same interest level. For us, that’s competitive but not COMPETITIVE. We’ve had the same basic people for 5 years, with just two leaving us this year almost apologetically. One has had serious medical issues and her husband noted to us that it was an amazing outlet for her, since it let her feel a part of something that she’d done for a few years when often she can’t do a lot of things.
That all said, we’ve shut down/I’ve left leagues that were stale, pools that were boring/no fun, etc. You just have to find one that fits, and sometimes, that might be just taking a year off and watching the games just because.
Big underrated factor: Fantasy kept me into the overall NFL when the Browns were gone, and at the end of some seasons when it’s hard to do much besides check to see how badly they’re losing (can’t get the games on TV đ ) and watching the highlights. That in turn makes watching the playoffs more enjoyable.
Last year was the first of many, many years that I didn’t play “fantasy” (a term with which I have always been somewhat uncomfortable) football. It was also the first time in many, many years that I actually enjoyed the NFL season.
I always felt somewhat dirty playing “fantasy” football (so maybe the name is more fitting than I give it credit). The Browns, as they are apt to do, would lose – yet I would find myself happy that Hines Ward had 8 catches, 104 yards, and a touchdown. That, frankly, is disgusting, and I’m ashamed of myself.
I NEED to hate the Steelers, the Ravens, the Bengals, and the Broncos (and the Patriots, the Cowboys, etc.) – as well as every man that wears these uniforms (until, of course, they come and play for the Browns). It is good and just and pure that I hate them. I’m pretty sure that God hates them. Anything else is deviant and immoral.
While, as REEPJP noted, I miss the contact with my much-scattered buddies, I’m a filthy degenerate not worthy of friendship if I can actually find joy or delight in a Tom Brady TD pass or a Ravens pick-six.
Oh, and my wife likes me much more during football season than she used to (after, of course, the obligatory half-hour mourning/anger period when the Browns lose. Every week.). That alone is worth the price of “fantasy” football separation.
I don’t want to live in a world where I don’t know the name of the 3rd string RB for the New Orlean Saints (Pierre Thomas vs. Darren Sproles).
Just kidding (sort of :)). Fantasy football gives me a reason to get more invested in the NFL as a whole while simutaneously keeping connected to friends I no longer live near. Win/win.
I maintain my position that fantasy sports are the worsties.
The best comment of this article is #13 because Denny said “worsties”.
Gave up fantasy football totally last year. Just didn’t want to do it any longer since it became more of an obligation than a source of fun.
Began playing FF in 1991 in a GE Sales Office in Chicago where everyone (except for me) was a Bears fan. I partnered up with another sales guy that had many years in the business and played FF for many years but didn’t do so well. I was the new guy and an unknown quantity.
This was before the internet was in every office and home. Took a weekend trip to San Francisco to see some college friends days before the draft and read the local sports page that stated that Rickey Watters would be the starting RB for the 49ers. At the time, back in Chicago, everyone knew that the RB for the 49ers would be one of the top backs in the league, but no one knew who it was for sure. (We were in a performance league that rewarded points for catches, yardage and TD’s.)
Not a lot of people knew me at all before the draft. The first time I spoke up was to say “Gary and I will use our seventh round pick to select the starting running back for the 49ers – Rickey Watters”.
We ruled the league that year, and were a formidable team for 18 years.
It also helped that we had a strict policy of “No Bears and No Browns”. I violated this policy one year, to pick up Kellen Winslow…
I guess that the moral of the story is I agree with the author Rick, but I lived through 18 years of what REEPJP states and can agree with him as well.
Go Browns, Indians and Cavs
I would say conversely, the thing I love about fantasy football is that it keeps me in touch with friends from college who I might otherwise fall out of touch with due to “life”. As you get older, you have less time to spend on friends who live in other states, so if it wasn’t for fantasy football, I wouldn’t know what’s going on with Steve in Denver, or Eric in Seattle, or even Seth in DC, only 2 hours from me. I’m in 2 fantasy football leagues that have each been going for at least 10 years and all of my very best friends from college are in them. The live drafts bring us together again in a way that honestly would not happen if it weren’t for fantasy football. That’s the main reason I love it. But I must say, for you Rick, those reasons do seem to make good sense.
Also, I’d have to say that I am able to compartmentalize better than some of the other guys posting comments… my clear order of importance is always:
1) the Browns
2) rooting against the Steelers
3) my fantasy football players
If my fantasy player wins me the championship at the expense of a Browns loss, I am not a happy camper.
For the past 12 years, I’ve been in the same baseball and football fantasy leagues with 4 baseball championships to my credit.
As a Cleveland sports fan, without fantasy sports, I have no real chance at a championship. I crave that satisfaction of winning a fantasy sports championship.
Fantasy sports are to prevalent, way to many now. Kind of reminds me of the coverage of sports. I also have resigned from not only football but the other sports.
@7 – Amen. There is nothing worse than having to hear about someone’s fantasy team. Or the really tough decision they had this weekend. Or their great waiver wire pick up.
#17 has the same football priorities as I do!
I’m not playing this year for the first time since I played in a paper/mail league in 1994– it was always fun to draft, trade with guys who weren’t paying attention and watching some buddies draft a guy like Mark Bavaro (who had been out of football for 2 years at the time, I kid you not!)– nowadays you can’t even get a “one up” on a guy as they just check in with some free FF service after not paying attention all week– they won’t trade with you for any reason and most will not even trash talk anymore– it’s disheartening– I’m also disturbed to see some guys try to collude and cheat when they’re out of the Playoffs– plus guys change teams now like I change underwear (at least every couple of months!)– finally I’m upset with the billionaires and millionaires screwing us up with this lock-out– there was NO off-season to follow to try to bone-up for the draft– I’m done for now at least with FF– maybe next year I don’t know
@mgbode, knowing players deep on rosters on every team was the one thing I always did like (my friends are, in general, too apathetic about their teams for it to be a friendship thing). I felt like I knew the 3rd wide receivers, etc on teams better than the starters because they were the ones available on waivers.
@NJ, you mean the great waiver pickup that was 99.9% luck? Always a classic.
“All Iâm rooting for now is that championship.”
Amen.
I played one year of fantasy football a few years ago. It was fun, but it took so much time that I never bothered again. I don’t miss it.
Go Browns.
Grow up, and quit pretending that you’ve all grown up. It’s still fun to draft with friends, and talk trash to the guy you’re matched up against every week. Fantasy football is only as serious as you make it, relax and have fun with it.