Fantasy sports can get pretty serious.  Depending on how much energy you decide to invest in your particular league, making the playoffs, missing the playoffs, or losing your best player to a season-ending injury can have very real emotional consequences.  Football has been on my mind a lot this year.  Perhaps it has something to do with the Buffalo Bills’ hot start, or maybe it’s that the NFL is just downright more exciting this year than ever before. Whatever the reason, Fantasy football, as a result, has also been particularly compelling.

I play in a league with high school friends.  We’ve been going at it on the virtual gridiron since the early 2000’s, and although a small cash prize is awarded to the winner, it’s pride and bragging rights that really make this league tick.  There’s trash-talking, early-morning waiver pick-ups, and a good dose of playful animosity.  This season, as the playoffs approach, I’d like to put my friend on blast for his under-handed and cowardly conduct that will likely cost me a spot in the playoffs and a shot at the title.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game of fantasy football, here’s a brief summary:  Each player has a virtual team made up of real-life players.  Depending on league rules, your squad consists of a certain number of quarterbacks, wide receivers, running-backs, tight ends, defensive players, and of course the virtually irrelevant kicker.  Each week, matched up against another member of your league, the actual statistics of your players are automatically tallied and scored.  For example, you get points for passing yards, rushing yards, touchdowns, or tackles.  Real-life superstars like Aaron Rogers and Adrian Peterson are coveted commodities in Fantasy Football, as their big numbers result in big points for fantasy managers around the world.  After the final game of the week wraps up on Monday night, the team with the highest total points wins the matchup and gets a W.  It makes otherwise uninteresting games worth watching, as you can root for random players on teams you care nothing about just because they’re on your fantasy team.  It also makes for a dangerously sedentary Sunday.

Tomorrow, the final spot in our league’s two-round playoffs is up for grabs.  With the top three spots clinched, I’m hoping to sneak in as the fourth seed.  My team has been on something of a roll lately, and this week I’m fortunately matched up against the last-place team in our league, whose manager is generally too busy or uninterested to regularly maintain his team.  Unless Cam Newton scores 12 touchdowns, I’ll move to 8-6.  Currently sitting in fourth place, at 8-5, is “Ginger Snaps”.  Ginger Snaps suffered a huge blow last week when Matt Forte went down with a knee injury, and his outlook for Sunday is admittedly bleak.  If Ginger Snaps loses on Sunday, he’ll fall into a tie with me at 8-6, and thanks to total points tiebreaker, I’ll be awarded the fourth and final playoff spot, and he’ll begin his off-season.  Ginger Snaps is matched up against “TO Flakes r Grrreat”, who at 10-1 is the league’s top scorer and number one seed.  And here is where things get interesting.

The manager of “TO Flakes r Grrreat”, being a shrewd fantasy football manager and defending champion of our league, is well aware of Sunday’s playoff implications.  Having already wrapped up the number one seed, he knows that he’ll face the number four seed next week in the opening round of the playoffs—either myself or Ginger Snaps.  Incredibly, he has the luxury of affecting who this will be.  His squad at full-strength will likely demolish Ginger Snaps, assuring that he and I face off next week in a rematch of last year’s final.  But his squad at half-strength?  A “miraculous” Ginger Snaps victory would yield a Ginger Snaps vs. TO Flakes matchup in the playoffs, and keep my squad out of the picture.

Fantasy football teams are complete with a number of “bench” slots, allowing you to carry more players than the set number of “starters”.  Stats are not counted for benched players—only starters.  By placing all of one’s players on the bench—and thereby preventing their points from being tallied—one can effectively throw a match.  

Instead of taking this obvious route, however, TO Flakes’ owner has opted for a more secretive approach.  On Wednesday afternoon, Drew Brees, Lesean McCoy, and Ray Rice—three of the top five individual players in all of Fantasy Football—were carefully placed on the bench.  In their stead are Alex Smith, Joe McKnight, and David Nelson.  I won’t bore you with a detailed explanation of how worthless these players are to a fantasy owner.  Suffice it to say they belong on the bench.  This effectively handicaps “TO Flakes r Grrreat” and will most likely result in victory for “Ginger Snaps”, a near miss of the playoffs for my squad, and the preferred matchup next week for the manager of TO Flakes.

So is this really so bad?  It’s a tactical move, nothing more and nothing less.  The manager of TO Flakes realizes that my team poses a significant threat to his chances at winning a second consecutive league title, and recognizing an opportunity to avoid this matchup, he’s taken it.

Or, this could be seen as a cowardly, under-handed, unethical, and generally shitty thing to do.   Afraid, perhaps, of other league members recognizing his ploy, TO Flakes’ Manager has sneakily substituted only his best players to the bench, leaving the appearance of a full fantasy squad.  Why not just bench all of his players, and ensure the loss, one wonders?  Why be so coy?

But what really irks me is the pure cowardice behind the move: TO Flakes is genuinely worried about the prospect of facing my squad in the playoffs, and is looking to avoid this matchup at all costs.  Wouldn’t an honorable manager and true competitor relish the opportunity to confront his most serious threat? True glory is to be found in victory over the toughest competition.  Will victory really be so sweet having purposely avoided a dangerous opponent?  For me, it would not.  For me, a victory so achieved would be hollow.

Remember when Lance Armstrong’s bike got caught in the handbag of an over-eager fan in the Tour de France?  Jan Ullrich, second in the classification and just a few bikes ahead of Lance on the hill, saw the yellow jersey go down, and slowed.  The rest of the leaders slowed with him, giving Lance the opportunity to get back up and rejoin the group.  Ullrich had no interest in winning the Tour thanks to one silly fan’s mistake.  He, as a man, waited for his great rival because he wanted to beat him fair and square.  Ullrich lost, of course, but I will always respect him for this conduct, as I’m sure will Lance Armstrong and the rest of the cycling community.

With just hours before kickoff at the time of publishing this post, the manager of “TO Flakes r Grrreat” has some thinking to do.  What’s at stake here is more than just another fantasy football title and a hundred dollar prize.  Honor is on the line.  His choice is simple: sacrifice honor for a shot at victory, or defend honor by accepting the challenge of true competition.  My hope is that TO Flakes’ manager does what he feels is right, so that years from now she can look back at this moment without remorse.

Update (12/12/2011): I was unsuccessful in my attempt to shame “TO Flakes’s” manager into changing his mind. Despite another monster performance from my team, “Ginger Snaps” beat a severely handicapped “TO Flakes r Grrreat”, and I’ll miss the playoffs this year.

After not a few angry, self-righteous thoughts about the situation, I’ve now found some measure of peace. This is a game, and its played by all sorts. Just because my personal beliefs made me feel like I’d been wronged, that doesn’t mean that I actually have been. I decided to take it personally, and now I’ve decided not to take it personally. I’ll be back next year, and led by DeAngelo Williams, I’ll make another run at the title.