I invited a friend to join a fantasy football league that I started this year. The idea was to get a bunch of people with connections to Luther Seminary together and have a big ol' fantasy fun time. There was no money put on it, so competitiveness was at a low. Of the 16 of us, there were probably only 8 or 10 that were actually trying to win, which is pretty typical in the world of fantasy sports when money is not on the line.
As is also often the case in fantasy sports, several managers who tried early on gave up as the season went along. Heading into the final week of the season, six teams had risen to the top and had clinched all six of the playoff spots. To give some idea of the level of commitment of the managers who made the final six, I offer the number of roster moves they made over the course of the year. One made 25 moves, one 18, one 17, one 9, one a mere 4, and one.... none.
Wait, what?
You see my friend who I invited last into this league, actually didn't really care at all about being in the league. Not only did he not show up for the online draft, he never made a roster move the entire season. In football, this means that every player on his roster missed at least a single game for their bye week, and not only that he has players in Ahmad Bradshaw and Jay Cutler who have missed multiple weeks due to injury. They stayed in his lineup and scored big fat 0's. He not only made the playoffs... he won his division.
For those who don't understand anything I just said, here it is plainly: he never did anything, ever. He literally created a team, let Yahoo! assign him players and he never once changed a thing. He even has two kickers on his team, something that is laughable in fantasy circles.
But underlying all of this is the attraction of fantasy football: it's a tremendous amount of luck. Yes, there is skill in determining who are the best players and researching the best players to pick up from week to week. Yet, the game of football is so filled with injuries that in the end you can make all the "right" moves and still end up missing out on the prize. In this league I finished with the most points and yet I only just made the playoffs with the 6th seed.
The reality is that Fantasy Baseball is the toughest of the major sports, because the sheer number of games and players means that much of the injury luck factor is mitigated. Hockey too is a good fantasy sport. Basketball isn't bad. But football, with its small sample size and tremendous amount of injuries, is simply full of luck. Not that that's a bad thing. It is, I suppose, why it's so popular. You don't have to pay much attention; you don't have to know much; you just have to... enjoy the ride.
I look forward to the playoffs and hope I can get a shot at my friend, but something tells me this is not my year. I lost my star running back to injury this week, and anyway... I just don't have the luck.
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