R.I.P Fantasy Fandom

In 2011 I ventured into the hype beast that is fantasy sports with zero knowledge of what in the hell I was doing. Starting off that first year, I joined 4 different football leagues to ensure that everything I needed to learn moving forward would be taught to me in the span of one NFL season, which it was. Of the four leagues I was an owner in, I managed to dominate all of them, winning championships in three. The one title that eluded me was the league we’d put together with some of our closest confidantes and is surely the one I’d still to this day trade all the other three ‘ships for. My team, lead by an MVP season from Aaron Rodgers, was clearly the favorite sitting at 11-2 in the final week of the Championship match when I decided that sleeping in on the final Sunday was a great idea. It wasn’t. Rodgers sat Week 17, Matt Flynn threw for 6 touchdowns in his place, and the Cabrini Green MonStars were upset by 24 points sans a QB, which is admirable considering the QB points in that particular league. I was distraught for weeks as if I’d walked in on my wife sleeping with my boss and then was subsequently fired the next work day. Yes, it meant that much to me. I didn’t even want to talk to my bro who’d benefited from my slumber and won the “Swag Bowl I” victory right from up under me as if he’d been the mastermind behind all of this nonsense. That was 20 year old me. Full of Mary Jane, misogynistic views, paralyzed morals, barely educated and way too much time on my hands. I sit here today at 24 years old with a 3-10 team and I could give a rats ass. Big difference, huh? Here’s how I got here.

It all started about two years ago when I realized that people really take this fantasy game seriously. Too seriously. I’d read on social media sites that hosted players pages the insanely brutal comments that made myself want to find them and slap the taste out of their mouth on behalf of the player being disrespected. This had become a far too common occurrence when it had dawned on me that these crazy folk were not 'trolling’, but rather they were expressing their genuine feelings towards these players that hadn’t put up the points expected. Sometimes it’d be the opposite, where they’d be upset that a player helped drive their fantasy foe to victory and scorn them for doing their actual professional job. The absurdity of these jesters.

Time. No one can explain how much effort it takes to actually run a fantasy team to a person that does not play fantasy, is something I’ve always told myself. Well, I am going to attempt as much regardless. Between gathering a league of people that are going to participate week in and week out, finding a draft date/time that works for all owners, analyzing off-season roster changes, coaching changes, keeping up with training camp stories, updating your draft board, having everyone show up to the draft, ensuring that you are tracking certain teams and players daily/weekly, putting in the waiver wire effort (which used to be my specialty), convincing someone to trade with you, injury updates and actually keeping your league whole is a bit time consuming. That’s a helluva lot to be doing, especially when you’re in multiple leagues for multiple sports. It just isn’t worth the investment at this stage of my young life.

In the past two years I have lived in three different states, though I haven’t resided in my native Chicago since 2011, when my affiliation began. The reason I highlight this is because I do not get to see my immediate circle of friends very often. Most of us attended Southern Illinois University (or So Icey University) at one point, but as we began the break away and delve further into our own goals, it became more of a tool of communication to ensure we’d all be somewhere at the same time, always. Our league was our glue for quite awhile. We’d all be in the league chat trash talking, scouting, joking, talking up trade block players and talking down trade targets all the while inserting real things that were going on with us personally as well. Things change though, as does most of life over time. The posts got more sporadic, the comments nonexistent, and it became a lot less meaningful to me knowing that we were certainly drifting. With there being less fun with my gang, there too became a lessened reasons for me to give a hoot.

This season is the worst I have ever experienced while too being the one I have least cared for. I’ve maybe watched a total of 4 or 5 football games that didn’t involve my oft-injured Dallas Cowboys and I’ve completed a total of zero NBA games thus far. Sitting here thinking about it, I can recall a time when I worked nights and was watching Monday Night Football, up in my fantasy game and then Calvin Johnson happened. The distress was so real that I called in sick the next day, skipped class and smoked myself into oblivion. I chuckle now, but it was no joke just three short years ago. Maybe I’ll miss the times that I conquered the fantasy hill, maybe I will never regret allowing it to fade at all. One thing I do know is that I’ll be stepping away from the life at the conclusion of the current basketball season. Seeing as the love isn’t there anymore. The care isn’t there anymore. I’m not there anymore. So, to my fantasy fandom, rest in peace.