July 06, 2009

Involvement matters.  It is clearly more fun to be in a league where everyone changes their line ups week in and week out, manages their teams and cares.  To win a league without any participation, may yield some degree of self satisfaction but it is not fun because no one cares. 

To care in fantasy football means to have pride.  The fun comes when you can smack talk or stick out your chest after a win against a co-worker or boss, a best friend, a brother, an uncle or any other relative, foe, neighbor or “know it all.” 

By surrounding yourself with these sources in a league, you have something to talk about during family reunions or holiday gatherings, with your neighbor at the fence and with your peers or boss at the water cooler, even a stranger on a plane. 

If you are in a league where everyone participates, you have to care.  No one wants to be that guy who gets “punked.”  We all have pride.  I cannot think of anything more satisfying than being able to text message an opponent when, with two minutes left in a game, my quarterback throws a 93 yard miracle bomb to one of my receivers who makes a one-handed circus catch off of some dude’s helmet with two minutes left in a game that puts me over the edge for a win. 

Unless of course my best friend’s wide receiver gets tackled from behind at the one foot line and my running back comes in for mop up duty and punches it in for six points.  This is the epitome of satisfaction. 

In these instances, you have to send a smack text.  Let’s face it, their phones are off and you do not want to wait a minute to leave a message.  After all, you have to get to the message board as rapidly as possible, to leave a nasty gram for the entire league to see that you, at least for today, have dominance over this bum of misfortune.

If you already have a league where members do not participate, kick them out and get some fresh blood in to feast off of this year.  If you are starting a league, by surrounding yourself with the above you can ensure participation, even by force.  Eventually you will have to see your boss, relative or neighbor and at that time you can remind them of that 93 yard miracle.

For those of us who have our names engraved on fantasy football league trophies, we take great pride in our accomplishment and retain bragging rights over those who do not.  Such satisfaction rivals that of the Penguins’ hoisting their Stanley Cup in 2009.  Some say they were lucky while others say they had more skill.  Sound familiar?

Tod "FFLKING" Brooks