You don’t need to tell me I’m the guy everyone hates because I take it too seriously. I take it seriously because I want it to have meaning. If it doesn’t have meaning, why are we doing it? Winning under tainted rules is not truly winning.

This is what I wrote a week ago on the topic of this current post:

Fantasy Football Rules Beef

Update

Here’s the response to me calling out a player for dropping players from his team and not picking up anyone after he was eliminated from the playoffs:

…I have truthfully never thought twice about dropping someone after being eliminated. I’ve both seen it and done it in other leagues with no response like this so I guess it didn’t feel off in any way. It certainly has nothing to do with collusion as implied, sometimes I just don’t want to see someone’s stupid face on my bench. It’s called a hate drop. It just seems like an interesting thing to just throw out there considering I live in CO and am basically the odd person out in this league.

You remind me of my grandson, you don’t think things through.

The Dilemma

There are life lessons hidden in fantasy football. I’ll be arguing the dickish side but I think that will give insight to what type of a person I am. A dick.

His response uses the phrase “hate drop”. I’ve never heard of a hate drop. I’d be fascinated to see how many league commissioners have outlawed hate dropping in their rules. Obviously ours will have to. A simple response to my accusation could have been, “I’m sorry that my actions were misconstrued as collusion and I made a mistake because these drops could have impact on future games that I am no longer a part of.” Done deal. We move on.

Whether you side with the point I made in the original post is the type of person you are. As much as I would be made out as the bad person in this kind of scenario, I’m being the most empathetic of other people still participating. By add/dropping, you’re indirectly saying that I’m selfish and don’t care about anyone else. It’s a common means of thinking. Or the alternative is that you aren’t thinking at all. Also common.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not that surprisingly, all the leagues I’m in don’t abide by my means of thinking on this topic. That’s ok. It’s like playing on the 7 foot hoop instead of playing with the big boys. Do you want to take mulligans or get an actual score? Most people prefer the kids game because they can bend the rules as they see fit. If I have to play bigger money leagues where these types of shenanigans aren’t allowed, I get it, I can do that.

Forbid me for caring the most. I take what I do seriously, some would say too seriously, but in my life that’s what makes is meaningful. If I win a $5 league under Wild Wild West rules, who cares? It’s meaningless. If I win in a $1,000 game where everyone is competing squarely and trying as hard as they can, it matters who wins. It’s not about the money, it’s about saying you won. If a guy takes a mulligan and wins the golf league, did he really win? You know my answer.