I try to keep on an even keel when it comes to fantasy football. You always want to win your games, but it is a game, after all. Still, I got frustrated after a bad loss in one of my leagues last week, and I'm complaining to the commissioner about it.
The thing is, it wasn't my loss. I'm unhappy about a game that didn't involve me at all.
It should have been a good early matchup in this league: A 4-0 team vs a 3-1 team, with both at or near the top of league scoring. There's still a long way to go, but these look like two of the best teams. If I had to handicap it, I would have said it was a true coin flip. Instead, it was a blowout.
And I don't mean "one team beat the other soundly" blowout. I mean "one team more than doubled the other's score and then some" blowout. And sure, that happens occasionally. There are times when the contest is essentially over before the late games are even finished. That's not the problem.
The problem is that this contest was over before any of the games were finished, or even started. It was technically over several months ago, when the NFL released team schedules. Once we saw the bye weeks, we would have known the outcome of the game if we had been told that one manager would leave all their bye week players and injured guys in their lineup.
See, the 3-1 team got their record with help from the Chargers and other teams that were off this past week. And in week 5, five of their spots contributed exactly zero points. They gave an easy win to an undefeated team, hurt their own team, and affected the competitive balance of the league. Nobody should get an easy win against half a team, and no manager should ditch their responsibilities to a league they agreed to join. And as much as I believe that you should be allowed to run your team the way you want, that doesn't mean you get to decline to run your team at all.
Normally, we might see this from a manager that was sitting at 0-4 and had other teams (somewhere) that are 4-0. These managers ditch their loser teams to focus on their winners, then pat themselves on the back for their success. It's pathetic and unacceptable, but it's not uncommon. But to see it from a 3-1 team? To care that little about a league you joined, even if you're winning? As a manager who enjoys and respects the hobby, I don't understand it.
If I'm being generous, the winning record might indicate that there was an emergency or something happened that made it harder to set a normal lineup, and it's just a one-week thing. That also happens occasionally; life gets in the way. I think you should make sure you at least field a lineup or guys who are playing, but if you waited until the last minute and then something important came up and it couldn't be helped, I can understand that. Once.
But really, it's not that hard to take out guys who aren't playing at the beginning of the week, and then adjust as you get closer to gametime. Some league software allows you to set lineups weeks in advance. But even if we assume it's an honest oversight, I don't want to wait to find out we're wrong. The time to act is now.
I'm asking the commissioner to reach out to them and find out what happened, make sure everything is okay, and ensure that valid lineups will be set going forward. And while they're doing that, they should be on the lookout for other managers who might be checking out early. If people need a reminder that they need to set their lineups, fine. But if they need to be replaced, let's do that now. I'm not the commissioner, but I am an active league member, and I don't like my experience ruined by apathetic managers who can't find a few minutes each week to do their job. I'm going to point it out to the commissioner, and I encourage you to do the same.
After playing for so many years, I've come to understand that different managers have different views about fantasy football. Some people believe that a manager can do whatever they want with their team, and it's nobody's business whether they set a lineup or not. And while opinions don't have to be labeled right or wrong, that one is absolutely, 100 percent wrong. I'm right. Full stop.
As a manager, you have the responsibility to manage your team. You don't have to win, but you have to compete. You also have the right to enjoy your season, even if you don't have a great record. And when a manager abandons their team, it ruins the experience for everyone. Bye weeks run through week 14. Teams could take unnecessary zeroes right up until the playoffs, determining division winners, wildcard spots and playoff seeds. It's not right in week 14, and it's not right in week 5.
If you see it happening in your league, I encourage you to call it out early and put a stop to it. The bye weeks are just getting started, and your league integrity is at stake. Good luck this week.
What does your league do, if anything, to managers who don’t take out players on the bye? Should someone be kicked out for not managing their team? What’s the best excuse you’ve heard for not setting a lineup? Share your thoughts below.