Wikipedia defines fantasy football as an "interactive virtual competition in which people manage professional football players versus one another and that allows people to act as general managers of a pseudo-football team."
As someone who has entered this special arena for the first time in this National Football League season, the "pseudo" may be accurate for the team. But as I now know, the pain and anguish are all too real.
Yesterday, I woke up and promptly reached for my general manager's fedora, then I coldly cut Mark Sanchez of the NY Jets from my fantasy football team, the South Shore Soxolaskies.
In his place, I added Ryan Fitzpatrick, quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, which only compounds the problem this caused me. As a fan, I happen to like Mark Sanchez -- I had cheered when the Jets drafted him -- and no real Jets fan should be rooting for a Bills quarterback, much less choosing one over a Jet.
But having just endured one train wreck of a sports season, thanks to my Boston Red Sox (who yesterday fired their second manager in two years, another guy I liked) and NY Mets, I'm not ready to chew on another one just yet and, in this case, extending to my fantasy team.
For as long as I've watched pro football, my favorite teams have been the NY Jets and Minnesota Vikings, so this was a painful chore, telling Mark to turn in his Soxolaskies jersey and playbook.
But to continue in this fantasy thing, I can't deny that this Jets season looks to be going over the cliff. As a fan, there is wiggle room for patience. But with fantasy football, patience tends to be a luxury one cannot afford and even more crucial to one's skills set as the GM of a fantasy team is trying to stay ahead of the curve.
That said...bad enough that I'm on track to get my brains beat in this weekend by one of my all-time favorite Vikings players, as my opponent was able to trade for Adrian Peterson. But I am now reminded of why I had resisted playing fantasy football until this season, only because I thought I'd like to be part of something with a mix of family members, an old friend and his son.
Yes, it sounded like fun. But now reality has kicked in, like a boot from David Akers (who is the Soxolaskies' kicker, btw): to play this fantasy stuff, I am left to root against players/teams I really love.
So yesterday morning, I woke up hating the whole damn thing as I looked for that pseudo-fedora, ready to cut fantasy ties with a quarterback I'll still be rooting for...at least, until somebody else in our fantasy league picks him up.
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