Why do we play fantasy football?
I'm sure we all have different reasons. We do it because it enhances the experience of watching football. We do it because it makes us care about games we would otherwise ignore (Jags/Bills, for example, or Chiefs/Lions --- any game played in London, really). We do it for the glory when we win, for the trash-talking when we lose, and for the money we might win now and then.
But mostly, fundamentally, we play fantasy football because it's FUN! Okay, the losing part isn't so fun. Drafting a first-round bust (Andrew Luck, Eddie Lacy, C.J. Anderson, DeMarco Murray) isn't so fun. Losing games you should easily win isn't so fun. But when you end up on the right side of any of those things, it makes all the rest of it worth it.
So in this mid-season summary, I plan to focus on fun.
For example, I'm guessing our defending toilet bowl champion, Aaron (aka Moist Spots) is having hella fun right about now. There's been a lot of talk about a possible Past Champions Curse, in which previous year's champions drop to the bottom of the league (Jody x2, Aaron) or near it (Pete) in subsequent years. (Your Esteemed Comissioner has thus far been immune to this curse). In fact, while we're on the subject, it's worth pointing out that the current defending champ, Kubicek, currently sits at 10th place in the standings.
But Aaron is on pace to complete what is possibly the first worst-to-first finish in league history, as he currently sits atop the league standings with the league's only 6-1 record --- and his last 5 victories haven't been close, with a margin of 16 points or more in each.
For those who haven't been paying attention, Aaron has been regularly posting trash talk on each of his opponents --- just about the only guy in the league (with Your Esteemed Commissioner a notable exception) who actually engages in trash talk in this, you know, trash talking league. Yeah, I would say he's having fun.
I'm guessing Kevin is having fun, too, sitting at 5-2 when he's usually the butt of most of our jokes. Of course, there's still half the season left to play, which gives him plenty of time to pile up the losses. Plus he just lost to Merrill, which is a serious buzzkill (trust me). Still, more good times than bad, year to date.
Rounding out the top 4, Mex and Adam were no doubt having more fun before week 7 than they are now. Mex lost Arian Foster for the season, and Adam, well --- we'll get to Adam's bad week 7 in just a little bit.
Everyone else in the league is on the wrong side of the won-lost ledger, which means we're all having sads more weeks than we're having fun. But there's still some fun things to point out.
For one thing, half the league sits at 3-4. That's kind of a fun fact. I've noticed this in the past; we have a tendency to cluster. In fact, I predict that with the possible exception of Aaron, the top teams will fall back to the pack before the season ends.
I also predict that with the DEFINITE exception of Jason, the bottom teams will move up. And there are a lot of fun facts coming out of Jason's current last-place position in the league (well, fun for everyone but Jason, that is). Because if you haven't been paying attention, Jason's team sucks. I mean, dear God does it suck. It may possibly be the suckiest team ever in the history of sucking.
Here's one fun fact. If you sort the teams in the league by points scored, Merrill sits at the top with 514 points, and the totals drop at fairly regular intervals down to Kubicek, in 11th place with 426. So the difference between the most points and 11th-most is 88 points.
And in last place sits Jason with 247 points --- 179 behind Kubicek. In other words, the difference from 11th to 12th is almost exactly TWICE as much as the difference between first and 11th.
Here's another fun fact. Most weeks, you should expect to score 60-65 points to have a shot at getting a win in this league. Jason's pathetic 247 points averages out to just a bit more than 35 points a week. It's kind of a miracle Jason has won any games at all.
And coming to Jason's victories, THAT'S kind of fun, too --- at least to me. His first victory was in week 4, when somehow Taylor managed to only put up 32 points despite Aaron Rodgers, Julio Jones and Martellus Bennett in his lineup (notably, Jason would NOT have won without his kicker --- Vinatieri accounted for one-third of Jason's points that week --- so Taylor is probably wishing we had followed my sage advice to eliminate them).
His second --- and probably final --- victory came this week over the 5-2 Atomnation, and was due almost entirely to a 28-point effort by Kirk Cousins, which was one more point than Jason's 8 remaining players combined. His 55 point total will usually get you a victory in a week when your opponent plays like crap. Which Adam did.
I don't mean to pile on Jason like this, but his team is really just stunningly bad (besides, piling on is FUN, which is the whole point, right?). So I'll finish this review by noting one last fun fact which might make Jason feel better about his lost season.
Merrill has scored the most points in the league so far. His 514 points doubles Jason's 247 with lots to spare. And yet --- Merrill has only one more victory than Jason so far this year. I don't know if it makes Jason feel any better, but it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh . . .
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