Fantasy Football
I play in a fantasy football league with some guys that I work with and a few of their friends from outside our office. Last year, I dominated during the regular season only to lose in the first round of the playoffs. Even before we started this year's league, one of my co-workers and I were already trash talking. This season I started off by losing my first two games by a very slim margin. I came back and finished the season with 10 wins and 2 losses for a total record of 10-4 and in first place in the league.
The one co-worker that I talk the most trash with I had already beaten twice during the season and we were matched up against each other for the first round of the playoffs. We had been talking smack to each other every week of the season. I even changed the name of my team a few times specifically to taunt him. Now the stakes were raised with a playoff matchup. The trash talking jumped to a higher level and as you would expect, the winner would be gloating quite a bit once he won. Well I managed to win rather convincingly and I wanted to do something funny and creative to gloat about my victory beyond just changing my team name. I decided to create a youtube playlist of some scenes from movies and tv shows. Here is what I came up with:
I then posted a link to the youtube playlist in the message board of the fantasy football league as well as change the name of my team to "I BEAT SO-AND-SO AGAIN!" (I don't like to use names in my blog.) Now only people for the fantasy league can see the message and the link so it's not like the whole world knew about this. (I guess they will now that I posted it on my blog but who cares.) It was clearly a joke and I didn't see how anyone could have interpreted it as anything other than some meaningless fun. As it turns out, I was wrong.
The very next day, I get an email from the co-worker I was gloating about beating saying that I took it too far "publicly" and that I upset others, tarnished my name and made myself look conceited. (Who knew a joke could do so much.) But the thing was that it wasn't public. It was only for the people in the fantasy league. At first, I thought that it was my co-worker that was offended. I know that he can be a pretty competitive person and doesn't like losing. I emailed him back with this text:
Are you serious? It was obviously a joke. I haven't seen nor heard anyone having a problem with it.It is FANTASY football after all. It's completely meaningless. If people are upset over that stupid joke, then I definitely do not want to play in this league again. I apologize if I somehow hurt your feelings but I thought it was a creative way of having fun. If there are people in this league that can't take a joke, then I want no part of this league."
After a little emailing back and forth, I accepted that it was not him who was offended and that it was someone else in the league. I was pretty sure I knew who it was. There is one guy in the league that clearly cannot take a joke. Earlier on in the season, I was trying to make a trade with this guy. I offered him a QB in Brett Favre for his #2 RB, Ahmad Bradshaw. In this league a QB scores 2-3 times as much as a RB. This guy had 2 very bad QBs so I felt that I was definitely offering him an upgrade. He apparently thought it was an awful trade but "accidentally" clicked accept instead of decline. He then posted a message in the message boards asking to have everyone veto the trade. I personally thought it was not an accident and that he suddenly felt buyer's remorse and took to the only resort that he had left to cancel the trade. Of course, he wouldn't admit to that and I had no proof of it either. It was no big deal to me either way. If he wanted to back out of the trade that was fine with me. I just didn't like the way he made it seem like I was trying to rip him off. I responded by using my humor in the following post:
I normally would not reply to such nonsense but feel like I need to make a point and defend my self since I am being placed in the position of being the bad guy in the deal. I will do so in my unique and extremely sarcastic style. It is all meant in good fun and not intended to offend anyone. Here goes.....Yup, you caught me! I was trying to trick you into clicking the wrong button on a trade and it almost worked. I thought I was going to be like George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven and be the mastermind behind the heist of the century. Clearly, I am not that intelligent.The truth is that I really need Ahmad Bradshaw because I am doing so horribly in this league with all the horrid QBs that I have. I've only won 5 in a row and my two losses came by less than 5 points total. If only I could trade one of my QBs for a mid range RB that consistently scores half or less points per game, is currently losing goal line carries to another player and has a bye this week. I only have 3 players on bye this week and really wanted to add another one.And you don't need a QB. You have great QBs like Jason Campbell and David Carr (who is being benched in favor of Troy Smith). Why would you need a QB that just got one of the best receivers in the game in Randy Moss, Percy Harvin who is coming back into form and Sidney Rice who should be back on the field soon. Favre is a guy that has played in every game since 1993 and still has a decent chance of playing this week. Why would you want Brett Favre who might play when you can have David Carr who definitely won't play? What was I thinking?In a Tuesday column, Sports Illustrated's Peter King spoke with a top NFL team orthopedist who said the ailment shouldn't snap Favre's steak of 291 consecutive games played. "I think it's extremely misleading to say he has two ankle fractures and leave that impression," the orthopedist said. "Technically, with what I have read, he does. But you are not playing an NFL game with two fractures in the sense that we think of fractures." The nature of the stress fracture seems to be especially inexact. The orthopedist said: "It's a glorified ankle sprain." And with the avulsion fracture of the calcaneus, or heel area, he said a simple injection can help cover the pain. "I don't believe [the calcaneus] is a critical structure at all." In all, the orthopedist thinks Favre will be able to play Sunday in New England and that if this were a playoff week, most NFL QBs would suit up with Favre's injury.I think I have sufficiently made my point. Thank you for taking the time to read my rant.
I thought I was very clear in my post that I was having fun with the situation but this guy thought that I was serious. The guy was taking this whole fantasy football thing way too seriously. If there was anyone in the league that was going to be upset over my video montage, it was going to be this guy.
Later that night, he posts something in the message board with the title of "Total classless act". Here is what he posted word for word minus the names:
"I really have to say that. Beating NAME and crowing is one this but Dude your an ass with no freaking class what-so-ever. To the rest of you guys it was fun, enjoy next year, I'm out."
If you're going to insult someone at least have the decency to use proper grammar. He should have used a comma after "that" instead of a period. "Thing" is not spelled "this". Beating shouldn't be capitalized but I guess if you place a period in the wrong place the auto-correct will capitalize it so I will give him a pass on that. My name is not "dude" and since it's not a proper name nor a title, it should not be capitalized either. Back in 3rd grade when I was taught about contractions, the contraction for "you are" is "you're". "Your" is the possessive. So I guess my "an ass" is the one with no freaking class. Also "whatsoever" is one word and does not need hyphens.
I really don't understand why he got so upset. Firstly, the gloating was not directed to him at all. Secondly, it's was pretty clear to me that it was a joke. He has no idea who I am but he has quickly cam to the conclusion that I am a classless ass. His opinion means nothing to me but I am surprised that this guy takes his fantasy football so seriously. It's a pretend football game. Fantasy football is pretty juvenile and that is coming from a person that plays it. It is solely meant for fun. There is no money involved in our league and there isn't even a prize. The only thing that a winner of the league gets is the pride in winning and what good is that if you don't get to have some fun with it.
Why is he so upset? Did I somehow hurt his feelings? Could it be jealousy that I ended up in first place and he ended up in 9th place in a 10 team league? I just don't understand why he is so angry. The only conclusion that I can come to is that he has no sense of humor. Maybe Santa will bring him one for Christmas. I doubt that he will. He's been naughty this year.
Let's ignore the fact that this man is upset for seemingly no reason. Let's say that he is genuinely upset. He didn't need to make it personal by saying that I have no class and that I am an ass. By doing so, he stepped across a line that you just don't cross. I was extremely tempted to reply back and rip him apart. He made things personal so I was going to do the same but he isn't worth it. I'll just vent through my blog.
This fantasy football league is a joke and I don't need it. Next year, I will not be playing in this league. Instead, I will play in a league with people that take it for what it's worth and have fun with it. Games are meant to be fun. Fantasy football isn't even a game. It's less than a game and anyone that gets upset over it is just plain stupid.
This fantasy football league is a joke and I don't need it. Next year, I will not be playing in this league. Instead, I will play in a league with people that take it for what it's worth and have fun with it. Games are meant to be fun. Fantasy football isn't even a game. It's less than a game and anyone that gets upset over it is just plain stupid.
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