You Have No Friends in Fantasy Football: Week 6 Flex Rankings
“What do you think?”
Four very innocent words in everyday life. In fantasy football it could mean a lot more. Let the words that follow resonate through your very soul. It’s a story of mistrust, distrust, betrayal and every other adjective that you can think of. It all comes down to one thing. You have no friends in fantasy football.
Last Thursday I was particularly busy. I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on Ride or Die and before I had to leave for work I decided to do a little personal fantasy preparation. I came across a little piece of info about the upcoming game that night between Green Bay and Minnesota. The weather was going to be pretty nasty. At the time I thought little of it. In the four leagues I am in I only own one Packer or Viking that mattered. It’s Jordy Nelson. I’m not benching him.
Leading a fantasy football defense…Oct 2, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers linebacker Julius Peppers (56) returns an interception for a touchdown during the second quarter against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
On my drive to work I began to think about my defense. Just recently I had plucked the Denver D/ST off of waivers. The ultra-competitive being that I am began to chime in my head. I started considering how well of a game the Green Bay D/ST might have based on that little nugget of info I read earlier. Realizing how precious each of my points earned in fantasy could be I started to really consider picking up the Packers defense and dropping either Isaiah Crowell or (since I don’t like owning two defense) the Denver D/ST.
I don’t know about you, but I have two good friends that when I have a self conflicting opinion about anything related to fantasy I give them a call. I am in two leagues with one of them and three leagues with the other. I called my buddy Mike, the friend I have in two of my leagues. He was at work at the time as well. He runs a cell phone and electronics store. He’s the kind of guy who has two cell phones on him and they’re both the newest model.
7:43 PM, Thursday (insert Law & Order music here)
ME: “I’m thinking of dropping the Denver Defense for Green Bay’s. What do you think?”
MIKE: “Why?”
ME: “For one I think Christian Ponder is terrible and the weather is supposed to be gross. Like, just messy as hell. I think that plays into the Packers hand. The Vikings have no play makers currently.”
MIKE: “Yea but the Denver defense is good. I can see them doing some real damage Sunday against the Cardinals. They have no QB!”
ME: “Yea, but (Drew) Stanton has played OK and he’s a game manager at this point. They just don’t want him to make mistakes so they keep it real simple on offense. Bruce Arians man. He knows what he’s doing over there.”
MIKE: “Yea, I see that. I don’t disagree there.”
ME: “I’m gonna do it. Thanks man.”
Thanks man. That’s the last thing I told him. I literally thanked him for what had already occurred despite my ignorance. I arrived back at my work station. I loaded up my tablet to were I had left it. I pressed ADD. I pressed the little minus sign next to Denver’s name. Then the computer teased me a bit. It asked me if I was sure. The computer was making absolutely sure I wanted to make this move. That I didn’t do this accidentally or maybe made a mistake in the process.
Nope. I was good. SUBMIT.
TRANSACTION DENIED. PLAYER IS ALREADY OWNED BY ANOTHER PLAYER.
My heart sank. I knew it before I knew it. I clicked back into my league’s homepage. I scrolled down and in the little transactions window it was starring back at me square in the face.
add GB Def Mike
drop Cle Def Oct. 3, 7:45 pm
I was flabbergasted. I was a little more than upset. I was bitter. Mike had broken one of the only unwritten rules in fantasy football. Thou shalt not use casual conversation about a pick up against an other player, especially if the other player is not in your match up and is your friend.
That was my mistake, you see. Yes, this unwritten rule does exist. However, that is but unwritten is but unenforceable. The flaw with that unwritten rule is that in fantasy football you have no friends. What’s mine is mine as so says my roster.
My instincts were correct. With help from a Julius Peppers interception return for a touchdown Green Bay’s defense scored 25 fantasy points and Denver scored only eight. I lost by 22 so it ended up not mattering at all.. But still.
*sigh… Three and two.
Here are your flex rankings for week 6.. Enjoy!
[table id=24 /]