Fantasy football has become such a popular game that it’s become quite commonplace. We rarely stop to think about how weird it all is. Millions of people play a game based on the statistics generated from hundreds of people playing a different game. That’s weird! It’s especially weird for the couple hundred people who are notable enough football players that their names and statistics are the ones being used in fantasy football. Two NFL players made news recently by playing with the comical boundary between fantasy and reality this past week.
Glenn Davis of the USA Today reported that New York Giants Tight End Larry Donnell lost his fantasy football game last week because he chose to start 49ers Tight End Vernon Davis over himself! Little did he know that he was going to catch three touchdowns in the Giants game versus Washington while Davis was going to leave his game against Philadelphia early with an injured back. Whoops! As a fantasy owner, it’s comforting to know that even the player involved has no idea before the game whether or not he’s going to do better than another player.
Barry Petchesky of Deadspin reported recently on another NFL player having fun with fantasy. San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Stevie Johnson has been perpetrating a running joke on his twitter feed. He pretends that he is fielding a “Fantasy Work team” and his twitter followers reply with clever reasons to be included on or excluded from his team. It’s an incredibly clever gag. Here are a few of my favorites:
Starter, taking care of our future #HBHF “@scotconant: @StevieJohnson13 travelng US trying to get kids interested in science & engineering.”
— HiMom. (@StevieJohnson13) September 26, 2014
Land a job, 13 points “@RohrSean: @StevieJohnson13 unemployed 3 weeks then 3 new job offers in 1 day. Feel that is worth fantasy points.”
— HiMom. (@StevieJohnson13) September 26, 2014
Legendary, 13 pts for sure “@DJMarcotix: @StevieJohnson13 I tried to make ramen in the coffee pot and I broke everything” — HiMom. (@StevieJohnson13) September 25, 2014
no pool [poops], big points “@shanahan_ryan: @StevieJohnson13 Took my 2 yr old to swim class. No poops in the pool”
— HiMom. (@StevieJohnson13) September 26, 2014
Johnson himself continues to be a surprisingly useful fantasy player himself. In the past three weeks he’s had one game with 100 yards receiving and two other games with a touchdown. As good as he is at football, he’s probably even better to have in a fantasy good-natured-comedy league!