Controversy… You Decide! (Fantasy Football)

Controversy is the bane of fantasy football.  It can destroy a league, tarnish friendships, and soil the fun of participating in the first place.  Fortunately most controversial situations in fantasy football are easily avoidable with clear rules enforced by a commissioner committed to upholding the integrity of the league.  But once in a while a set of circumstances arises, leaving those in the league feeling a mixed bag of emotions similar to finding a turd in the backyard swimming pool.  Confusion, annoyance, dismay, anger and disappointment.  And what happened in one of my leagues back in 2014 was the perfect storm for league wide armageddon.

At the end of this story I’m going to ask you the reader to decide.  Time to put on your long black robe and emerge from the judge’s chambers.  Bang the gavel.  All rise.

Your Honor (that’s you), I’m here to tell you what happened shortly at the conclusion of the 2014 NFL regular season.  I was at Mets Fantasy Camp, mid to late January of 2015 and I remember it well.  Having won my fantasy league close to a month earlier, I was eating breakfast with friends and getting ready for a week of baseball.  The NFL playoffs would continue that day, but football was the furthest thing from my mind.

I received an email from Drew, one of my favorite guys in the league.  Check the stats it read, there appears to be a mistake and it looks like you didn’t actually win.  Confused at first, I replied I’ll look at it when I get home next week.  The commissioner had already sent out the prize money to the top finishers.  I even remember depositing the check just a day or two before leaving for my annual baseball vacation, trying to get as much stuff done before going away (haircut, dry cleaning, etc).

As the week went on the idea of a tarnished title weighed heavily on my mind during the down time between baseball activities.  How could this possibly happen?  The league itself is scored like a rotisserie style baseball league.  Teams are ranked across seven statistical categories to produce the frontrunner.  There are no head to head match ups, no fantasy playoffs.  Just the total cumulative stats through the end of the NFL regular season.

Sunday night football between the Steelers and Bengals was the finale of the NFL regular season, and I recall texting during and after the game with my friend Jim, the other fantasy owner with a chance at finishing in first place.  We knew what certain players needed to do to swing the outcome, and there were some nail biting moments as the game wound down.  When the clock on the 2014 NFL season expired, my lead going into the game held by a mere half point.  Or so we thought.  Jim texted me a congratulations, and the final stats put out by the commissioner shortly thereafter confirmed it.

The commissioner asked everyone to check for errors and report them within a week so he could mail out the prize money and close the book on the season.  He had informed us earlier in the year this would be his final season as commissioner, as work and family obligations were making it too difficult to put in the proper time to run the league.  There was also a lot of debate over the league rules throughout the season, and I believe he had had enough of the bickering and complaining.

Mets Fantasy Camp concluded, and it was back to reality camp.  Back to work, and back to dealing with a fantasy football season apparently unresolved.  I told Drew he should inform the commissioner, or should whoever brought the error to his attention if it was someone else.  Problem now though was the commissioner had left office.

As for the mistake in the final standings, I was told there was a mathematical error in one of the categorical rankings no one noticed before the commissioner sent out the prize money.  And I don’t have any idea why one of the league members decided to take a closer look weeks after the season concluded, instead of during those several days that followed the commissioner’s instructions.  Had it been caught in a timely manner it would’ve swung the final results in Jim’s favor by the slimmest of margins.

Most of the offseason went by with not much happening.  February became April, April became June, June became August.  I never bothered to investigate the statistical error.  I didn’t doubt it as much as I didn’t care to go looking for it myself.  Eventually I was approached again about the mistake, as the few league members who knew about it wanted to know how it would be resolved because the 2015 season was fast approaching.  Jim was not one of them.  

At this point in time the commissioner was not coming back, no one had stepped up to take his place, and the unhappy contingent in the know (consisting of three to four members from what I could gather) were threatening to leave the league.  I found it odd that none of these guys had told Jim about this, so I called him and laid it all out.  To my surprise he didn’t care as much about the prize money (a difference of about $400-$500 from first to second place), but wanted his name on the trophy.  I understood how he felt, and he was nothing short of gentlemanly about the situation.

Why didn’t I have this conversation with Jim or the commissioner back in late January or February?  Several reasons.  First and foremost I felt it was the responsibility of the person who discovered the error to inform the commissioner, and the commissioner’s responsibility to make the final decision.  I also didn’t believe a mistake like this would’ve been brought to the league’s attention (by the person who I’m led to believe discovered it) if the roles were reversed.  And for me, the season was over.  It was a turbulent year in some respects due to the rules disputes and I was glad it was behind us.  League rules in question would be voted on again in August before the 2015 draft.

There’s no doubt in my mind I would have a legitimate claim to the championship like Jim did if I was in his position.  Likewise, I also felt the feeling of winning came in December when we saw the game play out on the field, unaware of any controversy to come.

Drew also runs an annual March Madness NCAA bracket pool.  I asked him what he would do if weeks after he paid the tournament winner someone brought an error in scoring to his attention that changed the results.  His answer surprised me, but speaks volumes about his character.  He said he’d probably just pay the rightful winner without asking the original winner for his money back.  Admirable no doubt, but not really practical or applicable in this situation.  Nor do I believe it’s his responsibility anymore come late April or May once the tournament is long in the rearview mirror.

And that brings me to this series of questions to ponder.  When is late too late?  One day, one week, one month, one year, one decade?  What if someone went back through some old emails and spreadsheets and discovered a mistake made during the 2009 season?  Would that be any different today than the same discovery of the 2018 or 2019 season?  At some point you simply have to close the book and move on.  We’re preparing for the 2020 season now, not looking back on what happened last December.

In retrospect I could’ve taken the ultimate high road and called both Jim and the commissioner, and immediately informed the entire league of the mistake in the standings as I learned about it.  No doubt if I had found a wallet on the street with a wad of cash in it I’d make every effort to locate the rightful owner.  That goes without saying as it absolutely is the right thing to do.  Then why did I feel completely different about this situation?  The answer to that question is simple.  I felt like I was being cheated.

I mentioned the satisfaction of watching the clock expire in the finale, the commissioner closing the book on the season when no errors were reported by his deadline, and I alluded to my suspicion a role reversal wouldn’t have been similarly reported.  This bore from a comment a league member made to me in December, referencing a conversation he had in which someone else suggested “making trades to prevent Rob from winning”.  Clearly someone in the league had an issue with me, and that’s my guess as to who found the error and passed it along to Drew.  There was just no way I was going to concede to please a malcontent, but it wouldn’t be at Jim’s expense.  Regardless of when and how, I knew that part would eventually get resolved.

Clearly the league had its problems that year.  With 13 teams and two starting QBs per team, there weren’t enough back up QBs to go around.  This is where the crux of the rules disputes stemmed, and based on the NFL player pool this rotisserie style league seems to work best with 10-11 teams.

The scoring set up means even the last place team can influence the final results based on their weekly lineup decisions.  One last point of contention for me occurred when one of the participants seemingly checked out before the end of the season.  He lost Carson Palmer to a season ending injury in week 10, but didn’t put in a waiver claim for Palmer’s replacement Drew Stanton to fill the spot despite having the first waiver pick.

League members knew this guy wasn’t going to be returning in 2015, but this was now causing problems in 2014.  His slide in passing yards because of his neglect to claim Stanton cost me a point in the standings, the difference between first and second place had there been no error to begin with.  And even though he didn’t feel the need to grab the only QB available when he was the only team in the league without a second starting QB, that didn’t stop him from making a trade with one of his buddies several weeks later.  I had no problem with the trade, but the irresponsibility of not keeping his lineup intact had unfortunate repercussions that wouldn’t affect him nearly as much.  The league eventually adopted a rule addressing these rare occurrences to prevent something similar from happening again.

In the end, league opinions were fairly split on the 2014 results.  The total number of teams went from 13 to just seven for the 2015 season.  We elected a new commissioner, added Jim’s name to the trophy alongside mine next to the year 2014, and I covered Jim’s league fee which probably got us pretty close to what a split prize payout would’ve been if there was an actual tie in the standings.  The league (which started in 1989) is back up to nine guys now as it enters it’s 32nd season.  The beautiful thing about a rotisserie scoring format is the ability to operate with an odd number of participants because there are no head to head weekly matchups.

Even more impressive is the true friendships and the league itself survived this petty nonsense.  Some of the guys who left in 2015 have returned to play as well.  Having won this league’s trophy four other times since joining in 2001, I can tell you winning a fantasy football championship is a satisfying feeling.  But it’s far from the most important element that goes with participating.

Case closed your Honor.  If you have any strong opinions about what transpired here, or fantasy football controversy stories of your own, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.  I’d absolutely love to hear what’s on your mind.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy the season!

ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.