Week 3 Loser's Letter

Welcome to the first ever Loser’s Letter. The privilege of writing this is absolutely not mine. I can only hope that this is the first of many classic, poignant pieces of penmanship. Perhaps, someday I will hang this article on my wall amidst innumerable TPD FFL Championship Certificates, waxing nostalgic about the sadness that penning this historic piece of fantasy football history evoked. Today, though, there is only defeat. There is only pain. There is only failure. There is also a sale on a 5” TomTom GPS with lifetime maps, but who really needs one of those anymore? We have smart phones.

I want this letter to serve as a bit of a public service announcement; an encouragement to the little guy who has had a rough start to the season and is feeling frustrated. At the very least, Jarrett should still be reading. I made a comment about the number of points left on the bench this week (many of them by me) and I want to talk a little bit more about that.

Below, you will find statistics of six “starts” and six “sits,” as outlined in Michael Fabiano’s week 3 “Start ‘em, Sit ‘em” column. Despite the title of this column sounding like something that Larry the Cable Guy wrote, a lot of us look to this weekly staple to help us make fantasy decisions. The following are a small sampling, but I think you’ll immediately see the point I want to make.

Start ‘em - TOTAL: 13

Kyle Rudolph - 0

Kelvin Benjamin - 0

Javorius Allen - 2

Philip Rivers - 3

Derek Carr - 4

Giorgio Tavecchio - 4

Sit ‘em - TOTAL: 124

Lagarrette Blount - 12

Tyrod Taylor - 17

Demarco Murray - 17

T.Y. Hilton - 21

Jordan Howard - 25

Russell Wilson - 32

My point here is not to make excuses. It is to remind everyone that we know literally, exactly as much as anyone else about fantasy football! Don’t doubt yourself! I’ll stop using exclamation points now!

Truthfully, though, I really think that this goes to show how much effort analysts now place on finding a diamond of a pick, rather than giving solid advice. Fantasy Football is turning into baseball (ugh, even writing that was boring), where every little statistic is analyzed in 40 different ways. Sometimes, I think knowing a little less is actually beneficial. It’s helpful to know “T.Y. Hilton is good, the Browns are bad.” It is not helpful to know that “T.Y. Hilton’s production, against top 27 defenses decreases by 78%, when someone other than Andrew Luck is throwing him the ball and no child in the stadium is holding a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll.”

So, I encourage each of you, from the less-engaged to the super-engaged, be your own man. Make your own decisions. Start who you want to start; not who some guy who has a hybrid neck-chin combo and a bad shirt that makes it worse wants you to start. Our guess is exactly as good as these guys’. Plus, it is much easier to stomach when the wrong choice is your choice (unless you like to be able to blame someone else, which is totally not what I’m doing here).

Affectionately,

<3 Your Week 3 Loser <3