Football is officially stupid

[gizzil]

I think I am finally done with this watered down, luck of whims stupid sport. I have a 1-7 team with literally 5 weeks of completely random unlikely results. this is also accompanied by watching the past years of poor coaching, bad play, underpreparedness by players, and increasingly random outcomes of the game I used to love itself.

week 1: mnf. I need dak and mike evans to get 19 points. Evans 13.6. thanks Dak for 4.46. Loss.
week 2 : defeated by a team scoring 62 points. Mostly team defense. He has two players score negative. 5 under 2 points.
week 5: Jared Goff scores 5 Against the vaunted New England d. Opponent’s kicker scores 18. Lose by 8.
week 7 : leading into Mnf, just need my kicker not to lose by 10 to his. New England at home. Bears are awful. I get 2 from folk, he gets 18 from bears kicker in a blowout. In foxboro?
week 8 : need mixon to outscore hurst by 4 points. Against a paltry run d. Mnf. mixon gets 5.9, hurst 4.2. Oh and got Jonathan Taylor, if I hadn’t gotten Taylor vs washington, either dameon pierce or etienne wins it for me anyway

so unbelievable. I hate life and cant understand. Foreman gets 3 tds… backup to the backup on 2 different teams out scores 2 1st round picks combined by 400 percent. Faith in the process is foolish. Football is so random and stupid now. Why bother.

 

[Deacon]

I think you doth protest too much...but I feel your pain!

I am in 4 different leagues and my money league (of course the one I care about most) is by far the most frustrating experience all because of one position, TE!

I am 2-6 and in 8th place in a 10 team league with the 3rd most points scored overall thus far..

week 1: Pretty normal, I score the 2nd most points and win.
week 2: I have 3rd highest score, lose by 4pts cause opponent has Mark Andrews who goes off with 25.70
week 3: I have 3rd highest score, lose by 7 pts cause opponent has D. Njoku who goes off with 28.90
week 4: I actually manage to have 3 of my 4 teams face Hockenson who scores 39.90 pts, WTH!
week 5: My opponent TE is injured so he picks up T. Hill off waivers - 34.08, I'm starting to think there is a conspiracy going on!
week 6: I lose to the last place team who has Gesicki 24.90, I lose by 10 and my TE (Z. Ertz) has best game of season to no avail.
week 7: Opponent has Kelsey. I know where this is going of course I lose.
week 8: I win cause I score the most, my TE finally outscores opponent TE (D. Knox) hopefully I have finally broken this curse!

I have never seen one position completely derail a season like that but the thing I can't get over is everyone's TE is managing to score their season highest point total when they play me. I lose 6 straight games with the single biggest reason is my opponents TE scores an ungodly amount of points that week only (in most cases) to return to normal TE production the other games.

How in the world can this just be a coincidence?!?!

 

[Bucknut]

I've had 4 fantasy football teams my entire life. In my vast experience, I've learned that this game is about 1 part skill and 3 parts luck.

 

[efactor]

Injuries, especially in game injuries are 90 percent of the "luck" factor IMO

Over the course of the season, you are going to run into some weekly outliers (Tysom Hill scoring 4 TDs). Part of the game. I played against Goedert in 5 of my 8 leagues this week. Makes for an uphill climb

But it's not 75 percent "luck" that the same group of players generally do better every year. Certainly, how much time you are willing to invest in research plays into it. With todays information available, most come into a draft with close to the same "expert rankings". The better players generally have their own opinions and know how to stucture their team for the long haul.

In my local league that I commish, we have two "wildcard" playoff spots for the two highest scoring teams of the remaining teams that don't make the playoffs based on record. This helps with the "I play a high scoring team every week" factor. We also have a "Pride Bowl" with a small cash payout, which nobody cares about but the winner of the Pride Bowl also gets to select where they pick in the following years draft. Keeps everyone involved the entire season. Nobody not setting lineups etc.

But yeah, if you're truly not enjoying it, maybe find a hobby that brings you more joy

 

[gizzil]

Um Ok awesome replies. I have some counterpoints...

 

[gizzil]

Deacon. I think you are giving me a run for my money in sad sack 2022 stories. For it to always be Tight end I think maybe you are slightly ahead.

Bucknut. I think the season long fantasy game is trending towards luck/variance more than ever before, especially the Kickers and Defense team. Tight Ends are not far behind. I don't think it is even 50 50 yet though luck/skill, or I wouldn't play at all. I also pretty consistently win any season long or DFS games that I play. I would have to be the luckiest guy alive in the scenario where it's 75 percent luck. So have to disagree there

Efactor. Injuries are getting REALLY out of hand in the season long football format as well. Not even just the players themselves either. Lose a lineman or two and the entire team of skill players could be severely hampered. In fact my one buddy in that 14 teamer just goes "Uh, you lost Dak... So you lost a bunch of games, (duh)." There are theories to why injuries are so prevalent now, mine is a mix of these. No preseason, no practicing with pads, in some cases no playing together at all until the regular season. Of course cohesion is down. Of course injuries and missteps that lead to them are up. The guys simply do ot put in nearly the kind of time hitting or in pads as they once did. So sure, the overall number of times exposed to injury is down. However the lack of preparedness and familiarity with the equipment, the game, and the speed of the game is increasing the injury per play likelihood exponentially. So even though they cut down on contact and practice and sheer number of collisions. Guys' familiarity with the game and their bodies' familiarity with impact is such that injuries actually go up. I like your side pots for loser bracket, and definitely the wildcard spots. I also have been in leagues where it's "everybody plays everybody" every week. I haven't seen this option in Yahoo though. I think these are probably "more fair," and I can't wait to eliminate defenses and kickers. And sure, these season long leagues are mostly hobby other than higher stakes ones, and yes, I have an unhealthy winning obsession. But just because I get no joy does not mean I should quit... In fact, it means I need to win more!

 

[Arctic Dawgs]

Maybe try out an IDP league. Is all I play now

 

[Phicinfan]

Overall I think I agree that luck has become so much more in FF. We have gone to teams that use multiple RBs and or 4 WR sets, and you can never know which WR or RB will get hot hand and get the large numbers.
Injury I agree with most here, seems more prevalent. To me the loss of pre-season effects us as much as it effects the quality of the NFL games. Just a few years ago, you could see teams starting starters in at least 2 pre-season games, and get a much better read early on who was going to be main targets and what kind of offense teams will be running. Now we get one half at best, and its all watered down to where you have no idea for sure who or what they do.
The other key issue you have NOW in NFL vs. just a few years ago is the "Fuck them picks" attitude that the Rams really have started and pushed. For dynasty leagues and keeper leagues that have drafts in spring, trades of current players and picks is so much higher now, you have no idea what is going to happen that early. You also have NFL teams using high draft picks earlier now, and you end up over valuing those rookies not realizing they won't get any camp or pre-season to really learn and prove themselves and it ends up being week 5 or 6 before you can get a real read how good or bad they really are. So you sit on them and don't make moves cause you expect the best, and get hit with the worst.

I love FF, and I love the dynasty leagues as I get a kick out of trying to find that diamond in the rough, but it has gotten way harder to do that.