Do Fantasy Owners Have No Shame?

By: Kim O'Hara | Posted: October 30, 2012

Seattle wide receiver Braylon Edwards, who has posted 74 yards and one touchdown all season, suffered from some unexpected knee swelling and didn't play Sunday in Detroit. In an effort to determine what was causing his symptoms, Edwards underwent an MRI on Monday. He also underwent a form of fan heckling that seems to have picked up steam in recent years:

At the hospital getting an MRI and security tells me a hurt his fantasy by not playing yesterday..

— Braylon Edwards (@OfficialBraylon) October 29, 2012

..complete lack of interest in the fact that I was at a hospital. Fantasy football turns some people into jerks lol

— Braylon Edwards (@OfficialBraylon) October 29, 2012

By the good-natured tone of his tweets, it sounds like Edwards must have been a good sport with this clueless hospital employee. Arian Foster probably wouldn't have been quite so diplomatic. I hate to even address this, because it's absolutely NOT the point in this scenario, but who else does this guy have on his roster if he's blindly starting Edwards? With his 74 yards for the entire season, he can't possibly be putting up more than a couple points each week. Would a big goose egg in Week 8 have really affected the goofball's fantasy performance?

Blatant lack of professionalism and egregiously appalling fantasy management aside, this knucklehead has exemplified all that is wrong with American sports fans. 

We've become desensitized with our fantasy rosters and the immediacy social media affords us to our athletes. They've ceased to be larger-than-life figures we admire (or occasionally deride) through our televisions; we now see them as golden fantasy calfs and take to our Twitter accounts to berate them directly when they disappoint us. Never mind that they're just human (competing in a sport and at a level most of us could only ever dream of accomplishing) and doing the best they can week in and week out. That doesn't seem to carry the same value it once used to.

Let me be clear: I enjoy fantasy football. I've got about two leagues too many to manage, and the competitor (chronic gambler?) in me wants to win each week. Am I frustrated if a player doesn't put up the points Yahoo! or ESPN so helpfully projects? Absolutely. But do I understand that, of all the things at stake each week (from paychecks to be earned to player safety to playoff implications), my minor investment in fantasy football doesn't even register? You bet I do. And I can't possibly be in the minority.... can I?

Kim O'Hara is the Associate Editor of TheFootballGirl.com. She is an avid fan of sports in general, but the NFL in particular. She has also been a contributor to ESPN the Magazine. Follow her on Twitter: @KimOHaraTFG 

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