When I was a sophomore in high school, a friend of mine and I joined our school's fantasy football league which was ran by our Physics teacher and an all all-around cool cat Mr. Maruna along with a few older students. After winning the league in my first year (no bragging here, it was all complete luck), I couldn't get enough of the "sport." So the next year, after many of the other guys in the league had graduated, my buddy and I took it upon ourselves to help Mr. Maruna out with getting a league together. In fact, I think (know) we were far more excited about the league than even he was. After we graduated, we of course wanted to keep a league of Routt guys together so we started an "alumni" league, I guess you could call it and got several of the guys we had played with in high school together. Without Mr. Maruna who we didn't think would want to play in a league with a bunch of old students, I became the new Commissioner.
As Commissioner, I'm in charge of getting the league together each year, creating rules and regulations, making sure everyone has paid their dues and plays fair, allowing/vetoing trades, etc.. I feel I've built a large degree of trust with the guys in the league over time. Of course there is always the jokes of corruption and collusion, but they all seem to trust that I always make my decisions based on the good of the league as opposed to just myself since I have a team like everyone else. In fact,since we actually have a decent amount of turnover in this league due to busy college schedules etc., I've tried to build trust with newcomers by absolving some of my executive power in the league in a few ways. For one, we take league wide votes on major decisions, such as the establishment of a "keeper" rule (keeping a player on your team from the previous season), since it drastically changes the approach one takes to building a fantasy team. Also, I have put together a council for trade evaluation in which 3 other veterans of the league along with myself determine whether a trade should be allowed or vetoed. This way, I personally cannot make an unfair trade without being checked by the council.
I try never to make any trades that could be considered unfair myself, not only because I will be called out and my reputation will be damaged, but also because I don't like ruining another team's chances to win. I know from experience that once your team falls out of the race for the playoffs, fantasy becomes a real bummer and that could sully the chances that that player returns for the next season. This is also why I sometimes offer advice to the lesser experienced guys as to whether they should make that trade or pickup they were considering. I feel that may also help my reputation with guys in the league and be another example of how I put the league before my own team.
It can be difficult to not "cash-in" and take advantage of other guys' naivety, especially when my own team is lacking. When another team has a superstar and nobody else, it's easy enough to sell your lesser players for more than their worth considering the guy you're selling them to trusts you to be a man of your word. Therefore, I try to make sure the other guy knows what he's getting and giving up and instead of pulling the wool over their eyes, I trade them players that could help them but I can't necessarily use myself in exchange for guys they may not value as much as I do. This strategy has been quite successful over the past couple of years. I've sharpened my ability to find value in players and I've kept my rep with the league in tact.
My older son does Fantasy Football with his buddies. I confess to not see the appeal but I acknowledge that it is a way to have interest in the games for reasons other than that you want a particular team to win because you are a fan.
ReplyDeleteYou explained that your teacher wouldn't play in the new league, but you really didn't explain why you and not one of your friends became the commissioner. It is something you wanted to do? Did any of them want it too?
A long time ago, the econ department here had a football pool, not the same thing, I know but something along these lines. Each week you had to pick the winning teams. The person who rand it was an early user of personal computers and he tallied the results that ways plus printed out sheets for everyone to make their picks. After several years of this, I tired of it so went to an algorithm - the Line + NY Giants, meaning if the Giants were the underdog, pick them anyway.
There is a fair amount of work in organizing stuff like this. I imagine the commissioner thing that you do is similar that way. So I'm guessing you enjoy it. Given that, the rest of the story you told makes sense.
By the way, I didn't know what Routt was but found it quickly with a Google search. We are getting to the end of the course, but if you do writing like this in the future, know that the reader won't always get references you make unless you explain them.
Oh, I apologize about the Routt reference. I must have thought I mentioned it in previous posts. It's not a shock that you hadn't heard of it. It's likely one of the smallest schools in the downstate, with roughly 100 students in the entire school.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the fantasy league, I kind of just fell into the role of commissioner. I was always an organizer of these kind of things, march madness and BCS bowl pools etc., so organizing this came easy to me. Also, my buddy wasn't interested in organizing it and the two of us had to bring everyone else in. And I have always enjoyed it quite a bit, although collecting money and settling major arguments can sometimes be a real pain.