A Few Legendary Athletes
Some years back Dick Butkus, the great Chicago Bears linebacker was asked, “Do you intentionally try to hurt people?” His answer: “No I don’t try to hurt people, I try to stop the play. If I hurt someone, it’s just a bonus.”
People can and will argue until the end of time about whether Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player of all time. Reasonable people can disagree but it is a fact that he lived as big as any athlete, ever. He drank too much, ate too much and slept too little, according to the experts.
According to other experts he also hit too many home runs. Many of these experts were on opposing teams.
The only thing we know for sure is that, in retrospect, we are still talking about their abilities this many years after they quit playing the game.
Jumping forward to current players, let’s talk about Tom Brady. You can blather on as much as you want about “deflate-gate” ( and I still wonder why the officials, who handle the ball after every play, didn’t notice that the ball was a frisbee) but after 22 seasons, our grandchildren will be talking to their children about Brady.
Fantasy Football And Star Athletes
The only thing that could prevent this legacy is Fantasy Football.
A grandpa asked his grandson to explain it for him. The kid proceeded to lay it out in that special, “You’re old so I’ll talk slow,” way young people have. Needless to say, the elder still didn’t get it, possibly because there is nothing there.
For the uninitiated, fantasy football is a pastime that keeps the player from actually having to get personally involved in the game. Heaven forbid that one should care whether a team wins or loses, as long as your guy pays off. There is a name for this sport… it’s called horse racing, try it. You’ll love the fact that, with the exception of a few truly boring purists, all anybody cares about is the money. If you consider this a sport go to Vegas. You’re going to love roulette and slots.
To its credit, fantasy football has its advantages:
- You’ll never get your heart broken when your team has a great season only to get their butts kicked by Alabama in a bowl game
- The consumption of beer and bad food is somewhat limited when all you do is check the statistics. Actually, fantasy leagues have taken rabid fanatics and turned them into accountants.
- Nobody has ever bought an overpriced jacket or cap with the name of their fantasy league. We can only hope this doesn’t give them any ideas.
- If gambling is illegal in your state… now it isn’t.
- You’ll never have to explain to your wife where the money went. Just tell her you’re on drugs- she’ll think more highly of you.
A great friend was fond of asking, when someone went on a rant like this, “and what was number two on your list of stuff to worry about?” As usual, he is right in this case as well. It absolutely is not worth the time to gripe about it. But, as the saying goes, “We are Americans and all we have that they can’t tax is the right to complain.”
When all is said and done, it is possible that fantasy football is like a gateway drug. It starts out innocuous enough but, once the bots find out how gullible you are they hook you on the hard stuff… cryptocurrency.
