Why (Not) IDP?
The scene was anything but apathetic as I nustled into my girlfriend’s half-broken barstool chair with a collage of scotch tape, whiteboards, markers, and recycled printer paper plastered across the walls of my kitchen as if I had started unraveling a sketchy conspiracy.
I was one of (if not the actual) first American General Manager of a British Fantasy Football League team (Gibraltar Macaques); I had to start it off with come canned heat, and oh boy, did I ever begin my career as GM with a bang.
My name is Mason Riney, 31 years of age. I was an average American dude playing in some fantasy football leagues with my best mates. As we would drink, I would spew ludicrous viewpoints on football without any fundamental knowledge or true self-analysis. I never won much in fantasy but had a few titles to my name.
At the beginning of 2019, I had had enough of losing, as I had not won a league in two years and missed the playoffs in all THREE of my leagues for two consecutive years. (I cannot fathom how I ever thought three yahoo leagues was difficult, but onward we go). ‘Face it, Mase, you suck at fantasy football...” I literally would tell myself this about every day, and it wasn’t only in fantasy. I had honestly tricked myself into believing I sucked at all that was life, and it was atrocious, not suitable for my mental health, or much of anything at all. I struggled to find myself outside of military life and become adaptive to my new surroundings, and life became vastly out of reach at times, or so it seemed.
I can’t indeed lay a finger on when or why I would pick myself up and change, but one day I woke up and told myself I was going to take my viewpoints and put them in a blender. I desperately needed change, and this Twitter thing would take my newly blended blank canvas of a mind and paint it a gorgeous scene that would lead me to fantasy nirvana!
So I logged in and began adding every human “self-proclaimed” fantasy content creator possible, it felt like. Among the trash heap of takes and various opinions of every shape and size, I came across something called the Warrior Bowl. “Wow! A fantasy league for Veterans like me? This charity league is exactly what I needed!” I thought to myself. Now though, as you may be chuckling to yourself as the Warrior Bowl is a UK fantasy league that raises awareness for numerous causes and makes donations to Bluebell Wood Children’s home and Love Brum. It wasn’t what I thought it was, but it’s what I needed and how I began to network and came across the BFFL, and indeed what a blessing that was.
Back to the tornado of flying rankings, coffee, and electrical devices that was my kitchen as I prepped and began my first ever BFFL draft. I felt I had drafted well as my Gibraltar Macaques had selected many dual position players such as Kahil Mack on the defensive side of the ball to stack linebacker points at the defensive tackle position. Yet toward the end of the draft, I realized I had made a bonehead mistake, which then led me down the rabbit hole of making the worst trade I will and have ever had made in my fantasy or any career. I realized I had two linebackers on the same bye week, and I desperately needed a defensive tackle, or so I thought. I then offered and, to my dismay, gladly agreed to send Pittsburgh Steelers defensive stud T.J. Watt in exchange for one of my favorite players Ryan Kerrigan of the Washington Football Team.
HOLY HELL MATE, YOU DID WHAT?!?
Yes, I did ship away 133 points for 39 total points (BFFL League scoring) if you wanted to hit the numbers. I made an atrocious, just under 100 point mistake that made my season a tough one moving ahead.
I didn’t need to look at myself in the mirror and say aloud that I sucked at fantasy football. The proof was in the pudding by the looks of that trade, am I right?
However, to be more honest, I became more adaptive to the BFFL and the many other leagues such as the FFCC, Warrior Bowl, the Undroppables listener league, and others as the year went on. I participated in many redraft leagues compared to my usual, and I discussed fantasy inside chat room walls. I was tossing my opinion around on some sites, but still, I had an itch that I seemed not to get ahold of until I applied to become what I didn’t know at the time was an “Individual Defensive Player Streamers” writer for 5 Yard Rush.
Around week six, I believe, this past NFL season, I noticed 5 Yard Rush was looking for writers, and in speaking with Murf (a great friend of mine and one of the men behind the curtain at 5 Yard Rush), he challenged me to write about something I would like to improve on or something out of my comfort zone. So I mulled it over, and we agreed on an IDP streamers column because it’s something I had never seen before; the thought of a new space, I’ll admit, it enticed me, as my current BFFL defensive starters were in shambles due to COVID-19 and my inability to properly evaluate defensive fantasy players.
I wouldn’t say I’ve taken off from there. However, the BFFL and 5 Yard have been a great support system and have challenged me in ways I’ve never thought a group of once random humans could. I put myself out there into the “Void,” and I was slowly coming back out of my shell and finding myself through open-mindedness and facing my self-doubt by writing and researching something that was brand new to me. The random became occasional, then the usual, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without my NFLUK pals (Shout to my boys in the BFU South). I even recruited my brother into the British Fantasy Football League; It’s that close to home for me personally.
I’ve expanded my knowledge about fantasy significantly and will continue to learn and be receptive to new ideas; however, this experience’s overall effect has had in my life I hold dear to my heart. The humans encountered and friendships made have been stellar, and I will continue to encourage everyone to try IDP as it challenges the mind and opens up the game of football for the user as I’ve come to find.
So why IDP, you may ask?
There is no short answer for me to that question. It became the challenge I needed to jump-start my new chapter and my new self, and I hadn’t the slightest clue at the start. I am an incredibly blessed human. My family has been nothing short of supportive of me, and for that, I cannot thank them enough, and I’m not discrediting my home leagues; I love them differently.
However, the BFFL, in its way, has become my home league.
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