Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE
You’re cruising along in your league and all of a sudden your quarterback plays against your hometown team. What do you do? Take the chance and hope your team wins and your quarterback scores enough points for you to be competitive in the league this week? Bench him? In the end you are going to have to make a choice. Here are a few scenarios:
For these scenarios we will use the Seattle Seahawks against the Carolina Panthers in week 5. Cam Newton is your quarterback.
Scenario #1: Cam Newton absolutely goes nuts. He passes for 300 yards and rushes for 75 with a total of 5 touchdowns, two on the ground. As a fantasy football fan you’re pumped. Your team is up in points and chances are your going to win. As a fan of the Seahawks you’re depressed. One of best defenses in the league is exploited against a team that is not that good and you drop to 2-3 praying for Matt Flynn to start the next week. Unfortunately, Pete Carroll will just tell you he is not available yet.
Scenario #2: Newton has a terrible game. He passes for less than 200 yards, rushes for less than 20, throws 2 picks, and doesn’t find the endzone at all. As a fantasy owner your thinking to yourself, why can’t I catch a break? With your luck, you probably going against Aaron Rodgers playing against the Indianapolis Colts. You might not lose, but the rest of your team is really going to have to pick up the slack in order to win. However, the Seahawks still win and you’re not that depressed. You can go into work the next morning and make fun of the guy who roots for the Panthers for no reason.
Scenario #3: You decide to get a quarterback in free agency. Let’s say Kevin Kolb. He decides to have another awful day and throws 4 picks and passes for less than 200 yards against the St. Louis Rams. All this while Newton decides to have an okay game salvaged by points from two 1 yard rushing touchdowns. The Seahawks go on to win and Newton has 20 points and is just “kickin it” on your bench. The Seahawks may win and the fan in you is pumped, but you lose by 5 points in your league because you decided to bench Newton. All of this while your buddy from college laughs it off because his first win was against you.
Of course there are an infinite amount of ways your league can turn out and anything can happen in the NFL on any given Sunday, Monday, or Thursday. The point is you are going to be disappointed with some aspect of your love of the NFL. Your entire weekend could be shot, maybe not, but chances are it’s going to be bittersweet.
