In 2007, the Cleveland Browns shocked nonbelievers around Northeast Ohio and beyond by finishing the season 10-6 — a record that isn’t typically that impressive by NFL standards, but one that greatly improved on their previous efforts.
At the impressionable age of 15, I became enthralled with the season and with a sport that until that point I had little interest in or knowledge of. The atypical enthusiasm that resonated from my father and peers inspired me to research the game, and before long I became consumed with a newfound love of football.
That same year, my uncle introduced me to fantasy football, and subsequently would awaken in me another new “addiction.”
I ended my first year of fantasy football in the championship round of the playoffs and lost to my uncle/mentor, but won a cool $50 prize. Needless to say, I was hooked.
Now in 2012, Mike Holmgren, the Browns’ team president for the past three seasons, is stepping down as president of the team, ending the bleak “Holmgren Era” of Browns history that has seen the team finish at or near the bottom of its division on its way to a combined 14-34 record.
In my last three years of gambling in fantasy football, I have lost no money but have made almost $300. I have been able to build fantasy teams that can’t be described in the same sentence as “losing record,” and have had more fun researching, checking and re-checking statistics than I have had watching most Browns games in recent memory.
This isn’t an attempt to toot my own horn about my conquests in “fantasy land.” In fact, I have made plenty of bad decisions relating to fantasy football, the worst of which being my drop of Adrian Peterson from my team before the start of his — and my fantasy football — rookie season. It’s something I still kick myself for every time I’m reminded that he won “Offensive Rookie of the Year.”
Fantasy football has the potential to be an escape for fans of underperforming franchises as a trip to the movies can be to anybody else’s day-to-day. It’s a way to forget the fact that your favorite team’s decision to draft the oldest rookie in the history of the NFL doesn’t look to be panning out.
Instead, relish in the payoff of your decision to go against the advice of most “fantasy experts” and play the running back who just had the game of his career.
The Cleveland Browns have plenty of time to get their act together, and the addition of former Alabama star running back Trent Richardson seems like a step in the right direction. I will watch the team as it battles the visiting Kansas City Chiefs this weekend, likely with the familiar scowl that graces my face most Sundays when the NFL season is in session.
But a look to the ESPN website through which I play fantasy football will allow me to take a deep breath, smile and remember that the relative nature of the sport demands that we be thankful for something other than the home team.
Jacob DeSmit is a sophomore studying journalism and a sports writer for The Post. How does fantasy football affect your life? Let him know at jd202409@ohiou.edu.
