Fantasy Football Today - fantasy football
A Fantasy Football Community!




Create An Account  |  Advertise  |  Contact      






John Tierney | Archive | Email |
Staff Writer

It's A Dirty Job But...
10/13/00

It was the most critical time in the eleven-year history of the league. It was the night before the beginning of week four in the NFL and no one had yet received the stats picture from week three. Phone calls were made, and the worst fears of any fantasy league were soon becoming clear. The commissioner had quit and had failed to notify anyone of his absence. It was apparent someone had to make the mighty leap from being a mere participant to playing the all-important role of league commissioner, and the leap had to be made now. With a brave heart, and sicker stomach, I made the jump for the good of the league where my fantasy football illness had started. All parties involved, save the old commissioner who was completely underground, were fine with the decision and happy they were not going to be the one assuming the position. (I leave the "position assumed" to your imagination.)

I am not sure what possessed me to do the insane. Almost everyone in the league had done a stint as the commissioner, and the last time I had been the commissioner was before the digital age. For two years I worked every Monday and Tuesday with the box scores from the local papers squinting for hours while trying to retrieve the stats from the past week's action. For two years I had line-ups given to me on napkins, scraps of paper and via the answering machine. For two years I had put up with whiny league owners saying I shorted their player .07 points, or begging me to take their line-ups after the prescribed deadline. For two years I had done this and never been thanked or recognized for my timely performance, and now I was going to enter the arena again. I was determined to make the experience different this time and, thankfully, I had a companion to share the experience with.

My wife began her life in rural Alberta as a sweet farm girl. She had never watched a full football game in her life before she met me. Since our meeting I have managed to corrupt her into a football fanatic who loves the Raiders and has a fair understanding of fantasy football. She even counseled me on the last draft over the Internet and she plays an active role in rooting for my guys against all others. Fortunately for me, she is also a web designer for a local ISP and was willing to share the insanity. She took the first steps in league reorganization by spending four hours designing the web site. It was at this point, with week three yet to be figured, week four in progress and week five on the horizon, that I began to reflect on the role of commissioner in the information age.

Foremost in any league, the commissioner is the center of communication. All line-ups, trades, transactions statistics and disputes flow through their screen. Our entire league has access to computers, and this has enhanced the role of the commissioner. The happiness of any league is depended upon timely and accurate information and this function of the commissioner is what consumes most of the time during the season. It can be a pain, owners whine, mistakes are made and people can get frantic, but the commissioner must be the one to sort out all of the crap and arrive at the just and final decision. The use of email has simplified the process as all email is time stamped and there are no disputes over when a call was made or a line-up went in for the week. Mass emails have made the commissioner's job easier as one message can be sent to all of the owners with a single stroke on the keyboard. This alone has saved hours on the telephone playing tag with everyone's answering machine. Email technology itself has improved the life of a commissioner, but it has also allowed a commissioner to utilize their biggest asset, the style by which they handle their league.

There are two fundamental styles of commissioners and they are much like the business models adopted by real business people. There is the "I Am God" commissioner who will operate from the approach of top-down and will make all of their decisions unilaterally. Their edicts will be made with little to no input from any member of the league. The philosophy of this style of commissioner is "my way, the wrong way or the highway." If you don't like it you know where you can go. The other style of commissioner has a pluralistic standpoint where owners are consulted on any league action. Their opinions are considered and registered; yet this style of commissioner still realizes that they will have the final say on any decision for the league and they are willing to make it. Their philosophy is, the league is not mine, but ours and I have a role to play in it. Top down management has been found wanting, while the later is the adopted style of many successful companies. No matter which style your league has adopted, the explosion of the Internet has made life easier than the scratch paper and calculator days.

Today there are so many sites out there the glean stats from, get the low down on player information and have a site where you can exchange thoughts and opinions. FFToday.com is one of the best sites going, but it seems every .com has gotten into the fantasy sports business. You can play on ESPN, CBS.com, CNN/SI, and NFL.com and actually win money but as far as the commissioner is concerned, there are plenty of sites to get the weekly stats. There are so many sites, leagues are adopting two or three as the "official" sites for settling and disputes. One of the best features out is on NFL.com and it is called "Player Tracker." By registering your name and password, you can have up to fifteen players on the site and the stats come up in almost real time scoring. This has been great for immediate stats as some of the sites, like ESPN, may take up to an hour and a half to get the stats up from games already played. If you are still locked into using the newspaper, virtually every newspaper in the country has their own web site. Two of the best, and easiest to use, are The New York Times and USA Today. A commissioner today has no excuse for being late with the week's stats, nor should they be. Everyone in the league is depending on them for the news, commentary and current events.

To the end of generating information, my league has a web site, and results can be posted almost immediately. The commissioner's page is up dated once a week, and the stats are updated as the games finish. Links to all of the league members are on the front page as are the line-ups for the week and the draft selections of the owners. We are able to keep the player pool up dated to the week and the commissioner has a forum to speak from and disseminate information to all. We are in the process of putting in a bulletin board for owner comments and the entire package has made the management of information stream lined. The final postings for the week are in on Tuesday evening, I have a day job, and remain there until they have to be cleared the following Sunday. Players email their line-ups in and they are posted as they arrive. Weekly matchups are there for all to see, as are the cumulative and weekly totals. It is much faster and more accurate than the old pencil and paper days, and mistakes can be taken care of before the final postings of the week. It has only made the actual purpose of fantasy football better. Everyone is in it for the fun, the competition and the camaraderie. The key to achieving this is the management of the information and sense of fun and fair play exuded by the commissioner.

I know a former commissioner of a keeper league in California who allowed his league to fold. He was consistently late with the stats, he did not keep up with his league owners and would not listen to what the owners had to say. The reason he allowed his league to fall into such disrepair was that he was in last place and had no chance of winning. As a result he just let it die. Being the commissioner is like unplugging a toilet. It is a dirty job, but if it is not done, and done right, then there is crap all over the place and the stink will not go away. Everyone who has played fantasy football has probably had the experience of being at the bottom of the league standings and it sucks. Still, losing is as much a part of the game as injuries, disappointing draft selections and stupid coaching decisions. Being at the bottom is not an excuse to punish everyone beating you, it is a wake up call to make some deals and try to improve your sorry season. This is the single advantage of being commissioner.

As commissioner, you are the person with a finger on the pulse of NFL performance. Few, if any, of the owners take the time to go through the box scores of every game played in the NFL on any given Sunday. You are the one who knows who is hot, who is falling like a stone, who was arrested two hours before game time and who just made the physically unable to perform list. Having this information is critical for making trades and free agent pick-ups. Other than this, being the commissioner is a thankless job with rotten pay, long hours and large responsibilities. It is like being a schoolteacher, the job is not to be taken lightly, but it should be taken with fun. I invite you to check out our web site and you will see my sorry team near the bottom of the points list, but I am having a blast and the rest of the people in the league are also having fun. A commissioner can only rate their success by the number of people who decide to play the following years, I hope we are all back for next season.