9/11/07
I fully realize times have changed. I grew up during the 60’s
in suburban California. As kids we regularly played outdoors and
in the street with other junior suburbanites. It seemed like someone
was always scraping a knee, stubbing a toe or breaking something
in their bodies. Injury never stopped us from playing. We had nothing
in the way or personal computers; we did have HO and 1/32 scale
slot car tracks at home. Everything in the house got boring in a
hurry, so we sought adventure in the outdoor world.
Every neighborhood had something marked off in the way of athletic
fields. When kids from another neighborhood came over to play we
had to explain the “ground rules” for our field, they
did the same for us. We played marathon games without adult supervision.
We selected the teams, made the rules, then enforced them determining
fairness ourselves. We coached or amended rules on the fly. Our
plays were created in the dirt or drawn in the air by finger. We
took responsibility for everything including the coaching and position
changes. If there was dispute it was solved in a decisive manner.
Whining simply was not tolerated. If the dispute did erupt into
fisticuffs this too was short, decisive, usually finishing without
blood shed. Who ever won the fight had their decision enforced as
the rule; then we grew up.
Many of my young peers had children. Their smothering attitude changed
the whole scene regarding youth sports. For some reason they felt
adults should be everywhere providing guidance for their charges.
Instead of allowing their kids to settle disputes, they decided
they could settle it better for them. It got so bad the adults reverted
to their youth. They decided to fight each other while their children
watched with jaws agape. My generation has been less than a role
model for their children.
The adults are afraid of their children having bruised egos so they
developed leagues where no scores were kept. God forbid someone
should feel bad about losing, we just allowed everyone to win or
at least tie at zero-zero. The philosophy became one where children
were protected from being scarred for life from a negative experience
they had as a small child. The adult’s job was to prevent
this scarring. After all humans should not have scars as they go
through life. All humans should have nothing but warm fuzzy childhood
memories will little or no responsibility to accept.
Sports have always been the ultimate reality TV. Take away the few
startling breaking news stories over the last fifty years of television,
and the constant format for exposing human vulnerability has been
the arena of live sports. From the triumph of the Packers in Super
Bowls I and II, to the abysmal failure of Tonya Harding when she
could not get her skates tied correctly in the Winter Olympics.
Sports have exposed just about every human frailty to viewers. It
has allowed them the ability to share something from the experience
they could take with them. If they took away nothing else, they
could at least walk away saying to error is human; all too human.
The best cure for errors is practice, then make better judgments
next time. Not anymore.
For fantasy football players the best, or perhaps the worst, thing
to happen in the NFL was the advent of “Instant Replay.”
I have never been a proponent of the replay system. Sure, we may
have the technology to be more accurate, but it removes a human
element to the game. The game now becomes a human zebra making an
error in the game, or not, then an interruption to the flow of play
while it is sorted out so no gets shafted in the deal. Sometimes
it actually works, sometimes the humans still manage to screw it
up.
I have heard all the arguments as to why we should have instant
replay, what it comes down to is we don’t want the officials
we have paid to be non-partisan, to make honest mistakes. As a result
they have become gun shy about being graded by the big league officials
regarding their performance. It comes down to, “When is doubt,
let replay work it out.”
It is a fact players make mistakes, which cost their team points,
perhaps even a game. It is a right and proper thing coaches as well
as players work hard to minimize their mistakes. They practice during
the off-season, focus harder during the season and practice up to
the end of the season to eliminate mistakes providing them with
the best chance of winning; yet they make mistakes. It is okay for
the participants to be human, not so for the legal arbitrators of
the game.
As mush as I have resisted I have tried to accept instant replay
as a part of the game. It goes against my total core to do it, but
it is probably better than having Brett Favre and Michael Strahan
slugging it out to determine if the quarterback was really in the
grasp. There have been times when instant replay has assisted me
in a winning effort of some sort, but even this is balanced with
the number of times it has hurt me. My only wish, and the only time
I wanted the system, was with the “immaculate reception”
play the Steelers had against the Raiders. Instant replay was used
was in the notorious “Tuck Rule” game against the Patriots,
even then they could not get it right. Tom Brady went on to become
the “chosen one” while the Raiders were shafted. It
seems getting the occasional shaft instead of the gold mine is a
part of life, fantasy or otherwise.
Instant replay eliminates the human aspect of the game allowing
the responsibility to be placed somewhere else. No one has to accept
making a mistake or not taking care of business, the camera never
lies allowing us all to see the true reality of a play, or not.
I am indeed most sorry to say this, “I don’t have to
take responsibility,” attitude has now spilled over to the
reality of the fantasy football world.
The other day I was reading ESPN the Magazine (I have a subscription
by mistake). In it was an article by Paul Kix. (Truth, Justice
and the Fantasy Way) In it he described several Fantasy Judge
sites where owners could have their disputes settled by a neutral
outside arbitrator for what they consider to be a reasonable sum
of money. For between 10 and 15 dollars for a single dispute an
experienced fantasy panel of judges will adjudicate your disagreement
providing you with a well thought out and logical outcome. For about
50 bucks they will regulate your league settling all trade disagreements
or unfair rulings. One site offers you a league constitution for
$15. You provide them with the raw data, they provide you with a
legal document which would hold up in a civil litigation proceeding.
Marc Edelman and Bill Green are two of the innovators for this fledgling
market in the legal field. Of course they are both lawyers; enough
said. What they want to do is tame the wild frontier of the fantasy
world with uniform regulations, bylaws, clauses and standard codes
for leagues around the world. Edelman started SportsJudge.com
seven years ago while Bill Green created FantasyDispute.com
several years ago. Both of their web sites guarantee fair, impartial
decisions regarding league disputes, none of their decisions are
binding unless their services are a part of the league’s bylaws
or constitution.
This has to be the ultimate outgrowth of an ever-expanding fantasy
world. The number of judge sites is minimal…for now. Most
of them, thankfully, are dedicated to rotisserie baseball, but there
will be more lawyers entering the field of fantasy law. They will,
in time, begin to alleviate the fantasy world of figuring solutions
to their own disputes. Within a decade no one will have to accept
responsibility for the decisions they make, or not being able to
resolve issues in private themselves. We can be just like the grown
ups who won’t allow their child to win or lose a game. We
can take our commissioners and fellow owners into court then sue
them for being wrong. It will be like the D.C. judge suing for $60
million for a pair of pants, which got lost at the cleaners. Okay,
he lost. Now the people he sued are suing him.
If we continue down this path in the fantasy world we can sound
just as stupid as the real world. So here we sit; adults playing
like they are owners living out the football franchise fantasy of
owning a team because we will never possess the billions needed
to buy the real ones. It is serious fun, it has a place enhancing
the reality of the sports experience beyond the levels of the norm.
Now the fantasy world has become a reality where we can have someone
else solve our problems for us in a fair and legal manner. We might
all be better off if we acted like children solving our problems
ourselves. It would be nice if we could keep resolving our own issues
instead of dumping the responsibility elsewhere. Of course to do
this we would have to quit acting like adults allowing our inner
child to take control. After all, sometimes children know best.
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