The redrafting of a friendship in fantasy football
Guys are idiots.
This isn't exactly a news flash, as the women in the world can attest.
But guys who play fantasy football and get their noses in a knot over a rules misunderstanding or an “unfair” trade?
Look out. Chaos often erupts, with the potential to destroy lifelong friendships.
Ten-plus years ago, such a scenario played out for yours truly, with my fantasy league commissioner and I getting our wires crossed over a waiver transaction involving LeGarrette Blount. After being told I couldn't acquire Blount, a fiery back-and-forth started over email and then progressed to a phone call.
There was screaming. Yelling. Bitterness. Idiocy.
After a few days of leaguewide debate, Blount was added to my roster.
So I won.
But not really.
The fallout didn't come right away, but two years later I bowed out of the league and lost touch with everyone — including the commissioner, who launched my career by hiring me at the Sterling Daily Gazette in 1994.
Just like that a friendship ended. And over what?
Fantasy football.
Fortunately, guys also have an incredible ability to forgive and forget.
Sometimes it takes a while, but when it does it's like nothing happened.
Well, happily that's what transpired when my buddy reached out in February by sending a video of our kids when they were 2 years old. (They're now 19).
“Life moves pretty fast,” he wrote. “You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
And just like that, a connection was restored.
He asked me to get into his NCAA pool. We talked sports betting. Golf. Kids. Family.
An avalanche of texts flooded our phones for weeks.
We've twice hit the links and planning more rounds before the season ends.
And the best part? A month ago, he called me up and said, “Listen, I want you to think about something. No need to respond now. Give it some thought. We have an opening in the fantasy league and wondering if you want to rejoin.”
No time passed after he completed that sentence.
“I'm in.”
Next weekend we will drive to Galesburg, where I'll be reunited with three former Daily Gazette co-workers as well as a half-dozen other guys I haven't seen in a decade.
I can't wait.
“I really like having you back, my man,” he texted Thursday when I asked which player we sparred over all those years ago. “My life is richer with you in it.”
Which is true of all our good friends.
All of this just serves as a reminder that when a friendship or family relationship is fractured, sometimes a simple text or phone call can put things back on track.
Almost everyone can point to at least one example.
So reach out. And see if what now seems like a fantasy becomes beautiful reality.