Wrestling With Morality In Fantasy Football

One

I don’t know where I first got the idea. Regardless of whether it germinated from the suggestion of a trouble-making friend, from something I saw on TV, or purely from the meandering mind of an 11-year-old boy, I had the idea to steal some candy. I stood there near the front of the local Ace Hardware on an unremarkable Saturday morning, wishing I had fifty cents for a couple of pieces of candy. But, being 11, I was a little cash-strapped, and at some point I had made the decision to steal.

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I had never done anything like it, and that must have been apparent to any onlookers, but thus far my half-formulated plan hadn’t been interrupted by anyone. My sweaty palms and dry mouth proved my inexperience, but for reasons unknown I was about to go through with it. I quickly filched two pieces of random hard candy, squirreled them away in my pocket and made for the exit. My heart was beating out of my chest the entire time, but no alarm was sounded, and no adults barred my way.

And while I never did get caught or found out, I did suffer consequences. Namely, I felt absolutely awful about what I had done, and while one hard candy slowly melted in my mouth, I dumped the other one in the trash out of guilt. Of course my crime here was about as minor as it gets, as I made off with roughly forty cents worth of stolen candy, but the seriousness of the infraction didn’t make a difference to my young brain, I just flat knew what I did was wrong.

Two

This moral compass of mine has been a guide throughout my life. It dictates many decisions I make, from the company I keep, my political leanings (and I swear I will NOT get into those here,) where I choose to work and more. This past off-season it started humming in an unexpected way. I began to question whether I could stomach rostering some of the “bad guys” of the NFL.

It happened when I was doing some preparation leading up to the NFL draft. I’m not a strong devy guy like some around here at DLF, so I start my rookie work in earnest around that time every year. I like to get an idea of who the top prospects are at each position and dig into film. As part of that prep, of course Joe Mixon came up. When I watched his film, I was enamored just like many guys out there. He had that “all-around back” look to me, a guy that could stay on the field all three downs and beat the other team in a number of ways. And then I started to hear more about his off-field issues.

I had already begun, at that point, to avoid players with off-field issues a bit. Not due to any moral reasons, but simply due to the risk. I know there are many guys who will drop guys down a bit for red flags, and I had started to become one of those guys. If I hadn’t dug much into Mixon at this point, I likely would have done just that. Perhaps drop him down a couple extra spots and target some other, less talented backs before him. But then I heard about the video. At first I didn’t see the video myself, but just came across some discussions around it. There was quite a bit of back and forth in those discussions, some folks were pretty well disgusted by the video, but others argued that it was quite some time ago and behind him. And while I don’t recall where I saw it exactly, one person commented that they had shared the idea that it was no big deal, but that had all changed when they actually saw the video.

It was time for me to see for myself. I found it easily enough, and when I saw the actual incident, my stomach dropped. The unpleasant feeling in my stomach wasn’t something I had expected, as I didn’t really know the contents of the video. But I know that when I saw it, my thinking on it and other incidents like it changed. I would not and could not have Joe Mixon on any of my teams.

Three

Before we go any further, I want to make something perfectly clear. This is not intended to be an indictment on anyone else’s decision making regarding their fantasy teams. If you are comfortable drafting or owning Joe Mixon or other players like him, you have every right to do so in my estimation. My decisions are personal, and every owner out there has the right to make his or her own decisions. I also will not judge those decisions. Make your own choices.

It started with Joe Mixon, but once that decision was made, more dominoes began to fall. I suddenly found myself with a new lens to apply to fantasy players – a Mixon rule, if you will. Could I roster Tyreek Hill? Adrian Peterson? Where would I draw the line? This proved a difficult question to answer. Once you start digging into bad behavior in the NFL, you find an awful lot of examples rather quickly – but I found that the real limiter or red flag for me was abuse. If a player abused a woman or child in some way, there was a very real chance I would have to apply the Mixon rule.

For me, this Mixon rule is not eternal or absolute. Players are people, and people make mistakes and they can make amends in some cases. Tyreek Hill is a great example, for instance. The incident that mars Hill’s record may be worse than Mixon’s, but in my estimation he has done far more to atone for his mistake than Mixon. For that reason I do own a couple of shares of Hill, but should any other incident occur, I would move him instantly. Adrian Peterson, on the other hand, still feels he was treated unfairly for the abuse charges related to his four-year-old son. That I can’t abide. An interesting case in this area is Ezekiel Elliott. I won’t try to litigate his current predicament, but one thing I can say for sure is that he doesn’t seem to care. That’s enough for me to have traded my one share, as I’d just rather not own a guy with the kind of attitude I see.

There you have it, my moral dilemma. And it’s been harder to live with than I realized. I went back and forth quite a bit on Tyreek Hill, for instance, but ultimately concluded he was doing the right thing since his incident. It’s affected me in all of my drafts, trades and roster management. From my IDP league where I passed on Caleb Brantley even though I liked his talent, to my rookie drafts where I passed on Mixon completely, even when he was available to me. I realize this may hurt my fantasy chances more than any impact it might have on the players in question. I also understand that my refusal to own these guys has an infinitesimally small impact, if any at all. In the grand scheme of things, it may not matter, but in my own heart it most certainly has an impact. I refuse to support players who act in this way, regardless of whether my tiny refusal has any far-reaching effects. Think about it this way. In this game we love, of imaginary names and numbers, I must be able to take a moral stand – if I can’t do it in fantasy football, where can I?

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