Is there a running back in the house? Anyone?
Sure, COVID has made this a crazy Finks League season, but with injuries on top of coronavirus this has become ridiculous. Since nearly everyone is at .500 and in the running for a playoff berth, even my own Triangles have delusions of grandeur and have been chasing a playoff berth. Why not? I found out listening to the Score 670-AM that even the Bears can still make the playoffs if you listen to enough on-air personalities. Yeah, right...
For Week 12, my Triangles made their 11th different transaction for an RB this season. That's right, just at one position. That's got to be some kind of record for my 27th season since starting the Finks League.
My latest addition was Lindsay DEN, who isn't even a starter on his own team. He follows R. Jones TB, Edwards BAL, Dallas SEA, Hasty SF, Breida MIA, Mixon CIN, Da. Henderson LAR, Gaskin MIA, Gallman NYG and Ahmed MIA. Gallman, Mixon and Hasty never made a start for the Triangles although Gallman is projected to make his first start in Week 12.
I blame much of this mess on Ekeler LAC, who was my No. 1 RB coming out of the auction, but was placed on the Injured Reserve list in Week 5. He has since been picked up by the Jays, but has still not returned for LAC. Ekeler (pictured) was an auction acquisition for $2.25. My other auction acquisitions were Mostert SF, L. Murray NO and White NE, all for a penny.
The RB part of my auction was a disaster. I didn't get my top two choices with Barkley NYG at $11.50 and Henry TEN at $11.49. No wonder.
My one trade to improve my RB woes would grade out a D or C-minus so far. In Week 7, I sent QB Rodgers GB, WR Kupp LAR and Mostert to the Mafia for Mixon and WR AJ Brown TEN. While Brown has become one of my WR starters, Mixon never played a game for the Triangles. His injured foot forced CIN to place him on the IR list so I cut him in Week 12. You would have to ask the Mafia how Rodgers and Kupp have worked out for him.
I am thankful for creating the Finks League on this day. It has made me a better NFL fan and I enjoy the competition with my fellow owners. Some of you have been around for more than 20 years. I've been competing against you much longer than my own marriage, which is in its 18th season -- excuse me -- year.
I am now working in the golf department at Dick's Sporting Goods in Lombard and all of my college-aged co-workers play fantasy football. They stare at their phones all Sunday long tracking their several teams. They have no concept of not having fantasy football. The Finks League is older than all of them.
I tell them how our first year started without computers or even the second year when I bought my first laptop and would send results through dial-up via fax machines. This was long before fantasy websites were invented, which they can't believe.
I explain to them how fantasy sports was invented in the first place when New York writer Daniel Okrent invited a few of his friends to the now-shuttered La Rotisserie restaurant in Manhattan to hold the first fantasy baseball draft. One of his friends that day was historian Doris Kerns Goodwin. There is a section of Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary devoted to Rotisserie baseball.
My Dick's co-workers can't believe anyone would play Rotisserie baseball over football. Well, that's because there was a time then people cared more about baseball than football. They can't believe that. I played Rotisserie baseball in the 1980s and 90s for more than 10 years before anyone invented fantasy football through a website.
Fantasy football is a creation due to the internet. Rotisserie baseball mattered before the internet.
I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving. I hop to share many more seasons with you.
