You'd think after four weeks you wouldn't have to worry about managers abandoning their teams, but things are different today. Joining a league is as easy as a few keystrokes on an app, so the fantasy player who used to be in three or four leagues can be in 14 with little extra effort. It makes the hobby more popular, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good thing, either.
One outcome is that your league might already have lost a manager. Here's how to spot them, and what to do about it.
But first you might ask yourself, why would anyone do that? The season isn't close to half over yet. Why abandon a team now? The problem isn't their 1-3 or 0-4 team. The problem is the 4-0 team(s) they have somewhere on the internet. Those teams are great (or lucky, which often looks like great) so they'll get more attention. And with time being a finite resource, that means other teams get less attention. And that could be a team in your league, which affects the competitive balance of the rest of the season.
The first part of this scavenger hunt for bad managers took place this past weekend. If an 0-3 team had Terry McLaurin and wasn't paying attention, they might have missed his mid-week injury. Couple that with a Sunday morning start for the game held in London, and they might have left him in the lineup. Ditto with Devonta Smith, who wasn't ruled out until later in the week. If those guys stayed in a lineup, you might have a problem on your hands.
Or maybe not. Please note that I said you might have a problem. Things happen, and maybe a manager logged in at their normal time Sunday to find that McLaurin was frozen in the lineup. Maybe they were really busy and couldn't follow up on the Eagles inactives until it was too late. It might just be bad timing.
But it also might be a sign that a manager, if not abandoning a team just yet, already has one foot out the door. Those lineup decisions could have led to another loss, which exacerbates the problem and creates more disinterest. The molehill of a problem you notice in week 4 might become a mountain with bye weeks approaching in week 5. Before that happens, I suggest you confront the manager in question and ask them about it.
Wait, scratch that. Don't "confront." Maybe "inquire." Maybe just reach out and mention the player in passing. No reason to be a jerk about it. All you're really doing is letting them know that people notice when you field an incomplete team. They might mention that something came up, or they missed it. Bummer, right? Okay sure, but the unspoken point is that it shouldn't become a regular occurrence. Your record shouldn't determine your level of participation. You owe your attention to every league you joined, whether that's three or 13 or 30, and it shouldn't matter if you're 4-0 or 0-4. If you're in the league, you're in the league.
Now, you can say it's not your business how they run their team, but you'd be wrong. It's your league, after all. A 12-team league should have 12 managed teams. A 10-team league shouldn't have eight teams and a couple pieces of driftwood. And you won't be able to do much about it in week 10. But after week 4? Sure. Maybe a manager just needs a little nudge to at least field a complete lineup. You can't force them to spend every waking moment on their teams. But you can absolutely expect them to participate in the league. That's not asking too much.
You can also ask your commissioner to look into it. These days a fantasy league commissioner is like the King of England: A largely ceremonial title that used to mean something but now has little or no actual power. But like the British monarchy, there are duties they should perform from time to time. In your league, those duties should include following up on deficient managers. Maybe that's a call or text or email just to see what's up. But now is the time to do it, because you saw the first hints at a problem this past week.
And there will be more clues after the next round of games. I’ll address them in part 2, but let's hope it doesn't come to that in your league. Good luck this week.
Any injured players stay in lineups in your league this past weekend? Does anybody say anything, or is it a hands-off situation? Does your league prescribe punishments for that kind of (mis)management? Share your thoughts below.
