My name is The Monday Mommy and I am an Over Coacher.
“There are countess websites and podcasts devoted to setting our lineups, all with a ridiculous number of pointless stats categories. We are all over coaching. Even those of us whose teams are perched on the top of the leader boards in our leagues are over thinking the whole thing.”
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One would think that in my 18th season playing fantasy football, I would have a solid grasp on what works and what doesn’t.
I was prepared when the draft rolled around, had done my share of research and knew which guys I wanted on my squad and which ones I was going to let someone else deal with this season. I was up on all of the training camp and preseason injuries as well as the free agent roster moves that occurred over the offseason. This season, I had made the conscious decision to only play in two leagues, trying to eliminate the stress of multiple teams and rooting and cursing the same players on different rosters.
Both of my drafts went according to plan, and I was pleased with the outcomes of my final rosters. My squads were a solid mix of studs, serviceable mid-grade guys and some potential sleepers. I felt great heading into the season and was ready to roll.
Then I got into my own head.
I do not remember a year when coaching week to week was so stressful and damaging to my fantasy football season. Sure, each season has its challenges, and we have all made some poor decisions or last minute lineup changes that are regrettable. However, the 2013 season has been comprised of one poor choice after another for both of my teams. The decision to swap out Stevan Ridley with Austin Pettis at 10:55 am, just five minutes prior to kickoff was a 17 point swing. Of course, the week before I made the opposite choice and Pettis has a career day. It seems with me, which ever route I go, the bench guy will always score more.
Maybe I should switch up my routine? Every Sunday, I go for a run at approximately 9:30am so that I am back in time to make any last minute tweaks to my lineup. By then I have usually thought about each and every position on my roster and if any changes are needed. I then try to talk about it with my husband who usually refuses to interact with me on the subject for fear that I will blame him later if any of his advice backfires. I then proceed to stress about a few key matchups for the remainder of the time and then finally concede to roll with what I have.
Without fail, I have over coached and should have never touched my lineup from the night before.
In the modern era of fantasy football, there is just too much information. There, I said it.
ESPN has a fantasy football show on for an hour and half before kickoff going over every single position and rankings for each one. There are countess websites and podcasts devoted to setting our lineups, all with a ridiculous number of pointless stats categories. We are all over coaching. Even those of us whose teams are perched on the top of the leader boards in our leagues are over thinking the whole thing. South Stands Denver’s very own Colin Daniels wrote a piece a few weeks ago outlining what goes into a week in his life as a fantasy football degenerate. I am pretty sure he is over coaching.
I know that I have written several pieces about the days of yore, the pioneer years of fantasy football. It’s times when my bench outscores my actual starting lineup, or close to it, that I yearn for a time when less information meant less tinkering with our lineups. Maybe the answer is to unplug from Saturday on and just trust my gut.
Who knows? One thing I do know is that I have a problem and need to get rid of the yips before I tank the rest of this season.
