A growing sports epidemic
03/13/2002
Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
I've recently been preparing for the fantasy baseball season -- creating my own cheat sheets, reading through every bit of spring training gossip I can find, checking out a few mock drafts, scouring injury reports. The usual. And this year, as I do before the start of every season, I ponder one simple question: Do professional athletes play fantasy sports?
Admit it, you've thought about it too. How could you not? You wonder in what round Allen Iverson would draft himself. You wonder if even Larry Walker avoids Larry Walker on draft day because he's too injury prone. You wonder how much Terrell Owens would be willing to give up in a trade for himself. Those are all legitimate questions, and tired of having no answers I decided to do a little investigative reporting.
What I found may shock you.
"Yes." "Absolutely." "Every year. I love that stuff." "Everybody does." "Of course." "Why, are you starting up a league? I've got plenty of cash -- can I get in?"
Those were just some of the responses I got when I asked 30 professional athletes, most of whom asked to remain anonymous, if they participated in fantasy sports. Twenty-four of the 30 said that, yes, they play in leagues all the time, and of the six who said no, three admitted that they'd participated in the past but quit because they just weren't any good.
"I mean, I drafted Pete Incaviglia, for crying out loud," admits one East coast starting pitcher who gave up fantasy sports nearly a decade ago. "You're not going to win crap with Pete friggin' Incaviglia on your roster. Trust me. I was clueless."
But he seems to be in the minority. The athletes I interviewed said that, not only do they play fantasy sports, but <I>most</I> of the guys in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL participate in leagues.
"Are you kidding me? Everybody does it," says one All-Pro running back. "Most of the time we set up leagues with other players, but plenty of guys are in leagues with family or friends, too. And it gets pretty competitive."
Competitive indeed. Some leagues have as much as a $50,000 entry fee, with the winner taking home upwards of $300,000 and sometimes even a little trophy. "The money's great, but I've got six trophies sitting at home on my dresser," says an outfielder who's played in fantasy leagues for nearly 15 years. "That's where the payoff is -- I love those little things."
Initially, it all seems harmless. But isn't this considered a form of gambling, and isn't gambling -- unless you're a Major League Baseball umpire -- considered the cardinal sin of professional sports?
"Sure, I guess some people would call it gambling," admits a West coast point guard who's won his basketball league two years in a row, "but we ain't dealing with no bookies here. And as far as I'm concerned, it ain't betting if I'm not calling my bookey. That's like asking, 'is it still sex if I ain't using a condom?' Of course not."
That may be true, but how does all this affect the integrity of the games themselves? Shouldn't we be afraid that some athletes participating in these leagues may be willing to somehow corrupt their respective sports for the good of their fantasy teams? After all, that's the chief concern regarding the relationship between gambling in general and the sports world. Is this something we should be worried about?
"Absolutely not," says one Eastern Conference forward who's still looking for his first fantasy title. "I mean, sure, maybe some guys will get their shots blocked or let someone steal the ball from them to help out their fantasy teams... wait, what was the question again? Oh... . Well first tell me what 'integrity' means and then I'll answer."
One NFC quarterback, who has never played in a single fantasy league, says that he's seen firsthand what these games can do to a sport. "I've had linebackers and linemen purposely miss sacks in the red zone because they've got me on their fantasy teams and they needed me to throw a touchdown to help them win that week. It's pitiful." He pauses, then adds, "Of course, it works both ways -- why do you think Brett Favre let (Michael) Strahan get that last record-breaking sack last season? Yep, he had the Giants defense that week."
Could this all be true? Could athletes be more concerned with their fantasy squads than they are with their professional teams?
"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that's the case," says one National League second baseman. "Sure, some guys make decisions based on the benefits their fantasy teams will see, but most times they don't cost them a win."
But this second baseman, who just started playing fantasy baseball two years ago, says that sometimes, no matter what their objectives were, players have adversely affected the outcome of a game thanks to such decisions. "This one time, we were up by a couple of runs in the bottom of the ninth when the opposing team's shortstop stepped to the plate. Now, both our pitcher and our catcher had this guy on their fantasy teams, in different leagues. There were men on first and second with two outs, and they decided to give this kid, who hadn't been hitting all season, a meatball, hoping to get a hit and an RBI for their two teams. Sure enough, he ropes a single to right, sending a run home and another runner to third. We're still up by a run, though, so no harm done, right? Well, on the next pitch the guy takes off from first, and the catcher, thinking he could use an extra steal too, makes a throw with absolutely no intention of actually throwing him out. But instead of just bouncing a throw to second, he uncorks one into left-center field. We're playing on turf, and that damn ball practically rolls to the wall. Both runners score and we lose the game, but at least our pitcher and catcher got an extra run out of the deal, right?"
Regardless of good intentions, does stuff like this happen in other sports too?
"I've seen it a couple times," admits an NHL defenseman. "Goalies letting their players score late in the game, guys giving players wide-open looks at the net, stuff like that. I've even seen a few guys purposely give up the puck late in the game when we've got an open net just so their fantasy players can score an easy goal. Huh, me? No... I've, um... I've never done that."
Apparently, even coaching staffs get involved. I spoke with one former NFL head coach who admits that a couple times he let a competitive fantasy league cloud his judgment on the field.
"We were playing on Monday night late one season a few years back, and I needed a win to get into my league's Super Bowl," he recalls, adding that the team he coached for had already qualified for the NFL playoffs. "I needed 24 points from my running back, who also happened to be our starter at the time, to pull out the win and advance, but the guy I was playing had our quarterback on his team. Now, at the time we were running an offense that was centered on our passing game, so when kickoff rolled around and I completely changed the scheme, handing off on nearly every play, in any situation. I mean, we're talking first-and-10, second-and-two, third-and-17, whatever. I'd try to run a few screens here and there so it wouldn't look suspicious, but everything was going through our running back."
So, you're wondering, did it work?
"Nope. Our back had a great game, running for 212 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries, and I think he also had 30 or 40 yards receiving. But as time was winding down, we found ourselves on the three-yard line, and I called for a pitch-out to seal my fantasy victory. Well, he fumbles the ball at about the one, and the goddamn quarterback picks it up and runs it in for a score. We won, but I lost that week by two or three points. I'm still pissed about that one."
I heard dozens of stories like this from the guys I interviewed, including one from Detroit pitcher Jose Lima, who after I informed him that his identity wasn't important enough to conceal, allowed me to use his name.
Lima says his fantasy baseball obsession may have ruined his once-promising career. "I won 16 games in 1998 and then 21 in 1999 with Houston," he recalls. "Those are what I refer to as my 'Lima Time' years. But in 2000 I had guys like Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey and Mark McGwire on my fantasy team, and whenever I faced them I gave them good pitches to hit. So what happens? I wound up getting used to giving up home runs, and by the end of the year I'm 7-16 with an ERA that makes that Ankiel kid from St. Louis look like Cy Young. I gave up a total of 48 homers that season, and then I got traded to friggin' Detroit." He sighs. "This place sucks. It's not 'Lima Time' no more."
It gets even worse. One baseball general manager, who plays in an AL-only fantasy league, says on several different occasions he's traded guys to the National League just so other owners in his league lose some of their top players. "And this one time," he says, "I had the first waiver pick, which meant I had first dibs on whoever came into the American League during the season. So I worked out a deadline deal for a stud starting pitcher and then picked him up for my fantasy squad. Genius."
Some athletes actually told me that many of the most memorable sports moments in recent history only happened because of fantasy games.
"The only reason Bonds hit 73 homers last year was because, amazingly, almost every pitcher he faced had Barry on his fantasy team," says a National League reliever who plays in four baseball leagues every year. "Hell, I owned Barry last season and I personally surrendered at least three of those homers."
"Remember when Shaun Alexander ran for 266 yards against the Raiders last year?" asks one AFC wide receiver. "You think Oakland's defensive coordinator would've let that happen if he didn't need every last one of those yards to win his fantasy match-up that week?"
Adds a reserve guard on the Lakers: "And that Kobe/Reggie Miller fight from a couple weeks ago? Reggie had just traded Kobe for Shawn Bradley, Earl Boykins and a six-pack of Milwaukee's Best in one of his leagues. Kobe heard that and went off. Hell, I'd be pissed too."
Stunning. The stories are endless: Mark McGwire's record-breaking 1998 season, all those 50-point games from Michael Jordan, game-winning grand slams, interceptions returned for touchdowns ("Do you really think Peyton Manning is as bad as he looked last year?" asks one AFC cornerback), overtime goals, bases-loaded walks... . Reportedly, even Barry Sanders' early retirement was part of a fantasy football scandal.
It makes you wonder which sports achievements were genuine and which had the foul odor of a fantasy cover up. Is Magic Johnson really the legendary player he appeared to be? Exactly how good was Wayne Gretzky? Why would anybody ever draft Pete Incaviglia? The questions keep pouring in, but one above all else begs to be answered: Are fantasy sports ruining the games we love?
"Maybe," says former NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth, who admits that he doesn't know what the word "anonymous" means. "But what's more important, this integrity thing you keep talking about or those cute little trophies?" He pauses. "Exactly, the cute trophies. And besides, fantasy sports will still be around long after the NFL and these other leagues fold."
He smiles, then adds, "Hey, am I going to get paid for this? I could really use the cash."
In the Bullz-Eye
Former Yankees outfielder and current lifetime loser Darryl Strawberry. The Straw is in trouble... again. He violated his probation for the fifth time since 1999, only this time he found a way to do it without the help of drugs or alcohol. Instead, Strawberry got kicked out of his drug-treatment center for breaking 11 of the program's restrictions, including bans on cigarette smoking and sex between residents.