Setting fantasy football lineups is a bit like the Squid Game Hopscotch wherein the players have to walk across a bridge, with each incremental step either on a firm glass panel that will support their weight, or a flimsy one they’ll break through and fall to their deaths.
Each step is individually 50/50 to get right, but the odds they navigate the entirety of the bridge are 1 in 2 ^ x, with x being the number of steps. If there were only eight steps, the odds of making it would be 1 in 512. To put that in perspective, consider if, for example, the Texans played the Eagles in Philadelphia, the odds the of the Texans winning outright would be something like 1 in 14,
Keep this in mind when you have eight coin-flip lineup calls. The odds you get them all correct are like crossing a (short) version of the bridge in Hopscotch. Chances are you’ll crash to your death at least a few times every Sunday. Accordingly, the feeling you’ve accidentally swallowed a large peach pit after you sat Dak Prescott for Brock Purdy (particularly after they changed the ruling on Purdy’s lone TD pass to a handoff) is virtually inevitable.
Maybe everyone else knows this already, but I’ve played fantasy football for almost 30 years, and part of me still expects to get nine out of 10 decisions right. I think it’s because I started playing in an easier era, where it was mostly TD-driven, and the league was so deep you didn’t have a lot of tough decisions. Whatever the reason, it’s dawning on me I’ll be tortured with regret every single week, there’s nothing I can do about it and really the only bankable joy in fantasy football is knowing others are in the same — and likely even worse — boats than me.
. . .
But I’ve buried the lede which is the Giants epic comeback. Down 20-0 at half, the Giants opened the season at a 60-0 deficit, the largest in NFL history. For six quarters, they couldn’t generate a drive or get a stop. I placed a futures bet on them to win the Super Bowl before the season, and it looked instead like they were the favorites to land the No. 1 overall pick.
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