Accountability in fantasy football is a funny thing. Ultimately, in this fake game we all enjoy, that is luck based, the results are wildly unpredictable. However, there is certainly some skill required to navigate the multi-layered world of Fantasy Football. These skills, accrued over time, do give certain experienced players an edge over their competitors. In an effort to share these strategies, we saw the dawn of the ‘fantasy analyst’. Once minor celebrities that graced our televisions, newspapers and magazines to provide fantasy football advice, the market has exploded and expanded beyond our wildest dreams. Or perhaps our darkest nightmares…
In a recent interview I had with former NFL and DirecTV analyst James D Koh (available on my Youtube and Spotify), I asked if he felt the market had become over-saturated. James is a sports broadcaster and former Emmy award winning journalist with multiple FSWA awards. He is a recognized player in the fantasy football space. He had one quote that really stuck with me during his response: “There’s obviously no barrier to entry, only a barrier to relevancy.”
That barrier to relevancy can be a tricky hurdle to overcome. There are many styles of content creators within the fantasy football space, but one particular style somewhat pervades the space. The loud, aggressive and sometimes antagonistic crowd of MUST START, CAN’T MISS, IF YOU DON’T PICKUP X PLAYER YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG type of fantasy content creators. It feels like overcharged television hosts who’s delivery is that of a high-pitched screaming warble. Unfortunately, the loudest people whether in life or online, often draw the most attention to themselves.
Enter, Fantasy Receipts. Perceived as a villain of the fantasy community for ‘attacking’ fantasy football content creators and holding them accountable for their takes, I view them more as an anti-hero. Sure, I might not agree with everything they do. However, the overarching mission of responsible delivery of content and accountability to yourself and your listeners are missions I can get behind. In my own content, I strive to be transparent and provide my own versions of fantasy receipts by publicly posting my Win-Loss record across all my leagues throughout the season, or including the segment ‘What I got Wrong, What I got Right’ as a lead off to my weekly reaction show (Monday Mayhem).
Overall, while I may not always agree with their tactics, or even their results, I do ultimately agree with their overall purpose. In particular, if you are somene who wants to be viewed as a legitimate fantasy expert or analyst, I do believe you should provide a level of visibility to your fantasy football playing statistics. The same way we analyze the statistics of the players we love, fans should have a view of an analysts results. So while Fantasy Receipts may not be the hero we deserve, they’re the one we need right now.
