I remember summer camp around 10 years old, being one of the first bus pick-ups as it made its slow, circuitous route through the streets of Manhattan. About an hour later, the now-full bus would drop us off at our destination. Then around 4:00pm, the process would go in reverse as we headed home for the evening: the vibrant buzzing of kids gradually dwindling to near-silence, until it was just me and maybe a couple other kids scattered throughout a vehicle that once teemed with 70 or more.
It sounds strange, but I'd start feeling wistful as the steady drumbeat of screaming kids gave way to a day that once was -- bouncing-off-the-walls intensity replaced by solitude and a little too much self-reflection for a 10-year-old.
There's a pivot in every fantasy season that reminds me of those bus rides home. It's a point where most people have dropped off the page. Sometimes it's around Week 13, when a majority of fantasy managers find themselves out of the playoffs. Sometimes it's more palpable after Week 14.
The 200-300 comments we're used to seeing Sunday mornings are reduced to 50 or less. Most sit/start questions are replaced by celebrations of success or lamentations of regret. The excitement governing minute-by-minute fantasy prognostications gives way to virtual pats on the back ("Good job, Vickie!") and expressions of sympathy ("That's rough, Sam.").
We're at the point in the season when just a few of us remain on the bus. There's not much left to say, or that needs to be said.
But the bus won't stop for good until everyone's off. There are two weeks left of football. Two more DFS 50/50 lineups, with four straight wins to build on. Two more bargains/busts posts coming off an 11-5 week that included major hyping of the 15th/16th ranked Mitch Trubisky and Josh Allen, the 49th ranked Jordy Nelson, the 74th ranked Robert Foster, and the 13th ranked Trey Burton. And beyond that, there's still time to offer random thoughts on player performances, injuries, and depth chart shifts.
And bragging rights if I beat Doug Harrison for the title.
It sounds strange, but I'd start feeling wistful as the steady drumbeat of screaming kids gave way to a day that once was -- bouncing-off-the-walls intensity replaced by solitude and a little too much self-reflection for a 10-year-old.
There's a pivot in every fantasy season that reminds me of those bus rides home. It's a point where most people have dropped off the page. Sometimes it's around Week 13, when a majority of fantasy managers find themselves out of the playoffs. Sometimes it's more palpable after Week 14.
The 200-300 comments we're used to seeing Sunday mornings are reduced to 50 or less. Most sit/start questions are replaced by celebrations of success or lamentations of regret. The excitement governing minute-by-minute fantasy prognostications gives way to virtual pats on the back ("Good job, Vickie!") and expressions of sympathy ("That's rough, Sam.").
We're at the point in the season when just a few of us remain on the bus. There's not much left to say, or that needs to be said.
But the bus won't stop for good until everyone's off. There are two weeks left of football. Two more DFS 50/50 lineups, with four straight wins to build on. Two more bargains/busts posts coming off an 11-5 week that included major hyping of the 15th/16th ranked Mitch Trubisky and Josh Allen, the 49th ranked Jordy Nelson, the 74th ranked Robert Foster, and the 13th ranked Trey Burton. And beyond that, there's still time to offer random thoughts on player performances, injuries, and depth chart shifts.
And bragging rights if I beat Doug Harrison for the title.