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by MARK GREY 11.18.09 Every Sunday morning, millions of football fans across the country frantically stare at their computer screens mulling over some of the tough decisions they will make all week. For some, the debate is whether or not to go with a back-up running back or a number one receiver in a flex spot. For others, the question is who is playing the Lions since they’re a sure starter. There’s no denying that fantasy football has become the largest thing in sports. It’s the only reason you will ever hear anyone say, “What’s the score of that Lions and Rams game?”. While it seems like just about every football fan in the country plays fantasy football, who would have ever guessed that real life NFL coaches would be playing, too?
Throughout this current season, every week a different coach does something that has everyone scratching their heads. It’ll be something that no matter how hard you try to figure out what they were thinking, it just will never make any sense. We’re talking about the greatest football minds in the world here. Surely there has to be some logic behind what otherwise seems flat out stupid. It appears there is: coaches have fantasy teams, too.
While in real life football there is no explanation for what many of today’s NFL coaches are doing, in the fantasy world it all makes sense. Take Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio for example. He has arguably the best running back in the NFL on his real team, but he clearly is not a Maurice Jones Drew fantasy owner. Now, not owning your star running back in your fantasy league doesn’t become a problem until you have to play against him; by the looks of things, that was week 8 for Del Rio. It wasn’t until the third quarter that Del Rio gave his star running back his fifth carry; one in which he took 79 yards for a game-tying touchdown. While Del Rio looked happy with results on the outside, apparently he could no longer handle the beating Jones Drew was doing to his fantasy team. In just 5 carries, Jones Drew totaled 168 yards and 2 touchdowns, which is more than Del Rio could handle. For the rest of the game, Drew picked up three more carries and the Jags never scored again. There is no real way of knowing if Del Rio was able to win his fantasy week, but in real life, once the Jags abandoned the running game, what was a 13-13 ball game ended as a 30-13 blow out by the Titans.
Yes, it is easy to ask what in the world Del Rio wasthinking that game. How could his fantasy team be more important than his job? Sadly, a closer look shows that he is not the only one with fantasy conflicts.
In Week 6, Jets head coach Rex Ryan had a major dilemma on his hands. Not only was he apparently playing against his own running back Thomas Jones, but he had the Bills Defense that happened to be facing his Jets. Jones came out of the gate on fire with over 100 yards before halftime, including a 71-yard touchdown run. With the Jets in firm control of the game, Rex Ryan decided to shift the bulk of the rushing workload over to Leon Washington in hopes of not destroying his fantasy defense, but the move backfired. Turns out it wasn’t just that the Bills couldn’t stop Thomas Jones; they couldn’t stop the run period. With Washington and Jones destroying the Bills defense, Ryan was left with no other option but to turn to rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez to stop his fantasy nightmare. What looked like the dumbest coaching move ever proved to be nothing short of fantasy brilliance. Sanchez threw for 4 second half picks and the Jets lost in overtime. Even though the Jets ran for over 300 yards against the Bills, Ryan still felt the need for his rookie quarterback to throw the ball 29 times on his way to an 8.3 QB rating for the game. Like I said before, there is no real way to determine if Ryan won his fantasy week, but 6 interceptions and two sacks from your defense is not a bad head start.
Perhaps the biggest fantasy football fan of all time is Andy Reid of the Eagles. Apparently, Reid drafts Donovan McNabb in the first round of his draft every year and then flat out laughs at whoever drafts Brian Westbrook. It couldn’t be more obvious that Reid was playing against Westbrook in week 6 this season. With the Eagles facing the Raiders and their 29th-ranked run defense, every fantasy guru in the country had Westbrook pegged for a big day, but Reid had other plans. As expected, the Raiders couldn’t stop Westbrook as he ran for over 8 yards a carry, but Reid sure could as he only gave him 6 carries while McNabb dropped back to throw 54 times. The Eagles ended up losing the game 13-10 to one of the worst teams in football, but at least Reid didn’t have to worry about Westbrook messing up his fantasy week.
 It looks like the Dolphins' Tony Sparano also dabbles in a little bit of fantasy football himself. With his team up by 21 points against the undefeated Saints, Sparano appeared to be facing a serious problem. While the Wildcat was working to perfection as Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown had combined for 4 touchdowns, it was the week to face them in his fantasy league. Entering the fourth quarter with the lead, Sparano shocked everyone and only ran the ball once while he decided to let Chad Henne throw it 16 times. The result in real life was that the Dolphins were outscored 24-0 in the fourth quarter and lost, but there is no word on whether Sparano’s fantasy week was able to be salvaged.
In Tennessee, I’m guessing Jeff Fisher drafted Kerry Collins a little higher than he should have in his league and was determined to get at least one good week out of him in fantasy before he benched him in real life. He was so committed, it took the owner of the team telling him to cut the foolishness out before he finally benched Collins.
First year head coach Josh McDaniels has so much confidence in Kyle Orton that he appears to have drafted him in his fantasy league as well. In week 9, he was in such desperate need for points that even in a game they were winning in the third quarter against the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers, he completely forgot to run the ball. The Broncos finished the game with just 14 rushing attempts as Orton threw the ball 38 times and finished with zero touchdowns and a season high 3 interceptions in a Broncos lost. That week I’m guessing McDaniels lost in real life and fantasy. While yes, I must admit that my theory of coaches playing fantasy football sounds a bit far fetched, how else can you explain this? How do you explain that coaches who are paid millions of dollars and watch hours and hours of film somehow just fall so in love with passing that they become one dimensional in games that are far from over. Some will say the running game wasn’t working in some of those games. News flash: if your quarterback has 5 interceptions in the game, the passing game isn’t working either and even worse, you’re turning the ball over (Jay Cutler). The list of quarterbacks who you want to see throw the ball 40 times in a game is very short and I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but the likes of Kerry Collins, David Garrard, Jake Delhomme, and Matt Cassel aren’t on it. How many times do we have to see Chris Johnson and Jones Drew stand there helpless while mediocre quarterbacks force turnovers? How do you explain Garrard and Cutler both having more pass attempts than Drew Brees this season? Both teams have pro bowl running backs and no receivers. You may laugh at my theory, and I wouldn’t blame you, but at least mine makes sense.
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