Three Inherent Problems with Fantasy Football Rules

I've been a member of a family fantasy football league for over fifteen years now. Like the good sportsman that I am, I'm actually not that competitive about my team winning as long as my dad's team loses, and preferably, loses big. That being said, I still think fantasy football is weird. Yes, it's just supposed to be for fun, but there are (at least) three fundamentally flawed principles underlying fantasy football play. Doesn't this bother all of us?

1. Your best players are on bye-week, but your fantasy team still has to play.

This is supposed to be "fair" since we all experience the same existing problem: our fantasy team must play even though any number of NFL players on our roster won't be making an appearance this week. Going into the first draft of any league, we all ideally have equal access to understanding this rule. And though it will affect every team differently, we can suppose any ultimate disadvantage has to be internalized by the team owner who unwittingly drafted five players that later all ended up on the same NFL team.

Verdict: The results are still disappointing, but you may deserve some of the blame for your current bye-week woes.

2. If your player gets injured (or is simply not performing well), you don't get to sub someone else in.

In real football, unless you don't have an alternative, you don't suddenly play with one man too few in the event someone gets injured. In fantasy football, we're forced to start an injured player for the remaining three quarters even though we know he's no longer playing. With NFL games taking place at staggered times, there isn't an obvious solution to this problem without enabling foul play.

Verdict: In that you could have predicted an injury, you may be at fault. Otherwise, this is an unfortunate rule that hurts you just so others can't take advantage of the system.

3. Your opponent has no real interaction with your team. Her defense isn't actually stopping your offense. She won, yes. But she would have lost playing any other team.

In our fantasy football league, I have the highest PA statistic of any team. Having a high "Points Against" or "Points Allowed" score would be terribly embarrassing in real life, but in a fantasy league, we have nothing to do with preventing other teams from scoring. In my case, the PA stat is largely representative of that fact that fellow teams randomly have breakout games the weeks they play me. Wins and losses become extremely arbitrary when you compare a whole league's weekly fantasy scores.

Verdict: A lot about fantasy football is just luck. There may not be a better way, granted, but taking a win or loss too seriously is misguided given the actual constraints of the game.