Viva Murillo!
If the Detroit Lions go 0-16 this year (that's not just bizarre hyperbole. It could happen) I still think canning Matt Millen was a fantastic idea. Keeping him as an employee sent a bad message to the team: It's okay to lose. We'll just call it "patience" and accept whatever happens.
But it also sent a bad message to the league itself. When you set the bar so low that you can have a losing record for seven straight seasons and still have the President and CEO back for season eight, you don't care about winning. Your team is a product, not a passion. At some point, it becomes more than an embarrassment to the owner for the team's fans. It becomes an embarrassment to the entire league.
Well, you might have a Matt Millen in your fantasy football league. I don't mean an owner who doesn't win. That's not as important to the health of a fantasy league. An unsuccessful, interested, engaged and active owner is a league asset. I mean a person who doesn't put in the kind of effort everyone else puts in. Owners like that hurt more than their own team. They hurt everybody who plays with them.
With bye weeks in full swing, plenty of injuries to starters and some talent on the waiver wire, it's easy to see which owners are paying attention and which don't really care. And while it's a shame to see good players not being picked up by teams with first waiver priority, it is unacceptable to see them start players who are injured or on the bye. In a game where teams often make or miss the playoffs by one game, having a cupcake on the schedule is an unfair advantage. If you have an owner who ignores their team, something should be done immediately. If a chance to make amends goes ignored, action must be taken before the next slate of games.
I wish more fantasy leagues would do what the Lions did, and get rid of a bad executive mid-season. Sure, in many leagues an inactive owner won't be invited back the next year, but so what? What about this year? Don't you deserve a league full of active teams for the rest of 2008?
I understand that it's a big step, and might seem kind of harsh. After all, it's their money, right? Can't they do what they want? Well, actually, no. They can't. Their actions affect everyone else who also paid money to play. If you miss the playoffs because a rival owner got a free win when their "opponent" had two bye week players and an injured quarterback, is that fair? Is it right to have a piece of apathetic driftwood floating around the schedule?
No. It's bad for the team and it's bad for the league. That GM/owner/loser needs to go. Just hand them their money back and send them packing. Don't worry about the hit to the annual pot. Getitng rid of the bad owner is more important. If you can't find a suitable replacement, don't worry about it. Just have their opponents play the league average every week. Believe me, that dummy team is better than the dummy you let go.
I see too many leagues accepting a bad owner and toughing it out until the end of the year. Forget that. Be like the Lions! They don't sound like a franchise to emulate, but they did the right thing with Millen. Bad fantasy owners need to leave immediately before they dole out enough cheap wins to affect your playoffs. If you make that move, you'll be happier than Detroit fans, who are probably still celebrating despite another lopsided defeat.
You Tube Clip of the Week: There are a few Millen-related videos out there, but I like this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jyvwxQd1r0
You can reach Michael Murillo at vivamurillo@gmail.com.
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