The Big Lead

You're Fired: How the Nation's Fantasy Football Owners Handled Sunday's Protests

By Kyle Koster

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Sunday predictably brought widespread protests throughout the NFL. Emotion was real and raw, with the highest office in the land keeping close tabs on the situation and weighing in 140 characters at a time. The protests manifest around the playing of the national anthem but are a response to important and contentious social issues.

They are of paramount real-world import whether a viewer prefers sticking to sports or not. In the wake of their expansion, citizens of this country must wake up and confront a new environment and, hopefully, find some sort of positive solution by working together.

That, of course, is dwarfed in importance by a different issue.

What the heck are fantasy football owners supposed to do about all these players kneeling?

Well, some took a hard principled stand, cutting players they don’t actually own from teams that don’t actually exist.

If one includes those who didn’t come out of the locker room for the anthems, 23 percent of the league did not stand. There should be a flurry of activity either on the waiver wire or through trades to fill these needs.

Other owners went the other way, promising to severe ties with anyone who didn’t participate in the protests.

For the record, Rodgers didn’t kneel so he’s gone. So is Tom Brady and a spate of other top-of-the-line quarterbacks.

Another significant subset is owners who either judge the merits of the protests against on-field performance or promise to reserve judgement until the point total drops below an acceptable level.

And finally, there’s a faction of people out there legitimately upset that the protests and Donald Trump’s continued involvement in response have distracted from the important stuff like fantasy football.

There’s a very real likelihood that fantasy football owners will continue to grapple with an ethical quandary next week and, perhaps, for the foreseeable future.

The president got right to work re-litigating the controversy this morning.

Anyone who thinks the kneeling is going to suddenly cease without a change of behavior from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is mistaken. These are strange times and could get stranger. And more trying for those conflicted fantasy football owners out there.