Fantasy football: Humiliation edition
Written by Hannah Ulm, Oct 11, 2011, 0 Comments
After a year of waiting, the best/only fantasy football sitcom returned last week. The third season of “The League” debuted on Oct. 6 on FX and to my delight it was hilarious, raunchy and full of NFL players. Watching my boy Maurice Jones-Drew do The Shiva Bowl Shuffle was pretty great, but the episode was not just entertaining. It was thought provoking.
The members of “The League” are intense when it comes to competiveness. The winner of the Shiva Bowl pretty much owns his friends until next season rolls around. The last-place player wins The Sacko trophy and many embarrassing situations to be decided later by his “friends.”
In this season premiere, the group’s last punishment to the league loser, Andre, was to banish him from his apartment and pay to have a porno made there, with a parody of Andre as the male lead. Of course, this was ridiculously funny as a TV show plotline, but seemed a little extreme for real-life.
So what is the proper way to celebrate a fantasy football win? Of course, most people play for money and that is enough of a prize for many. In my family league, we play for bragging rights and a trophy I’m currently designing. But perhaps that’s not enough.
On “The League,” so much of the characters’ enjoyment comes from humiliating their friends and reveling in their wins. And although I tend to play humbly and superstitiously (always afraid to jinx myself), this episode made me wonder if we should up the ante.
Should the loser have to make a Facebook status proclaiming the winner as an all-mighty force of fantasy football nature? Or make the winner and loser have a frat brother pledge type relationship, where the loser is basically enslaved to the winner? So many options. Let the creative juices flow.
