By Michael Wardian
"I should have put that guy in!" is heard throughout our house every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday during the NFL football season. I am obsessed with fantasy football, and while it doesn't seem to pair with an endurance athlete's lifestyle, it does, giving me something to focus on besides family, work, and running. In 2019, I played in nine different fantasy football leagues and played daily fantasy to boot. I didn't win all the leagues, thanks to some poor decisions on my part and some bad luck too. Just a quick tip, don't play against Christian McCaffrey. If you take nothing more from this blog, try and get Christian McCaffrey on your fantasy football team. I did well enough to be in a few finals and win a couple of bucks, but I'm not going pro just yet.
I started playing fantasy football about twenty years ago. Much like my running, I started without any idea of what I was doing and a desire just to see what fantasy was all about. I think my brother is to blame. Quickly I became interested in learning about the best players, coaches, teams, formats, and scoring systems. I loved trying to figure out the lexicon so that I knew what the different words and abbreviations meant and how they interacted. This was so similar to my journey into running and how I read Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Tim Nokes, and George Sheehan to discover what they had to share.
“I enjoyed how the more you did and the more dedicated to the sport you became, the better and more you could do, and the same is true with fantasy football.”
My running journey began with the desire to run the Boston Marathon once. I figured it would be a "one and done," and I would go back to partying, playing other sports like basketball, lacrosse, fencing, aikido, triathlon, chess. Running had me hooked, though. Seriously, I loved everything about running: the discipline, hard work, the other athletes, and of course, the competition. I enjoyed how the more you did and the more dedicated to the sport you became, the better and more you could do, and the same is true with fantasy football.
Twenty-five years later, I am still running and doing so as an elite professional runner with the opportunity to travel the world, pushing my limits. I have raced on all seven continents, thank you Gary, John & Jennifer, and in all weather conditions, even in Maine in the winter. That was a cold one. I haven't reached my boundaries yet, though, and I feel the same is true with fantasy football.
These days I am becoming very excited for the upcoming NFL season and fantasy football season. Hopefully, they will happen with all that is going on in the world. For a few hours each week, I believe we can feel normal even in these strange times and cheer on our favorite teams, players and have a great back and forth with our friends (i.e., trash talking).
It might seem silly to be so excited about a pretend game that many people around the world don't understand or care about, but I also find it odd to enjoy running for multiple days or to run 100 miles on a one mile stretch of road on Great Cranberry Island. Those, however, have been some of the best experiences of my life.
Life is short, and things happen, so why not do what fires you up and gets you excited. Fantasy football or running doesn't have to be what you enjoy, but there has to be something. Find your thing, and I encourage you to chase that thing, Be relentless in your pursuit of that passion, and, never forget, if you do choose to play fantasy football, get Christian McCaffrey on your team.
See you out there and stay after it.
About the Author
Michael Wardian is an International Shipbroker and professional marathoner and ultramarathoner from Arlington, Virginia. He is a husband to Jennifer, and they have two young boys, Pierce (14) and Grant (11), along with Rosie, their seven year old Vizsla. Michael loves chess, foosball, and fantasy football. Interestingly, he played Division 1 lacrosse at Michigan State University and didn't run.
