Off Topic Firday: The Thankless Job

For those of you reading that are commissioner of their own league then you will know exactly where I am coming from with this topic.  It is a usually a thankless job that everyone, other than the commish, thinks is easy to manage.  However, these people are simply foolish.  Complaints, accusations of collusion, and cheap people are just some of the things I come across in many of the leagues I am in. Being a commish of 3 leagues shows you how difficult my life is.

To begin, nailing down a date to hold the draft is beyond ridiculous.  Everyone involved believes that the draft date is something that should revolve around their schedule as if they are the only ones in the league with a life.  Do you know how hard it is to get 10 alpha males to agree on one day at the end of summer?  Going to the beach is the first excuse.  Then there are the people who want to wait to the day before the season starts which happens to be a Wednesday every year now.  And don’t forget the guys who just simply don’t return phone calls or text messages.

So once I am able to change everyone’s diaper and we get to the draft portion of the season, people think that I somehow rigged the draft so that I had the 3^rd pick even though they were just in the room and watched me pick the number out of the hat.  Oh no that’s right.  I forgot.  I have magical gifts that allow me to change numbers for anything that I want.  My mistake.

Then we get to the part of the season where the sheer fact that I still don’t have everyone’s money ticks off everyone else in the league.  But do they get mad at the person who didn’t pay?  Of course not…it’s the commish’s fault.  He should get the IRS and secret service out to hunt down the thieves who haven’t paid their $50 yet to the league. The guy isn’t Chris Gardner and I can’t somehow go into his account and get his money.  That crap happens in movies.  I ask him, he comes up with some absurd excuse, like the dog ate his league fee and he’ll pay next time I see him.  I can’t shake him down.   I can’t text bomb him.  I can, however, delete him from my friends list on Facebook.   Am I? No, because then I will be one less person closer to 1,000 friends than yesterday.

Next up is explaining to everyone how the “Waiver Wire” process works, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE LEAGUE WITH THE SAME PEOPLE FOR 8 YEARS!!  I mean really.  How many times do I need to explain it?  It is reverse order of the standings each week.  So if you are in 2^nd place, well then you get to pick 9^th this week since 8 people are worse than you and one person is better than you.  This is 4^th grade Math people, and maybe even 3^rd if you were in one of those ADP classes.

We got a Situation..

I could go on and on for another 5 or 6 paragraphs about the crap that the Commish needs to go through on a seasonal basis.  No matter what his decisions are or what the outcomes are, there is always going to be someone unhappy with the situation.  Sometimes I wonder if people in my leagues know that I have another job outside of the league.  Despite what they may think, I work in a average size cubicle and stare at two computer monitors throughout the day. TWO! Commish's are seldom thanked for a discretely difficult job.  I guess that is why no one ever says, “I want to be a Fantasy Football Commissioner when I grow up” (this is my only reference to 80’s television for the week). 

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