Believe it or not, we used to interview players on WalterFootball.com. That’s right, the Web site that writes about jerks every week, makes fun of Matt Millen’s creepy, sexual comments, and has a list of all of Emmitt Smith’s grammatical errors used to treat itself more journalistically.
We specifically interviewed highly regarded prospects entering the NFL. We talked to Aaron Donald, Zack Martin, and even the great Jimmy Clausen. We were also close to an interview with Le’Veon Bell, but because of what I wrote in my book, A Safety and a Field Goal, it was canceled at the last second because of absolute nonsense.
We stopped interviewing players because no one cared. Seriously, no one cared. Those interview pages generated zero traffic, and it’s not like we were talking to scrubs. Donald is the best defensive player in the NFL. Martin is one of the top offensive linemen in the league. Both were first-round prospects. Yet, no one cared to read the interviews.
I wondered why this was for a while, but I came to realize that people just don’t care what players have to say, unless it’s something highly controversial that ends up trending on Twitter. I came to this conclusion when I remembered that I don’t follow any NFL players on Twitter.
Thus, it was a complete surprise to me once I heard what Josh Jacobs did ahead of the Week 14 games. For those as clueless as I was, Jacobs tweeted right before kickoff that he wasn’t going to play against the Colts. As you might expect, this incited some panic among Jacobs’ fantasy owners. They were quick to pull Jacobs out of their lineups, based on this announcement. It’s safe to say that they weren’t happy when Jacobs ended up starting in his Week 14 matchup.
Jacobs endured many angry tweets that day, and even those who played him were enraged because he ended up performing terribly, albeit in a tough matchup. Jacobs rushed for 49 yards on 13 carries, while catching three passes for 25 receiving yards. That’s a grand total of 7.4 fantasy points in standard leagues and 10.4 points in PPR formats. Not exactly worth a grand announcement on the world’s largest public forum.
And yet, Jacobs lied to them. For no good reason.
What sort of business lies to its customers like this? If your local, favorite store announces that it has a special deal, only to rip you off, you’re not going to be happy about it. If your dentist tells you that you need to fill a cavity when you really don’t, you’ll be pissed if you find out about it. If your accountant tells you that you can’t get a good tax return, and you eventually find out that you could have, you’ll be disappointed.
And in all three cases, you’ll take your business elsewhere.
I’m willing to bet that there’s a non-zero number of fantasy players who lost their fantasy quarterfinal matchup because they incorrectly benched Jacobs. Don’t you think some of these individuals would stop playing fantasy football because of that? If they do, they’re less likely to watch football, which means a decline in ratings. And a decline in ratings means a lower salary cap, which decreases the amount of money a team would be willing to pay for Jacobs.
I imagine Jacobs hates fantasy football despite it being the primary reason he’s paid so much money. Jacobs needs to realize this, and he must apologize to those he screwed over in their fantasy matchups. It’s the only way to make amends for the damage he has caused for himself and his other league mates. Otherwise, people will continue to be angry, and the NFL will continue to lose viewership, which is bad news for everyone.
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