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Building a Legacy: It Always Comes Back

by Gary Zamarripa

I was never a fan of the old slasher movies when I was younger – movies like “Friday the 13th,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Halloween” – so I never watched many of them.

Then one day a few years ago I came across a television marathon of “Friday the 13th.” What is a person supposed to do on a Saturday afternoon with beautiful weather outside and a movie marathon inside? If you guessed, watch the movies, then you guessed right.

I started watching the first one, then the second one and so on. The movies weren’t as scary as I remember them being talked about. They became predictable. Instead of being scared, it was fun trying to figure out what was going to happen next. The movies all followed a similar theme, the best of which was that the villain would be presumed dead towards the end, and then come back to life to wreak havoc for one last terrifying scene. It was like you could never really kill the villain.

This month “Building a Legacy” will focus on the past as it relates to the future. We’ve all said and done things we aren’t proud of, some things that seemed insignificant at the time, and others that ended up being quite significant.

Nowadays, instead of Freddy Kruger and Michael Meyers resurfacing and lurking around the corner when you least expect it, it’s the internet that keeps coming back to haunt us, even years down the road.

The Internet is Forever

The internet is the movie villain that comes back to life to try and kill the characters at the end. In the movies, the characters taking part in the vices are the ones that die.  The “good” characters seem to escape the fate of their “sinful” counterparts.

The internet cannot come back to kill you at the end if you don’t say offensive or inappropriate things. A recent example of being killed by the past is Mike Richards. He was executive producer and scheduled to take over the hosting duties of Alex Trebek on “Jeopardy!”

The new, now former “Jeopardy!” host Richards had some old podcast recordings dug up featuring him defaming women. He ended up losing his hosting job and his job as executive producer of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” because of something he said 7 years earlier.

It is not the intention of this column to decide if his firing was justified. As the owner of the shows, Sony Pictures Television will do whatever is best for their brand. I’m sure there is a contingent clamoring for Richards, making justifications like “that was years ago, he’s grown” and similar statements. My thoughts are that if he said them once, it’s probably how he feels regardless of the time that has passed.

He issued an apology that attempted to say the right things and checked all the boxes you would expect. However, he did try to deflect some criticism by using phrases like “moment of misjudgment” and “from nearly a decade ago.” He also tried to justify his actions by saying, “The podcast was intended to be a series of irreverent conversations between longtime friends who had a history of joking around”.

Consequences

This situation and a few others I’ve encountered recently have reminded me of the real-life consequences that can happen on social media. Today, you hear stories of human resource managers reading social media accounts of prospective job candidates. It’s frightening you can get passed over for a job or even worse, lose a job, because of your online presence.

While it may seem innocuous to go online to post and retweet political ideologies, it can also help drive wedges between friends and family. To make matters worse, the online political ranting perpetuates an “Us” versus “Them” mindset that rarely results in changing anyone’s opinion.

I have taken this opportunity to stress with my kids the importance of the impact social media can have on their future lives. Teenagers do and say some crazy things as they learn and grow into their adult selves. Having all that documented online along the way is a nerve-wracking thought. Think twice before pressing send, post or tweet.

To Handcuff or Not to Handcuff?

In a horror movie, the protagonists always seem to have a backup solution, even when things go wrong. For many dynasty fantasy football managers, they try to attempt the same thing by handcuffing their star players. If you are unfamiliar with the term, handcuffing in fantasy football means to roster the backup to your starting running backs.

But the question is now, “Will this strategy help you escape the horrific injuries of the fantasy football season or just leave you with your hands tied?”

Handcuffing Pros

In a nutshell, the benefit of deploying this handcuffing strategy is having an insurance policy, protecting yourself from being without the starting player on a given NFL team. If a player on your roster misses time due to injury, you just plug in the backup and the roster is ready for next week.

Without that running back handcuff you may need to scramble to find an alternative option. Depending on your roster, you may not have someone to fill in or have to plugin a player without as much upside.

Handcuffing Cons

Tony Pollard scored 31.2 Points Per Reception (PPR) fantasy points in his lone start in 2020.

The downside to using the handcuff strategy is that your roster could be full of players that you are unable to play week-to-week, effectively taking up valuable bench spots. If your starter never misses time, that roster spot was useless in helping you win games.

You also have to consider the cost of acquisition of those handcuff players. This is important in dynasty leagues because if you were unable to get the handcuff in the rookie draft or off waivers, you will likely have to surrender valuable future draft picks, valuable assets or Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) for that insurance.

The depth charts for teams are also a fluid situation. One year, player A is the undisputed backup, then next NFL draft the team selects another player at the position, and now player B is the backup. You lost out if you gave up draft picks for player A.

Not all backup running back situations are equal either. Some players will fall into a place that the team plans to give them the majority of the injured starter’s carries. Other teams could opt to fill that position with a committee of players, meaning almost none of them will help you win fantasy games consistently.

Handcuffing Alternatives

Another strategy is to roster the backup running backs of your league mates. If injury strikes, then you have another starting running back on your squad. While your opponent must now struggle to fill that void. It is never good to wish for injury, but they do happen, and your fantasy team can benefit because of them.

If you draft or pick up the handcuff of your opponent, you can also help your team by trading that player to the team with the starter and getting draft picks to build your team for the future. The same caveats from above apply in this case. You still have a player filling a roster spot and you used your own draft pick or FAAB on a player that may not be the backup next season.

In fantasy football, the best advice is to draft the best player available. I would pass on the newly-drafted rookie that could be the backup of a starter on my team if a player I liked better from another position was available. That is a lesson I’ve learned the hard way through the years. Draft for talent rather than situation in dynasty.


A little empathy goes a long way. Try to make someone smile every day with an act of kindness. Find me on Twitter @GaryZam01 to chat about football, music or really anything.

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