Fantasy Injuries and Anger/Sadness

[StLee]

It's funny that I know I am playing a game and know that there is nothing real, but when one of my favorite players gets hurt, I am angry and sad about the injury. Just to learn the game, I started a basic beginning of the 2007 season NFL franchise. After simming through a lot to play around with changing game plans and strategies, I got to the 2008 season. There my QB, Drew Brees of the Saints, suffered a hernia injury that will sideline him for over a year, basically meaning he is not available until 2010. I thought about reloading to my last save point, but then I decided just to see how I could adjust knowing I wouldn't have my franchise QB for a full season.

How do you cope with player injuries? I know many of you here are playing in multi-player leagues, so it probably is more disgruntling when it happens to you.

[MelB]

It's frustrating to be sure... especially when it's such a pivotal player like your QB. But it's also what makes the game so interesting. Just like the real NFL you need to try and juggle your lineup to get quality backups for cases like this. We all saw what a crazy year it was for quarterbacks in the NFL this year. People we're wheeling and dealing, trading with other teams for their backups, picking up aging free agents to keep them going, and even trying to talk some real oldies out of retirement (I would like to have seen Jeff George give it another shot!). Anyways, try to enjoy the immersion and challenge of coming up with a way to recover and hopefully still win with whatever QB you can get. Tweak your game plan maybe to more running plays if you can. Get a average QB that is great at just short passing and use a West Coast style offense. Just roll with it and have fun! :)

-Mel B.

[Autumn]

The flip side is the excitement when something like that goes unusually right. My league I'm playing right now had that, when my starter went down in Week 17, missing the playoffs. My rookie who had never played before came in and set a league record in his first game! Without injuries we'd never have stories like that, or Hostetler, or Tom Brady!

But to answer your original question, I get quite emotional about it too. I had a season where both my starting cornerbacks went down for the whole season by week one and I was totally ripshit.

[Big T]

Funny the you guys would mention this. I usually sim the game and watch it after. I actually have 3 careers going in thier early stages. The Saints, Dolphins and then a non real player Chiefs. With the Saints I am into my 3rd year and have good success, but a playoff bomb. During more then a few times I have cursed Brees to complete a pass, or my defense to make a freakin play. You get caught up in it like its real, but I for one would never comprimise the game by reverting back to a former save to avoid a bad injury or something.

[perez24]

I set the injuries around 250 or so (maybe higher) because I want to spend the whole offseason putting together, for example, the best O-line I can draft/sign and then have the LT and RG miss the season or maybe finally get my 3 starting LBs above 50 and then have the SLB go down so that I have to play the WLB out of position because he's my second-best OLB period. Losing a QB for a couple of weeks a season and then deciding between the mentor with a 28 rating overall and the rookie QB whom I signed primarily to hold snaps is even better.

As MelB said earlier, this is how football is.

[TurfToe]

My favorite is drafting a QB in the 1st round, living with the ups-but-mostly-downs for 5 seasons and then have a career ending inury in year 6 after he appears to be putting it all together.

[Yoda]

My first SP league I did a draft, and I drafted Matt Leinart.

First Pre-Season game, play one, has a career ending injury.

What I find ironic, is that the EXACT same thing happened to me in Madden (execpt in Madden it was a season ending one).

I vowed then, never to draft or play him again.