Reader Mailbag: Is It Okay To Let My Opponent Pick My Fantasy Lineup This Week Since I Made The Playoffs, He Needs A Win To Get In, And Deciding Who To Start Will Drive Him Crazy?

I threw on a wig and recorded my initial reaction to this question, which you can watch below:

At first, I thought there was no way you can do this if there is a playoff spot on the line. I know fantasy football is a dog eat dog game and the only time you should care about the feelings of anyone else in your league is if you are looking to inflict nothing but pain upon their soul. But playing with the fates of multiple team's fantasy seasons seems wrong from a moral standpoint AND a juju standpoint. You pull a move like this, you might as well shred your RB1's ACL yourself.

However because fantasy is a game of pain, I can actually be convinced that this is the meanest thing you can do to someone who needs a W as long as your bench is anywhere near as good as your lineup. I know that conventional wisdom would say he'll just say to start the bench players or whoever has the lowest projections. But the only thing more painful than losing to another team's starters in the last week of the season is losing to that team's bench players that you chose to play, after they outscored who his starters would've been. The amount of thought and agony your friend will go through over the next four days to avoid that scenario from playing out is what being in a position of power in fantasy is all about. You are essentially becoming Gozer and asking them to choose The Destructor to end their season. 

Even a player as harmless as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man can fuck up your season because fantasy football is an unpredictable, heartless bitch where players projected for 20s get 2s and players projected for 2s get 20s because nothing makes any damn sense. I've been asked by my people in my league to choose their flex in a week where I play them and I straight up ghosted the text message because I know it would crush me if I didn't choose the right player.

Yup, two 80s movies references in a paragraph means it's about time to wrap up

In closing, I think you can do this but you MUST get the approval of everyone else in the running for that last playoff spot before you do it. Again, this is both from an ethical standpoint and a juju standpoint. Fantasy may be a heartless game but you can't light someone else's season on fire because your team has an x next to its name before the season is over and theirs doesn't. You also have to be fully prepared to face this guy in the playoffs and watch him eliminate you for pulling a stunt like this because that's the kind of fucked up stuff that the Fantasy Gods love doing since they are sadistic sons of bitches. 

However the amount of misery he will go through this week along with the chance someone from your bench becoming a legend for ending his season has way too much upside, which as we know is what fantasy is all about since every league with any history has something like the Kevin Boss Game.

If you are the person choosing this guy's lineup, make sure to watch Dear Mr. Fantasy at 11:30 AM on Sunday morning with the fellas from the Fantasy Football Factory podcast for all your Start/Bench needs.

Final Ruling: ACCEPTABLE (As Long As The Other Teams "In The Hunt" Approve)

While we are throwing out gifs from The League, have to take this opportunity to empty out my gifs of Jenny from The League since I see them every time I go to Giphy and I have to bonk myself to get back in the right frame of mind.