There has been a recent uptick in tweets from NFL players about how little they care about fans’ fantasy teams, and Richard Sherman thinks he knows why.
The Seattle Seahawks cornerback responded to a question Sunday night about how players react to seeing teammates injured in light of Chris Carson’s severe ankle injury. Sherman bemoaned the fact that many fans appear to care more about injuries as they relate to the player’s fantasy viability as opposed to their own personal well-being.
“I think a lot of people, a lot of fans out there have looked at players even less like people because of fantasy football and things like that,” Sherman said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “You go and say, ‘Oh man, this guy got hurt.’
“You’re not thinking, ‘Hey man, this guy got hurt — he’s really physically hurt and he’s going to take time to recover and it’s probably going to affect his mental state and his physical state and now he has a long, rigorous rehab.’ You’re thinking, ‘Oh, man, he’s messing up my fantasy team.'”
Sherman believes the angle fans take has led to some players viewing fantasy football tweets from fans in a negative light.
“I think that’s why you see the frustration from a lot of players saying they don’t care about your fantasy team,” he said. “They don’t care about how it affects your fantasy team because these are real players, this is real life. This is real life and this is their real job and that’s affecting their well-being.
“Now, your fantasy team may not win, and hey, guess what, you’ll live the next day. This is their well-being. They may not ever get another shot. They may never get another down, another play. And I think that’s why it’s so devastating for players. Thankfully, I don’t think [Carson’s injury is] as serious as we first thought, hopefully, God willing. Trying to be optimistic in this situation.”
Players have tweeted in the past about fantasy football, and not positively. One can understand how they’d be annoyed with the incessant comments after a bad performance or an injury.
