Since I lived in Los Angeles and Cold Pizza was live, it meant I was waking up at 3:30 in the morning, driving 45 minutes to the studios, and putting on makeup just to talk fantasy baseball for three minutes. But I was thrilled to do it.
The first time I did live TV my heart was beating so fast I could barely breathe. The studio didn’t have a monitor or a teleprompter, so I had all these stats I was trying to remember at five in the morning because not knowing when I was on-screen or not I couldn’t look down. I’m sure my discomfort showed on TV. My most vivid memory is from my third-ever show. Remember now, it was 4:45 AM or so in Los Angeles, and I was still on a week-to-week basis with Cold Pizza. The studio was not a full-time facility. Meaning, it wasn’t open 24 hours but opened when necessary to shoot stuff. It was also in a part of town that wasn’t, shall we say, the safest.
So I get there, it’s still dark out, and the door is locked. No lights, I’m wandering around, trying to find a way in, the hit is happening in like 15 minutes, and I’m freaking out. No one’s here, I’m gonna miss it, I’m blowing my big shot, and it probably looks like I’m trying to break into this place. I decide I’d rather be arrested than miss the TV hit, so I start trying to break into the place. Seriously.
As I’m trying to pick the lock, my producer Gabe calls me, wonders why they haven’t gotten a call from the studio for the uplink or anything. I explain the situation. Gabe says okay, hang tight, and now I’m just hanging out, feeling awkward, in this dark parking lot at four in the morning. Turns out the guy who was supposed to be there had overslept, Cold Pizza pushed the segment to the next hour, the guy showed up eventually, and all went well. But I’ll never forget pulling on this locked door in a creepy parking lot, trying to remember how they show picking a lock on TV shows, panicked that I was gonna miss my hit.
The Gabe I’m referring to is Gabe Goodwin, or as he is known on Twitter and our podcast, “Gabe the WP,” our angry, ranting friend. He was the first guy who helped shape all my segments and was among the guys who fought to keep me on the air.
Because when I wasn’t having to break in, it was pretty much the same drill every week. The segment would end, I would drive home at 5:45 AM or so, watch back the tape, and notice all the things I could have done better.
Cold Pizza wasn’t convinced they should even be doing fantasy, and if they should, was I really the best guy ? I had no guarantee. I was week-to-week.
It was my one big chance, and it could have easily gone either way.
That time in my life reminded me of the fantasy swing plays. You know the ones. Those insane, once-in-a-lifetime, what-the-hell-just-happened plays that swing thousands upon thousands of fantasy games one way or the other. They take on a greater magnitude because they usually happen during or leading up to the fantasy playoffs.
Here, in order, are the top five individual NFL plays that swung the most fantasy football leagues one way or the other:
5. In week 13 of the 2009 season, New Orleans’ Drew Brees threw an interception to Washington’s Kareem Moore. On Moore’s return, the Saints’ Robert Meachem stripped Moore, recovered the ensuing fumble, and ran it in for a touchdown. There was much controversy about this play, as many folks wanted the TD to count for the Saints D/ST (since, technically, as soon as the Redskins had possession the Saints were “on defense”), but ultimately it was ruled a fumble recovery touchdown. Meachem was already having a huge game (142 yards and a receiving touchdown), so those who felt they had managed to survive the onslaught found out later in the week that there were six more points to Meachem’s total, which caused a lot of wins to turn into losses. And vice versa.
4. In week 10 of 2009, with the Jacksonville Jaguars trailing by two points with under a minute to play, Maurice Jones-Drew broke toward the end zone. But instead of scoring an easy touchdown, he took a knee on the 1-yard line so the Jags could run down the clock and kick a winning field goal. MJD, who plays fantasy himself, at least understood the implications. After the game, he said, “Sorry to my fantasy owners. They told me to get as close as I can and take a knee.” On the plus side, MJD’s fantasy opponents that week loved him. No apology needed.
3. You got victory wrapped up. You start talking trash, texting your opponent, declaring you will name your first child LeGarrette (or whoever just led you to victory). And then—at the last possible second—something unbelievable happens to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The premature celebration and awkward aftermath had its real-life version on Monday Night Football when, in week two of 2008, DeSean Jackson caught a 60-yard bomb from Donovan McNabb and flipped the ball away in celebration—a foot before he crossed the goal line. Brian Westbrook ultimately ran in for the score. Even though this was only week two, I’m putting it at number three because it was Monday Night and because it not only took six away from Jackson, but four points away from McNabb. Double crusher or double bonus, depending on your point of view.
2. In the 2010 season, Rashard Mendenhall was a star running back for not just the Pittsburgh Steelers but also fantasy owners. It was week 15, the semifinals of many leagues. And that week Mendenhall ran for a touchdown and 100 yards on the nose. But five days later, the Elias Sports Bureau (the official NFL statistician) ruled that he had only gained 99. That cost all Mendenhall owners at least one point and, in some cases, multiple points if they got a bonus for 100 yards rushing. Chaos. Many teams that thought they were playing in their finals suddenly weren’t, and teams that thought their season was over were now alive again. Adding to the issue was that many teams had already gone through waivers on Tuesday, prepping for week 16, so it caused even more problems. Beyond that, on ESPN we changed the scoring to what Elias officially ruled, but for people who ran their leagues on CBS, no such thing happened. CBS has a long-standing policy of not recognizing stat changes made by Elias after a Wednesday deadline. So you had ESPN showing Mendenhall with just 99 rush yards (the NFL’s official stance) and CBS saying Mendenhall was locked at 100. CHAOS.
1. The no-brainer: week 15, 2007. With 2:19 left in a close game the Eagles are winning, Philadelphia running back Brian Westbrook takes off from the 25-yard line of Dallas, breaks free, and is heading for a touchdown when, suddenly, untouched, he drops down on the 1-yard line and allows himself to be downed. Ironically, it was a real smart football play, as the Eagles won the game. But fantasy owners went nuts.
More than 10,000 teams on ESPN were affected, winning or losing as a result of that one play, depending on where they were. Years after that, I met Brian at ESPN and asked him about it. He told me, “Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t bring that play and fantasy football up.”
Over the years, I’ve heard so many stories about that knee, each with one of two specific endings. The person was winning, the other team was down five when Westbrook broke for daylight, their season was over, and then . . . kneel-down. An improbable victory by the narrowest of margins. Or the flip side: someone was losing by five, they had a glimmer of hope, and then, just as jubilation was about to hit, their hopes were dashed at the last possible second with a then-unheard-of kneel-down with no defender near him.
But as bad as your most brutal loss may be, and I’m sure it’s a doozy, there is a Wall Street league that puts yours to shame. The league (understandably) wishes to remain anonymous, but it’s a 10-team league. With a $100,000 per team entry fee.
I was talking with a guy in that league who was in the semis. Down five. With only one player left playing . . . yep. “That knee cost me $600,000.”
Brutal.
Of course, the other way to look at it: that knee won someone $600,000.
The slimmest of margins, the difference between winning and losing in those matchups, is razor-thin. And if the Cold Pizza segments had gone another way, who knows where my career would be? It was touch-and-go for what seemed like an eternity. But every week I’d hear from Gabe, and they’d say they wanted me back.
As the Col
d Pizza segments got better and better, Mike Epstein, a producer at ESPNEWS, took notice. Football was starting up, and he wanted me to do a debate segment with Eric Karabell, ESPN’s longtime fantasy analyst. That was the fall of 2005.
Then, the following February, at the NBA All-Star Game, I met an editor for ESPN The Magazine. So I trotted out a familiar refrain. “Hey, I’m already in the family, you know. Doing radio with 710, doing Cold Pizza and ESPNEWS. Why don’t I write a fantasy column for you guys?”
He passed me on to Scott Burton, then the NFL editor for ESPN The Magazine. It turned out Scott was already a fan of my work, and so he said, yeah, let’s try it. Once again, I had a shot. And was ready for it.
With the NBA deal, the ESPN exposure, and all the content TMR was doing for other websites, the two websites were profitable. No one was buying mansions, but both were in the black, as they say, and they were growing in revenue, traffic, and industry reputation.
Fantasy continued to grow, and I knew it was close. There had been a few smaller fantasy companies that had been bought, including Rotoworld, my first site. They had just been bought by NBC Sports and I could feel a boom coming on.
And then luckily, those magic words were spoken again.
“I’ve got the guy.”
My boss at the NBA, a woman named Brenda Spoonemore, was having a discussion with her former ESPN coworker, a guy named Geoff Reiss. Geoff was doing a fantasy football show for ESPN2. Ron Jaworski, “Jaws” himself, would be the X’s and O’s football guy, and they were looking for who the fantasy football guy next to Jaws would be.
And Brenda said, “You should meet our guy. He’s great.”
So at the same NBA All-Star Game where I had spoken to the ESPN The Magazine editor, I had a drink with Geoff, who described what he was looking for. And I was ready once again, now with a CD of my best TV appearances from Cold Pizza, ESPNEWS, and elsewhere.
Later, Geoff brought me in for an interview with senior management folks like John Walsh, all the other producers, like Jamie Horowitz and Chantre Camack, and a consultant to the project, Bill Simmons. I found out later that Bill was a big champion of mine behind the scenes to upper management, and after a while, thanks to all of their support, I got the gig.
During this time when I was interviewing for The Fantasy Show as an on-air contributor, I had also been having some business meetings with John Kosner, who ran digital media at ESPN. Randomly, a very funny friend I wrote with on the sitcom Conrad Bloom, Les Firestein, had gone to college with John and was good friends with him. When Les heard of my interest in fantasy sports, he offered to set me up to meet John. John had an opening to help run the fantasy sports business at ESPN.com and was looking to do something outside the box.
As you may have guessed, when I met John, I was ready. He told me his ideas, and many matched up with mine. I had met with John for the first time before I interviewed for The Fantasy Show and I found out later that John had already been talking me up internally. His support had helped get me the on-air job with The Fantasy Show. Now, as we continued to talk, John introduced me around ESPN, and after lots of meetings, phone calls, and discussions, plus the NBA very graciously allowing me to get out of my contract (I am forever indebted to Adam Silver and the NBA), I ended up selling TalentedMrRoto.com to ESPN and officially joined the Worldwide Leader in Sports as its senior director of fantasy sports. It was the fall of 2006.
A year later, Bill King wrote about the whole thing much more eloquently than I could for the Sports Business Journal, the noted trade publication. Here’s an excerpt from the piece, “How Mr. Roto Came to Live a Life of Fantasy”:
. . . Landed a meeting for Berry with John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN digital media.
“When I first met Matthew, he was a ball of fire,” Kosner said. “I was mesmerized by his passion for fantasy.”
Kosner wanted to hear more. He suggested Berry commit his ideas to paper. When they next met, Berry showed up with a binder that Kosner likened to a Bill Walsh playbook. ESPN would buy his site, make his the face of fantasy sports across all its platforms, and give him a role as an executive overseeing its fantasy games.
“He came in with a plan,” Kosner said. “Some of that was moving more fantasy content out from behind the pay wall. But more broadly, it was about his making fantasy mainstream.
“There are some people who never thought we’d have fantasy on ‘SportsCenter,’ ‘NFL Countdown,’ and so forth. But he was absolutely tireless making the point about how important fantasy is to so many of our fans.”
Berry would not disclose the terms of his deal with ESPN, but estimated that his salary and the purchase price, spread out over time, leave him ahead of where he was as a screenwriter.
“But I’m so much happier doing what I do now than I was in Hollywood that it’s apples and oranges,” Berry said. “Don’t tell Kosner that. I like my salary. But I’d do it for free.”
Every movie gets a tag line, something catchy to run across the top of the poster, and then on the DVD cover. “The Talented Mr. Ripley” had this: “How far would you go to become someone else?”
Each Sunday morning, during the “NFL Countdown” pregame show, Berry advises fantasy players on whom to start or sit.
“My dad still says to me, ‘Every Sunday, it blows my mind,’” Berry said. “‘What’s Boomer doing talking to my kid?’
“It’s bizarre. . . . I mean, it’s like, nuts.”
At the time, I had played in hundreds of fantasy leagues for 22 years. I had won a decent amount of the leagues, but you know what I found?
No fantasy title compared to this. Selling the site to ESPN, landing this job, getting to do what I loved for a living? Greatest win of all time.
I still play fantasy. I still love it. I still get upset when I lose and still enjoy when I win. But if I’m being truthful, it all pales in comparison with that moment.
When I watch football on Sundays, I’m rooting for my Redskins, I’m rooting for my fantasy teams, but mostly I’m rooting for my picks. If I said I liked Matt Schaub that week, I’m rooting for him to go off, even if I am playing against him in three leagues. Because I’d rather be right on the pick and lose all three games than the other way around.
Turns out the “league” I wanted to win the most was the one where I was competing with myself to make a career of this. The one that proved I wasn’t crazy to leave show business. The one that got me closer to the end of my journey toward happiness.
Fantasy changed for me the day I got the job at ESPN. It’s hard to explain other than to say . . . when you have the biggest win of your life, you don’t sweat the others.
TIME-OUT:
The Best Individual Days in Fantasy Football History
We all play fantasy to hang with our buddies, to keep in touch with people, to give us a rooting interest in games we wouldn’t otherwise care about, and ultimately we play because it’s fun. But the truth is: it’s a lot more fun to win. A lot.
And there’s no easier way to win than when you have a guy on your team who absolutely crushes. My ESPN colleague Tristan Cockcroft is amazing with this sort of thing (frankly, he’s amazing with a lot of things, but also this), so I asked him: what would be the 20 greatest fantasy football days of all-time in the NFL?
The Twenty Greatest Individual Fantasy Days of All-Time (ESPN standard scoring)
1. 55 points: Dub Jones, RB, Browns, November 25, 1951: 116 rushing yards, 4 rushing TDs, 3 receptions for 80 receiving yards, and 2 receiving TDs.
T-1. 55 points: Gale Sayers, RB, Bears, December 12, 1965: 113 rushing yards, 4 rushing TDs, 2 receptions for 89 receiving yards, and 1 receiving TD.
3. 54 points: Clinton Portis, RB, Broncos, December 7, 2003: 218 rushing yards, 5 rushing TDs, and 2 receptions for 36 receiving yards.
T-3. 54 points: Cloyce Box, TE, Lions, Decem
ber 3, 1950: 12 receptions, 302 receiving yards, and 4 TDs.
5. 52 points: Shaun Alexander, RB, Seahawks, September 29, 2002: 139 rushing yards, 4 TDs, 3 receptions for 92 yards, and 1 receiving TD.
T-5. 52 points: Jerry Rice, WR, 49ers, October 14, 1990: 13 receptions for 225 yards and 5 TDs.
T-5. 52 points: Jim Brown, RB, Browns, November 19, 1961: 237 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and 3 receptions for 52 yards.
8. 51 points: Corey Dillon, RB, Bengals, December 4, 1997: 246 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and 2 receptions for 30 yards.
T-8. 51 points: Doug Martin, RB, Buccaneers, November 4, 2012: 251 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and 4 receptions for 21 yards.
10. 50 points: Jerry Butler, WR, Bills, September 23, 1979: 12 rushing yards, 10 receptions for 255 receiving yards, and 4 TDs.
11. 49 points: Mike Anderson, RB, Broncos, December 3, 2000: 251 rushing yards, 4 TDs, 1 reception for 5 yards.
T-11. 49 points: Larry Brown, RB, Redskins, December 16, 1973: 150 rushing yards, 1 TD, 3 receptions for 105 yards, and 3 receiving TDs.
T-11. 49 points: Barry Sanders, RB, Lions, November 24, 1991: 22 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and 4 receptions for 31 yards.
T-11. 49 points: Michael Vick, QB, Eagles, November 15, 2010: 333 passing yards, 4 passing TDs, 80 rushing yards, and 2 rushing TDs.
T-11. 49 points: Jim Brown, RB, Browns, November 24, 1957: 237 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and 3 receptions for 21 yards.
16. 48 points: Priest Holmes, RB, Chiefs, November 24, 2002: 197 yards rushing, 2 TDs, 7 receptions for 110 yards, and 1 receiving TD.
Fantasy Life: The Outrageous, Uplifting, and Heartbreaking World of Fantasy Sports from the Guy Who's Lived It Page 19
