So for the second time in 2019, my Fantasy Football season is over.

 

???
Let me explain.

 

As the Yahoo Fantasy Football season approached this past summer, I was not really "feeling it" as in all years past. Which was odd and puzzling, since I was dripping with anticipation of actual football more than I had all damn decade. At LEAST.  No idea why this was happening.

I wasn't about to quit on the league commish so close to season's open, but throughout August and September, I really thought the 2019 season might be my final one in the league. My team, Greatest Detective, was either getting my all, or my nothing—no half-assing like at least two of the other league "managers".
Still, because FF was low on my priority list come Draft Day...I missed the draft completely and got stuck with several stiffs I'd never even heard of (though D.J. Moore was one damn good automated pick and Wil Lutz was solid all year). 

And with a league reduction of keepers for the 2019 season—something I'd supported, BTW—the Greatest Detective roster only bore a passing resemblance to the 2018 edition that went 8-5 and made the playoffs. And even less of a resemblance to the 2017 championship edition.

 

Worse yet, the three most familiar faces (Todd Gurley, Philip Rivers and A.J. Green) and guys who'd carried my team in the past were either being harbored, in decline, or injured—the world learned fast those men weren't going to be carrying squat in 2019. Yahoo itself predicted a 3-10 finish for GD.

So for the first four weeks, the league crushed my sorry ass. Season over.
Except I accidentally won in Week 5, liked it, and decided to do whatever it took to facilitate more wins despite playoff odds longer than a...football field.

Over the ensuing weeks, I made changes up and down the roster. Cut Donte Moncrief, Trey Burton and Mike Davis, two completely useless Fantasy players and one largely useless Fantasy player. Wisely gave up on any contribution from Dante Pettis, who only stayed on the roster at all because I'd swapped a high draft pick to acquire him as a "sleeper". (Dude didn't just sleep, he was frikkin' comatose all year.)

Brought in Duke Johnson to share the running load and hoped for something to put his backfield mate Carlos Hyde in the Houston doghouse (it didn't, but Johnson was still rather useful.) Gave up on Rivers, who couldn't go 10 passes without a pick anymore, and began to start Derek Carr. 

(One regrettable move I made was cutting Kirk Cousins in favor of Carr. Cousins hadn't been anything special last year, but he came around as 2019 wore on while Carr was only decent.)

GD still had no depth, and during one week I was forced to start the injured Green because half the roster was also injured or on bye's. Won anyway. Do you believe in destiny?

By then I'd climbed back up to 5-5 and was surging. With a couple of tough wins down the stretch, Greatest Detective snagged the 6th playoff seed with an 8-5 record, and even won in the first round! 
So despite getting completely destroyed in the Semifinals—thank you very MUCH for letting  Zeke Elliott and Dak Prescott go off, Rams defense—and the season being over for real, what's most important is whatever ghoul sapped my FF interest in August has long since been dispatched here in December, and I will continue on Livin' The Fantasy as a 40-year-old in 2020.

(Unless I am caught videotaping my opponents' preparation and get banned.)