How I Second-Guessed Myself Out of a Fantasy Football Championship

Reports all week said that Cowboys RB Marion Barber would be a game-time decision.  But even so, I was set on starting Cowboys RB Tashard Choice all week instead of Barber.

I figured that if Barber couldn’t play at all last Sunday, then how would he suddenly perform well on Saturday. I knew there was a good chance that Barber would try and play even if he shouldn’t have been, especially after getting called out a couple weeks ago by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

However, my gut and instincts told me that in such an important game, the Cowboys weren’t going to leave an ailing running back in, no matter how good he usually is; especially when Choice has been playing so well.

However, 20 minutes before the game I decided to check to see if Barber was playing. The reports said he was active, and I thought about putting Barber in.

But after thinking about it, I decided not to because being active doesn’t really mean that much. Then, 10 minutes later, just to be safe I looked one more time and read another report that said that in warm-ups Barber was running and cutting very well.

Then I suddenly panicked and logged in to my fantasy football roster. As the minutes were ticking down, I still coudn't decide. Then right before kick off, unfortunately I put Barber in instead of Choice. With in the first five minutes of the game Choice scored a touchdown and I suddenly felt nauseous.

Tashard Choice ended the game with seven receptions, 115 total yards, and a touchdown, and Marion barber was virtually non existent. Just from watching Barber play at all, you could see that he obviously couldn’t cut well and was not ready to play.

I lost my Championship 125-129 and it was all because I listened to some reporter, who probably knew nothing about football, that said that Barber looked good in warmups.

I learned two lessons form this. First of all, I if a player isn't even active the week before, don’t even think about starting him the next week.

Second of all, I learned an even bigger lesson not just for fantasy football but for life.  As cheesy as this sound, you got to go with your gut and first instinct and stick with it. Most of the time when you second guess yourself and change your mind at the last second, you’ll just end up regretting it.