DAD Moves: Childhood fears, and Fantasy football.

I asked the ole Twitterverse this past week what their irrational fear was as a kid.

It’s summertime, and I’m about to swim with my cousins at my grandparent’s pool. Cousin Jill bets me a Mickey Mouse popsicle to jump off the diving board into the deep end. I’m not a strong swimmer at this point, but any kid of the 80s knows the red Mickey pop is the holy grail of summertime delicacy. I wait until my mom isn’t looking. Then, I step up on the board and step right off. What happened next can’t be explained. How did it get in there? How can it survive in this chlorine environment? It’s a pool shark!!l The entire story I just told you is accurate, except for the pool shark. I never did get that Mickey pop. Pool shark was my irrational childhood fear. I couldn’t go near the middle of a pool without that John Williams’ Jaws theme playing in my head.

Photo by Jess Zoerb on Unsplash

I asked the ole Twitterverse about their irrational fear as a kid this past week. I got some great replies. I was glad to learn I was not alone in the pool shark world. Quicksand was a big one! Apparently, in the 80s and 90s, we were led to believe that quicksand would be a frequent encounter. One dude even mentioned he had a fear of pooping. I held back every dad joke. I had to be empathetic to his childhood fear. One man’s daily break in the throne is another man’s nightmare. Other worries included toilet snakes, being buried alive, boogie man (that guy ruins everything), spiders, etc. The bottom line is we all have an irrational fear. My irrational fear as an adult is that despite all the homework I do, all the off-season prep work, and all the experience, I’ll go 0-17 in a fantasy league. It never comes close to happening. When I go 0-1, the fear sinks in. I start overreacting like crazy to avoid this fear becoming a reality. It’s ridiculous, but I’ll have this fear again in a league this upcoming season. I’ll panic trade and drop rookies after week one (facepalm). This past season I didn’t win my coveted belt back. I came in 2nd in that league and walked away with some money. I started 0-3. The panic set in, granted I didn’t win, but what I thought would be a pool shark just turned out to be an unfulfilled promise of obtaining a Mickey pop (you still owe me, Cousin Jill). The best way to not tank next season is to still be watching football now.

Be sure to have an alert app for your phone. I use Bleacher report and Sleeper. Always have your notes from last season. Watch the NFL combine and draft. Falling for preseason hype can be the ultimate killer. Always know where you stood on players at the end of the previous season. Suppose you’re getting into fantasy or already a full-blown fantasy addict like myself. In that case, you will develop wild, irrational fears and superstitions. The more prep work you do, starting right now will save you from drowning in the quicksand come draft time. Fantasy drafts are one of the best times, so don’t dread it like poop guy fears; one of the only private times I get at home is with a wife and 4 kids. Get ready now and feel confident later.

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