Privilege in Fantasy Football?

            It’s November. The trees have finally lost their leaves, the weather is getting colder every day, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. That means we are in the heart of football season, and that means we are in the heart of fantasy football season. This year was the first time I managed a fantasy football team, yet it feels like something I do annually and I am excited to start fresh next year and pick a new team (especially because my team has won a whopping 2 games of 9 so far). While fantasy football seems like a silly waste of time, it actually is pretty representative of everyone’s privileges and disadvantages if you think about it.

            Being born is like drafting your fantasy team- you really do not have much control over it. That great running back you drafted in the first round? Torn ACL week 1 out for the season. While drafting a fantasy team is a little bit more skill based than being born, they both are largely surrounded with luck. After a few weeks, it becomes clear whose team is going to succeed and whose isn’t. The same goes for life- after living for a while it becomes clear to you if you are meant to succeed in society. Be it skin color, gender, or household income, there are many possible advantages and disadvantages someone can be born into.

            Now, if you draft a bad team you aren’t inherently screwed. You can pick up undrafted players each week who perform well (because of players ahead of them getting injured or finally finding their stride). The way my league works is the player with the worst record gets first dibs at these undrafted players. This allows people who got unlucky with the draft to improve their team and even the playing field (at least a little). While life does not have as fair a system of allowing people who didn’t get a head start to catch up, there are some things in place to allow the less privileged try to catch up to those who are privileged. Some examples of these are scholarships and awards for minorities and welfare for the unemployed. While these systems do not make things even by any means, they definitely work to make things a little less unfair, just like picking up undrafted players in fantasy.

            Now regardless, not everyone is going to be as successful as everyone else. As joint second to last in my league, I can assure you of that. The point is to make the most of what you’re dealt, and to live life to the fullest (for the sake of the analogy, enjoy fantasy football as much as you can). 

What do you think, reader, is this a good analogy? What's an analogy that you would use to describe how some people are born into more than others?