In week 16 of the 2011 NFL season, Tony Romo made me very, very angry.  Irrationally angry for a player who was neither on my favorite team or playing against them.

He was the starting quarterback on my fantasy team, and with us locked in a tight semifinal playoff matchup, I needed big points from him.  Instead he threw two passes for zero yards, hurt his hand and sat out the rest of the game.

I’d like to thank Matthew Berry for reminding me of this episode not once but twice in his book “Fantasy Life.”  It’s an interesting read that tracks his own career path through the world of fantasy sports, dropping in all kinds of stories about league traditions, crazy drafts, and yes, players that have broken all of our hearts.

Berry describes a particular miracle team that makes it to their league championship, only to be undone by the Romo bomb.  I had to stop reading as this flashed into my memory:

Granted, I probably would have lost the semifinal anyway, but my team was so demoralized we slipped up in the third place game the following week.  I vowed never to have Romo on my team again…and then ended up with him again last year.  The result?

No dramatic injury this time, but we took the same path to another fourth place finish.  This year I absolutely promise Romo will be nowhere near my team.

What I like about Berry’s book is that he shares the absolutely bonkers stuff that will likely never happen in my leagues — like one guy having to do his draft while working at Red Robin, while dressed as the mascot.  But it also features so many examples of things that made me just nod along knowing I’ve been there.

He talks about the frustrating ways in which people lose, like going against someone who “leaves three injured players in his lineup and still wins.”

I’m including that example purely for my brother Pat, who nearly a year later is still harboring major resentment against my second cousin Allison for our family league. 

Pat had the best team in the regular season and faced Allison in the semifinals of the playoffs.  She made zero changes to her lineup all year, even when a bunch of her players were injured, and started 0-6 before rallying to win 11 games in a row.  That included demolishing Pat in their playoff game and defeating the second-best regular season team for the title.

I sincerely hope she wins again this year (unless I do, of course).