Quality in Fantasy DOES NOT EQUAL Quality in General

I am a fantasy sports nerd. However, in addition to a fantasy football fan, I am a real football fan, which is more than I can say for many alleged football fans who participate in fantasy sports. To ensure that you will be respected as a legitimate NFL fan, I ask you, fantasy sports enthusiast, to stop evaluating the value of an NFL player solely based on his statistics.

Last year with the Broncos, quarterback Jay Cutler completed 62.3 percent of his passes for over 4500 yards, and threw for 25 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He was subsequently voted into the Pro Bowl. He also single-handedly lost the AFC West for his team when he threw a red zone interception against Buffalo in the last game of the season. Still, people continue to describe Cutler as a "good NFL quarterback," citing his statistics and a poor Broncos defense. The Broncos defense had nothing to do with Cutler's interception. That mistake was his, and his alone. He was presented with the opportunity to win, and he failed. Tom Brady would not have failed.

True, statistics are an important means of evaluating a player. Some statistics are simply good, and there is no other analysis needed. For example, in 2007, Brady completed 68.9 percent of his passes, throwing 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Those numbers speak for themselves.

However, football is the ultimate team sport. Rushing for 100 yards per game does not automatically mean that particular back is good. It may have been a product of great offensive line or the effective use of the West Coast offense. What makes running backs like Walter Payton so great goes way beyond his statistics to the intangibles. Payton had fantastic field vision and could break tackles like very few running backs ever had. He saw the lane open up before it even happened. On any given Sunday, his statistics may have resembled the statistics of Joe Morris. In fact, Morris produced more touchdowns than Payton, so Morris probably would have produced more fantasy points. Joe Morris was no Walter Payton.