The Ben Roethlisberger Fantasy Football Stat Correction Heard Around The World

With about 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter of Sunday’s win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger checked down to Rashard Mendenhall for a 13-yeard touchdown and the first score of the game. I watched it happen live and I remember it because I texted a friend who started Mendenhall in fantasy football to say, “Smart move.” It also made me feel stupid for thinking Jonathan Dwyer was going to be “the Steelers’ Darren Sproles” but I’m an idiot and we all know that.

What I didn’t realize is that the touchdown was credited to Mendenhall as a run, which means that the 7 points (or 7.3 or 6, depending on how your league scores) only went to the RB and not Roethlisberger in fantasy league scoring. At the time, that was fine, because you just shrug it off and hope for more points from your other players. But yesterday morning this wasn’t fine, because the TD was correctly attributed to Roethlisberger. Guess what that means.

That play alone swung results in 20,000 matchups this week, including a tussle involving our very own Handsome Hank and his Violent Executioners.

That’s right — nearly 70,000 NFL.com fantasy users woke up Thursday with a different record than they had the night before, 40,000 because of one Big (Ben) stat correction. The siren call of the fantasy gods is mighty on this day. (Via NFL.com)

This affected a girl that I know and girls are irrational and insane, so I assume that I haven’t heard from her because she’s on a 13-state homicidal spree. Thankfully, it didn’t happen to me, because I wouldn’t be writing this. I’d be in prison, awaiting trial on 14 charges of pooping on NFL officials’ doorsteps. In fact, after the jump, I’ve included some GIFs of appropriate reactions for anyone whose fantasy wins were overturned because of this correction.

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