Meet Roger Werenski.
No, this isn’t a relative of Blue Jackets’ defenseman Zach Werenski. This is actually one of Werenski’s nicknames in the locker room.
Roger Werenski is a leader in a much different sense. In the palm of his hands, he holds the ultimate power. Named after NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell, Werenski is the commissioner of the Blue Jackets’ Fantasy Football league. Any and all trade requests go straight to Werenski’s phone. He has the power to veto any trade.
On this Super Bowl Sunday, we tell you the story about this fantasy football league and how things like this have helped bring the team closer together. Come for the team bonding. Stay for the funny stories of how one prominent Blue Jacket almost got kicked out of the league.
In Case You Are New
Before we dive in, let’s set the scene for those that aren’t familiar or haven’t played fantasy football with a quick explainer. It is a game in which a set number of teams draft NFL players. Each player is their own manager as they are responsible for drafting their teams, making trades and setting their lineups.
In order to play, there is a buy-in fee that each team pays. Those funds then get paid out based on an agreed structure. In this case, the top-three teams won money.
Each week, two teams squared off against each other hoping to outscore the other with their lineup. For the players involved, it’s a fun way to be their own general manager while trying to win bragging rights and hopefully some cash too.
This happens over the course of the NFL season. The best records then meet in the playoffs. Eventually there is just one champion who outlasts all the other teams. The goal was to simply win each week. That meant having the best roster of players who earned the most points in a given week.
Managers can also add and drop players as they see fit. They have to account for bye weeks when their player is off. They also have to account for injuries. As you will soon see, the injury factor was a big part of the Blue Jackets’ fantasy football season.
Now that you have a basic idea of how fantasy football works, let’s dive into what I am calling “the trade.”
The Trade
Prior to this season, Kent Johnson wasn’t familiar with football. While he knew some of the stars in the game, the sport was still new to him.
But all Johnson heard in the locker room was talk about fantasy football. It was a constant conversation that piqued his interest. He wanted in on the fun and competition. Now he is hooked.
“That’s the reason I played because I didn’t know anything about football,” Johnson said. “I just heard the guys talking about it every week. I was like this is awesome. I have to play. So I played this year and got hooked. And wow, this is fun.”
There is no question Johnson had fun in his first season in the Blue Jackets fantasy football league. However, it almost all came crashing down on him thanks to as Roger Werenski admitted “because he’s so bad at what he does.”
“(Johnson) made a terrible trade, and I just couldn’t push it through,” Werenski said. “It was going to help (Justin Danforth’s) team way too much and guys were fighting for playoff positioning. It sucks because Danforth kind of got screwed on it. But he was also kind of dealing in bad faith. It was interesting. There was a lot that went into it. I feel like KJ has some punishment in order to stay in the league. I felt bad for Danny.”
Of course, we had to go to the source to confirm this revelation. Johnson opened up about his brutal trade request.
“It is true. I made a brutal trade,” Johnson said. “I wanted Stefon Diggs for a while. I had requested some trades for him. A couple with Danforth. And then one day I just sent another offer for Diggs. I really liked him and I didn’t see the news. I sent the trade. And then two hours after I sent the offer, (Diggs) is out for the year. And Danforth accepted the offer right after so then it was a whole big thing and the league was pissed. They actually vetoed the trade, but then I had to pay Danforth’s buy in as a punishment. So yeah it was hard. Definitely Werenski’s a pretty stern commissioner. It was a bad move by me obviously, but a little unlucky. I’m not following on the injury reports too hard and watching all the games. I liked Diggs. I liked Houston, CJ Stroud, so that’s too bad.”
Diggs tore his ACL in Week 8 against the Indianapolis Colts. Therefore, punishment was levied on Johnson. It went beyond just paying for Danforth’s buy-in.
“He’s well aware (of his punishment),” Werenski said. “He’s got to pay half of Danforth’s buy in, and then he’s got to take all the fantasy guys out to dinner. That’ll be a steak dinner of course. Somewhere nice. A bottle of wine. He screwed up big time, and he wants to stay in the league. So that’s the price he’s got to pay.”
It Gets Funnier
Johnson once again became a central focus of another funny story that happened during the season. According to several well-placed sources in the locker room, Johnson loved making multiple trade offers. It was sometimes two or three at a time. He was an aggressive general manager trying to make his team better.
While Johnson was injured, he was in the press box watching a game. It was intermission. He sent Mathieu Olivier a trade request at the intermission. Here’s Johnson.
“I think the game when I was hurt I was sending a few trade offers,” Johnson recalled. “The guys said Kent, you got to stop. You’re sending too many offers. And I sent an offer midgame to Olivier during the intermission. I was thinking I hope he gets back to me. I was realizing it’s the intermission of their game. I’m watching their game. He’s not getting back to me. I guess he said right after the game he looked at his phone. He’s like, Kent sent me an offer midgame? What is he doing? I was like well, from my perspective, it’s fair. It’s the intermission. It’s the perfect time. That was funny.”
Olivier didn’t hesitate to confirm this story.
“I confirm that (Johnson) sent me a trade request midgame,” Olivier said. “I was like what are you doing? And he said, I just thought of a trade. I didn’t want to forget it, so I sent it and I knew you’d see it after the game. And I said, yeah. We just won a game. And I walk into a fantasy trade. I’m like, don’t. I’m talking about the game. What happened? Don’t talk to me about fantasy football. Anyways, that was fun.”
Those involved in the league had a lot of fun with this. In the end, the more important takeaway was how the league helped bring the Blue Jackets closer together.
Importance of Team Bonding
No matter what the activity is, whether it’s fantasy football or watching another sport, being able to enjoy things together as a team helps with team bonding. For the Blue Jackets, they are closer than ever especially given how the season started.
Anything the team can do to help build that camaraderie is a good thing. Werenski and Olivier all agreed that this fantasy football league helped bring them closer together.
“It’s fun. I think it’s just something to talk about on weekends, Thursday Night football, Monday Night football, whatever it is,” Werenski said. “It’s whoever you’re playing against or you have side bets going on, it’s just something else to kind of keep your mind off just hockey. It’s just a lot of fun to have something separate going on besides hockey.”
“I think any opportunity any sporting event that’s not hockey,” Olivier said. “We’re all competitive, so we enjoy watching and seeing other sports doing their thing. And even Saturday night, you get a UFC fight. Everyone likes to go watch that. You get some guys that bond over soccer. You watch the Premier League. The Super Bowl’s one, World Series, everything. Golf’s a big one. It’s all about the team bonding. Guys got some side bets going stuff like that and it’s really fun.”
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For Johnson, he paid his dues. But the bigger story for him is being able to share these funny stories and moments with his teammates even if he was the target of everyone in the league.
“I got to pay for a dinner with all the fantasy football guys. That I’m not as mad about because it’s nice just dinner with the guys. That’s generally the attitude I’m trying to go about it. But yeah, (the trade) was unfortunate. But it honestly makes me more excited for fantasy football next year. Now I’ve got a lot of talk about it and everyone knows next year I’m under the microscope. I’ve got to win next year.”
Who Won?
Commissioner Roger Werenski came in third this season. He fell short of the top-two teams. Captain Boone Jenner won the league. And as it turned out, Johnny Gaudreau’s team finished in second.
The Blue Jackets have always said they will do everything to keep Johnny and Matthew’s memory alive. They kept Johnny’s team in tact and it finished in second place.
According to Olivier, the prize money from Johnny’s team was donated to charity. It was the perfect way to end this particular fantasy football season.
These Blue Jackets found a way to have fun while enjoying some friendly competition thanks in part to fantasy football. This story will resume again next season.
Until then, just know that the Blue Jackets are doing exactly what Johnny would have wanted. They are having fun and are now closer than ever to each other. They truly are making the best of the situation they were put in.