Fantasy Football and Criminal Defense?

At first when I read this post, I found the idea to be a little far-fetched, but after considering the notion I realized it has validity. I am a huge sports fan (growing up with 4 brothers you really did not have a choice, at least if you wanted to watch tv in my house!). I have always been passionate when rooting for my teams and when I began doing fantasy football a few years ago, that passion extended to the players on my fantasy teams. I have just as much devotion to the people on my fantasy teams as I do for the players who make up my favorite teams (Go Steelers and Wolverines…and no, despite some recent transgressions, being a Steelers fan, does NOT make me a better Virginia criminal defense attorney).

Fantasy football is a game of strategy. You may have the best players and the best team. You may be projected to win and you may think you have made the right decisions when setting your lineup, but at the end of the day you still may come up short. You rely on the people you drafted to play their hearts out and lead you to the big “W”. At the end of the week you can second guess yourself about what you could have done differently, but you had no way of knowing whether the RB you benched would have an outstanding day or whether the QB you started would go out of the game early with an injury.

Fantasy football IS a lot like criminal defense. I am passionate about representing the clients that choose me to fight for them and I try to the best I can to get them the best possible results. In fantasy football, you spend time analyzing the matchups, the projections and the statistics so that on any given Sunday you come out on top. This is no different in a criminal case where you evaluate the facts, research the law, talk with officers, witnesses, and commonwealth attorneys. Ultimately you advise your client about the pros and cons of going to trial or taking an offer. Your client makes the ultimate decision on what to do which is different from fantasy football where you call all the shots. You have to trust that the best decision was made based on information available at the time.

Just as our fantasy players can never make a promise on how many TD’s they will score, Virginia DUI Attorneys, can never make a promise to a client about an outcome of a case. We can never promise what is going to happen in court or that a charge is going away. If they choose to accept a plea agreement, we have no way to know if they would have won at trial. If they choose a trial, we have no way to reassure them that they will not do worse than the offer that was made to them. All we can do is educate them on the law, the facts, what must be proved, and what the penalties will be if a Judge or Jury does not find in their favor. Sometimes we have to reevaluate options if new evidence comes to light or a really good deal is on the table, just as you reset your lineup if players get injured or there is a bye week. When it is all said and done, all we can do is support that client’s decision and trust that they are getting the best result possible just as we trust that the lineup is the best one available on any given Sunday.

Regardless of whether it is fantasy football or a criminal case, you are always striving for the best outcome!