Meat Loaf's Real Paradise Was Playing Fantasy Football
When you think of Meat Loaf, the larger-than-life singer who died Thursday at 74, the first sport that comes to mind is baseball – who can forget Phil Rizzuto’s play-by-play call at the end of Paradise by the Dashboard Light?” But it’s actually football that was Meat Loaf’s first love. To be more specific, fantasy football.
Back in 2016, Mr. Loaf (which is how he is known in second reference in the New York Times) appeared as a guest on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and claimed to have won 11 of his 13 fantasy leagues the previous season. What’s even more impressive, he claims to have been ahead of the curve in placing a greater value on wide receivers in fantasy.
“Normally everybody goes for running backs,” he said in the interview. “Last year, I didn’t. And what did I have, 13 leagues last year? And [I] won 11. And I didn’t go for running backs. I went for receivers. My first three picks were receivers, and then I went for running backs, and then I went running back alllll the way down the line. And one of my last picks — still left on the board — was Kirk Cousins. What a sleeper last year… I was sitting there [thinking], ‘Don’t you dare take Kirk Cousins, people. Don’t you dare.’ I think I took him in the 13th round.”
Meat Loaf apparently approached fantasy football with the same energy and passion he brought to his music.
“Whatever I do, I’m in it all the way. I don’t walk through anything,” he said, proudly claiming that he once started a season 0-4 and went on the win the championship. “Everything I do is 110 percent. And if I can’t give it 110 percent, I’m not doin’ it.”
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