The best thing about playing in multiple fantasy football leagues is that you improve your odds of having at least one team make the playoffs, or at least remain in playoff contention until the final week or two of the regular season.

But what happens if all your teams stink?

Here's what happens: NFL Sundays are exponentially less enjoyable; you tend to avoid football-related media; you often wake up grumpy; and food tastes worse (although you eat more of it because you're depressed).

I haven't suffered through that sort of season since 2005, when none of my teams came close to making the playoffs. I'd like to blame it on the fact that my wife was nearly nine months' pregnant, prohibiting me from traveling to my drafts and forcing me to draft via computer. But in reality, I made a bunch of lousy calls on players and would have fared no better had I drafted in-person.

That was a miserable season. I couldn't catch any breaks, but that was largely irrelevant, since my teams probably weren't good enough to capitalize on any breaks that might have come my way. The only solace that autumn came from my happy, healthy infant daughter. And yet I made my baby girl cry one Sunday because of fantasy football, startling her when I slammed my hand against the couch after Plaxico Burress caught a TD pass en route to a 204-yard, two-TD game against me. (I like to think that Plax was ultimately responsible for that unsavory episode.)

My teams are all comfortably average this year. I have two teams at 5-3 and two teams at 4-4. But I am dying vicariously through a friend who plays in three of my leagues. His records in those leagues: 0-8, 1-7 and 3-4-1, giving him a combined record of 4-19-1 and a combined winning percentage of .188.

It's obviously been a tough season for my buddy. He's a former champion in two of these leagues and generally regarded as a shrewd owner, and now he's drinking fortified wine on Skid Row. How was he to know that Brandon Jacobs would have such a drastic falloff, that Matt Forté's fortunes would go south, that Derrick Ward would disappear, that Jason Witten would have one TD through seven games, that Calvin Johnson would get hurt, or that Braylon Edwards would be so unreliable? (Um ... scratch that last one.)

In addition to frustration and depression, my friend is also dealing with: (1) catcalls from rival owners; (2) a wife who knows that he's destined to lose several hundred dollars that could've been spent on something worthwhile; and (3) the knowledge that next year's fantasy drafts are 10 long months away.

Fantasy football can be a kick in the rear, can't it?

But as Brooklyn Dodgers fans used to vow, "Wait 'til next year!"

PFW has launched its brand-new NFL Draft Newsletter series, with the second issue being released later this month. Produced by PFW's player personnel department under the direction of Nolan Nawrocki, the series consists of four information-packed issues. For more info or to subscribe — click here for PDF e-pub or here for print format.