The NFL reversed a meaningless Ezekiel Elliot fumble 4 days after the game and it had huge implications for some fantasy leagues

FOX

A late stat correction from the NFL swung the fantasy football season at a critical moment for many players.

• A late stat correction from the NFL had major fantasy football implications.
• The NFL ruled Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot did not lose a fumble against the TennesseeTitans on Sunday.
• For fantasy players, this gave Elliott two extra points, in some cases swinging playoff matches is heartbreaking fashion.

Fantasy football can be a brutal game.

On Sunday, most leagues were holding their semifinals, with four teams hoping to win whatever grand prize was at stake. Sometimes this is money - quite a large sum in some leagues - while for others it is merely pride, but whatever the reward, the players want to win.

For most fantasy players, whether or not they made the championship was decided between Sunday afternoon and Monday night. But on Thursday, a stat correction traded the fates of some players.

Ezekiel Elliott had initially been credited with a fumble during a fourth-down run against the Titans on Sunday. Since Elliott was stopped short of the first-down marker, there was no need to slow down play to figure out who recovered the ball, as the outcome was the same either way.

On Thursday, the NFL ruled that Elliott did not lose the fumble since there was not an obvious and immediate recovery by the Colts. Instead, they determined he had been stopped short of the line to gain.

For even the most ardent football observer, such a change would likely hardly register.

However, the one group which this play made an extreme difference for was fantasy players - those who started Elliott lost two points due to his fumble if using standard scoring. Sure enough, some contests came down to the wire and were swung by the NFL's fateful stat correction.

Making the play even more heartbreaking for those who got stat-corrected out of a spot in the championship is the fact that from some angles, the initial ruling of a fumble and recovery by the Colts appears to be the correct one.

Fantasy football can bring a lot of fun to the NFL season, but moments like this make you question why you'd ever submitted yourself to such a cruel, cruel game.