I suppose it’s inevitable that some readers of the “Fidelity fires four over fantasy football” story will skim it and come away thinking a few slackers got canned because they were wasting work resources on a pastime.

The fact that those of us who make our livings in fantasy sports lambaste the company over the move probably won’t do a whole lot to alter such misperceptions, but it’s important to clarify just what the issues are here and who’s upset about what.

Frankly, there’s nothing really wrong with a company taking action against an employee who instead of spending time on actual work is meandering around the Internet, chatting incessantly on the phone with extended family or even managing three fantasy football teams. Each business is more than welcome to set it’s parameters for Internet and phone usage and similar activities, and any worker who blatantly violates such rules should expect consequences — no matter how much the office culture might shrug off such rules.

In letting go of four Westlake, Texas, workers, however, Fidelity did not cite losses in productivity. It blamed the moves on the connection it drew between the employees and gambling. Specifically, Fidelity identified fantasy football as gambling.

No matter how you feel about fantasy sports, that’s just plain wrong, and it’s not really even a lingering issue. It has been three years since the United States government officially wrote into law that fantasy sports don’t qualify as gambling in this country.

So, when an outlet such as Reuters chooses to tie the Fidelity story to the fuzzy, attention-seeking numbers of the Challenger, Gray & Christmas studies to forecast an approaching storm, it is missing the point entirely.

We could certainly counter any argument about fantasy sports being bad for the workplace with opposing evidence about them connecting co-workers, but that’s a moot point in this case.

Fidelity said four workers were gambling by playing fantasy football and needed to be purged for that reason. Fidelity was wrong.

Christmas isn’t the only deadline sneaking up on us.

For any fantasy sports writers out there, the Fantasy Sports Writers Association is taking nominations for 2009 awards up until the end of this month (via this online form).

According to FSWA president Mike Beacom, all submissions will be screened by the FSWA’s board of directors, with finalists passing on to an “independent panel of judges.”

Nominees must be members of the FSWA, which you can join before the end of the year to become eligible. The awards presentation — in its sixth year — will take place at next month’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference in Las Vegas.

The categories include …

Football Writer of the Year
Football Article of the Year, Web
Football Article of the Year, Print
Football On-Going Series

Baseball Writer of the Year
Baseball Article of the Year, Web
Baseball Article of the Year, Print
Baseball On-Going Series

Basketball Writer of the Year
Hockey Writer of the Year
Golf Writer of the Year
Racing Writer of the Year
College Sports Writer of the Year
Fantasy Humor Article of the Year, Print or Web

Check out FSB.com coverage of last year’s winners:

• Rotowire Dominates FSWA Awards
• The Rest of the FSWA Winners

By now, any readers of this site should be quite familiar with the fantasy-related firings at Fidelity, and the issue is really beginning to spread.

– AOL-owned Fleaflicker has put together an online petition to support Cameron Pettigrew, the featured employee in the initial Fort Worth Star-Telegram report. (Thanks to Fanhouse’s Tom Herrera for the link.)

– Andy Behrens of Yahoo! properly cited the fact (as we have) that Fidelity’s treatment of fantasy sports as “gambling” opposes what the federal government has decided.

– Even ProFootballTalk.com — which only drops occasional mentions of fantasy (a few more occasions since joining forces with NBC Sports) — has latched on to the story in a post by Rotoworld’s Gregg Rosenthal.

Fidelity, meet backlash. Just imagine what kind of bad press you’d be facing right now if you hadn’t rooted out those four bad guys …

We’ve already made our feelings known about the decision by a Texas branch of Fidelity Investments dumping four employees after incorrectly interpreting fantasy football as gambling, and World Fantasy Games CEO Jeffrey Thomas pointed out that the firm should prepare for litigation. Other industry veterans are also criticizing Fidelity’s decision.

Fantasy Sports Trade Association president Paul Charchian called it “troubling” that Fidelity mislabeled fantasy as gambling.

“Congress recognized the distinction between fantasy sports and criminal sports gambling, and wrote exclusionary language around fantasy sports play,” Charchian said, referring to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. No fantasy sports company has been the subject prosecution for gambling. No person has been the subject of prosecution for gambling related to fantasy sports participation.”

So, maybe Fidelity will choose to take the stance that although fantasy sports don’t legally qualify as gambling, they could be perceived as such by potential customers and that such a perception could hurt the company. Well, CDM Sports founder Charlie Wiegert sees potential for this action to produce the opposite result.

“With over 25 million people playing fantasy sports games in our country, and probably many of them Fidelity customers or potential customers, this is a tough stance for them to take,” Wigert wrote Monday in his Godfather of Fantasy Sports blog. “They run the risk of many of their customers closing their accounts and moving them to other companies, as many fantasy football players would not like to do business with a company that feels they are gamblers or misinterprets the laws of our government.

“Interesting because some might believe it’s more like gambling when their customers are investing funds with them! I for one will be canceling any account I have with fidelity on Monday!”

Whatever the outcome, Fidelity’s firings have no doubt made a much bigger issue out of employees’ fantasy participation than there ever would have been otherwise.

Full FSTA reaction — http://www.fsta.org/blog/fsta-in-the-news/fantasy-sports-industry-responds-to-fidelity-firings

Charlie Wiegert’s blog post — http://www.godfatheroffantasysports.com/?p=22