Submitted by James Folsom on Tue, 10/11/2011 - 08:38
Another football weekend has come and gone. Today, fantasy football players are checking to see how their teams did yesterday. The ones who are a few points behind are seeing if they can make up any ground in the Monday Night game. The ones in the lead are checking to see if they have a safe lead.
The ones playing for money are checking their rosters to see if they can maybe make a substation or pick up a free agent to help out. Most likely though, they will find that they are pretty much stuck with what they have until next week. Then they will be able to make some moves. Sounds a lot like work doesn’t it?
Fantasy Football and other fantasy sports are huge. Ever since the internet it’s really exploded. You can find leagues all over the place to play in. Some just for fun. Some do it for prize money. It’s all good fun. But just like anything else, if you let it go too far it can become a problem.
Dreaded by women, loved by men?
Football season is dreaded by the women in my family already. They know not to schedule anything in the fall without first checking the football schedules of the Florida Gators and the UCF Knights. And we don’t even play fantasy football in my family. OK, I confess, I am in one league. It’s a free league, no money involved. And most of us didn’t even bother to show up for the draft. I don’t bother checking for free agents. I may substitute some guys in and out depending on who has a bye week or who might be injured. But that’s it.
Unless LaGarrette Blount and Reggie Wayne wage their own personal touchdown battle tonight in the Colts-Bucs games, I will be 1-3 after tonight’s game. And that’s fine by me.
For many, Fatasy Football is about money
Now for people with money riding on this, it would be a problem for them. I can see where, like with other forms of gambling, this could be a problem for family members. Remember, when I said the women in my family know not to schedule things unless checking the Gators and Knights schedule first? That’s not a joke. That means birthday parties (my son’s birthday is right near the Florida-Georgia game every year. My sister’s three kids are either that same weekend or Florida-Tennessee weekend), that means weddings (my other sister had to re-schedule hers because she picked a football weekend. Dad told her not if he was paying for it), and if you are about to die, hang on until mid-week.
So imagine if we took fantasy football as seriously and EVERY game mattered. That’s why the NFL and other big league sports love it. It’s why Direct TV sells the heck out of those NFL Sunday Ticket packages. Because people have to watch ALL the games, not just their favorite teams now. I can imagine football widows like my wife, mom and sisters really getting fed up with more attention being paid to football. Imagine other wives who have husbands paying this much attention to basketball, baseball, hockey, and NASCAR.
I can see situations where families break up over it.
So you may be wondering why if I am such a big fan, why have I avoided the fantasy scene for the most part. I suppose it’s because the whole internet thing came around late in my life. I’m not a video game player either. I grew up actually going outside and playing sports. You know, with a ball not a joy stick. I have my favorite teams I root for. If you play for my team, I root for you. If you play for a rival team, I don’t.
Many times in Fantasy Football, a guy on your team is playing against your favorite team. So what? I’m supposed to root for him to do well against my boys? I don’t think so! So as for me, I’m just not into it. I will watch the Bucs tonight, because I like the Bucs. I didn’t watch any of the games on Sunday. None of my teams were playing. I watched the Florida-Alabama game on Saturday. Most of the rest of the day I spent flipping channels to try to find a game to watch. I find the older I get, the less interested I am unless I have a “dog in the fight.”
So Fantasy Football may not be for me. But I see no problem with others doing it. So long as it does not interfere with other more important things. Like birthdays, weddings, funerals…
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That was very funny and all
That was very funny and all too true. I think every family has at least a few members that are as obsessed as every male member of your family. What I dont get is the whole fantasy football aspect... How does that even work and why do guys get so obsessed? Are they just living out their old high school glory days through a pretend game or what?