I started playing fantasy football five seasons ago, as a junior in high school. Last year I managed three teams, all in different types of leagues against different levels of competition. I love the game, and my friends and I even held a golf tournament last year on the same weekend as our live draft. But lately, I've started to think that maybe hoping for a fumble recovery just so your defense can pick up two points in a tight fantasy match-up isn't really part of being a true football fan.
For those readers unfamiliar with fantasy sports, the basic concept, with many variations underneath this model, is to draft players you think will perform well, group them with a number of other players to form a "team" and pull together their statistics. From there, the cumulative stats allow you to compete against other teams for league championships.
This increases devotion to sports in many ways. First of all, the Arizona Cardinals matter, whereas in real life they just don't unless you are a Minnesota or Green Bay fan and it's week 17. Fans also care about match-ups that usually wouldn't matter to them, particularly games not involving their favorite team.
Some people who were not fans of football originally begin playing fantasy football with friends and end up actively following the sport. A serious fantasy player often feels they have more of a stake in what happens on the field than the casual fan. All of a sudden, Bengals receiver Chad Johnson's touchdowns are important to you winning money or bragging rights over your friends.
On the whole, fantasy games are fun for many of the same reasons sports video games are fun. You are put in the owner's chair and call all the shots. Each week you change lineups, complain about player performance and put your team into the best position to make the playoffs.
Unfortunately, I think some of this fun has created an entire group of fans that cares more about their fantasy teams than just enjoying football for the game. Today, you can go to BW3 on Sunday afternoon and hear certain fans cheer louder for a 10-yard catch (one fantasy point for many receivers) than for a touchdown scored by the same team. That fan could care less about the touchdown if the player on their fantasy team did not score it.
I'm as guilty of this trend as anyone, often caring much less about the winner of the Patriots game than how many interceptions Tom Brady threw. For many fans now, the individual performance is more important than a team result. People are paying attention to the sport more, but I'm not sure we are focusing on the right things. While people used to worry about the standings and where teams were in the playoff race, many now turn to the statistics page to find out if Todd Pinkston caught anything this week.
While wanting to see David Carr throw an interception late in the game because you are facing him in fantasy this week shows that one cares about the game, at some point it kind of ruins the fun. Take soccer fans in Europe. I'm no soccer purist or anything, but for soccer hooligans, the only statistic that matters is victory. That doesn't sound bad to me, a healthy alternative to focusing on all these obscure numbers.
I'm not sure this is an issue with everyone, and while I'm guilty of focusing too much on fantasy victory, I've made strides to keep my love of the game pure in the last few years. As a Packers fan, I won't draft Randy Moss or Daunte Culpepper. I also sat players that were playing against the Packers in the playoff stretch run last year so that I could pull for the Packers without reservation.
While I'm starting to think that fantasy football can become too important for fans, I still enjoy playing, because it is a lot of fun and it does make non-factor games interesting. I finished my online draft for my public Yahoo league last night, and I have at least two more drafts planned before the fall season starts. I'm just going to try and cheer this year when Thomas Jones scores solely because he is a Virginia graduate, and not because I stole him in the 11th round of my fantasy draft.
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