Maybe it's just me, but I have found those new NFL football commercials on fantasy football to be laugh-out-loud hilarious. My favorite is the one with the guy at the fantasy draft who is trying to pronounce the last name of Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh and totally botches it.
Nearly all fantasy football drafts have that guy that your buddies bring along to sponsor a team solely to get to the elusive eighth or 12th member. He doesn't have a clue about NFL players or strategy for putting together a fantasy squad, but now you have enough for a league and he's not a threat to take your money, so why not bring him along?
Fantasy football has exploded in recent years to become what is now a $1.5 billion industry that has 15 to 18 million participants and is growing seven to 10 percent annually.
This is music to the ears of fantasy football enthusiasts and to NFL executives and owners who see fantasy football as a great avenue to increase interest in their league and revenue through merchandise and ticket sales. And that's why it's no shock the NFL has jumped right on board -- running commercials using actual players and giving people the ability to start and run their own leagues through the NFL's Web site, NFL.com.
I didn't think anything of this unique situation until two weeks ago when I read a story in The Washington Post about Washington Redskin Chris Cooley's involvement in multiple fantasy football leagues
Now, I have a borderline obsession with the Redskins -- I have Redskin flags, posters, license plates and blankets in my room. I've been known to be deliriously happy after victories and severely depressed for days after tough losses. So at first read, I thoroughly enjoyed the story on the shaggy-haired Utah State product who has been a dynamic offensive threat since joining the Skins in 2004.
But upon further reflection something seemed awry about this situation.
According to the Post story, the NFL has no rules regarding active players' participation in fantasy football leagues and the NFL claims there is a strict difference between fantasy football and betting on games.
What kind of fantasy world are these NFL executives living in?
Fantasy leagues across the country have pools that give payouts in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. NFL players have plenty of disposable income to throw around.
While I'd like to believe Cooley is the only Redskin checking his fantasy football stats every week, across the NFL a sizable number of players are participating -- probably the entire Cowgirls squad (if they can handle the math). It's almost guaranteed a few of those participants are being drafted in fantasy football leagues.
If an NFL player owns some fantasy teams, and his play on the field can influence the point total of these squads, it doesn't take Albert Einstein to draw the similarity to betting on league games.
For example, what would happen if an NFL player participates in a high stakes league, drafts himself, then suddenly finds himself in the championship of his fantasy football league with a significant amount of money on the line depending on how he plays that week? While one might claim this is just extra motivation for him to play harder, remember the same situation would occur if he had bet on his team to win, which is of course illegal
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