I’d
like to begin with my central premise: The
world of sports and the world of nerdy things are not mutually exclusive. Feigning ignorance to the world and overall attraction
of sports because the jocks were dicks to you in high school is a waste of
time. I love Star Wars, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Kurt Vonnegut, and the Seattle Seahawks. Try not to judge a thing by the crowd you
assume embraces it. There’s plenty of
room for all of these distractions.
One
in ten Americans played fantasy football in 2013. That’s over 30 million people. Friends, families and co-workers get in on
this every year and the numbers are increasing. It’s easy to see how football
fans get wrapped up it in it. The game
reinforces a love of football and it raises the stakes of almost every game of
the year. But how is fantasy football
pulling in new converts? How does this
seemingly strange activity have participants that have no idea who Adrian Peterson
is, or that Los Angeles doesn't even have a team?
I
have a few ideas.
It
injects a mild jolt of competition in your life. Non-sports fans usually are turned off by
competition. Personally, I have very
little competitiveness outside of a Trivial Pursuit board. Football is an outlet for people like me who
need to scratch that little itch, but are hesitant to get in anyone’s
face. Fantasy football usually arranges
individual leagues into teams, so you play each other like actual teams. You might not ever sit down and play
one-on-one basketball with your asshole brother-in-law, but through fantasy,
you can whip his ass. Hell, you can do
the same with your grandma if she’s an old coot.
It
takes luck, chance, and a smidgen of skill. You do not have to know anything about
football to play. If you can count, then
you can succeed at the game. What occurs
in the actual world of NFL football dictates what happens to your score each
week. Some things are unforeseeable; in fact,
most things are. You have every bit of
chance as the so called ‘experts’ out there who claim they know all there is to
know. Pick your players by the numbers
they put up last year, and if you get stuck, choose by favorite name, whether
or not you think they’re cute, or if you like the team color scheme. It’s up to
you.
You
get to name things. I
love this part. I am the league manager
for my league and I’m thinking about setting a rule that I will not accept any
boring team names. I don’t want to see
Bob’s Vikings, or the Portland Squad, or any of that bland unimaginative
bullshit. My last two leagues were My
Hip Hurts and Monster Truck Force, and my last two teams were I Shouldn’t Have
Had The Tuna and Gimme The Fife. Have fun with it.
It
builds camaraderie. You
build closer friendships through games.
It’s the truth. Whether you win
or lose or you are competitive freak, you learn new facets of your connections
with your friends and family. That goes
for field hockey and Scrabble, too, but this is on the computer. Fantasy
football gives you all psychological benefits of team sports, without all the exercise
and turf toe.
It
makes shitty games more interesting. You could be stuck in a part
of the county where the local teams are just garbage. I live on the west coast, and that was indeed
the case until very recently. So, if you
have to watch games where the actual outcome means very little, the players in
the game might be on you fantasy team.
It gives you a sense of pride when one of your guys has a career day,
and a sense of absolute disgust when they blow it. Well, you can always trade his sorry ass if
you want.
It’s
only four months long. A
baseball regular season is from late March to September before a month of
playoffs and is 162 games long. An 82-game regular season in basketball lasts
from November until about April before about 8 more weeks of playoffs. There are only 16 games of pro football in 17
weeks from September to December. The commitment is minimal in comparison.
The
next time you get invited by that dude at work, or your cousin calls in August
and asks to fill a slot before the draft, give it a shot. I guarantee you’ll have some fun and you
might realize what all the fuss is about.
Unless of course your league manager stipulates that the person who
comes in last place has to get a tattoo, like these animals.
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