Fantasy Football... Am I the only guy annoyed by it?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

It seems that fantsy football is taking priority over the actual game. Every story you read that is football related now seems to have one line of the actual story and 15 pages of fantasy football implications.

Why the hell is this so popular? I thought until recently that fantasy football was played by a few wierdos that lived in their mothers basement and showered based on a calendar.

How long is it until we hear a middle linebacker asked about a tackle he missed and explain that he is very disappointed in missing the tackle, but on the bright side he started the RB in his fantasy league so the 85 yard TD run really helped him improve his fantasy standing!

[rkmsuf]

My fantasy league is sponsored by Best Buy.

[MikeVick7]

Why the hell is this so popular? I thought until recently that fantasy football was played by a few wierdos that lived in their mothers basement and showered based on a calendar.
Where the hell have you been?

[BrianD]

hxxp://money.cnn.com/2006/08/11/news/companies/fantasyfootball/

There are 15 to 18 million fantasy sports players in the US and 85% of them play fantasy football. It isn't just a few geeks playing.

[BrianD]

My fantasy league is sponsored by Best Buy.

:D

[ice4277]

I used to be annoyed by it, until I started playing it. You should understand, especially as a fan of the Lions, that it gives you the hope each week of the satisfaction of winning something.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

My fantasy league is sponsored by Best Buy.

Laughing my ass off!!! :D

[Toddzilla]

It is fantasy-lite. Most people are too intimidated to play fantasy baseball - it involves actual strategy, insight, and knowledge - so fantasy football is a nice watered-down version that anyone can play.

[BrianD]

It is fantasy-lite. Most people are too intimidated to play fantasy baseball - it involves actual strategy, insight, and knowledge - so fantasy football is a nice watered-down version that anyone can play.

That or they enjoy actual head to head competition and not just playing spreadsheet games.

[rkmsuf]

It is fantasy-lite. Most people are too intimidated to play fantasy baseball - it involves actual strategy, insight, and knowledge - so fantasy football is a nice watered-down version that anyone can play.

oh no you didn't

[MJ4H]

You are most certainly not the only one annoyed by it. I hate it with a passion and makes anything to do with the NFL pretty much unwatchable since someone somewhere will always start talking about freakin fantasy football instead of the actual game.

[Warhammer]

I can certainly understand why some people can't stand it. What I don't get is where these D&D playing geeks will sit there and chide someone for playing Fantasy Football right before they sitdown to try and schedule time to play D&D, Rolemaster, etc.

If you want to be a real man, screw the baseball and football, step up to Fantasy Hockey!

[ISiddiqui]

Like someone said, where have you been? FF has been steadily climbing in popularity. I have no problems with it (hard to since I've been in fantasy leagues since 1999). One of the things it does is introduce people to players they normally would not have known about (as a result of geography or what have you).

[SnDvls]

I hate pro football so the only way for me to be interested in it is through Fantasy Football. I'm a college football junkie though.

[panerd]

What about Elvis and his rock and roll music? And girls and those low cut jeans and shirts? I hate how all of the baseball playoff games are on TV, what's wrong with the radio! I will meet you you over at Cracker Barrell so we can talk about the decline of society.

[Ksyrup]

I used to play fantasy football (as well as baseball, basketball, and hockey), but I've since gotten over it. I'm not annoyed by it, though, except for the fact that mags like SI are now devoting way too much space to catering to fantasy players on a weekly basis. I understand it, but it somewhat annoys me.

I know the attraction to fantasy sports. I lived it for a few years. Hell, at one point I was running 10 baseball teams at once. But eventually, I just started wanting to enjoy the games themselves, without having anything riding on a particular player. When you get to the point that you're excitement over your favorite team winning is tempered by the fact that the "wrong" guy scored a TD or had the most receiving yards, then you've lost the plot. I straightened myself up and have enjoyed all sports much more since then.

Except the Olympics, of course. They still suck balls.

[rkmsuf]

I will say this. When they have segments where the commentators give you their fantasy picks and they have a little league amongst themselves I want to barf. What a complete waste of time that is. Like I care how Terry Bradshaw's team did last week.

[rkmsuf]

I used to play fantasy football (as well as baseball, basketball, and hockey), but I've since gotten over it. I'm not annoyed by it, though, except for the fact that mags like SI are now devoting way too much space to catering to fantasy players on a weekly basis. I understand it, but it somewhat annoys me.

I know the attraction to fantasy sports. I lived it for a few years. Hell, at one point I was running 10 baseball teams at once. But eventually, I just started wanting to enjoy the games themselves, without having anything riding on a particular player. When you get to the point that you're excitement over your favorite team winning is tempered by the fact that the "wrong" guy scored a TD or had the most receiving yards, then you've lost the plot. I straightened myself up and have enjoyed all sports much more since then.

Except the Olympics, of course. They still suck balls.


Obviously Fantasy Olympics is the answer for you.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Fantasy football = the only reason I check stats & scores each Sunday.

[vtbub]

Not annoyed, but I stopped playing two years ago. I watch games, not players.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I played fantasy football for a long time until last year. For various reasons, I was not much of a participant in my fantasy leagues last year, and I didn't want to allow that to happen again. Now I'm finding that I enjoy watching football a bit more without thinking about a fantasy team. I no longer enjoy it enough to tweak my roster each week or watch waiver wires or any of that stuff, and I'm glad that I don't feel obligated to do those things anymore.

Fantasy baseball and basketball require even more effort, and I played those the past couple of years, but I really don't want to take the time for it anymore. I'm completely out of fantasy sports now, and while it'll never annoy me, I don't know if I even want to play again. I've been telling people that I'm just taking a year off, but my return will depend on whether I truly miss it or not. Judging by the past few months, I don't think I'm going to miss it at all.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

It used to seem like a low level cult. There were people into it and you knew it, but it didn't invade reality. Now you look in any sports mag for actual news and get fantasy crap. Don't they already have publications dedicated to it? And you watch a game and the idiot announcers are talking fantasy football! I want to hear an old-school guy like Art Donovan's take on fantasy football.

Better yet, how 'bout somebuddy git in on stertin' a fantisy nascar league? Woo hoo! I draftid me Billy Bob Johnson Jr.'s fuel filler guy!

[Ksyrup]

I played fantasy football for a long time until last year. For various reasons, I was not much of a participant in my fantasy leagues last year, and I didn't want to allow that to happen again. Now I'm finding that I enjoy watching football a bit more without thinking about a fantasy team. I no longer enjoy it enough to tweak my roster each week or watch waiver wires or any of that stuff, and I'm glad that I don't feel obligated to do those things anymore.

Fantasy baseball and basketball require even more effort, and I played those the past couple of years, but I really don't want to take the time for it anymore. I'm completely out of fantasy sports now, and while it'll never annoy me, I don't know if I even want to play again. I've been telling people that I'm just taking a year off, but my return will depend on whether I truly miss it or not. Judging by the past few months, I don't think I'm going to miss it at all.

This is how I was a few years ago, and I've never gone back.

[Peregrine]

I'm not annoyed really but I used to be really big into fantasy football, but quit when I felt it was starting to ruin my appreciation for regular football, suddenly I wasn't caring about teams and rivalries and good games, I was getting obsessed with stats.

[BrianD]

It used to seem like a low level cult. There were people into it and you knew it, but it didn't invade reality. Now you look in any sports mag for actual news and get fantasy crap. Don't they already have publications dedicated to it? And you watch a game and the idiot announcers are talking fantasy football! I want to hear an old-school guy like Art Donovan's take on fantasy football.

Better yet, how 'bout somebuddy git in on stertin' a fantisy nascar league? Woo hoo! I draftid me Billy Bob Johnson Jr.'s fuel filler guy!

There are already plenty of fantasy nascar leagues.

[wade moore]

MGB, you are an angry, angry man.

[rkmsuf]

MGB, you are an angry, angry man.

who else has exclamation points in their name

[LionsFan10]

I have never seen so many sterotypes by one person in one thread in a long, long time.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I think one of the reasons fantasy sports has gotten more popular is that teams people root for have a lot more turn over. For instance, when the Bears won the division in 2001, I believe literally half their defense was gone the following year.Then the next year, even more guys are gone. A mere five years later the only guys left from that defense are Urlacher and Brown.

A I am sure the Bears case isn't an isolated one. With the way the salary cap is, it is hard to form attachments to players on your team because within a couple of years they are gone. Now attachements are being formed to fantasy players. Like every year, I am going after Tiki Barber. He isn't on the Bears, but he has been good to me in fantasy and now he is my guy.

So I think fantasy has gotten more popular as a way to keep rooting for guys year after year regardless of what team they are on and it wont matter if they change teams or get injured cause you can always get new guys

[heybrad]

http://img.snlarc.jt.org/arc/char/DaCa-Grumpy%20Old%20Man.jpg

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I have never seen so many sterotypes by one person in one thread in a long, long time.

Sounds just like a typical Lions fan...

[LionsFan10]

Sounds just like a typical Lions fan...

:D

It gets lonely down here in my basement.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

There are already plenty of fantasy nascar leagues.

There really are fantasy nascar leagues???

I don't know why I am shocked by this in a country where you can readily obtain fake vomit and fake dog sh*t when you can get the real objects for free.

[BrianD]

There really are fantasy nascar leagues???

I don't know why I am shocked by this in a country where you can readily obtain fake vomit and fake dog sh*t when you can get the real objects for free.

Did you not notice the posts about a fantasy game for picking movie grosses? There are fantasy games for just about every sport and for many non-sport activities too. Heck, there is even fantasy golf.

Fantasy sports in general are becoming (or already are) big business. I believe both Time Warner cable and DirecTV have services where you can select football players to have a personalized fantasy sports ticker running over whatever you are watching.

[DaddyTorgo]

i played one season of fantasy football in a family-league but i don't think i will again probably. it seems to just suck the joy out of watching a game for me. i'd rather just sit there and appreciate a good play as it happens tactically without worrying about the effect on my fantasty team

[MIJB#19]

Well, he (M Go Blue!!!) kinda has a point, the NFL website these days gives advise on which players to sit and start. Almost all of their columnists work on it. It wasn't like that almost seven years ago when I discovered the NFL. It's a fun thing to do, fantasy football, but when 'serious' journalists start writing about it, 'we' have reached the point where the real thing, the road to the Super Bowl, isn't getting the coverage it should get. Or at least the media is paying too much people for what shouldn't be part of their job. During the pre-season, I was seriously wondering why the NFL site cared more about mock drafts, cheat sheets and Gil Brandt's sleeper picks, than who was going to win the starting quarterback job in Tennessee, how well Carson Palmer was recovering from his knee injury and how Chad Pennington shoulder was doing.

Fwiw, I'm playing in two leagues this season, one more than each of the previous six seasons.

[Toddzilla]

That or they enjoy actual head to head competition and not just playing spreadsheet games.Thank you, Daivd Winter

[Ragone]

See, i think of it as the opposite.. watching scores crawl across.. knowing you are only up 2 watching tony gonzalez choke away the game for the opponent by dropping a 30 yard pass :)