Lame Sports

Fantasy Sports

By Ross Weingarten

Bosses of America: it’s 2:00 P.M. on a Thursday. Do you know what your employees are doing? If you think they are working, you could be wrong. In fact, chances are you are wrong. Much more likely, they are playing fantasy football, and it can’t be good for your productivity.

The meteoric rise in popularity of fantasy sports has been well documented. What started as a niche hobby for only the most avid sports fans has evolved into a multi-million dollar industry. There are entire magazines about virtually every sport that tell fantasy players who to draft, who to trade and who to bench. Entire television shows feature “experts” expounding on the same thing. Millions of Americans play fantasy sports, in particular basketball, baseball and the most popular of all, fantasy football. Everyday, rotisserie players debate the expected performance of LaDanian Tomlinson against the Broncos defense, or how Alex Rodriguez will fare against left-handed pitching, during a night game, playing on Astroturf, on a Tuesday (ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration…maybe).

There are two obvious benefits to playing fantasy sports. The first is that it makes you more aware of what is going on in the sport that you are focusing on. If you play fantasy football, you care about every game, because the performance of not only the players on your team, but also those on the team that you are playing against, matter a great deal. Each match-up takes on new significance, no matter how irrelevant to the standings. Furthermore, when the games are not being played, the fantasy player cares about how a player is practicing, how their injuries are healing, and looks at how that player has performed against their next opponent in the past. In short, playing fantasy sports makes you a more knowledgeable fan. This, I believe is a good thing.

There is another positive to fantasy sports, and one that I think is even more important than increased knowledge in all of the most arcane, esoteric sports statistics. It is a great way to connect with people, both friends and those you have never met. Fantasy sports, and sports in general, are a language all their own. There is a lingo associated with every game, one that only fans can understand and relate to. Because of this, fantasy sports players have common interests and can relate to each other. I play in a fantasy football league with my close friends from my youth. We all live in different cities around the country, and with our busy schedules, rarely see one another or talk on the phone. Our fantasy football league keeps us connected. We talk trash about one another’s teams, discuss trades, ask advice and, quite simply, talk football. But what is most important is that we are talking. The game keeps us close, keeps us talking, keeps us friends.

But fantasy sports are not all positive (I am not going to touch the debate over sports gambling…that’s a whole other article). As a passionate sports fan and a self-proclaimed purist, there is one aspect of rotisserie leagues that I believe takes away from the experience of being a fan. Because every game matters, we place undue importance on games that we otherwise would care little about. I was ecstatic a few weeks ago when Jericho Cotchery, a wide receiver for the Jets, caught a meaningless, last-second touchdown that had no result on the outcome of the game. Still, I had Cotchery on my team, which gave me an extra six points, and ended up being the reason why I beat one of my best friends that week. Anything to beat a friend, right?

While fantasy sports make us more knowledgeable, it also takes away from our true rooting interests. I hate having a Redskin on my fantasy team because, as I like to say, I don’t like to mix “business with pleasure.” I care so much about my fantasy team that if you ask me what I would prefer, to win my league or have my beloved Redskins make the playoffs, I’m not sure what I would say. Does anyone see anything wrong with this? Being a fan without fantasy sports allows us to care about the games and the teams that matter. It is, of course, possible to be a fan and a fantasy player, but it means that, if we don’t put our rooting interest second, we at least compromise them. Sports are best when we root for the teams that we have always rooted for and against their rivals. Other games? Sure, they matter, but they shouldn’t compromise how we feel about our teams. In many ways, that has happened with me. If I think I’m as good a fan as I used to be, I’m living in a fantasy.

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