Think hard. Can you name anything that has grown over 60 percent in the last 4 years? The suspense has been compromised by the title of this article, but if connecting the dots isn’t your thing the answer is fantasy football. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s website, over 32 million people in the U.S. and Canada are now active fantasy football players. The study found that one in five males played fantasy sports last year.
Fantasy sports are a wonderful thing. In a challenging economic climate, many individuals and families have had to cut their entertainment budgets. Fantasy sports are a free and engaging pastime. Many couples participate in leagues together, both as co-owners of a singular team, or against each other. In the interest of preserving our marriage, and in light of the nature of our board game rivalry, my wife and I have vowed never to play in a common league.
Fantasy leagues provide a safe outlet for our competitive nature. If you like to gamble, you can pay to play in money leagues. Some successful players use fantasy sports winnings to supplement their income. Although these pay leagues are still a form of gambling, fantasy sports players feel that they have more control over their chances of winning since they have input regarding their lineups, unlike betting on games.
We rely on fantasy sports leagues as an automatic annual renewal of friendships that take a back seat to life’s daily priorities. I’d have to guess that my personal fantasy football situation is similar to most. I have a group of 10 to 12 friends who have slowly spread out across the planet (one all the way to Australia); rendering a live, in-person draft impossible. We have managed to stay together through the use of online leagues, hosted by outlets such as Yahoo! and ESPN.com.
We rely on fantasy sports leagues as an automatic annual renewal of friendships that take a back seat to life’s daily priorities.
The best man from my wedding is in my league. Some of my oldest friends are in this league. The league is full of people that I have grown apart from geographically, but not emotionally. I miss these guys. To confess something of this nature in the league’s chat forum would be grounds for expulsion, but here I can freely admit that I rely on this league reforming at the end of every summer so I can manage these otherwise wayward relationships. Fantasy football preserves friendships.
Social networking has changed fantasy football. This season I had the opportunity to join a league populated by 15 other owners I have never met in person. I began using Twitter last spring to follow fantasy baseball writers and to stay up to date on spring training. While navigating tweets one day, I stumbled upon a user whose avatar was a screenshot of Destro from the 1980s G.I.Joe cartoon series. I was instantly intrigued. The avatar belonged to Twitter user Brian Truitt (@briantruitt). Truitt is a USA Today writer and editor, specializing in all things awesome. I began following Truitt on Twitter, and through this medium I was afforded the opportunity to join a fantasy football league full of like-minded pop culture fans and children of the 80s.
I’m so very proud to be in this league. Can you tell? If you are visiting this site, there’s a good chance we share some interests; so I’ll divulge a bit. You’d be impressed by how many comic book, wrestling, and 80s toy references can be crammed into one league. The division and team names are too numerous and epic to mention them all, but it’s a dream league for a guy like me. There is no shortage of talented owners here – look at the end of this post for some awesome links to sites, articles and podcasts created by various league members. None of them asked me to promote their work, I enjoy it and I think you will too.
Many fantasy football leagues will hold their annual drafts this weekend. While many employers do not look forward to the next 4 months of decreased work productivity, millions of fantasy team owners are looking forward to the clean slate of a new season and the possibility of winning it all. I’m looking forward to renewing old friendships and forging some new ones.
Links:
GeneralsJoes – “A Blog About the Importance (or Unimportance) of Little Plastic Men” – a must for G.I.Joe fans – with a podcast “What’s on Joe Mind”
mindpollution.org – super entertaining blog by a very talented author, Rick Marshall
USA Today content by Brian Truitt – again, if you’re visiting this site, you’d dig this writer. Do it now.
Cool and Collected – a site collecting pop culture in one cool place
iGeektrooper – “On the Front Lines for the Geek Empire” (and one of the best logos I’ve ever seen)
