The Joys of Fantasy Football

This week was overall a typical school week.  I attended all my lectures and labs, actually had to start doing homework, and reading for classes.  So in that respect it was a pretty normal week.  Yesterday in the absence of any classes in the afternoon, Kevin, Erin, Will, Kelly, Zack, Mary Kate, Alan, Jacob, and I went to the beach to hang out for a couple hours.  Everyone else had been going earlier in the week when all of us had classes so we felt compelled to go.  Playing frisbee, swimming for some, and attempting to hit and kick around an Aussie rules football was a quite enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

But the most exciting news of the last couple weeks were the two draft lottery results of my fantasy football leagues.  I will admit that despite my reinvigorated enthusiasm that arose because of the two emails, I have not had the time to start really looking at any of the fantasy material yet.  Luckily I have couple weeks until the draft days.  I know there are plenty of reasons for not liking fantasy football (changing the collective attachment to a team to single players and vice versa, hoping certain players perform poorly week in and week out just because a rival in the league has them) but I am going to offer three of my reasons for falling in love with this game over the past three years.

1)  I never grew up on video games.
     -For every 30 kids who were raised playing the new versions of Madden every year on N64, Playstation, and Xbox there was always the one that wasn't.  That kid was me and I really don't regret it at all.  Fantasy has given me another outlet, besides just watching and following the sport, to to interact with football, my single favorite sport to watch.  It has made my lack of video game skills irrelevant since fantasy converts the movement of thumbs and pointer-fingers into knowledge of the league (and once in a while a bit of luck).  Competing with my mind suits me much better than with my finger dexterity.

2)  It is a great source of friendly competition between friends
     -When it comes right down to it, friendly competition in between friends is one of the most entertaining and essential parts of friendships (especially males').  As 98% of fantasy football players are male, I am not trying to exclude females but it naturally just applies to men more.  We are by nature a more competitive creature and fantasy football provides an outlet to showcase our knowledge to each other.  There is nothing better than listening to banter between owners throughout the season, from draft day blunders to playoff appearances.

3)  It is a great way to keep in contact with people
     -Even now that I am halfway across the world, fantasy has already provided a mutual experience, that my friends from back home and I can still share.  It has been a great way so far in my college career to keep in touch with my best friends from high school that I do not get to see on a regular basis during the school year.  By providing a ground for common experience despite physical distance between people, fantasy football is great social tool as well.

That being said, I am hoping that our volleyball team gets a league going, and I cannot wait for August 30th and the BSFL draft.