Fantasy season is starting. Yahoo! just opened its game for registration, and I couldn't be more excited. I can't wait to agonize over draft decisions, foolishly predict game outcomes, groan about injuries, scour free agents for golden pickups, and wonder how it all went wrong when I look at my one (or more) last place team. Yeah, fantasy can be stressful. Why does it seem worth the consternation? And does it detract from enjoying watching and following the NFL, or does it enhance it?
I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell my own story. When I started playing fantasy football, I knew very little about the game. I knew Peyton Manning was a good quarterback; that's about it. So what did I do? I studied. I perused the advice of Yahoo!'s fantasy experts about draft strategy, player rankings, and so on. But once the games started going, I had to learn things the hard way. One: don't drop your starting players that get injured, but still remain listed as "probable" for the next game. Two: don't panic when a player has an off day. Three: never be too confident. It was quite the ride: I only had two defeats and was ranked #1 going into the playoffs, but lost in the first round. Those star players I lucked into (it was an autopick draft, meaning players are picked from a ranking list to fill out your roster) didn't deliver when it most counted, and I had to settle for third. It was disappointing.
But I had a blast. There was something so cool about setting lineups, watching games unfold, reading the numbers, and doing it all over again the next week. It's a brilliant game: there are effective strategies and methods of setting yourself up for success, but in the end, it's luck. That #1 scoring running back going against the league's worst defense? He could get injured on the first play. That random wide receiver you picked up to replace an injury or a bye week? He could go off for 100+ yards and two touchdowns. You're never quite sure in this game, but that's what makes it so fun.
But what about enjoying the NFL itself? Does watching numbers take away from watching players? Does knowledge of the real game get pushed away by knowledge of the fake game? From what I can see, no. If anything, I became a fan of the NFL because of fantasy, not in spite of it. I had to learn who players were, what teams were succeeding and which were failing, how defenses work against different offenses and vice versa. I would never know as much as I do now without fantasy as the incentive; the more I know about Cleveland's pass defense, the more interested I become in Cincinatti's pass offense, and the trends of their receivers, and how other receivers have done against Cleveland, and so on. The search for advantageous information never ends, and it leads you to learn so much you didn't think you cared about.
So, if you don't understand why someone would want to play fantasy football instead of just watching the games, maybe my story offers some insight. Don't knock until you try it.
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