Incredible Mag

Are People More Devoted To Their Fantasy Football Team Than Their Favorite NFL Team?

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In the early days of fantasy football&comma; the game was often played through the mail&colon; Not email&comma; not a web-based server&comma; not an app &period; &period; &period; the mail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A group of like-minded friends would draft teams made of players from all over the NFL&comma; send in lineups and keep score manually&comma; with a calculator that was just a &period; &period; &period; well&comma; calculator&comma; and not a small&comma; taken-for-granted part of a vastly more powerful computing device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">From humble beginnings&comma; fantasy football has become a global phenomenon&period; Today&comma; fantasy football is literally a multi-billion dollar industry&period; Each year&comma; new players sign up for new leagues and draft teams made up of all the athletes they want&period; In many ways&comma; it has encroached upon and evolved football fandom to the point that many people now have more of a vested rooting interest in their fantasy football team than their favorite NFL team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-838" title&equals;"Are People More Devoted To Their Fantasy Football Team Than Their Favorite NFL Team&quest;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;incrediblemag&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;09&sol;Fantasy-Football-710x540&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Are People More Devoted To Their Fantasy Football Team Than Their Favorite NFL Team&quest;" width&equals;"568" height&equals;"432" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">So&comma; the big question that follows is&comma; simply – why&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Personal Empowerment<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Let&&num;8217&semi;s face it&comma; if you root for a struggling NFL team&comma; the thought has crossed your mind that you&&num;8217&semi;d do a much better job of running the show than the executives of your favorite team&period; If they would have just drafted &lbrack;player X&rsqb; or traded for &lbrack;player Y&rsqb; or gotten rid of that bum &lbrack;player Z&rsqb; like you told all of your friends they should&comma; they would have been on the way to the Super Bowl instead of dusting off their golf clubs and heading for warmer climes when the calendar flipped to January&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With fantasy football&comma; you get to put your money where your mouth is&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not just about wanting to one-up your favorite NFL team&&num;8217&semi;s executives&comma; either&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also a chance to get a taste of the manager&&num;8217&semi;s job that every fan has dreamed of doing at one point or another&period; Who wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t want to handpick a team of their favorite players&comma; and set out to be the best in the league&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Viewing Variety<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In many ways&comma; the move away from fervid&comma; unconditional team support&comma; and toward fandom of the league as a whole&comma; along with individual players&comma; is brought forth by the availability of options&period; The NFL as a whole is big business these days&comma; with fans having the option to watch any game they want&comma; from across the league&comma; on a given Sunday&period; In the past&comma; you were only able to watch one of the two games broadcast in your area in each time-slot&comma; which tended to foster a devotion to a particular team shown often in your area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The rise in popularity of fantasy football very much coincides with the rise of game availability on television&period; Today you don&&num;8217&semi;t just pick your players&comma; watch one or two of them in the games broadcast in your area and receive fantasy results through the mail&period; Instead&comma; fantasy football has become a real-time&comma; up-to-the-second adventure for fans&comma; with the ability to cheer fanatically while watching your fantasy running back break a long touchdown&comma; just as you would when a player from your favorite team did the same&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Cultural Norms<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Fantasy football has ingrained itself in popular culture&comma; with Sunday morning shows dedicated to the game&comma; a massive&comma; thriving internet community and experts who are paid only to write about fantasy football&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s even a sitcom dedicated to it&period; The reality is that fantasy football has quickly become one of those things that you just do&period; It can connect you with friends from across the country or create a new group of friends from strangers&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s something to talk about at the water cooler on Monday morning&comma; and at the bar on Friday night&period; It is ever-present in society during the season&period; Though many people now root for their fantasy team more fervently than their favorite NFL team&comma; most will tell you that there is still plenty of room for both&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For most people&comma; a favorite team is something ingrained&comma; often passed down through generations&period; That isn’t going to disappear thanks to a fun&comma; new alternative&period; You can now watch your favorite team on TV and check your fantasy scores on Comcast internet at the same time&period; If you’re team’s game is going downhill&comma; then your fantasy players will show you which games are the more competitive and interesting alternatives<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version