Fantasy Football changes pro fandom

By Guest Columnist Shaw Furlow

Recently, I got involved in an “exciting” race to the finish of the season with a couple of friends who snatched victory from the certain jaws of defeat with their Fantasy Football team.  Their league charged a low entry fee, so not a lot of money was in play. But my friends sweated it out during the final game, as if it were life or death.  Amusing to a non playing, casual observer like myself. 

So I decided to find out what it was all about.

There are many good reasons for not playing Fantasy Football – and that’s why I           have remained a casual observer.  First of all, following players each week, keeping up with their stats, who’s hurt, who’s not, takes time. Roughly thirty minutes to an hour each a day. Well hold on there sparky!  I’m retired and finding thirty minutes a day means something has to go. Like what?  One of my naps? Hardly. Cut the time I spend throwing the ball with Flint? Not happening.

The second reason I have no interest in playing Fantasy Football:  I watch NFL, MLB, NCAA football, baseball, softball and volleyball. And seasonally, I watch sailing, tennis and curling. I need no further sporting events to take my time.

Yet a quick internet search shows many people disagree with my perspective.  Some 95 million Americans play Fantasy Football, some in multiple leagues. I can’t sit with a group of gentlemen, or ladies in some cases, without listening to the incessant chatter about who got picked up by whose Fantasy team. Broken record. There’s a lot of chest thumping, high fiving and bragging about a team of professional players you assembled but had nothing to do with coaching. I just don’t get it.  But the quick facts are these: four to eight million Fantasy Football leagues with 40 to 80 million teams generating some $30-$37 billion in revenues.  To get 95 million Americans to agree on anything is difficult.  But these stats came from a quick search on the web, and I believe everything I read online.

Fantasy Football is one of many changes that has affected sports fandom in the modern sports world.  Way back in my teaching days at Jackson Preparatory School, I ate lunch every day with the senior high coaches and the principal.  They were graduates of three major universities, some out of state or lesser known universities and a scholar from Delta State.  For twenty minutes there was chest thumping, high fiving and bragging about their college teams or the New Orleans Saints. We knew the players and coaches. We actually hurt when they lost.  In Fantasy Football, you don’t care if the Saints win as long as Olave catches passes and scores touchdowns for your fantasy team.  It makes games you don’t care about important.  If I don’t care about Jacksonville vs the Jets, I’m not watching. I don’t care who the wide out is.  Not so with the 95 million Americans involved in Fantasy Football.

Fantasy Football has changed the nature of professional football fandom as the impacts of the NCAA Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and transfer portal policies and procedures have influenced the nature of college sports fandom.  The Olympics opened the door for NIL, which allows kids who bust their asses playing sports to use their stardom commercially and share in some of the money their schools and coaches are making – the kind of money a school can use to pay the coach du jour $9 million a year. Through the portal, players can transfer to other schools where they can find better opportunities elsewhere with different coaches and to be utilized by other teams. 

Basically, I support both, but I think NIL compensation should be limited to $2 million to eliminate the portal stampede to monied schools; and I think portal transfers should be contingent on a freshman staying two years at a school and not playing for just one year before going elsewhere as now required. 

College football conference expansion is another change you don’t want me to get started on – i.e., the 16-team Southeastern Conference!  Change happens.  So you Fantasy Football team owners, GMs and coaches, while some of us don’t get it, continue your joust with the windmills. It’s a noble quest.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Shaw Furlow is a retired Co-Lin band director, former Wesson News arts columnist and Brookhaven-based promoter of music programs.