Is fantasy football fading?

In a recent post titled Confessions of a footballholic I talked about how my love for football is growing but not necessarily fantasy football. As this season has unfolded thus far, that fact is more true all the time for me for some reason, and it has nothing to do with how my team performs.

I'm currently sitting in fourth place out of a 10 team league and would be doing better if I was paying more attention to it.

One week, when I played against my cousin, we decided to only start our kickers.













The 49ers were playing the Texans and I had Joe Nedney and he had Kris Brown. That put a whole new perspective on it and actually made it more interesting. We found ourselves hoping for the teams to get in field goal range but not too close to where we'd get less points for a shorter kick. We definitely wanted to avoid touchdowns because then we'd only get credit for the extra point.

Something about that week was refreshing. It brought a whole different perspective. I lost that week 9-3 but I can honestly say I didn't care. A win would probably have boosted me up to third place but hey, what am I playing for?

It's a free fantasy football league and there's nothing at stake. It's not like it used to be. When I started playing in high school, it was the coolest thing ever and the way technology has advanced since then, you'd figure I'd be into it all the more. Truth is though, I'm not.

Unfortunately, fantasy football is kind of losing it's novelty. I used to log on once or twice a day, anxious for the next football week to start so I can view my match up and talk trash to my opponent. Now, there's no trash talk happening. The only time I check it is Sunday morning before I rush of to church and I put literally no thought into it, as long as all the spots are filled.

I've said this before but heck, I'll say it again. One thing that fantasy football used to do for me was keep me interested in other games I normally wouldn't care about at all. However, I'm more interested in the league as a whole, I don't need fantasy to keep me interested in those games.

I can look at any team and find something intriguing. For example, I look at the Lions and ask myself "will they go 1-31 in a period of two years?". Maybe I'll see two teams playing and find a player on one of them that may have played for the other and suddenly I'm fascinated by that. Yes, if the Rams and Lions are playing and that's the only thing on TV, that's what I'm watching. Believe or it or not, it will be entertaining to me too.

It seems like there aren't as many die hard fans out there anymore. Instead of tuning in to see how their teams are doing, people are frequently checking to see how their fantasy teams are doing and that's all they care about. They root for Tom Brady to throw to Wes Welker over Randy Moss because they're going against Moss.

If the Cowboys lose, a fantasy win doesn't do justice. The opposite is also true. A loss from my fantasy team won't make things harder if the Boys win.

A rule I've had for a long time for fantasy sports is never play a guy facing your favorite team. That's one thing that's killing the die hards. If you're rooting for McNabb to throw a couple TD's against Dallas but call yourself a Cowboys fan, it's pretty obvious where your priorities lie.

When all said and done though, I think I know what the problem is. It's no longer new and the honeymoon phase is over (it's been about 10 years) but in order to keep that passion alive, I need to come at a different angle. That's why the kickers match up was intriguing. It was new and different.

It's not about the money, but I think I'm done with the free fantasy football after this year. I need something to keep me motivated and interested. Either that or maybe take a new approach to the draft. Maybe I should draft an entire team's second string or better yet, no taking guys under the age of 35. That could be interesting.

Anyway, there's still time in this season, fantasy football or not, I'm into the game.