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.

Snyder's Letter

For my podcast (found on the right) I've started what we call the Drama Queen of the Week Award and I must say, this was a tough week, but in a good way. This past week provided a lot to choose from.
I could have gone with Brandon "I'll Spikes your eyes out". Ashley Lambert of the New Mexico soccer team (see the video if you haven't already) would have been an easy one to with as well. Even though I'm a Cowboys fan, I strongly considered Roy Williams for saying he has to work harder to make grabs than the other wideouts on the team.
Instead of saying so and so deserves the award for doing this or that, we've taken a new approach, hopefully something original. We write a letter as if it's from a particular athlete, coach, fan or someone in the world of sports campaigning for the special award.
Last week's episode titled "Halloween" was the first time we went about it this way, and it went to Jamarcus Russell who was talking about how difficult life can be as an NFL player and the expectations they must live up to or else.
This week though, we gave it to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder who more or less apologized to the fans but also asked for no signs to be brought to the games. Yeah, you think it might be because they were bashing him? Anyway, here's the letter from Snyder. Oh, on a side note, you can hear the other candidates on the podcast if you're that bored.

Dear Hague Sports:

First of I want to say I’m sorry to all my fans. From the bottom of my heart I am sorry. If I could take back some of the things that have been done in this organization, I would but not even Tom Cruise has enough money to do that yet.

I’m sorry to the fans for the fact my players can’t play the game and I’m sorry the coaches aren’t doing their jobs properly. I thought that giving Albert Haynseworth $100 million would boost the team morale. I was hoping Jim Zorn would resign after I took away his play calling duties.

What do you do with that? I can’t fire him because I have a bad reputation. I decorated my office with pictures of Mike Shannahan and Bill Cowher and still the guy won’t take a hint. I asked him “how’s my favorite former coach doing?” to which he responded, “I don’t know, I haven’t talked to Coach Gibbs lately.

My other problem is even though I apologized, my fans don’t like me. Just the other day I saw a sign that said Snyder, then the “S” word. I mean, forgive my bad language but I don’t stink. After I saw the sign, I made a rule, no signs in my stadium allowed. They’re only being used to hurt people’s feelings. Now that I took the signs away though, people hate me. I’m just doing if for the safety of our fans but maybe I should stop trying to protect them.

Here’s what I need from you. If I can’t win the Super Bow, I need to win something else, the Drama Queen award. Nothing’s going in my favor and I need a momentum shift. I need the Drama Queen Award. How does $2 billion sound?