COLUMN: Fantasy Football – It’s not the real thing, but it’s close enough
Scott Bracken, a junior majoring in sociology at Utah State University, is from Page, Ariz.
Geographically this makes him a fan of the Arizona Cardinals. However, as any good NFL fan would know, backing a team like the Cardinals could lead you to suicide unless you found something else to be excited about.
Trust me, being from Denver I have learned not to let the Nuggets win-loss record get me down. If I took the Nuggets seriously I would either end up in a coffin or a straight jacket.
To keep his sanity this fall, Bracken still cheered for the Cardinals (just in case a miracle took place), but he didn’t put all of his eggs in one basket.
He also became an avid fan of the Posers and the Losers, which both ended up in the Super Bowl.
Never heard of those teams? It’s OK, both are fantasy football teams. Before I explained the wonderful world of fantasy football to my wife, she thought I was cheering for imaginary people, which she found to be an odd hobby for a 23-year-old man.
OK, I’ll admit I still run around my parking lot making fake crowd noises in front of my perplexed neighbors pretending I’m winning the Super Bowl, but that is different from fantasy football.
Fantasy football starts at the same time as the regular NFL season. Usually it happens over the Internet.
The Web site I recommend is NFL.com because it’s free. Other sites also run fantasy football leagues, but it costs money to get in.
It all starts with the live Internet draft, where you are placed in a league with 11other people from around the country, and pick real football players you feel are going to do well during the season.
Funny story: This year I got online for the draft, but my computer started having problems so I frantically got dressed, grabbed the keys and told my wife I would cry if she didn’t drive me up to the Taggart Student Center as fast as humanly possible. I urged her to run stop signs and plow through all of the annoying students who walk in front of your car next to the TSC so I would be there on time for my first pick. She looked at me like I was insane.
But this was back when she thought I was a schizophrenic cheering for all of my imaginary, fantasy football friends. Now that she knows the significance of fantasy football, I’m sure it would make perfect sense to her.
For both Scott and I, neither of our real teams made the real football playoffs.
But what makes sports so great is that even if real life doesn’t live up to your expectations, you can lead a team to the fantasy football Super Bowl.
If that doesn’t work out, throw Madden 2002 into the PlayStation and rig it so that even a team like the Cardinals can win the Super Bowl.
Maybe you’re in the Taliban and American football isn’t your thing. You can play Risk and pretend that you rule the world.
It’s not the real thing, but it’s close.
Clark Jessop is a sophomore majoringin broadcast journalism.He can be reached atclarkjessop@cc.usu.edu