I completed my fantasy football draft today; had the 2nd overall pick and selected Arian Foster. My team is OK, a lot of question marks. I relied a little too heavily on injury-prone players and guys who broke out last year. I also had a subconscious fascination with the 49ers. Three of my fifteen players are 49ers. I suspect that can't be a good thing.
We usually discuss fantasy football as I did in the previous six sentences, and then relate everything back to the point system. Is this a good match-up for my running back? Which of these three receivers is most likely to break out? Will quarterback so-and- so's injury be a good or bad thing for the run game? We tend to forget about the human element, you know, the people who play fantasy sports.
Many people have tried to pinpoint the reason why 27 million Americans play fantasy football. The same answers always seem to creep up: fantasy football creates interest in NFL games many fans would otherwise have no interest in, the spirit of competition, the chance to feel like a GM. These are all good reasons, and there are many more. I'm interested in the groups of friends who create their own league and get together every year to draft.
My modest 10-team draft was conducted at 2:00 PM Wednesday afternoon. This time all but assures a mixture of college kids and low-lives, with the occasional office worker furiously maximizing and minimizing his page. Our league was chosen at random. None of us knew each other. I arrived in the Live Draft about fifteen minutes before start time. One guy, the sixth overall pick, typed "Hey" into the conversation bar. Another guy, the first overall pick, expressed excitement over the chance to finally draft Adrian Peterson. I suppose I could have added my two cents, but I didn't. After all, I didn't know these people and was not particularly interested in forging a relationship with them.
I thought of the groups of friends, sometimes living in different parts of the country, who agree upon a location every year (VEGAS, BABY, VEGAS) to hold their fantasy football draft. Sure, the draft is important, but it's easy to see the real reason for these fantasy football leagues. They provide a yearly opportunity for a group of old friends to get together and catch up. Life eventually gets the better of us. We have to grow up, move around, maybe get married and have kids. Through all of this, fantasy football, of all things, can keep people together. To me, this trumps however many points Arian Foster is going to score this week.
At the heart of it, fantasy football is a silly game. All of us who have even an ounce of perspective know this. If you play with friends and family, feel fortunate that you have friends and family who are willing to play. Getting together in a Vegas casino or even your neighbor's house is a beautiful thing. You don't want to be drafting at two in the afternoon on a Wednesday with a bunch of strangers. You really don't.
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