JT the Brick

This is the time of year when I am bombarded with e-mails and calls to my radio show about fantasy football. I am invited to play in several leagues by strangers from all over the globe.

I have never played fantasy football and I do not plan to dip my big toe into the water this season, but I can understand why so many people want to participate in this phenomenon. I’m very opinionated on any topic that deals with sports fans and what makes them tick.

I consider myself a die-hard fan with a passion for several different sports, but only a few teams that I root for at all costs.  

Over the past few football seasons, I have accepted fantasy football fans for what they truly are, sports fans that have too much time on their hands and should get out more. I am not talking about every fantasy freak, but some that I have crossed paths with over the past decade.

The typical fantasy football player rarely goes to any football games throughout the course of the season. There are plenty who are season ticket holders in your town and support the home team at all costs, but the majority never drives a car into the parking lot of a stadium, sets up the grill and drinks a few cold ones before kickoff. I go to NFL games almost every week and interact with thousands of fans who can care less who you are starting at wide receiver in your fantasy league because they care more about the outcome of the game that they are actually attending.  

Millions of dollars are being lost each year by companies that pay individuals to come to work and earn an honest living only to discover that their employees care more about their fantasy team than the products or services that they are paid to produce or sell. You all have friends who claim to go to work for a living but continue to use hand signals to warn their co-workers that the boss is walking out of his office and might catch you looking at your fantasy team’s statistics on your company computer. Most businesses have caught on to the typical fantasy fan that spends the majority of his/her day setting up their team for the upcoming week. Thousands of businesses have installed filters that block certain sports sites from computers in the office, but fantasy fans now have upgraded to cell phones, blackberries and other personal hand-held computers that can satisfy their need to surf for statistics and injuries without being an obvious at their work desk.  

I will give fantasy fans a lot of credit for the knowledge they bring to any conversation that involves their favorite sport. They are loaded with all types of statistics about not only the players that they have drafted to play on their team, but also can tell you about every other player in the league and why they are an asset or liability. I only have so much time in my day to watch and digest highlights and statistics from every NFL game that was played during the course of a week, but fantasy freaks know more about those third- and fourth-string players who are about to break out and become the future stars of the league.