My Fantasy Team Doesn't Have Anyone Named Manning or Brees (But There Certainly Are Some Tight Ends)

When someone asks me who I've got starting on my fantasy team, I'm thinking:

or

Not this:

or

Now, before I begin to rant about this, let me say that I have no inherent dislike of fantasy football. At its basis, I like the idea. I play Pigskin Pick'em, and I like to gamble on football (never involving money of course, as sports gambling is illegal in Illinois). Both of the above mentioned methods, as well as fantasy football, are nice ways to care about a game that one otherwise wouldn't. Being the fan of a small market team in the midst of a clear rebuilding phase while living in the third largest media market in the country that I am, I need all the help I can get to care about most of the football games that I see on a normal Sunday. What has been grinding on me the last few years is how fantasy football has integrated itself into the game to such a level that it has seemingly become the focus for far too many people.

My biggest complaint is that people are now cheering for stats and players, not the team. I have literally been sitting at a bar watching the early slate of games (my Chiefs almost always play at noon) and seen people wearing a jersey of one team paying attention to every other game because they had fantasy players in that contest. I've seen other people get mad at the quarterback of the team they came in representing because he didn't throw the TD pass to the receiver on their fantasy team. That borders on insane in my eyes. I don't care how the Chiefs win (and they sure haven't been doing much of that lately), all I want on a Sunday afternoon is the W. I don't care if the touchdown came from a J. Charles run or a Chris Chambers catch. All that matters is the win.

ESPN has gotten in on the game too. Mike & Mike have a brief segment every week discussing if one should start or sit players, and there is a show that airs Sunday that does the same on ESPN2. Really, ESPN, is this necessary? Please stick to reporting on the games based on reality.

Now, I wouldn't fault you if you felt that the above two reasons for my dislike of the "dedicated" fantasy football type were just me whining. The thing that really annoys me is when there is a debate about if something that happened in the real NFL game was fair to the owners of that player/squad in fantasy football. Two examples from this season are Peyton Manning being sat in week 16 (championship week for most fantasy leagues) and Maurice Jones-Drew's intentional knee at the one yard line to burn clock time instead of running in the score. I can remember debate on ESPN about both of these decision's impacts on fantasy football, and MJD even went so far as to apologize to his fantasy owners. This is where is really crosses the line in my book. There are plenty of reasons to be mad about Manning being benched (trust me, I sure am), and I can even understand the logic of wanted MJD to never let up on a run, but to be bad because it kept fantasy points off the board? As Chad Ochocinco would say, "Child, please!"

With all this being said, I'm sure I would enjoy playing fantasy football if I ever gave it a shot. If you're one of the people who runs a fantasy squad and keeps your sports priorities straight, nice work. I'm sure fantasy football is only going to get bigger, and eventually I'll come to at least comprehend how it could supercede rooting for a real football team, but for now, the "dedicated" guilty of the above mentioned complaints are giving me at least one reason to be glad the regular season is over.