Fantasy Football

I've been debating just how to approach this growing national treasure. Fantasy football is huge, and it keeps getting bigger every year. Even the NFL now caters to the fantasy football fan. It was the natural course as any potential fan base only increases the popularity and dollars of the game. Personally, I think that it's taken far too seriously. In many ways it seems bigger and more important than reality. Some people set aside their favorite team in favor of their fantasy team. Some even have a favorite team only because of their fantasy team. During the lockout many people were more worried about the fate of fantasy leagues than the real games upon which their fantasies depend. I have long enjoyed fantasy football. I much prefer this extracurricular football activity to betting on games. I've always seen fantasy football as a little extra splash of entertainment to the games each week. I'm always most focused on the Minnesota Vikings games. I'll watch other games around that highlight game. Watching players on my fantasy team adds a little more interest to these other games. It often helps me to decide which game to watch. I've always just seen my involvement in fantasy leagues as secondary entertainment to the real thing. It's a strong enough entertainment that I would greatly miss it if it was gone. Part of that entertainment is due to my being in a solid league of 10 fellow fools that I enjoy. We've been together for over a decade and it's always a blast, win or lose.

Despite the fun, I have some issues with the make believe football. Former Cal, 49ers and Lions coach Steve Marriucci brings up perhaps my greatest complaint when he described a coaching experience of his. While coaching the Lions, he was shocked to hear Detroit fans cheering as Terrell Owens shredded his and supposedly their defense. It made no sense to him. Just because they had Owens on their fantasy team they were against their own team. Marriucci has hated fantasy football ever since. Now, I love fantasy football, but I agree with Marriucci. It's about priorities, and for many fantasy football participants those priorities have shifted. It's also created a generation of fans that view real football as if it's fantasy football. On the field, strategy and team play are gone. Off the field, everyone is a general manager. They can solve the ills of every team by ridiculous, unrealistic trades that are meant to create paper champions. Everyone is an expert in team building. Madden hasn't helped matters in this regard, but I think that fantasy football has been the greatest block to sanity.

Fantasy football had it's beginnings in the early '60s in Oakland, CA. Wilfred Winkenbach is to blame. Fantasy football had to be dreamed up by someone with a name like Wilfred Winkenbach. He was an Oakland area businessman and limited partner in the Raiders. It was on a team trip to New York City in 1962, that Winkenbach, Raiders Public Relations manager Bill Tunnel and reporter Scotty Stirling got together to form the rules. The inaugural league was called the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League) and took place at King X's bar in Oakland. The league consisted of eight members, made up of administrative affiliates of the AFL, pro football journalists, or someone who had purchased or sold ten season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season. Chalk up another innovation that rose from the AFL. Fantasy football was born.

My first brush with fantasy football was in the early '80s. I was the general manager of a team whose owner knew little of football. It only lasted a couple of years before I went off to college. A decade later, I was in a league for good.

I really hate to be critical of fantasy football as it's something I greatly enjoy. I just love the real version so much more that I hate to see it distorted by something that should be a fun side. Do the players perform for the incredible number of fantasy teams or for the teams whose uniforms they actually wear?

Good luck to everyone in their respective fantasy leagues this season. May you suffer no injuries or running back by committees. Good luck to everyone in their drafts. Mine is today.