More Than Just a Fantasy

It's Sunday. You turn on your television and flip it to an NFL game. As you're watching, you hear the announcers discuss a player's fantasy value. You continue watching, and you're bombarded with advertisements about where and how to play fantasy football.

When the game is over, you flip it over to ESPN, and an analyst is praising some athlete for the numbers he put up for fantasy owners. This phenomenon even follows you to work or to the classroom, where coworkers are huddled around a computer, talking about last night's fantasy "beat down" of a weaker manager. The only reality of this fantasy is that, nowadays, it's everywhere.

Fantasy sports have taken on a life of their own in the last decade as people try to get involved in the craze and companies try to cash in. According to an MSNBC article, fantasy baseball was the first fantasy sport played about 25 years ago. Followed by fantasy football leagues, fantasy enjoyed its own share of hardcore fans before the 1990s. Then, the Internet took it to another level. Fantasy leagues grew exponentially in the 90s because computers offered easier ways to keep statistics and communicate with managers. Football now boasts 19 million fantasy players in the U.S. and Canada. It's not just for men either. Fifteen percent of fantasy owners are women.

For those unfamiliar with fantasy sports, it is simply a way for people to get more involved in the sports they enjoy, and maybe make some money on the side. Most fantasy leagues are set up with the same format. A person drafts a team of athletes for a particular sport (football, for example), and competes against teams that are managed by others in the league. There are generally eight to fourteen teams in a league, and, in most formats, each team will play against one opponent each week. An individual can win a match up by earning points based on the statistical performance of each player on the team. Fantasy managers act like real sports managers by changing their starting roster regularly, making trades, and using the wavier wires to pick up players that could help their team. Trash talking on the league message board is also a common practice. It's not as complicated as it sounds, but there are some things one should know before signing up for a league.

If you are a fan of any major sport (even a fringe sport), there is a fantasy league for you. Sports like football, baseball, soccer, golf, basketball, and even college athletics are all part of the fantasy spectrum. A fan of celebrities can even join a fantasy league. Fafarazzi offers celebrity fantasy leagues, where managers can draft their favorite celebrities and score points based on the number of posts a celebrity receives in the top gossip blogs. Fantasy football blogs are popping up with up-to-the-minute information about injuries and big performances. Even people in Central New York are discussing fantasy sports. On Syracuse.com, there is a fantasy sports forum where people can post inquiries or give advice about everything fantasy.

Fantasy football, the most played fantasy sport, has risen in popularity so much that there is now a World Championship of Fantasy Football. In this competition, people shell out $2000 to compete for more than a million dollars in prize money. About 70 12-team leagues battle for a chance at the $300,000 champion's purse and the right to be called the best fantasy football player in the world. According to a New York Times article about the WCOFF, "these are the hardest of hard-core fantasy fanatics."

Although many leagues charge an entrance fee and reward the winner cash, Steve Almasy of CNN.com argues that fantasy football offers more than just monetary rewards to the participants. People actually commit hundreds of dollars and hours of their week to fantasy leagues because it is way to interact and keep in touch with friends across long distances. Almasy says the Internet link of fantasy players across states and countries was a primary factor in the explosion of fantasy sports in the late 1990s.

Fantasy sports is not without its drawbacks. Fans are forced to divide their loyalties from week to week, based on the fantasy matchup. For example, if you're a New York Giants fan and your team is playing the Philadelphia Eagles, you would root for the Giants to win. But, if you have Syracuse University Alum Donovan McNabb on your fantasy team, you may find yourself rooting for the Eagles because you really need a fantasy win.

Fantasy sports also have a negative impact on big business. Employees may only spend about ten minutes a day updating their rosters or making trade proposals, but that really adds up considering millions of people play fantasy sports every day. According to an article in Forbes, fantasy football accounts for $32 a week in lost productivity for each employee who plays. Over the 17-week NFL season, it is estimated that company losses will total $7.4 billion dollars in lost productivity. Employees even waste time instant-messaging co-workers about fantasy football.

Fantasy even has an impact on the athletes themselves. Many professional athletes know they are a part of the fantasy landscape and try to perform well for their fantasy owners. NHL forward, Marian Gaborik, issued a public apology for his lack of fantasy production. Other athletes have different agendas, like former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. As a member of the Carolina Panthers, he said in a interview that he may not be having the best season statistically, but that "fantasy football is for fantasy footballers," and he "don't play fantasy football."

The future looks bright for fantasy sports as it grows in popularity each year. Fantasy sports will only get bigger with NanoGaming, which allows players, for example, to guess whether a baseball player will hit a home run, get hit by a pitch, or strike out. . . while simultaneously competing with friends! The way sports are played may remain the same for the next century, but new technology will allow fantasy sports to evolve. Unless the Internet disappears, sports and fantasy will be connected for many years to come.