Fantasy football has ‘real life’ merits, social, economic lessons

Whether it’s playing pickup games, attending local high school and college events, or tuning in each weak to watch professionals, sport has always been a welcome distraction from our daily troubles.

The continued play of America’s pastime, baseball, during the Civil War and World War II – when, notably, a short-lived women’s league was created – lends strong proof to the value of this distraction, as does the near-unbelievable case of German and French soldiers emerging from their bunkers to kick a soccer ball around during a brief truce on Christmas Eve, 1915.

But as this recession’s last few months have shown, even the most unreal of sports can serve to divert attention from one’s economic woes. That’s right; I’m talking about fantasy football.

The game – which, for those of you who might have been living in a hole for most of your lives, is based on “owning” and “managing” real NFL players and winning or losing based on your “team’s” weekly statistics– has attracted record numbers of paying and non-paying participants alike this season.

Indeed, the game has become one of the most popular hobbies of football fans across the country over the last decade, with many millions of Americans testing the strength of ESPN’s, Yahoo’s, and CBS Sports’ online servers in the “draft” days of late summer and throughout the professional football season’s busy Sundays. The game has created a billion-dollar-plus business, not only through pay-to-play-leagues and online advertisements, but also thanks to offshoots such as magazines and books. From the highly-serious and substantive Fantasy Football for Dummies, Drafting to Win, and Your Official Guide on How to Dominate Fantasy Football, to the highly-humorous Why Fantasy Football Matters: And Our Lives Do Not and Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie, the titles abound.

But why?

What a few sports pundits have called “fandom on steroids” takes up a ton of time, keeps men out of church – or, if they do make it in on Sunday morning, keeps their minds elsewhere – and makes some obsessed gamers even take joy in the injuries of other managers’ star players.

Yet while these negative aspects of the game are true, they are overshadowed by the many positives that the game offers both mind and soul.

On the cognitive side of the ball, fantasy football makes math somewhat cool. It gives young players an early dose of averages, and has even been used in classrooms to help engage students. Through a strong emphasis on risk/reward and short-term/long-term “investments” in players, it can also teach adults a little bit about real-world investments. Teams that seem to do best, for example, tend to be built on a diverse group of consistently good players rather than a couple of all-pros and a bunch of scrubs. As in the stock market, letting it all ride on a couple of all-pros – one of whom could ruin you through an injury or a few poor performances – isn’t the best road to long-term success.

But maybe these reasons seem a bit of a stretch, so here are few more important ones:

It makes even the crappiest of match ups worth watching – at least for those who have a player on one of the two teams. This definitely applies in Iowa, where the low-lying Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams are regularly on TV. In the same way, it promotes a diversity of interests, as you might be compelled to follow teams from East and West, North and South.

On the social level, fantasy football puts you into a virtual community of people who enjoy what you enjoy, whether you know them or not. Moreover, if you get into a league with your current friends, it’s a bond-builder; if you want to keep in touch with old high school buddies, it’s got you covered there too. And finally, if you’ve got an office league, it provides great conversation material for the water-cooler, spurring talk about players and last or next weekend’s games.

On a more personal level, whether helping guys relive their athletic “glory days” or simply exalt in the success of others as if it were their own, fantasy football can provide a vicarious experience. It can also satisfy the psyche through the creativity forced by naming one’s team, the “trash talk” that message boards allow, or the emotional release of being an opinionated “armchair” or “Monday morning” quarterback.

Last, but certainly not least, fantasy football can help create better men. By making them pay attention to something for an extended amount of time, it gives guys practice for long and engaging one-on-ones with wives and girlfriends, children and parents. Equally important, it can help men build relationships: Sure, they aren’t real, but managers’ relationships with players have their ups and downs and send the powerful message that, as in life, the best people to keep around are those whom you can trust.

Given all of this, it’s little surprise that fantasy football is doing so well. The game is so loved, in fact, that it is the subject of a new FX comedy series called “The League,” which will premiere this Thursday at 10:30 EST. The show — created by “Curb Your Enthusiasm” producer Jeff Schaffe and his wife Jackie — will revolve around a group of middle-aged guys in a fantasy football league. Lending support to my last claim of why the game is great, it will intertwine jests at the men’s fantasy football obsession with life lessons of friendships, relationships and parenthood.

And I’ll be watching, because just as many women need their girl time and “Sex and the City,” many of us men need this game. As the show’s main character says, “God bless fantasy football.”

 Steve Adams is a graduate student in journalism and mass communication from Annapolis, Maryland.