A girl’s perspective on fantasy football

By Sports Editor: Danielle Hamilton

One thing I do not understand about the male species is how worked up they get over fantasy football. It seems like some men almost get angrier about their fantasy games than they do over real games.

According to the NFL (National Football League) website, you must choose a fantasy football league in which you want to compete in. Your league will then have a draft to choose who will have which players. Over the course of the season, you set your fantasy line-up and generally start the players who have been performing well. Things like touchdowns, field goals, yards gained, sacks, and interceptions can help you gain or lose points. Each week, you play against another person in your league to see who can rally up more points with their fantasy rosters.

I have personally witnessed men of all ages spending much of their time on compromising trades and perfecting their teams. Fantasy football is the topic that I hear about most at school during this time of the year. At lunch, the conversations that I listen to at my lunch table often end up in yelling in result of fantasy football. Who has a better team, which is the best player, and whether a trade is fair or not are the most common disputes I hear.

Some men often compete in multiple leagues. You would think this would get confusing, but they seem to be able to keep track of it all pretty well. Men also seem to know just about every single player in the NFL (National Football League) and know all of their strengths and weaknesses. They talk about the players like they have known them their entire lives. I would not be able to remember every single player on all 32 teams.

I do not fully understand how fantasy football works, but I have a pretty good idea of it from being around so many guys who play it. I can see how it would be fun to be able to pick your own players and potentially form your own team. But, this does not seem like something that should consume as much time and cause as much anger as it does. I think some men get too into it.

I often get asked by my dad and close friends about who they should start. They list names of players off that have no meaning to me and act like I am going to have a solid answer. If I do answer them with a name of who they should play and that player does not perform well, I am the one who gets blamed. Don’t get me wrong, many girls might be into fantasy football and know all the players, but not this girl.

I am very into sports and love watching and playing them, but fantasy football just does not sound appealing to me. It seems to stress out some men much more than it should. If one of your players gets hurt, apparently you have a big dilemma and need to pick up a new player. Why can’t you just play one of the other options that you asked me about earlier?

It would be interesting to see what the big deal about fantasy football is, because I really don’t see it. It might be fun and exciting to men, but definitely not to me.