Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fantasy Sports

Fantasy Sports.  The bane of my existance.  I really don't like anything to do with Fantasy Sports.  I tried to play Fantasy Football one season and I actually did pretty well.  I drafted my own team, and I put together a team that was so good, people accused me of having my husband (then fiance) draft it for me.  In reality, I not only drafted my own team, but also quasi-drafted his team (he had to work at the draft time, so his team was put together through a combination of auto-draft and Camille).  In any case, after about 4-5 weeks, the novelty of Fantasy Football wore off, and I stopped taking care of my team.  I bragged about the fact that I was doing so well, but really, the husband was the one who took care of the team for the last 11 weeks of the season.  I also participated in a pick-league one year at work.  They couldn't get over how well I did (little did they know that once again, I was having the husband do all my work for me).

Since I have known him, my husband has always played Fantasy Football.  The first year we dated, he actually was on 3 different Fantasy Football teams.  It was the first football season that I saw what a real football fan did on Sundays (growing up, I thought my dad was a football fan....But I guess just watching the Patriots games means that you're just a Patriots fan).  Every Sunday, the entire morning was spent researching statistics, finding out what the match-ups would be, and finally setting the lineup (note:  When you're playing on 3 fantasy teams, it takes even longer to go through this process).  Then, once the lineups are set, 1:00 rolls around and the first set of games is on TV.  We flip-flop between the two different games that are on at 1:00 on standard cable TV.  Same for 4:00, same for 8:00.  That very first Sunday was the day from hell.  10 hours of football, 6 different games on the TV plus following all the other teams on the computer.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  After that first year, the husband didn't play on more than 1 fantasy team.  It certainly alleviated some of the ridiculousness that was Sunday during football season.  1 Fantasy Football team I can do.

I always considered myself lucky that it was only Fantasy Football.  For the most part, there was only 1 day a week that I had to deal with the fantasy stuff, with the various daily checkups just for regular ESPN reading.  I had heard stories from friends about husbands who played Fantasy Baseball and how it basically took up the whole of baseball season because there were so many games throughout the week.  I thanked my lucky stars there was no Fantasy Baseball.

This year, the husband didn't play Fantasy Football.  It was the first time in a long time..It actually felt weird.  However, he is playing Fantasy Basketball this year.  There is a constant rollover of players: who is sick, who is injured.  Which other Fantasy Basketball player is stealing players and stealing ideas. 

They always say that the grass is greener on the other side.  I've found through other life experiences that this is never true.  You may think that the grass is greener, but as soon as you cross the property line, you usually realize that the grass was perfect the way it was.  I always wished Fantasy Football would go away.  Now, I have to say that I would be perfectly happy with Fantasy Football staying right where it is, as long as I never have to see Fantasy Basketball ever again.  The hours that are lost at the computer trying to find new players for this weeks games etc etc etc will never ever come back.

As we get into March Madness, say a little prayer.

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