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The effect of fantasy football


Valpo2004

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I've seen people comment that they think most people only watch because of fantasy football anymore.  It sounds to me that many don't think most people have a team loyalty they just play fantasy football.

 

I have to disagree with this based on my own experience.  I just don't think you can become an NFL fan without becoming a fan of a team.  And from there you can get into playing fantasy football, much like I have over the past 3 years.  

 

But here is where fantasy football to me is important.  It gets people to watch games that would otherwise be meaningless to them.  

 

For example normally I wouldn't care about the Sunday night football matchup between the Saints and the Cowboys.  It in no way affects the Colts, especially since it's an NFC matchup.

 

But I watched the first half of it (went to bed after that).  Why?

 

Because I have Drew Brees in one of my fantasy leagues.  

 

So to me it's not that people don't have a team loyalty.  I'm thinking most people are actually loyal to a particular team.  But it does get people IMO to watch games that don't include their team.  So if you are looking at the Saints Cowboys game for example.  Not only is Saints and Cowboys fans interested in watching to cheer for their team.  But so is anyone who had Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham, Marcus Colston, Tony Romo, Demarco Murry or Dez Bryant on their fantasy team.  (Or any other player or defense, I'm just naming the main ones)

 

Thoughts?  Agreement/Disagreement?

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I guess I'm one of the few football purists left. I enjoy watching any game (Jaguars vs Texans was a struggle last year lol) and I don't play fantasy. Growing up in Philly,the Eagles were my team. But the Colts captured my true fandom, and from there, my interest in football overall grew. I have teams I like, teams I hate (patriots!), and then there's teams I can relate to the Colts (for example, besides my hatred for the Saints, I was rooting for the Cowboys because they in my mind would present an easier matchup in the superbowl).

I agree with the idea that fans are loyal to an original team and get more involved with the rest of the NFL because of fantasy. I think that's a good thing, but it still weirds me out how someone who doesn't really like a certain team could be rooting for that team's qb to do well.

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I think you can certainly become a fan of a team through other ways other then just becoming a fan of a team all of a sudden, I don't think many go..Oh I want to be a fan of a team all of a sudden. I personally could care less about fantasy football actually, Have no desire to join or start a league

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I think a couple of interesting things have happened because of Fantasy Football:

 

1.  I think other city's fans have gained an appreciation for people that play for other teams because they see the contribution they make to "their" fantasy team.  

2.  I think "everyone thinks they're a GM" now - the comments on message boards and forums sometimes are more ridiculous than ever!

3.  Those people that aren't crazy (see #2) have a greater appreciation for the difficulty coaches and GMs have in fielding a winning team.

 

I do not play FF - no time, I work for myself so my time=$ and I can make a LOT more creating art and products than I can attempting to manage a FF team :-)!

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I've seen people comment that they think most people only watch because of fantasy football anymore.  It sounds to me that many don't think most people have a team loyalty they just play fantasy football.

 

I have to disagree with this based on my own experience.  I just don't think you can become an NFL fan without becoming a fan of a team.  And from there you can get into playing fantasy football, much like I have over the past 3 years.  

 

But here is where fantasy football to me is important.  It gets people to watch games that would otherwise be meaningless to them.  

 

For example normally I wouldn't care about the Sunday night football matchup between the Saints and the Cowboys.  It in no way affects the Colts, especially since it's an NFC matchup.

 

But I watched the first half of it (went to bed after that).  Why?

 

Because I have Drew Brees in one of my fantasy leagues.  

 

So to me it's not that people don't have a team loyalty.  I'm thinking most people are actually loyal to a particular team.  But it does get people IMO to watch games that don't include their team.  So if you are looking at the Saints Cowboys game for example.  Not only is Saints and Cowboys fans interested in watching to cheer for their team.  But so is anyone who had Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham, Marcus Colston, Tony Romo, Demarco Murry or Dez Bryant on their fantasy team.  (Or any other player or defense, I'm just naming the main ones)

 

Thoughts?  Agreement/Disagreement?

I think Fantasy Football creates a lot of people watching football who don't really like the game..

Its okay......but when I hear people go on and on about THEIR fantasy team...and repeat fantasy point stats that actually aren't important to winning games......they don't know how strange they sound

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I think fantasy football is ultimately hurting the NFL. Many people aren't fans of a particular team any more. They are starting to become fans of individual players. I don't think that bodes well for the future of any team sport. The regional aspect of being a fan is slowly fading.

Second, I do believe rules changes favoring the offense are made with fantasy football in mind. Fantasy football generates hundreds of millions of dollars these days. The NFL is trying to expand and sustain the popularity of fantasy football. They want to capitalize the popularity of fantasy sports.

Because of this, they need to make the game more offensive in nature. I think the NFL would love to see every drive be a scoring drive of some kind. I think the rules limiting defensive players will eventually get to the point where any contact at all on a receiver is a penalty and automatic first down. I think the NFL won't be happy until every drive is a scoring drive. The defense will be considered good if it kept that drive to a FG.

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I think fantasy football is ultimately hurting the NFL. Many people aren't fans of a particular team any more. They are starting to become fans of individual players. I don't think that bodes well for the future of any team sport. The regional aspect of being a fan is slowly fading.

Second, I do believe rules changes favoring the offense are made with fantasy football in mind. Fantasy football generates hundreds of millions of dollars these days. The NFL is trying to expand and sustain the popularity of fantasy football. They want to capitalize the popularity of fantasy sports.

Because of this, they need to make the game more offensive in nature. I think the NFL would love to see every drive be a scoring drive of some kind. I think the rules limiting defensive players will eventually get to the point where any contact at all on a receiver is a penalty and automatic first down. I think the NFL won't be happy until every drive is a scoring drive. The defense will be considered good if it kept that drive to a FG.

 

That's quite a cynical viewpoint! 

 

Regards your first point, it's my understanding that this sort of fandom isn't anything new in the US, getting people who follow players rather than teams. I've never understood it myself but then I'm a limey know nothing :)

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That's quite a cynical viewpoint!

Regards your first point, it's my understanding that this sort of fandom isn't anything new in the US, getting people who follow players rather than teams. I've never understood it myself but then I'm a limey know nothing :)

I don't believe it's cynical. I think it's realistic. And this is something new. It used to be that everything was based regionally. Fans of one team actually hated players from another team.

Mark Cuban is right when he says the NFL is ultimately hurting itself in the long run.

I don't do the fantasy football thing, nor will I ever.

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I think fantasy football is ultimately hurting the NFL. Many people aren't fans of a particular team any more. They are starting to become fans of individual players. I don't think that bodes well for the future of any team sport. The regional aspect of being a fan is slowly fading.

Second, I do believe rules changes favoring the offense are made with fantasy football in mind. Fantasy football generates hundreds of millions of dollars these days. The NFL is trying to expand and sustain the popularity of fantasy football. They want to capitalize the popularity of fantasy sports.

Because of this, they need to make the game more offensive in nature. I think the NFL would love to see every drive be a scoring drive of some kind. I think the rules limiting defensive players will eventually get to the point where any contact at all on a receiver is a penalty and automatic first down. I think the NFL won't be happy until every drive is a scoring drive. The defense will be considered good if it kept that drive to a FG.

I don't think I agree with your opinion. I think the NFL has opened up the offense just to excite the game itself. Most fans don't care for a 7-3 or a 10-7 game anymore. They want action to keep things interesting. With those changes in rules the NFL has become the #1 sport in America. One of the main reasons that soccer hasn't made it big in America is because it is a long game without much scoring and action. The NBA has also falling into that mindset. Most NBA fans don't want to see a 70-67 game anymore. Not enough action to keep watching. That can be followed into the movies being made. People want action, not a long drawn out story. We consider them chick flicks as most call them. The changes really started before fantasy football became that popular. I have been playing fantasy football for over 25 years. Back when all the stats had to be looked up in the USA today papers and had to be added up by hand on paper. I think fantasy football just made me aware that there were other teams and players other than my team. Being more knowledgeable about the whole league is not a bad thing.

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I think fantasy football is ultimately hurting the NFL. Many people aren't fans of a particular team any more. They are starting to become fans of individual players. I don't think that bodes well for the future of any team sport. The regional aspect of being a fan is slowly fading.

Second, I do believe rules changes favoring the offense are made with fantasy football in mind. Fantasy football generates hundreds of millions of dollars these days. The NFL is trying to expand and sustain the popularity of fantasy football. They want to capitalize the popularity of fantasy sports.

Because of this, they need to make the game more offensive in nature. I think the NFL would love to see every drive be a scoring drive of some kind. I think the rules limiting defensive players will eventually get to the point where any contact at all on a receiver is a penalty and automatic first down. I think the NFL won't be happy until every drive is a scoring drive. The defense will be considered good if it kept that drive to a FG.

 

I also disagree with you.  I just recently became an NFL fan about 3 years ago.  (I always liked the Colts because for years they gave a lot of Iowa players a shot, but I never made it a point to watch.  But the changing of the entire team and the drafting of Luck made it easy for me to start watching because it was a whole new team.)  

 

But I couldn't have become a fan through just becoming a fan of an individual players.

 

Now there are individual players out there on other teams that I root for and want to see do well.  But I'm a Colt's fan first.  And I'm a Colt's fan before Fantasy Football as well.  

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I guess I'm one of the few football purists left. I enjoy watching any game (Jaguars vs Texans was a struggle last year lol) and I don't play fantasy. Growing up in Philly,the Eagles were my team. But the Colts captured my true fandom, and from there, my interest in football overall grew. I have teams I like, teams I hate (patriots!), and then there's teams I can relate to the Colts (for example, besides my hatred for the Saints, I was rooting for the Cowboys because they in my mind would present an easier matchup in the superbowl).

I agree with the idea that fans are loyal to an original team and get more involved with the rest of the NFL because of fantasy. I think that's a good thing, but it still weirds me out how someone who doesn't really like a certain team could be rooting for that team's qb to do well.

 

I can sometimes tune into a game that I don't have any fantasy players in if I'm not busy or anything and watch it, but it's often a last resort "There is nothing on TV" type of deal.

 

But watching sports where I have nothing to root for can bore me.

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I also disagree with you.  I just recently became an NFL fan about 3 years ago.  (I always liked the Colts because for years they gave a lot of Iowa players a shot, but I never made it a point to watch.  But the changing of the entire team and the drafting of Luck made it easy for me to start watching because it was a whole new team.)  

 

But I couldn't have become a fan through just becoming a fan of an individual players.

 

Now there are individual players out there on other teams that I root for and want to see do well.  But I'm a Colt's fan first.  And I'm a Colt's fan before Fantasy Football as well.

Obviously, my comment doesn't apply to every single person in the country. But it does apply to enough to be causing a change which may not be a positive for the future.

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Obviously, my comment doesn't apply to every single person in the country. But it does apply to enough to be causing a change which may not be a positive for the future.

Fantasy football is the biggest reason the nfl has gained in popularity in the last twenty years

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Fantasy football is the biggest reason the nfl has gained in popularity in the last twenty years

This pretty much. I don't like FF myself but it has been a huge reason for interest in the game and also bringing in fringe fans as well as having fans of a specific team watch other games because of the FF implications. Anything with betting is good for the NFL that has been proved over and over as it is the number one bet on sport.

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 Fantasy football is for fans of a crappy team that want to still get into the games.  Their team sucks so they make a fantasy team and can get excited about individual players.  It also gives guys with a lot of time on their hands an excuse to watch a turd like the Bucs Raiders.  

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This pretty much. I don't like FF myself but it has been a huge reason for interest in the game and also bringing in fringe fans as well as having fans of a specific team watch other games because of the FF implications. Anything with betting is good for the NFL that has been proved over and over as it is the number one bet on sport.

 

See I get the impression that most people play FF for free.  Although I realize that some bet.  

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Fantasy football is for fans of a crappy team that want to still get into the games. Their team sucks so they make a fantasy team and can get excited about individual players. It also gives guys with a lot of time on their hands an excuse to watch a turd like the Bucs Raiders.

The second part is true, the first part is complete nonsense

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I don't believe it's cynical. I think it's realistic. And this is something new. It used to be that everything was based regionally. Fans of one team actually hated players from another team.

Mark Cuban is right when he says the NFL is ultimately hurting itself in the long run.

I don't do the fantasy football thing, nor will I ever.

 

It's interesting to me how someone can have such a crystallized viewpoint on something that they've never done. 

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Mark Cuban is right when he says the NFL is ultimately hurting itself in the long run.

 

I don't remember Cuban's diatribe including FF. Did it? He talked more about over saturation of the market due to TV. Of course, much I think was sour grapes given how awful the NBA is doing given its horrible product.

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I don't remember Cuban's diatribe including FF. Did it? He talked more about over saturation of the market due to TV. Of course, much I think was sour grapes given how awful the NBA is doing given its horrible product.

 

The NBA isn't doing bad, overall, but yeah, his comments were riddled with jealousy, even if there were grains of truth in there. I don't think he specifically mentioned fantasy football, but his comments about over saturation could be applied. I think he was more just upset that NFL can dominate ratings on any day or night of the year. During the NBA playoffs, with the most popular player in the league trying to three-peat, the NFL Draft still outdraws the NBA. I don't blame Cuban for being a little irritated.

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The NBA isn't doing bad, overall, but yeah, his comments were riddled with jealousy, even if there were grains of truth in there. I don't think he specifically mentioned fantasy football, but his comments about over saturation could be applied. I think he was more just upset that NFL can dominate ratings on any day or night of the year. During the NBA playoffs, with the most popular player in the league trying to three-peat, the NFL Draft still outdraws the NBA. I don't blame Cuban for being a little irritated.

Yeah. I don't blame him either but the NFL is that popular. Every year the Super Bowl is typically the highest rated program of the year. I remember when I was in college one of my television producer professors always used to say that the benchmark of a truly great show or movie was if it could beat out the Super Bowl. lol. I always think of that when people say you can never have too much of a good thing. Personally, I wish there was an NFL game every night of the week. It seems silly not to have Saturday night football but I know they don't want to cannibalize the college game.

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Fantasy football is the biggest reason the nfl has gained in popularity in the last twenty years

I dont think that's true even though you are hardly the only person saying that.

But keep in mind. 'J' I'm old and I have been a big fan for an eternity...

I just dislike Fantasy Football' because I think its trivia based...there's no heart in it...for the franchises and the players

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Fantasy football is the biggest reason the nfl has gained in popularity in the last twenty years

Gotta disagree. It helps no doubt, but I think the reason people play is the same reason I play.....the love of the NFL.. After all, the #2 most popular sport in the US is amateur football.

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I dont think that's true even though you are hardly the only person saying that.

But keep in mind. 'J' I'm old and I have been a big fan for an eternity...

I just dislike Fantasy Football' because I think its trivia based...there's no heart in it...for the franchises and the players

Trivia based?

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Gotta disagree. It helps no doubt, but I think the reason people play is the same reason I play.....the love of the NFL.. After all, the #2 most popular sport in the US is amateur football.

15 years ago when you would walk into a sports bar, fans of specific teams would generally leave after their game was over Now that is hardly the case. Almost everyone in the place has their phone or tablet out fir the duration of the two early games Football has always been popular, but its on an entirety different level now. The falcons blowout of the bucs had a better rating than any game of the world series last year

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Yeah. I don't blame him either but the NFL is that popular. Every year the Super Bowl is typically the highest rated program of the year. I remember when I was in college one of my television producer professors always used to say that the benchmark of a truly great show or movie was if it could beat out the Super Bowl. lol. I always think of that when people say you can never have too much of a good thing. Personally, I wish there was an NFL game every night of the week. It seems silly not to have Saturday night football but I know they don't want to cannibalize the college game.

 

Really there is football of some level going on every day but Tuesday and Wednesday during the season.

 

It's not so much about cannibalizing college football so much as its an acknowledgement that directly competing would hurt both of them.  You don't want to force people to chose between their favorite college team and their favorite NFL team.  

 

And even if the NFL thinks they win that one most of the time (doubtful) they would still be shooting themselves in the foot.  The college game is the farm league from which the NFL draws nearly all of it's players.  If the college game starts becoming less profitable then you could have schools considering dropping their football programs.  And that would hurt the NFL.  They need a place where they can learn the game better and grow in size and strength from a teenager playing football to an adult playing football.  

 

And as I've pointed out before whenever anyone mentions this.  A minor league for football wouldn't be able to pull in the money necessary to keep running.  

 

That's also why they don't do it on Friday.  They don't want people to choose between the local high school game and an NFL game.  

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I find myself watching games I normally wouldn't watch very intently if I have players going in those games. With millions of people doing the same thing, that impacts TV ratings, which impacts the amount of money the NFL can get from advertisers. So yeah it's a huge money thing. I do dislike that the league seems to be enforcing or emphasizing the rules of the game with fantasy football in mind... I think that's inevitable though. Defensive slugfests appeal to a small (and seemingly shrinking) number of fans. 

 

I play in a league with a modest fee... it's not about the money though. The league is me and 11 guys I've known for a long time. So it's more about bragging rights than the money! 

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I find myself watching games I normally wouldn't watch very intently if I have players going in those games. With millions of people doing the same thing, that impacts TV ratings, which impacts the amount of money the NFL can get from advertisers. So yeah it's a huge money thing. I do dislike that the league seems to be enforcing or emphasizing the rules of the game with fantasy football in mind... I think that's inevitable though. Defensive slugfests appeal to a small (and seemingly shrinking) number of fans. 

 

I play in a league with a modest fee... it's not about the money though. The league is me and 11 guys I've known for a long time. So it's more about bragging rights than the money! 

 

It's not all desire for offense to do better although that's part of it.  A big part of it is the safety aspect.  Safety rules are nearly always going to favor the offense.  

 

Also they realized that the personalities they need to market are the quarterbacks. And because of that they don't want their popular quarterbacks getting hurt.  

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I think fantasy football is ultimately hurting the NFL. Many people aren't fans of a particular team any more. They are starting to become fans of individual players. I don't think that bodes well for the future of any team sport. The regional aspect of being a fan is slowly fading.

Second, I do believe rules changes favoring the offense are made with fantasy football in mind. Fantasy football generates hundreds of millions of dollars these days. The NFL is trying to expand and sustain the popularity of fantasy football. They want to capitalize the popularity of fantasy sports.

Because of this, they need to make the game more offensive in nature. I think the NFL would love to see every drive be a scoring drive of some kind. I think the rules limiting defensive players will eventually get to the point where any contact at all on a receiver is a penalty and automatic first down. I think the NFL won't be happy until every drive is a scoring drive. The defense will be considered good if it kept that drive to a FG.

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I agree. I also see fantasy football as the reason attendance is in risk - so does the nfl. Stadiums now have screens showing stats of other games in stadium at all times.

When I had season tickets to the Colts (priced me out after 14 years) there was a scoreboard on one side of the dome that showed game scores every so often. Everyone would cheer at halftime when the division teams were losing.

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I also disagree when people say fantasy measures things that don't affect wins/losses. Unless you're in a crazy rules league you gets point for good things (tds, yards) and lose points for bad (ints). In 30 years of nfl football I can't recall a game that was lost because a receiver had 162 yards but the team would have won if he had 103.

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Yeah. I don't blame him either but the NFL is that popular. Every year the Super Bowl is typically the highest rated program of the year. I remember when I was in college one of my television producer professors always used to say that the benchmark of a truly great show or movie was if it could beat out the Super Bowl. lol. I always think of that when people say you can never have too much of a good thing. Personally, I wish there was an NFL game every night of the week. It seems silly not to have Saturday night football but I know they don't want to cannibalize the college game.

 

I would love if there were a game on every day, but that would be over saturation, for sure.

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Fantasy football is the biggest reason the nfl has gained in popularity in the last twenty years

I'm not disputing that. Im saying that in the long run that is going to be a negative. Fan loyalty is not become less about a team and more about individuals. Team success is becoming less important to many fans.

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I'm not disputing that. Im saying that in the long run that is going to be a negative. Fan loyalty is not become less about a team and more about individuals. Team success is becoming less important to many fans.

I haven't seen that among those i watch with. But i iknow that's a small sample size

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