Painting of Iain Sunday by Eden Edmonson.
It was almost Monday morning football as the Denver Broncos took the field with a minute and 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter. I stood inches from the television screen, anxious for the drive. “Let’s go,” I hollered into the phone at my friend, Dylan Ardo.
“There’s not enough time,” he groaned on the other end. Peyton Manning threw it deep down the left side of the field to Eric Decker. “Clocks running,” Ardo said, his tone now more confident. Manning completed one out of his next four passes then got sacked at the Indianapolis Colt’s 29-yard line.
I pounded my fist on the table. “Hurry up!”
Denver’s special team unit sprinted onto the field. They lined up for the field goal. The center shot the ball out between his legs into the holder’s hands. Kicker Matt Prater swung his leg forward, striking the ball through the uprights. I thrust my fist towards the television, inaudible from the shock. Ardo, however, made up for my lack of response with a parade of expletives. Final score: Indianapolis 39, Denver 33.
On Oct. 20, the 4-and-2 Colts handed the undefeated Bronco’s their first loss of the season. It was Peyton Manning’s homecoming. Manning spent 14 seasons with the Colts, leading them to several division championships and one Super Bowl. Denver had come back to score 16 points in the fourth quarter. I couldn’t have cared less. What mattered was Matt Prater, the Broncos kicker, hitting a 47-yard field goal that put the Broncos down by six. The Broncos never came back to win the game, but the kick did do one thing: the three points made my fantasy team beat Ardo’s by two.
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 24.3 million people played fantasy football last year. It’s a billion-dollar industry. On the other hand, it loses billions of dollars in worker productivity during the work year. According to a study made by Challenger, Gray and Christmas, fantasy football accounts for a loss of $6.5 billion during the 15-week season. This doesn’t account for the three-week playoffs that most standard leagues hold from weeks 16 to 18. In recent years, fantasy football has gotten a bad rep for ruining football. In many people’s minds, it has taken away from the team aspect of football and focuses more on individual accomplishments. During a panel interview I recently held, Josh Carter, fantasy football newcomer said, “I’m checking the bottom for stats instead of the top for scores.”
On Sunday, Oct. 27, my good buddies and members of my fantasy league Josh, Pj, Anthony, Mark and I found ourselves at Dylan’s house. We drank about 20 liters of soda while consuming at least six large pizzas. It was a typical Sunday afternoon watching football. Around the start of the middle slate of games, Chuck Ardo, Dylan’s grandfather, came downstairs offering wings. “What game you boys watching?” he asked.
“All of them,” I said. Mr. Ardo gave me a puzzled look. The Ardos didn’t have the NFL package, making it impossible to watch every game.
“What the hell do you mean all of them?” he jokingly asked. Dylan explained to him that we were watching NFL Red Zone, the NFL-affiliated channel that brings you all the most important plays, commercial-free, all Sunday. Confused and a little angered, Mr. Ardo asked, “Why would you do that?”
We all answered at the same time, “Fantasy.”
“You all live in a fantasy world!” Mr. Ardo said, disgusted, but not upset enough to take the wings with him. This soon became Mr. Ardo’s catch phrase.
“I don’t care about the scores of the game,” said another fantasy first-timer, Anthony Kline. “You can’t have feelings in fantasy football. If they don’t win, but the player gets a high amount of points, that’s better for me.” This coming from a former football player who worried more about the stats than the actual score. He disregarded the whole point of the game in favor of winning a fantasy football league between friends. Mr. Ardo would say this hurts the league.
I asked my panel of fantasy football players if they watched more football after they started playing fantasy football. All of them said they watched the same amount, if not more. Fantasy football hurting football? Every year, the National Football League continues to dominate viewership. According to Forbes, halfway through the 2013 NFL season, 19 of the top 20 most-watched programs since Sept. 5 were all NFL games. In fact, Bleacher Report recorded the NFL’s annual revenue at $9.5 billion, $2.5 billion ahead of the second highest, Major League Baseball. You want a cherry on top? Thirty of the top 50 franchises listed in “Forbes 2013, The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams” list were NFL teams. There are 32 NFL teams.
I was recently lucky enough to conduct an interview with Seattle Seahawk rookie defensive lineman, Jordan Hill. Hill, the 87th pick out of Penn State during last year’s draft, now found himself part of a locker room of playmakers, real game changers. When asked if anyone in the locker room talked about fantasy football, he said yes. “The guys are competitive,” he said.
With players comparing their points to each other’s, it makes them go out and compete even harder, he added. He also called fantasy football a “fun activity” that gets people interested in the league. He said he would want to get into it after his playing days are over.
I stumbled out the door, flinging my backpack over my shoulder. The horn honked as I jogged up my driveway. I opened the door and jumped into the car. Dylan sat in the front passenger seat next to his grandpa. Not even 10 seconds after buckling my seat belt, Dylan yelled back to me, “Up by 10!”
“What the hell could you be yelling about at 7 a.m. on a Monday morning?” Mr. Ardo demanded, his voice morning-weary.
“It’s our fantasy…”
“Your fantasy world!” Mr. Ardo interrupted Dylan, laughing to himself. “Do you ever talk about the actual scores?”
Did we? Now currently week 12 of the NFL season, I do not know if I have discussed an actual score this season. I know I’ve talked about a play, call, player performance and even touchdown dance, but I don’t know if I have actually discussed a score of a game. But I do talk more about football this year than any other year. Is this bad for the league? I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that I love football: real or fantasy.
Iain Sunday is a sophomore at Capital Area School for the Arts (CASA).
