By Leon Bayles | Sports Editor –
The deafening roar of the crowd echoes throughout the stadium as your favorite player marches into the end zone, giving your team the lead at a critical point in the game. You scream as loud as possible in support of your team, exchanging high fives and fist pumps with every fan in elbow’s width of your seat. Adrenaline flows through your body as you watch your favorite players collaborate at midfield to celebrate the score.
Nothing can trump the actual experience of attending an NFL game, but the technology of the 21st century has allowed fans across the world to assemble their favorite players on one team compete against others to score the most points: fantasy football. Football fans can go online and draft a team from a pool of NFL stars. Scoring points in this fantasy depends on how well the players perform in reality. “Fantasy football” was not introduced to the world until the late 90’s but its growth is apparent in 2013.
Fantasy football has changed the way that many fans view the game today, and more importantly how they view the players of the NFL. Once you virtually draft a player online, you form a bond with that player; you are entrusting this guy to deliver enough clutch touchdowns to be able to brag to your friends on Monday morning. Everything is great until a player has an off game and your team loses. All the dreams of winning championships on draft day fly out the window as you ponder “dropping” the player and looking for someone new.
Virtual football has vastly changed the landscape for the fans of the NFL. Fans throw parties with friends and family, and reserve entire days to drafting players for bragging rights. The game has become an entirely separate culture. When a player goes down with an injury, fans are mostly concerned at the fact that he will not be able to contribute to his fantasy team. When players do underachieve, fans take to social media to voice their displeasure with that certain individual. We tend to forget about the player’s well-being, solely focusing on how many points your team can amass.
While this fantasy realm is fun to play with, we must be careful not to allow our fascination with technology deprive us from keeping in touch with the reality of the game we all know and love. Football is a game of physical emotion, and in an age of technological dominance, we must realize that nothing can rival the feeling of actually attending a live game and cheering for the mere thought of victory no matter the circumstance.
