I, like so many other Americans, am addicted to fantasy football. On the day after my utter jubilation of a monster performance by Jay Cutler, starting QB for the Denver Broncos, I could no longer contain my addiction. His 400 plus passing yards and 2 TD's will no doubt mean that I will win every match-up I have this week... They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have an addiction. I've done that. The only problem is that my addiction can not be cured nor do I want it to be cured. The only actual problem that my addiction causes is that I can no longer enjoy watching a football game. Is that actually a problem? Probably. There was a time in my life (let's say about 10 years ago) when I actually watched football for the sake of watching football. I followed and cared about ONE team, the Minnesota Vikings. They had just drafted Randy Moss and fantasy football didn't exist. Each week I would tune into whatever game was showing disappointed that the purple machine wasn't playing in my pre-determined FOX time zone (so I suffered through the Giants v Redskins game that always seemed to be on). I cared about who won each game and how that changed their ranking in the division, I cared about playoff implications and got excited when the Vikes sealed home field advantage. They finished with a 15-1 record that season, one of the best in franchise and league history. The only major blemish was the NFC championship game they lost at home to the Atlanta Falcons on a last second missed field goal. You can believe that the last thing going through my mind that night was that I wasn't going to get the 3 points Gary Anderson would've secured my fantasy team. Fast-forward 10 years, the Vikings (currently 4-4) aren't and haven't been atop any division, Gary Anderson might be a great-grandfather and those damn 3 points are all I really care about each week. With the creation and popularity of fantasy football (not to mention other fantasy sports whose seasons are far too long to compare) the sport of it is ruined and individual conquests reign supreme over team victory. If because of time zones and television schedules I am forced to watch a game between the two worst teams in the league who posses no emotional ties to myself, I may sit and watch that entire game only to see the game breaks, score alerts and bottom stat line from around the league. I'm not alone in this dilemma and this addition (subtraction?) to the sport of football has been much debated/disputed with no clear consensus. Is it wrong that I'm not really upset when the Vikings finish the season below .500 or that I may actually watch a Browns v Broncos game and not care about the outcome but wether or not Kellen Winslow caught 2 TD's? Probably. But, Fantasy Football is here and I'm addicted. So I still root for the Vikings, but I care more about whether or not Ryan Longwell is playing in the dome or at Chicago's windy Soldier Field. Those 3 points can mean a weeks worth of shit talking. The way the Vikings are playing, that may be the only shit talking I get to do. Game On!
