A defense, criticism of fantasy sports

Sometimes I really hate fantasy football.

I had never tried a fantasy league until last year on the advice of my father. He said, “Fantasy leagues glorify everything that is wrong with professional sports.” The man’s got a point—you’re valuing individual athletes rather than their accomplishments as part of a team, and inflating their already enlarged egos.

Now that fantasy leagues have exaggerated the amount of statistical information available on any given player, an extra amount of focus has been put on individual contributions. Back in the day, true standout players, like Deion Sanders and John Elway, would be universally recognized. Now it seems like every player is getting an opportunity at the limelight, as long as they’re bringing in over 20 fantasy points per game. Who cares about Jacoby Jones and Roy Williams? Apparently everyone who’s banking on a dark horse breaking late in the season.

In a sport like baseball, a fantasy team makes sense, because you’re aggregating the contributions of individuals, in almost the same way you would for a fantasy swim team or a fantasy track team. Football, however, requires so much more group coordination than baseball that it seems wrong to tease apart a single player’s contributions from the work of the offense or defense as a unit.

Fantasy points also keep players who have a criminal record in the public’s favor. Ray Lewis, Michael Vick, Marshawn Lynch, and Brandon Marshall are just a few that immediately come to mind. Ray Lewis may not have done anything on the field this season, and he may be guilty of murdering multiple people, but he’s still in public discourse because he might make an impact on someone’s team, somewhere. I say this glorification of players without regard to their worthiness as human beings is a net loss for society.

Another problem with fantasy football is that while offense players get all this fame and glory, defensive players hardly get the same consideration. This year is the first year I’ve been in a draft where you even had to play defensemen, and you play two guys, while the offense is an eight-pronged scoring attack. But really, this isn’t anything new for defensive players—because they chose to play on the other side of the ball, they’ve never received the same glorification as the guys who put major points on the board.

To counter my father’s pessimistic view of fantasy sports, I offered up, “But, Dad, fantasy sports have helped me to pay attention to new teams.” For the first 19 years of my life, my appreciation of football was insular—if it wasn’t the University of Colorado or the Pittsburgh Steelers, I didn’t care. This kind of allegiance to a certain team becomes a handicap in fantasy sports—last year I tried to choose all players that were Colorado alums. Though I did choose 2007’s single-season league-leading point-scorer Mason Crosby (Green Bay’s kicker), that strategy didn’t exactly pan out.

Now fantasy football has ignited an interest deep in my soul in the Carolina Panthers and the Washington Redskins and the Miami Dolphins (Screw you, Ted Ginn Jr.!). Instead of watching only my Steelers, I’ve had to acquire Patriot and Viking jerseys. I walk out of my weekend with a much more holistic view of what’s going on in the league. And hey, having an excuse to sit on the couch and drink beer for 10 hours for “scouting purposes” is not too bad, either.

In all seriousness, the emphasis on your guy’s stats for fantasy purposes really hasn’t changed the players’ motivation on the field. The number of zeros in their paycheck and their fixed-year contracts don’t increase based on the number of fantasy points they bring in each week. No harm, no foul, right?
I can’t help but wonder, though, if fantasy teams have increased the amount of “showboating,” or self-glorification by players after they make big plays. For the Bills’ newest trophy, T.O., rate of celebration antics per season of playing pro has risen steadily over time. Chad Ochocinco isn’t the best or highest scoring wide receiver in the league, yet statistically he’s still owned by more teams than some of the higher-netting receivers.

Maybe I’m just bitter because, in my fantasy league this year, I’m only beating the people who had their teams auto-picked by the computer. And maybe I’m bitter because 25 percent of my offensive players got put on injured reserve in one week (I’m looking at you, Chris Cooley and Leon Washington). But fantasy teams throw some deserved attention to the little guys, give the defense a bit more limelight than they’re used to having, and make all of the 32 clubs of the NFL a bit more relevant to your average Joe (and Josephine).

Lisa Lewis is a Barnard College senior majoring in economics.
sports@columbiaspectator.com