One Fantasy Short of a Great Summer

Its mid-August. Our always short summer was super short this year because it rained all of June. Baseball season is already approaching the playoff race, the Jazz have done their annual bonehead signings, and football is starting its preseason. What does this mean you ask? It means I should be researching my fantasy team...but I am not. I was challenged by Rebecca to skip fantasy sports for one year. I have made it so far, but I have to admit it is extremely hard to skip fantasy football. Something is definitely missing from my summer, not just laying on the beach that Utah doesn’t have, something more.

Normally, by now, I would have done a couple of mock drafts, read up on the progress of some players over the offseason, and watched a million fantasy break down videos on Yahoo. It is a definite obsession. Yet, I gave it all up because someone said I couldn’t. So far so good, I hope I am right.

I am hoping my fantasy sabbatical will help me get back to true fan-man-ship again. The downside to fantasy sports is that it makes me cheer for players versus teams. I have cheered against “my teams” in the past just because I wanted a fantasy teammate to do well when playing them. Purely selfish reasons, but winning the fantasy game became more important than “my team” making the playoffs. I am hoping this year allows me to just watch a game and appreciate the event.

I wrote about being a fan a few months ago. Asking the hard questions like “how does someone choose a team?” My goal in this no-fantasy football season is to put those questions to the test. Ask me when all is said and done if I still cheer for the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers. Or better yet, ask me first if I really made it without covertly managing a fantasy league unbeknownst to my fellow fantasy-ers.