My name is Torie Bolster and I play fantasy football.
Yes, you read that sentence correctly and there is nothing wrong with your eyes. I am a 21 year old female who is currently in not one, but two fantasy football leagues. And no, I am not just in it for the money, since neither of my leagues play for cash.
I decided to join up with a few friends (after much coaxing from them, I may add) to try out this phenomenon that has become more and more popular over the past few years.
I was skeptical at first and also very confused an annoyed about how this whole system worked.
As a team fan, I found it very hard to root for players on opposing teams to do well…especially if some of them were playing the Bears. Forcing yourself to become a player fan, in my opinion, is the toughest part of fanstasy.
I also am not a big fan of being super addicted to technology and fantasy football almost requires this of you. You are constantly checking your fantasy app on your smartphone, or flipping mindlessly back and forth from game to game on FOX, CBS, and the NFL network.
But as the weeks have gone on, I have actually started to enjoy fantasy football more than I thought that I would.
Actually, that sentence is a lie. I do not enjoy fantasy football.
It drives me up the wall 95 percent of the time, and the five percent that I AM actually enjoying it is usually when I check to see how my team is doing and I am in the lead.
I am very competitive and hate to lose, but the losing part is not even what ticks me off most of the time (I am actually in first place in both of my leagues in the divisions that I am in). It is the fact that there really is not any skill to it whatsoever.
You just pick the best players you can get your hands on when you draft and hope for the best.
Yup, fantasy football is a game of hope and does NOT involve skill. Religiously following ESPN for all the breaking NFL news, constantly adding, dropping, and trading players, or watching the League and hoping for pointers does not require any skill. The actual football players are the ones with the skills, not us.
All we do on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays while the players compete is sit on our butts eating buffalo wings and scrolling through our fantasy apps. Nothing more, nothing less.
You have no control over games. You cannot control whether or not your star running back actually gets the 20 points he is projected to earn. You cannot control your opponent’s normally subpar QB to have his best game of the season. You cannot control anything.
Fantasy football is uncontrollable, frustrating, annoying, bothersome, stupid…I can keep this list of negative adjective going for pages.
But even though I am always uttering the words “I hate fantasy football” more often than not, you will also hear me talking about how much “I loveeeee fantasy football” just as frequently.
I do not know what it is, but fantasy football, I just cannot quit you. I can lie all I want, but at the end of the day, I will not give up on my team.
I hate myself for loving you, yet I love myself for hating you. My addiction to you is almost as bad as my addiction to Grey’s Anatomy and anything pumpkin spiced flavored.
Now, if you will excuse me, I need to find a way to contact Marshawn Lynch and tell him to get his act together…I cannot handle his shenanigans much longer (and neither can my team).
Torie Bolster
Sports Editor
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