It’s NFL playoffs time and that means there are plenty of NFL predictions and playoff fantasy league rankings for the players going in full swing. I’m no different; I’ve posted my NFL playoff predictions, along with my first round Playoff league fantasy rankings. I even dissected what our Lineup Analyzer at FantasyFootballStarters.com has simulated for every week of the playoffs going forward and you can see a full description of the Lineup Analyzer NFL playoffs predictions as well.
But I sometimes wonder if this all a bit of overkill. I know we enjoy fantasy football. We enjoy it so much it’s turned into nearly a billion dollar industry. But have we lost something as fans of our respective NFL teams along the way? I think some have. But the majority I know of still have their faithful allegiance to their NFL teams.
I know for one that I get very angry and yell at my television every week when I see my favorite team (the St. Louis Rams) lose. I was not pleasant to be around that last Sunday night game between St. Louis and Seattle and while I had no fantasy interest in the game, it was purely from a fans perspective I was ranting from. But even if I had someone on a fantasy roster playing in that game from Seattle, I would have still been ranting.
You see, I think most fantasy players recognize that their favorite NFL team is flawed and therefore they can have it both ways. To use me as an example, I can enjoy watching Mike Williams from Seattle get a TD catch and help my fantasy team, as long as the Rams win the game. And I think that’s the way it is with most fantasy enthusiasts.
We still cheer hard for our NFL teams. We still feel lousy when they lose and great when they win. We feel even better about it when our fantasy teams win as well, but the two types of excitement and happiness are separate from each other. I can still really enjoy winning a game of monopoly even if I can’t make good real estate decisions in real life.
So, even though there are many who will be playing in fantasy leagues during the NFL playoffs, including many fans of the teams playing in them, the enjoyment or disappointment of the success or failure of the team we are a fan of is still real. Still hurts. But we can take some pleasure in our fantasy team doing well. Same in reverse. If our fantasy team stinks it up, but our favorite NFL team wins, we can still be joyous.
