Walking away from fantasy sports

I think if you limit yourself to one league in two or three sports, you'll be fine. Fantasy sports do make you (and other fantasy players) much more knowledgeable about what's going on. I know I wouldn't give two shits about some teams/players, but paying attention to fantasy numbers helps me be more thoroughly aware of what's going on.

 

I think it's 9 or 10 years since I was in a fantasy league and I don't think I've ever been in more than one league a season.

The team I cover is big into having their own fantasy league, and I talked to a few of them about it for a note. One of the players said he'd much rather be in a tree stand than worried about getting his lineup in. I'd much rather be doing just about anything else other than worrying about getting in my fantasy lineup.

I think the thing that really turned me off to fantasy sports were the typical fantasy geeks. Some of you are younger so you don't know what I'm talking about, but back before the Internet, we'd be busting our ass to get the section done on an NFL Sunday evening and would be continually interrupted by phone calls from idiots who simply couldn't wait till the paper came out tomorrow morning.

It's still a customer service-oriented industry, but I reached a point where I simply refused to stop doing my job to look up some f**ker's fantasy players' stats.

 

Damn, now we all know what the CIAFL means to you, buckdub.

 

Tony, we still get those calls. And we still don't give out the info.

 

Playing fantasy sports actually forces me to pay attention to what's going on in those particular sports.

Otherwise, I don't really care all that much.

 

I stopped playing fantasy football this year. Don't miss it at all. Though, I pay less attention to what's going on in the NFL than I did before. I just don't care about the NFL.

 

No. Something had to give when I started getting laid, know what I mean? ;D

 

OHB, kudos. It takes guts to retire ... or at least I think so.

I gave it up almost two years ago. The difference was I did only FFL - no other sports. But I did it for every season, save my freshman year of college, from my senior year of high school until I finally said enough going into last season. That included a dynasty league that went on for 12 years.

I haven't missed it. I enjoy helping just about anyone who wants the help, but I enjoy worrying about only my teams and not worried about any fantasy fallout. I keep up with the sports well enough not to need fantasy to feed the wolf.

I still love sports, and I don't need fantasy to maintain my interest. Maybe you'll feel the same way, OHB. Maybe you'll miss it and get back in a year or two from now.

 

I can't get enough of fantasy sports, although I really only play baseball and football. I stopped with basketball a few years ago because I just stopped paying that much attention to the NBA.

I have no favorite teams. After I turned 10 or 11, just kind of gave up on being a fan of one specific team. I think I like fantasy sports so much because it makes me pay attention to everything that goes on and I'm not just going nuts about one group of guys. If I wasn't so crazy about it, I definitely wouldn't be as in the know with some stuff either because I'm paying attention to everything.

I like the fact that it challenges me to know more about players and the sport in order to succeed. It seems futile (and, well, it is) but it's great and I think I've actually been able to learn a decent amount from being so obsessive about players and stats. The Lady Friend will gladly say otherwise.

Maybe I'm just a complete geek?

 

I walked away from Fantasy Baseball two years ago. Used to do 2-3, sometimes 4 teams a season and it got to be too much -- when I would spend the hours before my lineup for the next day was due checking weather reports for all the cities to avoid rainouts I knew I was in too deep. I walked away from Fantasy Baseball and although I don't miss it, I find my knowledge of how well most players are doing has declined.

I limit myself to 2 Fantasy Football teams a season now (down from 3-4) and enjoy it.

 

I hit my height of fantasy geekery two or three years ago. I was in three or four baseball leagues, then three or four football leagues. Like others have said, it just got to be too much and even kind of annoying. I'd be rooting for Peyton Manning because I had him in one league, then swearing when he threw a touchdown pass because I was playing him in another. There were really only a couple leagues I gave a flip about anyway -- a work league that plays for a cash pot at the end of the year, and another league with some old college buddies -- so I just cut back to those two. All other invitations get turned down.

Funny fastasy football legend from years back, in the days before the Internet...in our work league, we used to get points only if a running back rushed for 100 yards. One of the old SEs had a back on his team finish with 99 yards. So what'd he do? Changed the agate that ran in the paper, naturally. Guess he didn't figure the commissioner would check more than our local paper and figure it out.
He was, to say the least, dealt with by the higher-ups at the paper.