Sports Whit

There was a time when being a football fan really meant something. There was a time when fans committed their fandom to one team and stuck with them through the best of seasons and the worst of seasons. There was a time when fans wouldn’t dare dream of rooting for anyone but their own team.
Growing up, I cheered for Brett Favre because he was my favorite player on my favorite team in the NFL. You couldn’t pay me to root for anyone in any other jersey.
Thanks to fantasy football, those standards have drastically changed for former one-team fanatics.
Now with every season, I get phone calls and text messages from Broncos fans, Seahawks fans, Raiders fans, raving to me about players on my beloved Packers. Why is this? Because my boys in green and gold usually score them some major points for their Fantasy Football team. 

In my one and only attempt at fantasy football, I had players like Larry Fitzgerald, Edgerrin James and the entire Jacksonville Jaguars defense. I couldn’t then—and can’t now—tell you anything special about any of these players. To me, they were nothing but point producers. Yet week in and week out, I spent enormous amounts of time checking their stat lines, deciding whom to start on my team.
Thanks to fantasy football, participants have players from all across the NFL playing for their teams. And even if they have an extreme hatred of a team, they still draft them, they still start them and they still tune in and see what they are going to do that week.
This new type of fandom makes sense. When both your reputation and possibly your money are on the line, you cheer for whoever will help you maintain those, regardless of prior affiliations.
But traditional fandom has forever changed. For the millions of participants in numerous fantasy football leagues, it all comes down to stats.
Touchdowns, yards, tackles, sacks, turnovers. They don’t take into account players’ personalities, team loyalties or personal histories. Heck, for the most part they don’t take into account anything their own favorite teams are doing.
If it takes having a player on your fantasy football team to get you to support another team, then so be it. I shouldn’t complain when it makes more people excited about my Packers. But I can’t help but question their motives. I want people to root for the Pack because they genuinely want to see them win, not because it benefits them and their made-up football team.
whitney.bermes@umontana.edu