Fantasy Football & Why We Play It
With the 2011-2012 NFL Regular Season just around the corner, I wanted to take this opportunity to repost this League Manager’s note that was composed by my good friend, contemporary, and Best Damn Fantasy Football Co-Commissioner, Mikhael Andaya. For those of you who have wondered through the years how it is that fantasy football has managed to become such a wide-spread phenomenon, feel free to reference this post as an unofficial record chronicling its origins and subsequent rise to popularity. Enjoy! -Framos
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Life.
Life, with regards to its survival and propagation, is indelibly linked to fitness. It is in this primal, yet elegant, presupposition that we find so many of our human endeavors rooted in. For as long as our species has been organized into complex multi-tier societies, so has the long standing tradition of Fantasy Football been a mainstay in many a cultural heritage.
From Classical Greece, where Plato first posited that RB should be the only position drafted in the first round … and where, years later, Plato’s own pupil, Aristotle, added the caveat that the top projected QB and WR could also be considered as first round draft picks … to the ancient Mayan’s who studied the stars and skies for millennia to develop an advanced calendaring system to better schedule their live drafts in concert with the NFL preseason … Fantasy Football, is not only considered America’s Past-time, but a noble tradition passed down through the annals of history.
And, it is in this vain, that we find ourselves here year after year. Many question why we are the “Best Damn” Fantasy League. And to that effect, we tell those curious mouths “Don’t ask questions.” We, the Best Damn Fantasy League represent a level of competition not found in your average League. Our passion. Our knowledge. Our competitiveness. These are our Best Damn virtues. The companionship. The elation. The heartache. The yelling. The laughing. The high blood pressure. The memories. These are what keep us on the edge of our seats day after day; week after week; season after season.
Each Autumn represents a rebirth of opportunity unlike any other facet of life has to offer. A new day where we can bury the ghosts of seasons past. Like the year you lost two games to your division rival by a total of 2.3 points. Or the time you picked up Miles Austin and rode him to two massive victories, figured that’s all he had to offer and traded him to Nate for David Garrard. Or the season you started 1-5 but ended 9-5. Or the season you started 5-0 and ended 5-9. Or all those years you won your division only to go one and done in the playoffs. Or that fateful Winter when your potential playoff berth could not be secured until the very last play of MNF in Week 14 and you had your hopes dashed as Matt Schaub threw a pick 6 on the first play of OT to end the game. Or worse, the year you lost the Championship Match because your kicker scored you -11.
But, these are ghosts, and nothing more. They haunt us not in our pursuit of World Championship Glory.
With this in mind, you must ask yourself “Will this be my year? Will this be my moment?” To which someone will reply, “Who are you talking to?”
And, with that, on behalf of our other commissioners, welcome to the Best Damn Fantasy Football 2011-2012 Season.
Take Care. Play hard. Have fun.
And, someone please trade me a RB.
Best,
Mikhael “The Talented Mr. Miko” Andaya
