What is it about this 'game'

I’ve read that Fantasy Football cuts into worker’s productivity by as much as 15% which I think is probably pretty low especially when you look at the September and October months when every fantasy football player still has dreams of a championship. The saddest thing about this hobby/obsession when you are a pessimist is that in the end there are about two or three happy times and about fifty miserable times during a season. When things go badly you expect it and you try not to let it affect you, when things go well you wait for something bad to happen. Bu there are many times when you think you have a game beat and out from the darkness comes the wretched hand of fate and yours is thrown overboard with nothing but your soul left standing on the bow.


It’s the kind of game where you wait the entire season for the other shoe to drop and there are so many instances when you want to put your fist through your computer screen its maddening. But somehow you keep playing, year in and year out you try to field the best possible squad and go to war with your fantasy players, in a fantasy season against real friends.

I’m not exactly sure but about 5 years ago Fantasy Football took over the typical 30 year old guy’s life. It’s a hard hobby to explain because it’s incredibly simple yet it can engross you for months at a time. The entire concept is trying to predict which real NFL player will do best on any given Sunday. The obsessed FF player spends all year agonizing over small decisions: which running back to start, which wide receiver to pick in the draft, how much to bid for a backup tight-end in the auction waiver wire format, how much emphasis you should put into weather during a certain game, how a matchup of one player can affect another etc. etc. And then after all your decisions have been made, it all comes down to a flip of the coin or a bounce of the ball.

I’ve been at this hobby for 8 years, have never won a thing and may never will. I continue it because I’m obsessed and I’m well aware of it but I also find it a good way to keep in touch with nine of my closest friends on a week-in basis. The sad thing is when on a beautiful Sunday afternoon when you should be outside enjoying your weekend with your newborn baby girl you find yourself constantly and obsessively checking your cell-phone for scores. You find yourself not watching football anymore but instead watching small dots move across a computer score by yourself in your living room instead of real football with your friends at a bar. You know you are playing a slightly more socially acceptable version of Dungeons and Dragons yet you can’t pull yourself away..

My Name is Righetti and I have a problem