European here. I have heard of the concept of fantasy football, but never quite gotten what is so appealing about it, how it works (you pick players from different teams?), and why grown (wo)men are willing to dedicate hours of their life to it. Please explain :).
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OP, don’t you know Fantasy Football is massive in Europe too? And worldwide – HUGE!
Where are you from exactly?
Because we have the same thing in Germany as well.. we just don’t call it Fantasy football. Most of those games are just called “Football manager” here.
It works with slightly different rules depending on the provider of the game.
But in General you pick a team of football players (or Soccer for the US readers here) and they get points for doing “good things” in real life games.
In Germany we have for example:
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comunio](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comunio)
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickbase](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickbase)
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kicker_(Sportmagazin)#Managerspiel](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kicker_(Sportmagazin)#Managerspiel)
The same reason you dedicate hours of your life to your hobbies…
What sort of question was the second part…
Not just men. I love checking stats and player reports for an hour or two every day. It’s a lot of fun to try to make the best starting decisions using research and gut instinct.
Then as the points roll in real time, you’re on the edge of your seat as you see your choices play out. There’s so much excitement as Thursday night approaches, as if the weekend starts then.
Then excitement again on Monday and Tuesday as waivers open and any hidden gem players who are still available may be scrutinized and possibly picked up as a “sleeper.”
It’s a very rewarding and intuitive game. And things don’t always go as expected. The more time you put in researching and analyzing, the better your choices. As the season gets into playoffs however, the stress and excitement starts to wear at me. There’s certainly a sense of relief as the season ends.
Wait a minute how come you did not notice that a ton of *European* men are obsessed with it?
For me it’s not so much the game/work of fantasy football that is enjoyable, it’s the external factors that come with it.
Our league has an annual in person draft day, so once a year all 12 of us who are friends get together… no wives, no kids, no responsibility and just act like a bunch of frat boys for the day. We bbq, we drink, we talk shit, play silly games and have a ton of laughs and it’s an all day affair from sun up to sun down.
While many of the fellas in this group I see and talk to fairly regularly, the other half I do not get to see nearly as often so this is a great excuse for all of us to get together for the day and hang out like we use. Then we have an ongoing group chat for the league that is very active during football season.
Fantasy football is just an interactive form of gambling. It’s the comradery of the group of friends that keeps me coming back year after year. The prize money is nice too.
Also having certain players makes you more invested in watching certain teams. Sundays in the US from September- February are dominated by the NFL… It’s been a remarkably effective marketing tool for the NFL to bring in more fans and become the juggernaut it is. You have coworkers, soccer moms, friends that know little to nothing about football all participating and joining leagues… some are just no stakes for fun leagues, others have buy-ins and prize money for the champ/runner up. Personally I have lost interest in doing the work to manage multiple teams, it’s just my 1 main league that I stay involved in. But I know plenty of people that have 3,4,5+ teams.
American’s love our football.
>and why grown (wo)men are willing to dedicate hours of their life to it.
Because it’s a fun way to socialize with friends and enjoy sports at the same time. It makes the season more exciting because you’re more engaged with it.
I ask the same question and I’m currently in a league myself lol. Got into it bc a friend ask if I want to try. Honestly it’s boring af, I just don’t know why people enjoy it so much.
> why are so many US men obsessed with it?
It’s one of the few sources of community which are still available & socially acceptable.
Community used to be a normal & essential part of our lives. Leagues, teams, unions, & clubs were the norm, be it bowling, freemason, bridge, or just plain old knowing who your neighbors are while being mutually invested in each other’s welfare.
For whatever reason fantasy football is one of the last sources of community to die so it has to carry a lot of weight instead of being 1 option among 100’s. Weirdly enough fantasy football has a lot of haters not because it in any way harms people, but because the wrong type of people participate.
Our culture is getting super weird and isolated, it’s a big reason so many people are less healthy & happy than previous generations. It makes us less resilient as individuals, but also as a group and *that* an important reason regular people are getting the short end of every stick possible.
I’m an American man who loves American football but I do not understand fantasy football and to be honest hearing people talk about it is terribly annoying.
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