Fantasy football's obsessive fans
At least one hundred million Americans are expected to watch the Super Bowl later today, and several million of them will know first-hand just how hard it is to build a championship team. They've learned by playing an online sport that could be called "fan-tastic" (emphasis on the word FAN). Our Cover Story is reported by Mark Strassmann:
For millions of football fans, the team that really matters won't be playing in Super Bowl XLIX. This team is not even real, but the season-long anguish over it sure is.
It's fantasy football. More than 27 million Americans now play in leagues, and it generates more than a billion dollars every year.
Fantasy football is so real, it has revolutionized the way fans watch the NFL.
Matthew Berry, 45, has built an empire on fantasy. He's ESPN's senior "Fantasy Football" analyst.
"That's actually a job?" asked Strassmann.
"Oh, yeah, yeah," said Berry. "You look at the business card and you're like, 'Really?' I'm surprised, as well; I'm just as surprised as you that it's a real job, but that is my actual title."
It wasn't Berry's dream job; back when he was dreaming about jobs, this one didn't exist. Berry started playing fantasy sports as a 14-year-old growing up in College Station, Texas.
It wasn't for everybody. "Oh, of course not," he said. "It was very niche, very sort of nerdy. This is before personal computers were commonplace, so you did your stats by hand.
"I was a bit of an outcast as a kid, so I was looking for -- I think, probably like a lot of 14-year-olds -- something, anything, that just wanted me to be a part of it."
Berry moved to Hollywood after college and became a successful screenwriter, but realized he was living someone else's fantasy. Though he was making good money, he kicked it all aside.
"I was miserable," he laughed. "So there was a website that was looking for writers online, and I emailed them in and I said, 'Hey, you know, I'm a professional writer living out here in Hollywood, but fantasy sports is my passion, I love it, and I think it could be so much fun just to do a column on the side, you know, to just try out.'"
His timing was perfect in 2004, when he launched two fantasy websites. Fantasy football was taking off. In 2007, ESPN hired him as the expert for its emerging fantasy market.
"It's super simple," he explained. "Basically, you draft real-life NFL players, and how well those real-life NFL players do in their real-life NFL games is how they perform for your fantasy team. That's it in essence -- it's super easy. Real-life players, their statistics in real-life games is how well they do for your fantasy team."
Say you drafted quarterback Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers, and some Sunday he throws four touchdown passes. Even if the Packers lose, his individual statistics help your fantasy team win.
Antonio Gates is an all-pro tight end with the San Diego Chargers, and a star on thousands of fantasy football teams. "It's a gift and a curse, man," he said.
Gates sees positives in fantasy football: more interest in the game, and in his performance.
"But the negative is that you got 10,000 people think they can say stuff to you like they're a general manager, you know?" he laughed. "So when you're at the gas station, people be like, 'Man, I had you last week. I told you that I need da da da.' 'Oh, I got you comin' up. I need you to play big.'
"I'm telling you the fantasy is so big now, where I've witnessed guys feeling down on themselves because of what fans had said about what they're doing to their fantasy league."
Players in fantasy leagues all over drafted NFL players before the season began -- and competed, often fiercely, over the next five months.
So who is playing fantasy football? "Everyone," said Berry. "Kids play; moms play; grandmothers play; priests, rabbis and ministers -- sounds like the start of a bad joke! It's actually three different leagues I know about. Jay-Z plays. Celebrities play. Convicts play. Casino owners play. Servicemen play. Professional athletes play. Seriously, you name it, all walks of life, they all play."
Eighty percent of fantasy players are college grads, and a fast-growing segment -- twenty percent of all players -- are women.
The Gridiron Ladies, an all-women's fantasy league in Minnesota, are a dozen fans who knew each other working in state politics. Three years ago, they launched a fantasy league.
"We are pretty big football fans -- go Vikes!" said Taylor Pass, who team's name is Sacks in the City. "And we thought, you know, why not learn a little more? The first year it was pretty small, and it's been growing since."
Strassmann asked, "What's been the big surprise for you?"
"I think just how social it is," said Karin Housley, of Team Housley. "The fun that we have in our group text. And you are checking your phone, or you're plunked in front of a TV, you drop in, 'How's Andrew Luck doing?'"
And how competitive is it? "These girls? There might be a fight later, depending on the outcome of the game here," laughed Kate Larson, of Fumble In the Jungle.
The FX Network has a show called "The League," now in its sixth season. It follows a fantasy league and a group of high school buddies who will do anything to win.
Jeff and Jackie Schaffer, the show's husband-and-wife creators, write and direct it. They also compete on set in a fantasy league.
"We always say, to enjoy 'The League,' you don't have to know anything about football," said Jeff. "You certainly don't have to know anything about fantasy football. You just have to have friends that you hate."
And when it comes to publicizing the show, and talking about the current standings of "The League"'s league, "There's not an interview that goes through where [Jackie] doesn't get to crow about the fact that she's in first place," Jeff laughed.
To the Schaffers, the show -- like any real fantasy league -- is partly about football, and mostly about camaraderie and human nature.
"And people are terrible," said Jeff. "Whiners, cheats. People are the worst. They're crybabies. They're complainers. They're devious. And you get to do this for the smallest stakes imaginable!"
Tonight in Arizona, the Patriots and the Seahawks will play for the Lombardi Trophy. In Minnesota, the Gridiron Ladies played for a different prize: The Heel.
"This is our trophy, so I'm sure this'll be around my house for a few more years," said Karin Housley.
"It's movin' up north, girl," suggested Carrie Ruud, of Ruud's Rebels.
"Right now, it's staying right here!"
Karin Housely won the Heel again this year. (It was important to her that we tell you that.)
And Matthew Berry understands that: Jay-Z asked for his help drafting a fantasy team.
"So if sports are a metaphor for life," said Strassmann, "what are fantasy sports a metaphor for?"
"Life, but better," said Berry. "I believe we are a country that likes to root. I just think, as a people, whether it's for the guy to get the girl in the romantic comedy, whether it's for the mom to win the dishwasher on the game show, whether it's for our fantasy football team to score more points than your fantasy football team, ultimately, we are a country that really just like to root for something.
"And there's nothing better than selecting your own group of players and saying, 'You know what? I think mine are better than yours.'"
For more info: