Once again I’m participating in a Fantasy Football league. And the first thing I want to say about that is that ESPN sucks. We’re using them this year, we used Yahoo last year. We had thought Yahoo was lame, but they’re way better. But now that I’ve covered that, that’s not the point of this post.

The point is, it does a weird thing to how you pay attention to football. Or rather, it may not affect you, but it definitely affects me.

My team (team name: Atlanta Foreclosures) is going up against my friend Danny this week (team name: David Frum’s… err… Anus). I’m having a really strong week. The 49ers defense is helping me out just like they did last year, and although I (wisely) benched the incredible CJ Spiller with the Bills this week, Ahmad Bradshaw and Jamaal Charles have brought me a comfortable lead. My opponent, however, hasn’t done well because his Green Bay receiver didn’t have a good week. And I noticed said receiver was having a bad week. I am pleased.

Here’s the thing. I didn’t notice until three hours after the game that Green Bay lost to Indianapolis. And as someone who purports to be a Bears fan I can’t imagine how I’d have missed that. You know what? I didn’t see the final Bears score either. Robbie Gould is on my team, and I see he did quite well. That’s because we won 41-3. 

Holy CRAP! How did I miss that?! I saw a post on Deadspin a while back about how fantasy football alters your perception of players, but it’s altered my perception of the whole game.

In my own case there’s more to it, to be fair. At a family gathering yesterday I was asked if I’d seen the Bears last week. Well, no. The thing is, I haven’t watched actual TV in my own home for upwards of a year now. I don’t normally make a big deal of this, but the TV for my office is sitting on the floor acting as a stand for a container of Nerf guns at the moment. It has been for some time. I just don’t watch TV. So fantasy football is my only serious connection to the sport, aside from reading up on it all on the internet.

Thinking back to my post a week or two ago about sports, I suppose this really explains it all. I don’t bother to watch. so naturally it’s the fantasy sports that will color my perceptions of it all. I dunno. I hadn’t really considered that a part of it.