4 The Love of the Game

So the reason I titled my blog “4 The Love of the Game” is because over the past 6-7 years I have come to realize that it seems as years go by sports fans are no longer rooting for there teams for the soul purpose of pride. Now a day’s people are watching sports for other reasons, if not the soul purpose of things such as fantasy teams and gambling. It came to my attention last week when I was watching a football game with my older brother. Like me he is a big New York Jets fan, but as we were watching the game and watching the Jets slowly blow the lead I could see him keep looking up stats on the computer. It only took me a few minutes for me to realize that he had Brett Favre on his fantasy team and he needed him to have a good game so he could win his fantasy league. So while were watching this game together he was trying to figure out scenarios in which he could still win his fantasy league and also have the Jets come out with a victory. This was not the 1st time I have seen this happen; I’ve had it happen to my friends and even me. Anyone who is a common fantasy player usually comes a time when you have someone on your fantasy team that it playing against your favorite team or you have someone on your fantasy team that is arch rivals with your favorite team. To give a quick example would be like being a big New York Yankees fan and having to root for David Ortiz on the Boston Red Sox or being a New York Jet fan and rooting for Tom Brady on the Pats (never will happen in my lifetime by the way). It’ weird to me to see how popular fantasy leagues are becoming in all sports and what’s most surprising is that the results of people’s fantasy leagues are becoming more important than the actual results of the game. I have heard countless times people say “yea I know they lost but it’s alright I won in fantasy this week or yea I know he had 2 home runs but at least he was on my fantasy team”.





It doesn’t surprise me that this is happening because of what fantasy leagues provide. Fantasy leagues are provided on all different websites weather it be ESPN, CBS, and Yahoo. Fantasy leagues provide customers with a few things such as keeping in touch with friends, getting you more interested in other sports and the most important gambling. There are leagues for all sports weather it be NFL, MLB, and NBA and though there are a lot of people that do these leagues for fun, there is also a majority of them that gamble or wager on them. Today most sports fanatics get a group of there buddies together and each throw a wager down on there fantasy teams, the wager can be small something like 10 dollars or up to 200 dollars. So now your fantasy team becomes even more important because you have money invested in it. I feel like fantasy leagues are becoming more popular because its making you part of something that’s bigger than you and people like to feel like rush of not knowing what’s going to happen next. Fantasy leagues make you feel like that by investing your time and money into these athletes to perform well and if they do they came sometimes make you a nice load of cash. Gambling has always been a part of sports no matter how you look at it, but now more than ever sports gambling is very popular here in the U.S and overseas and you see these sites being promoted on TV and having sponsored links on the internet. Sites such as Bodog, Sportsbook and etc are everywhere being promoted so what makes you think they wouldn’t spread. Just look at horse racing at different race tracks all over the world, some people live off wagering on horses on the daily and that’s what major sports are turning into. People are not starting to care weather the Jets or Giants won, no they want to know how this guy did or how many points they won or lost by because I had money on the spread.




I think that as technology continues to expand sports culture in general might expand but for the wrong reasons. It won’t be expanding over its product or for pride and ambition but for the simple fact of things such as fantasy leagues and sports gambling. Look at all the news electronic products coming out in today’s society like the I phone and Blackberry most of them today you can now download an app or sign up/download programs that will give up to sec information about sports or more specifically how your fantasy team is doing. With the creation of these fantasy apps and such things as ESPN Mobile, Yahoo Alert and other programs being constantly promoted on the internet on a major TV stations I think the issue will just continue to worsen. With all this said I will be the 1st to say that I have become a victim of this because most of the time the 1st thing I check when I sign onto my comp is my fantasy teams. Not just for the sake of seeing if anything new is happening or if there is any major news, but to see if my friends I am in the league posted anything, I love it because it’s something me and all my friends have in common and something we can all come together for while where all away at school.

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