Unlike when our league began 15 years ago, there is nothing rare about participating in a fantasy football league. Where it once was an appendage to football itself, fantasy football has become a separate entity. No longer is an explanation of it required; people know fantasy football.
That, I have found, is what makes the league I run - and more importantly, its members - stand apart. As far as any of us know, our league is the longest-standing among our generation. When a few of us started the league in 1995, we were middle-school students who still went door-to-door collecting players for a pick-up game of football after our homework was done. For our members, the league hearkens back to our boyhood, and with that comes a sense of pride.
This is a different draw, I believe, from others who play fantasy football, those whom I have encountered by participating in other leagues or just having conversations. Work leagues are the most commonly recognized. Ones like ours, though - where people plan vacations around the annual draft in late summer - are more rare. During the seven years I lived out West after high school, I missed only one draft back here in Minnesota (as commissioner, this maddened me, and I vowed never to miss another in person). Pressed for options, we held one draft the Thursday before the wedding of one of the league members. This year, one man flew in from Los Angeles, and others planned family getaways around the draft date. So this has become a priority to us all.
We have lost a few members through the years. Some moved away or decided they did not have the time to devote to it anymore. But of the original six of us, four remain. The other three told me this is a source of pride for them, and I am assured they will never leave it.
So why does it have this hold on us? Asking around, a few reasons are common. First, it is the one time many of us get to see some of the other members whose lives have taken them either out of state or out of the Twin Cities. Second, it has been a tradition so longstanding that there seems little good reason to break it. Why do people always go to Grandma's house for Christmas, or why, in the face of so much annual ineptitude, do the Lions still play every Thanksgiving? Because they always have.
And so, rather than discouraging the most dedicated members of the league, other commitments become subservient to the league rather than superseding it. Our wives - for the seven of us who are now married - seem to understand that this is just how it works, and the $50 entry fee is worth the maintenance of friendships and weekly anticipation we all enjoy for five months each year. Our affiliation with the league is, some said, as ingrained as our status as Eastview High School graduates or as Vikings fans.
Also worth mentioning is this: It was awkward asking the other guys in the league some questions about this, because almost all of it needs not be said. They agreed that should they ever decide to leave, they would feel like they were letting down the other members. They would probably never see some of the members if not for the league. This seemed an odd reason to lament. Surely if a friendship is bound only by membership in the league, it must not be a strong bond. I prefer to look at it the other way, though. This is a way to guarantee we do see each other every year when we otherwise would not.
Many members are my best friends, so I do see them often. We can talk about fantasy sports for hours, but we can also talk about politics, movies, families, church. For those of us who are closer friends in other aspects of our lives, fantasy football is yet another bond we share. But that seems to further entrench us in the league, because if we were ever to disband it, how could we face each other? The league has gone beyond a diversion; it has become a small part of our identity. And at the end of the year, when our wives get together to throw a "thank goodness the football season is over so we can get our husbands back" party, we can turn our focus back to more important parts of ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment