We were on a weekend getaway in Las Vegas. It was late October or early November and it was a Sunday morning. As we were packing up to check out of the hotel and get ready for our long seven hour drive back home, he turned on the TV. From the restroom, I could hear whistles, crowds cheering, sounds of the referrees making calls, and the crash of football helmets. It was football season and his favorite team was on the TV. “Honey, it’s time to check out,” I said. “Babe…?” Silence. He evidently had already checked out. This was the beginning of the time of my life that I call “my life as a football widow.” As of this season, that time is over.
Growing up, I wasn’t your typical girly girl. I loved watching baseball, played softball, and helped my stepdad coach my little brother’s little league team — I even volunteered time as an umpire, earning both cheers and jeers from the moms and dads (respectively) in the stands. My biological father (whom I lost at an early age) was a hometown high school football star in the hills of Michigan and my stepdad played college ball at the University of Arizona. I knew about football, heard about hockey, watched a little golf on TV from time to time, and lived for the World Series. Sports were always a part of my life. And then one sport came along and killed a part of my life — Fantasy Football.
Yeah, so Fantasy Football isn’t a true “sport” by definition, but it’s its intrinsic connective nature to the sport of football that, in essence, makes it a sport all of its own. There are fantasy leagues associated with just about any major sport these days, whether professional or collegiate, and the competition is fierce. Armchair quarterbacks, cheap seat GMs and rabid, painted-face college sports fans follow every aspect of their favorite sport, from player acquisitions and coaching change-ups to every little statistic about every little part of the game they love so passionately.
When we first met and started dating, I knew my now-husband was a football fan. I had my favorite team too and tried to make at least one local college football game every year, even dragging my young daughters along for the exposure. But this concept of “owning a team” in a Fantasy Football league was a foreign concept to me. I would soon learn that owning a team also meant that there would be a lot of work keeping it going, and a winning season meant more to my man than the Lombardi trophy would if it were parked in our front room for the world to see.
This year, I decided it was better to join in the madness than to suffer another five months of relative neglect as Sundays, Monday nights and every other waking moment of free time is consumed by the NFL and my husband’s fantasy leagues (yes, he’s on multiple). Two weeks before the NFL season officially kicked off, and armed with my draft kit, a computer, and a little pre-draft “prep-talk” from the husband, I joined my husband, our college-aged daughter, and nine of my husband’s guy friends in my living room for a live, offline draft. Twelve fantasy team managers, including two women new to the concept, went through about two hours of player drafting, with me tracking everyone’s picks through an app on my iPad. And after it was all said and done, I was officially a fantasy football team owner. “What did I get myself into?” she says.
In preparing to set up my roster for my Week 1 matchup, I did what any smart woman would do, I searched the internet. But what I didn’t do smartly was look first for advice for women regarding fantasy football leagues. All I got were a bunch of articles and videos about football widows, and links to “support groups” to help neglected wives and girlfriends cope with their annual loss. So I turned to the football experts to help me with my plight. I had a roster of guys who I mostly had never heard of (except those pretty boy quarterbacks or the players who had made headlines with their off-field exploits and dramas), and I needed to get up to speed, and fast!
Like I do with any research project I’d take on at the office, I dug into stats, gossip, and facts and I tried to make quick sense of information that came by the boatload. In retrospect, I realize now I should have done all this homework well before the draft, but since I was bamboozled at the last minute by a shocked husband into joining his league (he didn’t think I’d say yes), hindsight will just have to be 20/20. I’ll make do with the team I have or make trades or add/drops later. What I ended up with is a pretty solid starting team, with room to improve and to grow. Watching week to week, and keeping up with the news of player injuries, team restructurings, and other football insights, will help me in going from the “in the dark” football widow with only a “go team” mentality to the sleeper team with the best fantasy football season record. Take that, boys!!
But will all this said, and with Week 1 now over, I’m very happy to say that I’ve got a 1-0-0 record in my husband’s league of head-to-head weekly competition with other team managers, and I’m running in the middle of the pack in another free Yahoo! league which I am trying out as well, so I can get the hang of the two different types of standard non-auction leagues. Our daughter, who also is in the league with my husband and I, even posted the highest team score (by a considerable margin), and could very well be in the running to have the best team this season. You go girl!
So, now, with our first week of games under our belt, I’m also very confident that this season will not be as quiet in my house as my daughter and I plow new roads as possibly the fiercest competitors in the fantasy football league. Anything you can do, I can do better, boys … So, watch out Buster! It’s Sunday, and I’ve got the remote now!!