NFL without a fantasy

Wish I could take credit for this graph...well done.

So you're sitting there on your computer on a Sunday afternoon, trying to figure out how you can win all 5 of your fantasy football games with you having conflicting players to root for/against across the slate of games. I know many people who are like this, me being one of them (at least in a normal year, I've avoided it this year by going out for games and having a shitty phone that doesn't update scores). Fantasy football has become such a phenomenon, bringing people who have absolutely no knowledge of football and providing them an opportunity to play general manager against 9 or 11 of their closest friends/co-workers/random people and see who can create the highest scoring team on a week to week basis. I myself am in 4 money leagues, with a total of $400 invested among those 4 leagues; I'm even in 3 non-money leagues for the purposes of pride and wanting to destroy all my friends from different walks of life in something I consider myself good at. With all of these leagues, I probably own about half of the NFL collectively, so odds are, a few of my teams will win, a few will lose: (so far, 19-11 in the 6 head to head leagues and 1st place in my points league, so not too shabby).

So all of this begs the question: where would the NFL be without fantasy football? It'd still exist, sure. At one point in time, the main reason a good chunk of people watched games was for gambling purposes- that reason for watching will never completely die, as there will always be a Vegas book overflowing with gambling novices that are more than happy to donate their money to the Vegas fund. So it wouldn't die without fantasy, but I know the common man wouldn't be as interested, which would definitely lead to less TV ratings and thus, less revenue for the league. While the NFL didn't need fantasy football back in the day, the 2000s version of pro football definitely does need it. It'll be interesting to see in 20 years what the next thing that NFL will need to satisfy fan interest, or if betting and fantasy football will continue to drive ratings and interest for the foreseeable future.

I could live off of the gambling aspect of football, but if you take away both that AND fantasy, I might be hard pressed to be as interested in it as I am. In fact, I guarantee I wouldn't be...would you? I sure as hell doubt it. If you're a football fanatic like me, I'm willing to bet (pun intended) that you are in (a) 1 or more fantasy football leagues, (b) a gambler or someone who is in a pool of some sort that involves money, or (c) all of the above. Good luck being as interested without those two aspects- you just can't do it. Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them, can't do it.