Football Season has finally arrived. Time for us to put on our favorite’s jerseys and cheer on our favorite team! Oh and let’s not forget about the endless amount of chicken wings we will be consuming. But for those of you who are Fantasy Football players, your team no longer means The New England Patriots (see what I did there). When I first saw Fantasy Football play out, I was mortified when my boyfriend was rooting against Tom Brady and cheering on the opposing quarterback. What in the world is happening, when a loyal Patriots fan is praying that Brady doesn’t throw the ball because his Fantasy opponent has Brady on his team? To me, this was taking away what Football was all about. At a young age we are raised to be loyal fans to our hometown teams. And being from Boston, that loyalty stretches through every sport regardless of if you like it or not. And here these Fantasy Football people are kicking that loyalty to the curb, so they're made up team can win. Get out of here.

But the more I learned about Fantasy Football, the more I liked the idea of it. Now let me be straight with you, I do not participate in Fantasy Football. I was never the girl who got into video games or board games or any games where I had to strategize. I was more the hands on game player, and to be honest that only consisted of me and my next door neighbors playing catch or king of the hill. I’ve never actually played a real football game with a team. But, I do know and love the game. And from what I gathered from the Fantasy Football sidelines, your team requires an extensive line of knowledge. You not only need to know all the players’ stats, but you need to know how well they play with their teammates. And that’s only for the initial draft. Once the games start you have to know which players to play, which leads to understanding how well your chosen players play against the opposing teams. If you have 1 of the highest ranked wide receivers playing against the top defense in the league, what’s your move? You need to do your homework. Which, for a lot of the Fantasy Football players, is half the fun. Yeah it’s cool to win a game with the team you picked, but it’s even cooler to win a game with a team that you put together and studied and strategized to win. And when it comes to boys and their egos, what’s better bragging rights than YOUR football team beating your friends’, coworkers’ and/or family members’ teams? Okay I won’t be completely sexist here, girls also get an ego boost from these bragging rights. Leading me to my main debate, is Fantasy Football making or breaking our love of football?

I grew up with a Patriot-fanatic mother, yes mother, don’t worry my dad’s a big fan too. But I was raised in a house where we rooted for the Pats, everyone else didn’t matter. Even when our favorites were traded to other teams we instantly threw them away like garbage. They didn’t play for our team, they didn’t deserve our cheers. Well, now you have Fantasy where these talented players are being recognized and appreciated for their individual talent. We are putting aside our biased views (not completely) of our home teams and expanding our appreciation for other players. We are now paying attention to who these other players are and what they have to offer. And quite possibly putting aside our biased views of our hometown or favorite team. We are enjoying more football games. Fantasy Football is bringing television broadcasters more views. We not only are watching our only team play we are watching every football game. We are subscribing to NFL Redzone and the entire sports package just so we can see our Fantasy Team play. Thus bringing more and more money to the NFL. But, hey why not spend money on the things you like to do? To me Football is not going to fade away, it's such a highly watched sport in the US, but whoever invented Fantasy Football is genius. For all you football lovers out there, what better way to enjoy the game than to feel like you are a part of it? You get to be the head coach of your own team of professional football players. And every catch, every yard, every field goal, every accomplishment they make throughout the season you are watching and rooting for them. This may be because we now get something more out of it, whether that be the money we win or the ego boost of having the best team of the year, but either way we are getting more fun and more excitement out of the game.