Top 10 Reasons Why Fantasy Football Is Bad for the Game

Since its origination in the early 1960s, fantasy football has become increasingly popular, especially with the invention of the popular on-line leagues such as ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS.

Millions of people play in these leagues, often competing for cash prizes or, more importantly, sheer pride. They obsess over their leagues, checking NFL highlights every 10 minutes during Sundays, simply to see if their players have scored touchdowns.

I hate fantasy football. I absolutely hate it. I think it completely destroys the fun of the NFL season and focuses all the excitement on statistical accolades. It's terrible for the sport and encourages fans, especially the younger generation, to root for one or two players from many NFL teams, instead of expressing loyalty to a single team.

These are my 10 least favorite aspects of fantasy football.

10. The No. 1 pick never lives up to expectations. L.T. or Tom Brady in 2008? Shaun Alexander in 2006?

9. Your star running back always flops. And if not your running back, your quarterback. You can never go two for two.

8. You obsess over whether to use your pick on the 38th-ranked overall player or the 43rd-ranked player, but the 317th-ranked player scores more points than either.

7. Bye weeks. Instead of once a year, you have to worry about one every single week. You might even base your whole team around avoiding multiple bye weeks in one week.

6. You obsess over whether to start the No. 17 quarterback against the No. 12 pass defense or the No. 16 quarterback against the No. 11 pass defense. Does it really matter?

5. You didn't understand the rules and thought it wasn't a keeper league but it really was. Or you didn't understand how the scoring system works.

4. Your favorite team's No. 1 wide receiver injures his leg and your initial response is disappointment over the loss of this player on your fantasy team instead of the impact he will have on your team.

3. Instead of buying NFL Preview magazines, you buy fantasy magazines. Meaning you miss out on the truly great non-statistical moments happening in the NFL season because you care about is the running back with 14 touchdowns through eight games.

2. You can name every skill position player on every team in the league, but you have no clue who Shawn Andrews or Jonathan Ogden is.

1. You have to root for your favorite team to lose so you can win your fantasy football team.

*BONUS*

This might be the worst one of all:

The guy, or often girl, who fills the last spot in the league just to help you meet official league requirements, and then ends up winning the entire competition. They couldn't tell you Tom Brady from Tom Cruise, and they don't even check their league until the end of the season. Then they think they are a football expert because somehow they won first place.