The Blue Field-Turf*
I was reading this post at Jesus Creed and needed to respond with the following:
Fantasy Football enables you to truly understand the story of football. Many people, instead of taking the longer more rewarding path of watching football as epic story want a shortcut. They want to get the benefit of the story of football without putting in the hard work of watching 4-8 games per weekend (depending on the number of TVs available). Just as shortcuts in reading the Bible affect our spiritual health, shortcuts in watching football affect our football health.
Shortcut 1: Officials to be argued with
Some people see football as a series of controversial decisions which must be contested from their living room couch. This person thinks they know the rules of football better than the officials and they need everyone to know it. This person can become pompous, self-righteous, and accusatory. Sometimes they become resentful that others haven’t caught up to their level of football knowledge.
Shortcut 2: Morsels of Blessing and Promise
Some people ignore football altogether until a local team starts succeeding and then they jump on the bandwagon. They pick and choose when they are a fan; they may even jump from team to team riding the wave of whoever is successful and disregarding the rivalries intrinsic to the game. Because these people are looking for morsels of success, and avoid the ups and downs, the pains and sorrows, they miss out on the blessing that is football. The blessings and promises of football emerge from living out the overall story of football.
Shortcut 3: Mirrors and Inkblots
Some people project onto football what they want to see. In the pre-season everyone thinks they’re a Super Bowl contender. We project onto our favorite team what we want to see; when it does not work out we blame it on the refs, the injuries, and that one unlucky bounce of the ball. Instead of being swept up into the story of football these fans sweep football up into their own story; football becomes an opportunity for narcissism.
Shortcut 4: Puzzling Together the Pieces
For some football is like a big puzzle. Once you’ve got the puzzle solved you go to Vegas and stake your fortune. For these people I would just like to say that the Gambler’s Anonymous national help-line is 888-424-3577. Call it.
Shortcut 5: Maestros
Some people go to football to watch the story of THEIR team. Depending on the time or place we are born into we select one team over another and assert that this is THE true, right, and good team. All other teams are weak, misguided, potentially evil, and destined for failure. Unfortunately, seeing football through only one team’s eyes gives us only one chapter in the story of football.
Fantasy football allows us to develop “Magic Eyes” and be drawn into the full, multi-chaptered story of football. Watching the story of football through fantasy football gives us a context within which to enjoy the artistry of players regardless of team. It allows us to appreciate the part of the story made up by each individual team, and each individual player. These are in fact wiki-stories. On any given Sunday, football stars will be brought low and unknown players will achieve amazing acts. None of these individual wiki-stories is final; none of them is comprehensive; none of them is absolute; none of them is exhaustive. Each of them tells A story of football; but it takes all these stories put together to see THE story of football. This is what fantasy football does; it enables us to see the overarching story of football.
*This is an attempt of a parody of “The Blue Parakeet” by Scot McKnight, no offense or copyright infringement intended to anyone.
