The first game of the NFL season kicks off tonight.
This is the first season that the Cardinals aren't playing in a college team's stadium and the first season that San Francisco will consider picking Brady Quinn first in the draft and think, "You know, maybe this whole Alex Smith thing wasn't such a good idea."
Most importantly, it is the first season in Roger Goodell's tenure as commissioner of the league.
But even more popular than the actual games, as usual, will be the high-stakes, fantasy match-ups taking place worldwide. One consulting firm estimates that an average of 50 minutes per week, per fantasy player is spent checking on their teams -costing employers up to $1.1 billion a week.
There's something simple about fantasy football, which is certainly what draws people to it. You line up a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker and a team defense.
There is little variation from league to league, with the exception of statistical emphasis. That is, most leagues emphasize touchdowns, meaning the best wide receiver to have last year was Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers. However, others may emphasize yards gained, in which case, the best wide receiver was Steve Smith. A rare few emphasize carries or receptions, in which case the best wide receiver was, as you may have guessed, Steve Smith.
Simply put, the best players to have in fantasy football generally are the best players in real football. This is another benefit, when compared to fantasy baseball, in which players like Adam Dunn of the Cincinnati Reds are well-received in the actual sport but can be fantasy poison for any league in which strikeouts is a category.
The only glaring exceptions to this rule are generally quarterbacks, as guys like Ben Roethlisberger, great game managers but not guys who will put up big statistics, are generally avoided.
Fantasy football has also indirectly sprung many stars into the game.
For instance, many people probably would have known going into this season that Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs was fantastic last year. But fantasy players, who are almost unanimously making Johnson one of the top two players selected in drafts, are throwing more coals than you would think onto Johnson's fire.
Although fantasy football giveth, many times fantasy football taketh away, as well.
Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons was initially lauded by fantasy players for his ability to gain rushing yards as well as passing yards, but many have quickly found that what Vick cannot do in terms of racking up yards through the air overrides what he can do on the ground. His star has fallen so far that he went undrafted in a fantasy draft I was involved in a couple of weeks ago, and no one was really surprised. Consequently, Vick, a quarterback many projected to possibly become the greatest ever to play his position early in his career, is now very lowly regarded as a quarterback and often criticized for his lack of passing.
Reality becomes fantasy, and fantasy becomes reality. The vicious cycle will continue.
And many NFL fans are very excited to be along for the ride.
Andy Roberts is a junior telecommunications major and wrote this 'Who, Me?' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Andy at ndistops@hotmail.com
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