Tradition is a big part of Fantasy Football. Every year (4 years running)we've had our neighborhood kids pick names out of the hat to pick the draft order. The first picture is (from left to right) Maggie, Hanna, Michael and Jojo picking the draft order. The person who got picked last (#14) was pretty unhappy. He's 9, but his 40 year old father had a similar reaction. They both pretty much said "what's the point." I was frustrated with their reaction, as my views on fantasty football have changed. I wanted to tell them that fantasy is much more about things like friendships and tradition than it is about who gets the 1st pick and who wins the championship. It's about the connections, being part of a group and these traditions we've created as a community. I felt like they were taking all of that for granted, or not seeing it. But I'm learning to keep my mouth shut about stuff like that and just sort of observe what is happening. Everyone looks at fantasy in a different way, and I can't see the experience through the eyes of the person who got the 14 th pick (even though I'm the 11th pick, which is not much better). What I did end up saying to the father was to let his 9 yr old deal with the bad spot in the draft order so he could experience all parts of the fantasy experience, good and bad. There are lessons to be learned about winning and losing and about the bigger things in life. I thought about finding a different way to pick the draft order. The computer can do it randomly. I'm glad I stuck with tradition.
The second picture is the pull out fantasty football section of the Daily News we buy every year (4 years running). You can get information on players from numerous sources; magazines, online, on the radio, on TV, but there's something about having this hard copy, newspaper like thing to read and touch and smell. (It smells like newspaper). It's concrete and I study it with excitement from the moment I buy it right up until the draft begins. I thumb through it during the draft in desperate moments, when I can't even think of a kicker's name, when there are no running backs left. It's tradition.
Tradition is a big part of Fantasy Football. Every year (4 years running)we've had our neighborhood kids pick names out of the hat to pick the draft order. The first picture is (from left to right) Maggie, Hanna, Michael and Jojo picking the draft order. The person who got picked last (#14) was pretty unhappy. He's 9, but his 40 year old father had a similar reaction. They both pretty much said "what's the point." I was frustrated with their reaction, as my views on fantasty football have changed. I wanted to tell them that fantasy is much more about things like friendships and tradition than it is about who gets the 1st pick and who wins the championship. It's about the connections, being part of a group and these traditions we've created as a community. I felt like they were taking all of that for granted, or not seeing it. But I'm learning to keep my mouth shut about stuff like that and just sort of observe what is happening. Everyone looks at fantasy in a different way, and I can't see the experience through the eyes of the person who got the 14 th pick (even though I'm the 11th pick, which is not much better). What I did end up saying to the father was to let his 9 yr old deal with the bad spot in the draft order so he could experience all parts of the fantasy experience, good and bad. There are lessons to be learned about winning and losing and about the bigger things in life. I thought about finding a different way to pick the draft order. The computer can do it randomly. I'm glad I stuck with tradition.
The second picture is the pull out fantasty football section of the Daily News we buy every year (4 years running). You can get information on players from numerous sources; magazines, online, on the radio, on TV, but there's something about having this hard copy, newspaper like thing to read and touch and smell. (It smells like newspaper). It's concrete and I study it with excitement from the moment I buy it right up until the draft begins. I thumb through it during the draft in desperate moments, when I can't even think of a kicker's name, when there are no running backs left. It's tradition.
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