Tuesday Wrap: Is fantasy football bad for the sport?

I wrote this morning about how fans harangued Rob Gronkowski; how Odell Beckham tweets about the concept and it made me wonder if this ploy to draw in the more casual viewer is ruining the sport.

It is not as simple as a yes or no; I do think it is degrading the manner in which fans watch the sport. No one seems to care any more about the game itself; only the stats. I watched (attempted anyway) some Sunday Morning NFL pregame shows and what I saw was strikingly absent of any substance. It seemed the entire focus was on which players to play for your fantasy teams.

Sure, there were some of the same old 'feel good' stories about players, coaches, fans. But it just seemed like the shows were aimed at the easiest targets. In the short run, this has gained the attention of an entire generation of people who might otherwise find something else to do on Sunday; like sleep off their craft cocktail hangovers. With the increased attention, comes increased advertising revenues and increased television deals between the league and its partners.

What happens, though, when the short attention span of semi-disinterested fans shifts to the next fun thing? What happens when viewers start to change the channel (or cut the cord)?

I would love to blame the NFL, but it's not really the league that is the driving force behind this - it is television. I have been very soft in my commentary regarding ESPN and even Fox as it relates to what they have done. Despite that, I roundly criticized ESPN for losing touch with technological trends. they should have been able to project the changing market and the 'cord-cutting' millenial approach to watching television.

Both ESPN and Fox are equal partners in the fiasco that is fantasy football because they don't have a plan for changing with the whims of disinvested consumers. I say 'disinvested' because those who watch solely for the fantasy aspect are sure to fade away when something easier, more fun, more challenging comes along to catch their fancy. There needs to be more to watching football than checking the box scores.

Now, that comes from a person who was a box score nerd as a kid. I would sit and read the sports section - cover to cover - while eating breakfast every morning. I would calulate yards per carry, batting averages, shooting percentages, all in my head while I gulped down those Cheerios. But I also read the analysis pieces that made me love the game itself; the strategy behind each play; the nuances of technique; all of those things that make it a beautiful sport.

Look, this is the business that ESPN and Fox are in - getting and keeping viewers. But I think that they also need to cultivate those viewers and make them invested in more than box scores. I have thoughts on how that might work, but it really is something on which they should be focused. if they don't, you very well could see the day that a Game of Thrones season finale might get better viewership numbers than the Super Bowl. I know that sounds crazy, but cultivating a sort of football-ADD fan can lead to the middle of nowhere.