Enjoying fantasy without getting sucked in (1 Viewer)

[zftcg]

I've been playing fantasy since 2004. In many ways, last year was a lot of fun. I won my long-time family league for the first time since our inaugural season, and I generally enjoyed watching games, managing my teams, etc.

On the other hand, by January I was really ready for the season to be over, and as a new season approaches I find myself pre-emptively exhausted at the thought of fantasy taking over my life for the next few months. The problem is that I find it hard to go halfway. Actually, there are two problems. One is the amount of time I spend during the week reading analysis, listening to fantasy/NFL podcasts, and yes, posting on this forum. The second is my behavior during the games: watching on Sundays, obsessively checking my phone if I'm not watching, and staying up late for the night games (I have a job that starts early in the morning).

I say all of this not to complain, but to make a public commitment that this year I will try to do better. I don't need to stay up late watching TNF solely to track my opponent's kicker. If I'm home on a Sunday afternoon and there's a game I want to watch, that's fine, but I will remind myself that it doesn't actually matter if I know how my team is doing in real-time (especially if I'm spending time with my kids). I'm cutting back on the number of podcasts I listen to and focusing on the ones I find most useful. I'll continue to post here, but I'll confine myself to work breaks and not waste a whole morning arguing which WR is the GOAT of all time 

If you're grappling with the same issues, feel free to make a similar pledge. And if you've done it successfully in the past, feel free to share tips that worked for you.

 

[Cobbler1]

Did my wife send you?

 

[Ilov80s]

I quit my job to prep for the upcoming season 

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

watching on Sundays, obsessively checking my phone if I'm not watching, and staying up late for the night games

This was the big one for me.  Gave up watching scores in realtime years ago, makes for a much more enjoyable experience.  Just check the standings on Tuesday and see how you did.  Watch the NFL games you want to, when you want to, just because you want to, not because it has any impact on your weekly matchup.  As you noted, it doesn't actually make a difference if you're tracking results in realtime, it just adds stress with no benefit.  

 

[gianmarco]

This was the big one for me.  Gave up watching scores in realtime years ago, makes for a much more enjoyable experience.  Just check the standings on Tuesday and see how you did.  Watch the NFL games you want to, when you want to, just because you want to, not because it has any impact on your weekly matchup.  As you noted, it doesn't actually make a difference if you're tracking results in realtime, it just adds stress with no benefit.  

Yeah, but then I can't see how I was up and should have won only to get screwed at the end by some bull#### that I can them complain about until it happens again the next week. It'll just look like a loss and what's the fun in that?

 

[zftcg]

Yeah, but then I can't see how I was up and should have won only to get screwed at the end by some bull#### that I can them complain about until it happens again the next week. It'll just look like a loss and what's the fun in that?

I don't remember the specifics, but one time I was out-of-pocket for most of Sunday and then ended up losing a close match-up. The next day, I read a recap of one of the Sunday games and discovered that a guy on my team had dropped a sure TD. I remember thinking, "I really wish I hadn't known that."

I do think that from a fantasy perspective, there's value to actually watching your players and seeing how they're used, as opposed to just relying on the box score. And yeah, it's fun to watch your guy break off a long TD. But if you're just tracking the game on your phone? No value whatsoever.

Haven't figured out yet what I'll do on Sundays, and how I'll manage it when I get "the itch". But I definitely will try to stick to the "When I'm with my kids, phone stays in my pocket" rule.

 

[Demian]

Things I try to do:

1. Never look at my opponent's lineup. What you don't know can't hurt you.
2. Only watch my NFL team or premier games
3. Make transactions and lineup changes once per week

 

[SameSongNDance]

We all get burnt out. But it's fun right now and it will be fun tomorrow. I just live in the moment. 

 

[Caesar]

The trick is to have so many teams that you have a share of every player on every team in every game so no matter what happens, it affects you positively and negatively. 

You can watch 13 hours of football with 100% mixed emotions. 

 

[rschroeder1]

Old man alert:  Red Zone has kind of ruined the watching football experience, in my opinion.  I'm totally done with Red Zone and back to watching the Bears (is this an improvement?!?) and letting fantasy happen along the side.  I feel like I've not actually watched football over the past few years as you lose so much context through Red Zone (though in fairness was avoiding the Bears' boring games).

Second old man alert:  if you feel burnt out watching football for 6 or 9 hours on Sundays, try the radio broadcasts.  Westwood One, ESPN and SportsRadio USA generally provide radio coverage of at least one game in all three time blocks on Sunday, with the Sunday night game certainly covered.  Radio is a great way to still be connected to what's going on but allows you to do something else - go for a walk, cook, clean, whatever.  In fairness, I'm a big radio guy for baseball so I like the medium itself, but I stopped watching both the noon and 3 p.m. games this past year and did one on the radio and really liked it.

Plus, the radio play-by-play broadcasters are generally way better than the broadcasters we have to deal with on TV, particularly the FOX crews.

 

[prgromek]

The NFL solved the problem for me by making the games unwatchable

 

[Deamon]

The trick is to have so many teams that you have a share of every player on every team in every game so no matter what happens, it affects you positively and negatively. 

You can watch 13 hours of football with 100% mixed emotions. 

100% this.  I used to have 6 leagues and it was too many and too frustrating trying to cheer for/against the same player.  So I upped it to 14 leagues and I find I can enjoy actual football again.

 

[zftcg]

Old man alert:  Red Zone has kind of ruined the watching football experience, in my opinion.  I'm totally done with Red Zone and back to watching the Bears (is this an improvement?!?) and letting fantasy happen along the side.  I feel like I've not actually watched football over the past few years as you lose so much context through Red Zone (though in fairness was avoiding the Bears' boring games).

I remember when RedZone first launched someone described it as the football equivalent of porn. No foreplay, no buildup, just straight to the action. And you know what they say about the impact of porn on Millennials' sex lives ...

 

[NYRAGE]

The only time I can sort of relate is when I have to do my waiver wire bids for multiple leagues. Pure hell. Otherwise, I love every minute of it. I know it's a distraction for about 5 months almost 24-7, but it's the greatest distraction. I live for it. I watch about 5 tvs and use 2-3 laptops. Every gf or even my ex-wife has just accepted that it's who I am and lets me watch every game in peace.

BTW, how old is "old man"? I'm 51. I've been doing FF for about 25 years. I've never felt burnt out unlike in fantasy baseball where I feel burnt out by mid-July even when I'm in first place.

 

[rschroeder1]

The only time I can sort of relate is when I have to do my waiver wire bids for multiple leagues. Pure hell. Otherwise, I love every minute of it. I know it's a distraction for about 5 months almost 24-7, but it's the greatest distraction. I live for it. I watch about 5 tvs and use 2-3 laptops. Every gf or even my ex-wife has just accepted that it's who I am and lets me watch every game in peace.

BTW, how old is "old man"? I'm 51. I've been doing FF for about 25 years. I've never felt burnt out unlike in fantasy baseball where I feel burnt out by mid-July even when I'm in first place.

I'm 33.  Lol.  I wouldn't say I'm burnt out by fantasy, I definitely look forward to it coming around every year, but I think the way I have been consuming football WITH fantasy has created some burn-out.  I'm seeking to reorganize that and have fantasy be something I follow along with on the side, as opposed to my primary viewing interest.

 

[bostonfred]

Don't stay up for sucky games.

Do chores on game days that are conducive to watching games like laundry. 

Watch red zone while I'm working out. It's easy to get on the treadmill on Thursdays sundays and mondays. And I can take the time to stretch.  

Listen to games on the radio. It's easy to drive longer distances when there's a game on.

Do watch the finale of your match up if it's close. That's the best part. 

Do watch your guys.  Don't watch theirs. It's stressful. I've lost games where his receiver needed 20 points and got it in the last two minutes. I think Hopkins did that to me last year.  It was horrible. But the first 58 minutes weren't that great either.  I was just watching hoping the ball didn't go to him.  Yuck. 

 

[zftcg]

Do watch your guys.  Don't watch theirs.

This is the best piece of advice I've gotten this thread (credit also to @Demian, who made the same suggestion upthread). The live projection Yahoo intro'd a few years ago is truly the devil's handiwork.

 

[LawFitz]

Don't stay up for sucky games.

Do chores on game days that are conducive to watching games like laundry. 

Watch red zone while I'm working out. It's easy to get on the treadmill on Thursdays sundays and mondays. And I can take the time to stretch.  

Listen to games on the radio. It's easy to drive longer distances when there's a game on.

Do watch the finale of your match up if it's close. That's the best part. 

Do watch your guys.  Don't watch theirs. It's stressful. I've lost games where his receiver needed 20 points and got it in the last two minutes. I think Hopkins did that to me last year.  It was horrible. But the first 58 minutes weren't that great either.  I was just watching hoping the ball didn't go to him.  Yuck. 

Great advice right here.

 

[DawnBTVS]

One thing I always try to do is to draft a guy on my favorite team whether it be a stud (ala Tom Brady last year) or somebody like WR Chris Hogan who's maybe further down on the depth chart.

You get the bonus of watching your favorite team anyway, along with a bit more of an invested rooting for them to play well & win the game while knowing you can kill 3 hours at least without checking how your FF team's doing.

 

[themitch]

Half the fun for me is the emotional rollercoaster of watching your score build up vs. theirs.  If I didn't do that, I doubt I'd enjoy fantasy football as much.  But I do ONLY watch the Eagles when they're on, so I have an actual team to root for.

 

[Nipsey]

You're not drinking enough during the games.

 

[msudaisy26]

I quit my job to prep for the upcoming season 

When did you quit?

 

[Snorkelson]

I pledge to be on my phone constantly and still somehow not check my starters for one league

To stay up watching the late games and fall asleep on the couch

To ignore all the information out there and go with my gut

To never bench a stud (just have to remind myself)

To remember not to get too crazy on FanDuel afternoon games when my early lineups are looking good at 1:30.

 

[Ilov80s]

When did you quit?

Ok I didn’t actually quit but I did the same thing I do every year, told them I’m not coming to work, I’m not answering any work emails or taking any work calls the month of August. 13 years straight now. I got to get ready for my draft! 

 

[msudaisy26]

I was joking. I knew you didn't quit. 

 

[Ilov80s]

I was joking. I knew you didn't quit. 

I know. They do shut down the whole operation though. I assume it is so we can all do draft prep. 

 

[TZMarkie]

You guys sound like a bunch of quitters.   

  Be fully devoted. Follow every league, curse and ##### every drop and fumble that hurts your team.

Its THAT time of year. Own the sickness.   I love it.   

 (In all seriousness, remember the reason we do as well as we do, is because we are devoted to this as much as we are)

 TZM

 

[Payne]

I like not knowing who I am going against. 

It's hard not to get emotionally involved. I realized it was just a game when it started ruining my Sundays and I found myself taking it out on my wife and kids.

It was either quit or realize there are much more important things in life. I see it now as a hobby. 

 

[JohnnyU]

I've been playing fantasy since 2004. In many ways, last year was a lot of fun. I won my long-time family league for the first time since our inaugural season, and I generally enjoyed watching games, managing my teams, etc.

On the other hand, by January I was really ready for the season to be over, and as a new season approaches I find myself pre-emptively exhausted at the thought of fantasy taking over my life for the next few months. The problem is that I find it hard to go halfway. Actually, there are two problems. One is the amount of time I spend during the week reading analysis, listening to fantasy/NFL podcasts, and yes, posting on this forum. The second is my behavior during the games: watching on Sundays, obsessively checking my phone if I'm not watching, and staying up late for the night games (I have a job that starts early in the morning).

I say all of this not to complain, but to make a public commitment that this year I will try to do better. I don't need to stay up late watching TNF solely to track my opponent's kicker. If I'm home on a Sunday afternoon and there's a game I want to watch, that's fine, but I will remind myself that it doesn't actually matter if I know how my team is doing in real-time (especially if I'm spending time with my kids). I'm cutting back on the number of podcasts I listen to and focusing on the ones I find most useful. I'll continue to post here, but I'll confine myself to work breaks and not waste a whole morning arguing which WR is the GOAT of all time 

If you're grappling with the same issues, feel free to make a similar pledge. And if you've done it successfully in the past, feel free to share tips that worked for you.

The stats aren’t going to change whether you track them or not.  I watch my team only on Sunday (assuming Sunday) and switch to the red zone channel during commercials.  After the afternoon game I’m done stat watching and watch TV with my wife or do something else.  You will be happier and your family will too.

 

[bostonfred]

I've got a friend who DVRs the Patriots game every Sunday. Then he goes out and does all the stuff with the kids. He's got 3 kids who all do different stuff so he and his wife are constantly driving them around.  None of the kids really like football and his wife is ambivalent. 

When he's done he goes home, puts the kids to bed, goes out to the garage and smokes a joint, comes back in and watches the pats game. Sometimes he'll have friends over. He fast forwards every commercial, finishes the game in half the time, maybe goes back to the garage, then watches highlights of the sunday night game if it's still on. 

He doesn't even look at the scores during the day because he pretty much always owns Brady and he doesn't want to spoil the pats game. So he just waits. He over drafts him every time because he wants to watch his favorite player on his favorite team rack up fantasy points in the only game he watches in its entirety. 

He doesn't stress out about the scores, and he doesn't know when he was leading all day and got screwed at the end by a kicker scoring 20.

Monday night he does the same thing but he only cares about fantasy if his game's still going. 

And then he reads up and watches the highlights and listens to everything all week- like the rest of us. 

I'm not sure that's my ideal but he loves it and maybe some of you guys would too.

 

[matuski]

I like not knowing who I am going against. 

It's hard not to get emotionally involved. I realized it was just a game when it started ruining my Sundays and I found myself taking it out on my wife and kids.

It was either quit or realize there are much more important things in life. I see it now as a hobby. 

Jesus.  Really?

Yea if this is ever anything more than fun, you are doing it wrong.

People in this thread describing fantasy football as "stressful", something they are "devoted" to, "exhausted"..... WTF?  Are you gambling money you don't have or something?  Sounds like a legit problem y'all should seek help for. 

 

[Payne]

Jesus.  Really?

Yea if this is ever anything more than fun, you are doing it wrong.

People in this thread describing fantasy football as "stressful", something they are "devoted" to, "exhausted"..... WTF?  Are you gambling money you don't have or something?  Sounds like a legit problem y'all should seek help for. 

No, not at all. It's not like I was beating my kids here. Just would be in a bad mood all day. Don't like to lose. 

Doubt I am the only one who has had that happen to them.

Now it's a fun hobby.  

 

[BoltBacker]

This was the big one for me.  Gave up watching scores in realtime years ago, makes for a much more enjoyable experience.  Just check the standings on Tuesday and see how you did.  Watch the NFL games you want to, when you want to, just because you want to, not because it has any impact on your weekly matchup.  As you noted, it doesn't actually make a difference if you're tracking results in realtime, it just adds stress with no benefit.  

I agree with this to a point. But I would say that during the Sunday and especially the Monday game if it's pretty boring and has no bearing on the NFL standings I will check the lineups of my most important leagues and it may give me incentive to actually watch the game live. 

 

[BoltBacker]

On the other hand, by January I was really ready for the season to be over, and as a new season approaches I find myself pre-emptively exhausted at the thought of fantasy taking over my life for the next few months. The problem is that I find it hard to go halfway. Actually, there are two problems. One is the amount of time I spend during the week reading analysis, listening to fantasy/NFL podcasts, and yes, posting on this forum. The second is my behavior during the games: watching on Sundays, obsessively checking my phone if I'm not watching, and staying up late for the night games (I have a job that starts early in the morning).

IMO there is a very easy answer here. Just join a draft-and-go format. When you are excited in the summer you can put all the time into drafting the league and you still have some skin in the game and certain players to root for during the season..... but it's all locked in so during the season all you can do is sit back and watch how the results play out. Some people love the constant "grind the waiver wire" and putting up with indignant trade partners during the season(along with all the league drama that follows) but best ball is just so simple and elegant by comparison. The amount of time you spend between actually watching football games(and worrying about the health of players) decreases to almost zero and you can actually enjoy the season, the holidays, etc.

The second part, your behavior while watching, doesn't sound all that bad to me but maybe just join a lower stakes league so the importance of your team winning isn't the driving force of watching and enjoying a football game? For me the hobby adds to my enjoyment of watching a football game so it's kind of hard to empathize. If there is a bad matchup in prime time I look forward to fantasy football lending a little interest to the game.