Why Fantasy Football Matters: (And Our Lives Do Not)

Shhhhh, don't tell your wife that!

You would think a book based off of a fantasy football league, which is also an attempt to educate people on what 27 million fanatics obsess over on a yearly basis, would be right up my alley. As I obsess over sports almost as much as I do stories. Yet this book did not really interest me in the least little bit. Why would I want to read a book based on a fictional league trying to teach the game I have been playing for years?

I can tell you that was 4 years ago. How things have changed. The pages are stained, the cover is bent and contorting away from the pages, the binding is slowly unravelling. This has become my bible, at least in a football sense. Reading Why Fantasy Football Matters: (And Our Lives Do Not) before each season helps me prepare, get in that mental mindset, for the long gruelling haul of arthritic fingers (and strained bloodshot eyes) required for scouting my next championship team (at least I’m hoping it is).

Written by Max Handelman and Erik Barmack, who run the weblog Beyond Bowie about the Portland Trailblazers, Why Fantasy Football Matters is loosely based off their own experience playing in a fantasy football league. They break down a single season of the “Bush League” from beginning to end. We follow a few of the team’s owners as they start their yearly rituals.

This book is not just for fantasy football fanatics. If you ever wanted to understand why so many people have this obsession to crunch statistics they can not control, this book explains that. Through a comedic year, from draft to championship, the writers also introduce many habits and aspects of fantasy football that make it so much fun.

Not styled like a typical novel, Handelman and Barmack help us look through the narrator’s eyes as if he is one of the unnamed owners of the Bush League. We are privy to read the email chains created from smack talk, the banter of two owners attempting a trade and the camaraderie of the Sunday (and sometimes Monday) night get together, to watch one team dominate the another.

Creating (or maybe modeling) the characters after the many different personalities you encounter in fantasy football leagues really separate the viewpoints of each character. Intriguing as they may be, each character seemingly reminds you of certain owners that could be in your own fantasy football league. If you have never been in a fantasy football league then this gives you a distinct perspective of what to expect when joining your first league.

Handelman and Barmack write this book with the love for the sport and display their own experiences with great knowledge of football. The history aspect of the sport of football (and a few other sports as well) add another element to the book that is already loaded to the brim with information.

A well crafted story based around a single season creates a comedic tale that informs the reader (be it a fantasy football player or not), not only about the obsession but why it has become such an obsession. If you are part of the many fantasy football alumni, then you may regale in past glories as this book, at times, feels like it is reminiscing about your past. I warn all the fantasy football fanatics, if you pick this book up, expect to have a new “bible”, to read before each upcoming season.

5 out of 5