According to ESPN, roughly 40 million Americans play fantasy football, approximately eight percent of the United States population.
Here is the premise behind fantasy football: each fantasy football owner acts as a general manager who drafts real NFL players to create their own “fantasy team.” In other words, each person tries to create the ultimate football team that can compete against every other person’s team in their fantasy league.
Fantasy football has drawn millions of people into becoming fans of football. A few other benefits of fantasy football are that it helps connect people, friends share in a common joy, and people enter the game with greater interest.
There is one potential weakness in fantasy football: a greater focus on players than teams.
In other words, fantasy football elevates the success of individual players and barely recognizes team play. The way most fantasy leagues work is that quarterbacks are the most valuable players, with running backs and wide receivers following behind in total points earned. The only quasi-team statistic found in most leagues is the position of defense, where a fantasy owner drafts the Steelers’s defense or the Bills ’s defense. Even this statistic only acknowledges part of a team (a football team has an offense, too). Besides the defense, every fantasy football league statistic values individual players over the team.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest from the 20th century, discussed a difference in the choices that fantasy football fans and Christians always have in front of them.
Balthasar said there are two dramas by which we can choose to live: the ego-drama or the theo-drama.
The ego-drama is a story in which we are the center of attention in our lives. In other words, individuality matters most. The ego-drama uses the “me, me, me” language that is always focused on the self.
The theo-drama is more encompassing and looks at the team.
The theo-drama is the story of a person’s role within the larger drama in which God is the director, author, and conductor. The theo-drama demands that a person find his or her role in relation to God.
The weakness of fantasy football is that it emphasizes the ego-drama or the elevation of the football player above the team. Take a look at any NFL player: Their jersey has the team name or logo on the front and the last name on the back. The message is clear: the ego-drama must be left behind, and the team must be placed at the forefront.
In other words, the theo-drama is to be on the front of the spiritual jersey for the Christian.
Fr. Luke Daghir