Daily Fantasy, Daily Life: Volume XXVI - I Rarely Watch Sports
I rarely watch sports.
As in, I rarely watch sports.
I want to be as clear as possible about this: I rarely watch sports.
I don’t want to say I “never” watch sports, because that would be a lie. I’ll watch as much NFL as I can, but that usually means the prime time games for a quarter or so before I doze off.
To give you an example of the extreme nature of my not-sports-watching habits, consider this: I played every single regular season NBA DFS slate this year, and most of the playoffs. I did not witness one dribble.
Even more nuts, somehow: I’ve played every single USFL slate this year and didn’t watch one snap.
Baseball? Please. Who has the time.
I realize I’m probably an outlier here, but the reason I don’t watch sports are twofold: One, because of my life in general, and two, because I choose not to sweat.
Let’s tackle – how punny! – the latter first.
Here’s the thing: From age 7 to 15, all I did was watch sports, play sports, read about sports, listen to sports, play sports games, memorize sports facts. I was “that” kid.
Then around junior year of high school, I discovered booze, weed, and women, and I dedicated the rest of my teenage years and twenties to the pursuit of all three (I was wildly successful in two of those endeavors).
Basically, I lost interest in sports, outside of the NFL, and the only reason for that was because of my home fantasy football league.
Things changed in 2014 when I first heard about – and immediately scoffed at – DFS. But a few NFL slates later, my tune changed. Then, the NFL season ended and I wanted more DFS, so I decided to give the NBA a whirl. At this time – and this is not hyperbole – I couldn’t have named 10 NBA players.
One RotoGrinders subscription, and a few weeks later, I could tell you who the 11th man on the Utah Jazz was (today, I can do the same with baseball, the USFL, the CFL, the WNBA … and so on).
But since I wasn’t a sports “fan” at the time of becoming a DFS player … well, I wasn’t watching the games before, and I saw no reason to watch them after.
Of course, as any and every night wears on, I check in on my teams, see how things are progressing, and on those rare occasions where I actually have a real sweat, I’ll tune in and see what’s what.
But sweating every slate, sitting on the edge of my couch? Not interested. Not for me.
Besides … there’s the other reason I don’t watch sports today, which is also going to be the title of my autobiography: Four Jobs, Three Kids, Two Dogs, One Wife.
In short: I have zero time to actually watch sports. I mean, it’s not like 7 p.m. rolls around and I can go into my man cave (a man cave, it should be mentioned, that I don’t have) and sit there for the next six hours. I mean, I could get divorced and sweat the games and have a whole man apartment, but that feels like one of those baby/bathwater situations.
In the end, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not watching. DFS is a mental puzzle for me, and while kicking back with a beer and watching a ballgame sounds fun enough, there are probably a hundred other things I’d rather do with my time than passively watch grown men in costumes throw a ball around.
And at the top of that list is “thinking about which ball-throwing costumed grown men are going to score the most fantasy points tomorrow.”