The Super Bowl on Sunday officially marked the end of the 2023-2024 NFL season. All eyes were on the event in one way or another — watching the classic commercials, betting on what color gatorade fills the large orange tanks or waiting for Taylor Swift to take over the halftime show from Usher.
These past two years, I have been invested in all those facets of the big game. However, due to the simple decision to play in a fantasy football league with my closest friends, I have been more invested this year than ever.
Now, I want to share why I think every woman should similarly consider taking the leap to play fantasy football alongside the other estimated 40 million participants that already exist.Â
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- SocializationÂ
Naturally, women love to socialize, and this activity is no different. Fantasy football allows you to keep in touch with friends who are near, providing an opportunity to get together on a Sunday to eat snacks and drink soda. It is a great excuse to dress cute and treat yourself for the night.
Yet, it also allows you to stay in contact with those who are farther away, which I have experienced this year with my high school friends. Even though we are all in different areas and time zones, we share the same habit of checking the app on Sundays. Additionally, this provides an easy conversation topic when FaceTiming as it can sometimes be hard to know where to start with a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile.
Furthermore, you can be in multiple different leagues at the same time. This is for those who might struggle with having multiple different friend groups; you won’t have to pick between them. And if you participate in more than one league, you can socialize even more!Â
- Flexible Commitment
There is no “I can’t play because I’m a girl, and I don’t get how football works” excuse.Â
I disagree with the notion us women impose upon ourselves that we need to understand everything about a topic in order to briefly participate in. Just think about how often men confidently participate in conversation about a topic they know virtually nothing about. You do not need to be extremely educated on real football to have a little fun in fantasy football.Â
This rings especially true since the app for fantasy football tracks all the points for your team; you are not actually calculating anything.Â
The app breaks down what players might be questionable for the upcoming week based on an injury report from practice, who a team is playing (a team with the best defense, so their offense might take a hit), etc.
So if you are worried that you need to completely understand football to play or maybe think managing a team and watching all the games sounds stressful… know that you don’t have to participate fully. Honestly, it is fairly easy to sit back and do absolutely nothing for your fantasy football league.
But you can still put in a lot of effort if you want. It would require social media stalking, checking instagram and twitter posts, scanning news outlets, etc. to see who is in/out for the week, which is not even a hard task for most women.
- It’s Genuinely, Scientifically Entertaining
Drafting your own team of players creates an unparalleled connection linked to a release of dopamine. Humans feel a real connection to these players, and when this combines with the excitement around their future unknown performance, the release is triggered. Scientists say this dopamine amount is not even about winning or losing but the unknown possibilities and potential of your players.
Finally, you will most likely not draft the same players to each team if you are a part of multiple leagues. This means endless possibilities: you may be dominating in one league, slowly climbing the ranks in another and plummeting to the bottom in the last.
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When the next football season rolls around, consider my three reasons why every woman should play fantasy football.