To begin, let me summarize my level of NFL enjoyment:

    I live in Atlanta, so I cheer for the home team. They are a horrible disappointment year after year. They have a meddlesome owner with too much money and time on his hands. They have a shifty, overblown quarterback who is facing felony charges. In short, they're the kind of team only a "homer" could love.

    I also have interest in certain other teams, particularly a Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis team, because of the talent exhibited by their superstar quarterback. And there are some teams that I enjoy watching just to see how they will avoid another failure (think N.Y. Giants or Dallas Cowboys).

    In short, I like to watch as many of the games as possible as long as it's not two really bad teams squaring off. Oh, and I also don't like the New England Patriots, in part, because everybody else does ....

    That being said, I do track some of the stand-out players who are part of teams I otherwise don't regularly follow. Why? Because at some point, I know that guy is going to play a team I care about, and I want to know what we're up against.  

    Notice how my thinking flows ... I like to see good teams (that aren't a bunch of hype) get out there and use their talents to put a "W" on the board. Who doesn't want to see the best athletes their sport has to offer functioning at their best?

    I  guess that up to this point, I haven't been able to really encapsulate my difficulty with "seeing the light" on fantasy football. I mean, I know there are millions of participants spending a ton of money and time on the process. But just what is it that has been my hang up with this deal?

    Imagine my surprise to find much of my feelings beautifully summarized in a N.Y. Times editorial from 2006 written by Nicholas Kulish. (To read it in full, head over to the Times site and search for the article's title: "Low Fidelity: The Collision of Loyalties in Real and Virtual Football." Consult the bugmenot site for a password.)

    This is the best part of Kulish's op-ed:

    "Hands stained Denver-Bronco orange by Buffalo chicken wings shoot into the air for a Carolina Panther touchdown one minute and for a Baltimore Raven safety the next. A howl of joy greets a meaningless yardage gain in the closing moments of a game, even though the team in question is three touchdowns behind. Loyalty is now shattered into tiny shards, splintered by fantasy football teams." 

    So in a nutshell, here is what's wrong (in my estimation) with becoming obsessed with fantasy football: you ruin the game for yourself and often for those around you.

    You are no longer a "real fan" loyal to your home team or that of another city. You have an unnatural obsession with players who would otherwise have no consequence for you or your team.

    At times, you will end up cheering as your favorite team is beaten or out performed by a club you really don't care about. You take too much pleasure in seeing guys on losing squads doing rather uneventful things in losing games.

    And when it comes time to discuss the results of yet another NFL Sunday, you only want to talk about how your fantasy team did. Everything for you is filtered through such a personalized tunnel vision that your greater sense of what's happening is lost.

    Yes, yes, yes .... I know. To each his own .... this is a free country .... you enjoy the game the way you want, and I'll enjoy it how I want. That's fine; that's fair.

    But you know what else is fair along those same lines? Keep it to yourself. Don't expect everyone around you to pat you on the back for knowing that Joe Nobody had four more yards than another Joe Nobody in a losing game in some other market.

       Fantasy footballers seem to have this zeal for evangelizing for their new-found favorite way to observe the NFL. All the while, I'm just seeing guys and gals who are one weekend in the sun a little healthier than the stereotypical geek in the parent's basement, fantasizing about World of Warcraft garbage.

    The NFL is just entertainment, after all. It's a fun way to spend some time .... but building a winning fantasy football team brings you no closer to actual accomplishment than sitting on your couch physically facilitated a winning play for your favorite NFL team. You're not better connected with the sport because of your online happenings.

    Keep after it, fantasy footballers, if you must. But please, leave the rest of us out of it .... we've got a game to watch.