First, let me describe fantasy football to all of you that are missing out by not playing. Fantasy Football is a game that was invented in the 1960s but did not become popular until the past few years. It is a game that is now managed online and allows people to draft a team of real NFL players. This person has a team of NFL players and is in an online league with around 8-16 other people with their teams made up of different NFL players. Just like in the real NFL, teams play each other every week. However, the way that teams score are by using the statistics of the real life NFL players. It has become my obsession over the past few years and I have never enjoyed watching football more.
Now you may be wondering how there is any possible way that I can string together any connection to political theory. But just wait for me to reveal another aspect of fantasy football.
The most important part of fantasy football that has launched its popularity is the rise of analysts. Unless you have large amounts of free time and no life, there is no possible way that you can watch and analyze every single team and player in the NFL every week. There is not enough hours in the day. So, if you are like me , you let analysts do the work for you and then report their findings. They act as your own private scouts, finding rising stars, new strategies and other helpful hints. You can find them everywhere on the internet (ESPN, NFL, Yahoo) and everyone has to find there favorite analyst that they trust to help them win their fantasy leagues. My favorite is Matthew Berry.
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| Matthew Berry, ESPN Fantasy Football Analyst |
While you might be thinking that there is no way that these philosophers can be connected to a sport in the 21st century, Berry's article creates an interesting point. In this article, he expresses how every single analyst uses facts to change the opinion of a player that they want to show favorably For instance, Berry shows statistics of two different players and one seems more impressive. However, the better seeming player was a very bad player in actuality Berry simply makes the point that every analyst bends the facts to show their own point. They are not 100% certain, but they highlight what they think is important to try and help players. He also says how at the end of the day, we, the players must make the decisions and not be a slave to the rankings.
Berry's article shares many similarities with Kant's views on the enlightenment. Berry's job is to inform people of certain facts in the NFL. Within the bounds of fantasy football, Berry is creating a more educated group of fantasy football managers. If more people are enlightened with more facts, they are able to make decisions by themselves.
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| Don't be a slave to the rankings! |
Some people might say that Matthew Berry's post is more comparable to Plato's cave. Because Berry's articles are most peoples' only way to see the real NFL, it could be seen as keeping people from the real truth. However, I tend to believe that Berry and other analysts' strategies are to enlighten us players and give us the tools to succeed.
In the end, it is us, the managers who choose what facts we want to believe. The more enlightened ones among us know enough to use the analysts as a guide, and to make the ultimate decision with a mix of professional opinion and our own judgement. Only the immature among as are dumb enough to believe that 100% of what analysts say will be true.
Whether you agree with me or not, or you just think I rambled on about a pointless game, you have to admit that analysts are a way to achieve enlightenment, at least from a fantasy football perspective. Whether it is actually enlightenment or not is still to be seen.
Jake, I found your post very interesting to read. I absolutely love the sport of football, but have never completely understood fantasy football, and thus never understood people's obsessions with it. However, as a lover of statistics, and the interpretation of them, I could see myself becoming a huge fan of this fantasy football. What you said about how it is up to us as how we analyze the statistics was a clever connection to Kant and his views on Enlightenment. As with any statistics presented, we must not accept them as complete truth, but rather use them for our further interpretation and observation. With the statistics, it is important to interpret them so that we may be more enlightened, and thus maybe choose players that would be more beneficial to us. I do believe that analysts are a pathway to enlightenment, because they invite the individual to think more in detail.
ReplyDeleteI think that your point about people just not having the time to gather their own facts is an important way of comparing Kant's views with fantasy football analysis. Just like how Kant mentions how most of us have to rely on people who are experts in order to understand the vast variety of subjects we come in contact with on a daily basis. Although all these analysis have the same job description as professionals, they also seem to blend the line that Kant puts in place of personal beliefs and the facts that are apart of every analysis interpretation. You could also involve kanas idea of a self-imposed immaturity by using it to describe people who have access to the information of the analysis be who are too lazy to do some research or someone who is too afraid to take the chances that the analysis recommend.
ReplyDeleteThis article was both interesting and humorous. I've always heard of fantasy football, but I never would have realized just how involved it was before reading this. The connection you made between Kant and his views on Enlightenment and fantasy football analysts was unexpected, but strong. For those who agree with Kant's views and wish to better themselves, it seems like Berry is an excellent analyst; however, being that fantasy football has gone digital, I'm sure there is an infinite amount of resources and other amateur analysts who are more than happy to feed the player's statistics and advice on who to pick. What I'm trying to get at is that it's not up to the analyst to have a Kant-style philosophy, but more so up to the individual to take their advice and statistics to make decisions on their own. I'm sure it's easier to believe whatever ESPN tells us to do, so it's up to us to use that advice and interpret it accordingly.
ReplyDeleteJake, as a very big fan of fantasy football, I can see your connection to Kant's view of enlightenment very clearly. I especially liked when you discussed the idea of immaturity and the inability of one to think for one self when discussing how to choose specific players for the week. Additionally, what I noticed through my experience through fantasy football is the players who do this are usually not the ones who are avid watchers of the NFL. In that way, they do not have the experience or knowledge of enough players in the league to make some of the more risky and possibly more rewarding decisions that come with watching all the games and knowing all of the players. In that way, these analysts can be seen as enlightening these less educated players who are unable to make these decisions for themselves. I also notice this phenomenon every year in March during the March Madness tournament when some of the more educated players of NCAA basketball have the more creative and unique brackets, while those who do not avidly watch the NCAA usually pick the teams that are ranked the lowest because they do not have the intuition to make the more risky decisions.
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