That collective groan you heard in the middle of Week 1 during the last NFL season occurred the moment New England's Tom Brady took a hit to his knee.
All across the country, fantasy football players, who had expended a high draft choice for one of the games top players immediately started planning Sunday outings to cider mills and apple picking. Their season was over.
Now I know that many of you don't get the whole Fantasy Football thingie. Yeah, well I don't get hot yogaeither. I know people like it. I know people enjoy it and I leave them to their stinkiness. People got the things they love to do and there are maniacal FF players.
Witness the 400 players who have taken out insurance policies on NFL players. A Long Island insurance company is giving FF players a chance to recoup their spends should a player go down and take their prospects of winning with his separated shoulder or worse.
Now not all leagues are "pay to play." Many are free. Betting remains illegal in the U.S. except in seedy places. (Wink. WInk.)
Fantasy Football Insurance Inc. estimates that Mr. Bundchen's injury last year would have shifted $150,000,000 if those players had policies with the Patriots star's name on them. That's some serious coin.
And it might explain the crazed shouting coming from the next room on a given Sunday where the big football fan in your life is screaming almost simultaneously for a player on his favorite team and for a player on an opposing team to both do well. He's playing fantasy football.
"Go Steelers defense... Come on Flacco hit Mason, he's open!" It's a contrast in logic. A madness that only a sports crazed mind can comprehend. And now insuring players adds to the lunacy.
I can't wait for this season's opening kickoff.
