FANTASYFOOTBALL: THE PHENOMENON

Fantasy foootball is sweeping the nation by storm, one computer at a time

SARAH TALALAY (KRT)

Nick Saban is working hard to get the Miami Dolphins back into contention this season.

But that’s nothing compared tothe time and intense preparation the owners/general managers of teams such as the Damsel Fish, Sweathogs and Legion of Doom are putting in.

Football fans may love their NFLteams on Sundays, but they obsess about their fantasy teams every day of the week.

They create depth charts. They study fantasy guides, whose numbers multiply annually.And this year for the first time, they watched as many as four network television fantasy specials.

``One thing I’ve learned about the football fan, he has an insatiable and never fulfilled appetite for football,’’said Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports, which recently aired a fantasy special and whose affiliated Fort Lauderdale-based CBS SportsLine.com is among the oldest and most popular fantasy game sites.

According to the NFL, even greater than a football fan’s appetite is that of a fantasy football fan, making him highly sought-after by the league, TV networks, sports Internet sites and advertisers. Fantasy football is big business, some estimates placing it at $1 billion or more a year.

The industry has been driven in part by the participation of the NFL, which arrived late in the game, unsure at first whether to participate. CBS SportsLine.com and ESPN.com had been offering games for a few years when the league surveyed 1,400 fans in 1999 and discovered that fantasy led to a more avid football fan who watched two to three more hours of football than the non-fantasy player, said Chris Russo, the league’s outgoing senior vice president of new media.

In 2000, the league launched its first fantasy game. By 2001, tickers with fantasy stats began appearing on game broadcasts, and in 2003 the league advertised its fantasy games on television. This year, NFL.com is offering free games. The league published its own fantasy guide and the NFLNetwork aired a fantasy special.

Fantasy football players draft real-life athletes onto fictional teams _ typically with clever or silly names _ and then use the players’ on-field statistics to generate points for touchdowns, rushing yards and other categories. Players gather at bars or in living rooms to hold their drafts, many in the two weeks leading up to the season, which this year kicks offThursday.

``It’sthe old armchair quarterback theory,that a fan can be abetter coach, better owner than the guy in the owner’sbox,’’ said Greg Ambrosius, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. ``This gives you an opportunity to prove you know football better than the pros.’’

According to the FSTA, 15.2 million Americans play fantasy sports including football, baseball, basketball, auto racing and golf. Of those, 93 percent play fantasy football, averaging participation in 2.5 leagues each.

They spend an average of $154 on the games, with about $100 of that going to game subscription fees and into a pot for prize money, Ambrosius said. NFL.com, ESPN.com, FoxSports.com and AOLare all offering free games this year, but subscription fees for games on sites including CBS SportsLine.com and SportingNews.com can range from $9.95 a team to $149.95 for a whole league or more depending on the type of game.

Last year, all of SportsLine’s fantasy games generated $18.7 million, up from $11.9 million in 2002. Last year, 100,000 people registered as commissioners of SportsLine football leagues, overseeing 1 million teams.

While they can win hundreds to thousands of dollars, many insist they play for the camaraderie, not the cash.

`It’s a friendly competition,’’ said Noelle Frederickson, who last year joined her husband’s 10-team Walkers Cay League, named for the island in the Bahamas (team names must reflect marine life). As the only woman in the league, Frederickson took her assignment seriously, boning up on statistics (the Fredericksons have NFLSunday Ticket and TIVO so they never miss a game), and choosing the most feminine sounding fish name she could find: Damsel Fish.

ToFrederickson, 33, of Delray Beach, Fla., the inducement is feeling a sense of ownership of games, even when they don’t involve her favorite teams.

``We’re huge Dolphins fans and we’re originally from Michigan and we’re Lions fans as well. They don’t always win, but when you play fantasy football, you’re able to follow every game,’’Frederickson said. ``It makes it more interesting.’’

The Internet transformed the industry, making it more accessible to traditional fans. Until the mid-1990s, fantasy players had to track statistics by hand. With the Internet, stats could be crunched and drafts held online. Now players can access realtime scoring, video highlights and fantasy-specific content.

Asaresult, fantasy players now come from all walks of life, from executives to teachers to Major League Baseball players.

``It’ssomething to give us a reason on Sunday to watch two bad teams play,’’said Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell, who is in a league with catcher Paul Lo Duca and pitcher A.J. Burnett.

Lo Duca said it also keeps teammates in touch during the offseason. ``We’re on the computer e-mailing each other about trades and stuff,’’he said. ``There’salot of trash talking.’’

Trash talking is part of what has the Pack O’Idiots League embarking on its 11th season.

``In addition to the fact that we’re really big football fans . . . it’s one of the things that keeps us in touch all year long,’’said Todd Lott, 36, who manages the Sweathogs in the Idiots league, known as P.O’.I. for short. Lott, who moved from South Florida to Cincinnati in 1997 a year after joining the league, flies to Fort Lauderdale every September for ajam-packed weekend of activities surrounding the draft held at aFort Lauderdale restaurant.

Lott, a graphic designer, designs an elaborate draft board on which picks are recorded and later transferred to SportsLine’s online game.

P.O’.I. has traditions: owners are required to wear Hawaiian shirts to the draft, and they hire a woman who does something of a Vanna White impression, recording draft picks on Lott’s board. Lott writes regular e-mail newsletters to members representing Legion of Doom, Flounders, Big Poppas and the rest of the gang. One member chooses his team name from the restaurant’slist of specials: he was ``Pineapple Upside Down Cake’’one year; ``Half Pound Snow Crab Legs $12.95’’another.

With such attention to detail, it’s no wonder fantasy has become such a big business.

SteveSnyder , SportsLine.com’s senior vice president and general manager, said the company,which hosts NFL.com’s games, debated offering games for free as it had onand off between 1996 and 2002, but was comfortable that its stable of committed fans would continue paying for SportsLine’s continually enhanced features, including draft analyzers and record-keeping.

The potential for the industry has grown so much, however, that several sites have launched free games _ relying on advertising revenue _ as a way to grow the audience.

Unlike AOL and FoxSports.com, which are offering all their games for free, ESPN.com is offering some for free for the first time in 11 seasons but is still charging for premium games.``What we’ve realized is there are various types of fantasy fans out there. We wanted to have a game that matched each,’’ said Chris Nicholas, ESPN senior director of fantasy sports and insider.``If you’re a new player in fantasy,if you have less time to manage your teams, maybe the free option is more what you need.’’

As those new fantasy players sign on, game hosts hope they’ll someday take advantage of the extras. And they think there will be plenty to attract the techsavvy younger generation with the ability to access games and customized team highlights on their wireless phones.

After all, players are already watching games on television and real time scoring on the Internet, all while they call their league-mates on their cell phones to brag about their teams’ successes.