Fantasy football has become very popular in recent years and it seems that sometimes people that play care more about their fantasy team more than their own NFL team. I feel that Fantasy football has had a large impact on viewership for NFL games because instead of just focusing on your own team, you can also root for the player on your fantasy team. You draft your fantasy team before the season starts and usually has variety of players from many different teams. I know that personally I focus on games much more when I have a player in the game.
People much of time are more invested in the players they picked at the beginning of the season than their favorite team. This may create fans that don’t follow a team as heavily as they would in the past. On the plus side of this I’m the NFL is getting more people to watch a larger variety games. For instance there was a game a couple weeks ago that had two of the worst teams in the league, but I have fantasy player playing so I watched some of the game. Now games that wouldn’t be as important or don’t have as many viewers gain more importance in the eye of a fantasy football player.
The more I have followed fantasy football the more I have come to appreciate individual players as well. Now a player doesn’t have to be on my favorite team to be one of my favorite players. This can result in better sales in merchandise as well.