Fantasy motivating defensive crackdown?

[TDs3nOut]

Here is a piece that attributes the current crackdown on defenders for holding and PI to the increasing popularity of fantasy football: Fantasy football fueling NFL?s penalty emphasis - Sports - The Boston Globe

The league has obviously been tilting the rules to favor offense over defense for longer than fantasy football has been around. The conventionally accepted rationale for that seems to have been that higher scoring games make the league more popular among fans. To the extent that fantasy football motivates this latest crackdown on defenders, I guess that is just more of evidence of the league's belief that more scoring makes the league more popular.

 

[Uhsplit]

Yes, I posted my observation of that yesterday.

 

[cdumler7]

The league did not become a multi-billion dollar company by being idiots. They know what makes money and right now Fantasy Football is huge. Obviously Fantasy Football isn't all that fun when your quarterback is only throwing 1 touchdown a game and maybe 200 yards. So increasing the rules to help add to what has helped make the league so popular is just smart on the NFL's side of things.

 

[TDs3nOut]

The league did not become a multi-billion dollar company by being idiots. They know what makes money and right now Fantasy Football is huge. Obviously Fantasy Football isn't all that fun when your quarterback is only throwing 1 touchdown a game and maybe 200 yards. So increasing the rules to help add to what has helped make the league so popular is just smart on the NFL's side of things.

Perhaps you are right, but I also think that there is something kind of artificial in thinking that "more points equal greater entertainment", either in real football or fantasy football. I mean, if teams are scoring fewer points, doesn't that just make the points that are scored more valuable?

 

[Clayton]

Fantasy Football is popular because scoring is popular. Offense will always be more popular than defense

 

[cdumler7]

Perhaps you are right, but I also think that there is something kind of artificial in thinking that "more points equal greater entertainment", either in real football or fantasy football. I mean, if teams are scoring fewer points, doesn't that just make the points that are scored more valuable?

You have to view this from the casual fans point of view. Now for some of us who have loved football for years those knock down drag out fight for every yard type games are fun to watch. For the casual fan that is about as boring as it gets to watch two teams keep punting back and forth to one another. Now you mix in some big plays for the offense then all of a sudden the casual fan cares. Throw in Fantasy Football then can cause the casual fan to want to watch more than just one team play on Sunday. All of a sudden they care about the Jaguars and what Toby Gerhart is doing in a game otherwise they could care less about.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Fantasy Football is popular because scoring is popular. Offense will always be more popular than defense

I think there is a current trend in fantasy of moving away from selecting a particular teams' defense for one's fantasy team and instead selecting individual defensive players. Perhaps if that trend gains traction the league will decide it's best to implement rule changes that favor defenders. Then again, perhaps not.

 

[Xponentialchaos]

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Fantasy football is popular because football is popular. Not the other way around. The fact that I love fantasy football DOES NOT mean that I want to see more scoring.

In my opinion, the primary reason for the recent rule change was the lack of consistency we saw last year with the officiating. Simplify the rule, call everything, and let the teams adapt to the rule. And throw in some more scoring too as the NFL has historically done.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Fantasy football is popular because football is popular. Not the other way around. The fact that I love fantasy football DOES NOT mean that I want to see more scoring.

In my opinion, the primary reason for the recent rule change was the lack of consistency we saw last year with the officiating. Simplify the rule, call everything, and let the teams adapt to the rule. And throw in some more scoring too as the NFL has historically done.

That's an interesting thought. If it were to work out that way, then I think it might even be desirable to live with more scoring in exchange for greater consistency in the way that plays are officiated. Not too optimistic that it'd work, though.