Football.... on CRACK!

Football is back in full swing - my favorite time of year! The excitement for Week One is unmatched, even with the Yankees in hot pursuit of first place and locked in a grudge match with the Rays, NOTHING can take away from the buzz of another NFL season starting anew.

Everyone has their fantasy teams locked and loaded for a run at the title and the money (not to mention the priceless bragging rights that come along with humiliating your friends and co-workers). And how better monitor your progress than with the greatest thing since live auction drafts - the football-on-crack NFL RedZone channel? But what about the good old football fans? What may be a fantasy lover's wet dream comes with enough back and forth to make one's other head explode.

Listen, I'm as much of a fantasy nut as the next guy, and yes, touchdowns are exciting. And yes, most of the people who care to read my drivel are likely to have 10 (ok, well maybe not 10...) live scoring windows open on their laptops at any given moment. But whatever happened to enjoying a football game from beginning to end? Have we lost appreciation for a showdown between hard-hitting defenses that stonwall their opposition for 58 minutes, only to see a 9-3 field goal fest won 10-9 by a scintillating two-minute drill? Or a 35-32 shootout which goes into OT with a buzzer beater 60 yard FG?

I'll say it: These games are not nearly as exciting when you've been watching nothing but TD's all day, and just happen to tune in because it's the last game left on TV. It may make your fantasy game more exciting, but who wants to live in fantasy land when there is real football to be seen?

This channel, while good in small doses, and only at certain opportune times, I fear will ultimately turn much of the younger, fantasy centric society, into something it shouldn't be. A football fan, simply because of fantasy football. Be a football fan for the glory of the best game on earth, and a fantasy fan second, because yes, fantasy can be extraordinarily fun. Go out and get Sunday Ticket if you want to watch a few different games than are regularly televised on your local channels.

Anyway you slice it, and regardless of who is to blame, the RedZone channel is evil and, in my humble opinion, may risk ruining our appreciation of the greatest game in the world.