Carolina Clash
John Moore is one smart dude. I’m an avid reader of his blog, Brand Autopsy, but he hit my button with an article he wrote for MarketingProfs.com. I’m an avid Fantasy Football player. And I have as many as 10 teams during the NFL season. For those that don’t know a thing about fantasy football I’ll be brief (If you want more info please read John’s excellent article): To play fantasy football, you draft real NFL players to your team, which competes in a league against other team owners. How your players perform in real NFL games effects how they perform for your team. Got it?

I always saw ads in the back of sports publications about fantasy leagues pre-internet, but they seemed like a hassle. Then ESPN started fantasy leagues over the internet. I got in the game in early 1996 and I got lucky. I bought a team for about $30 and searched for a league to play in and finally found one named the Carolina League. The next day I received an email from a guy named Dave. He started the league but he didn’t like the draft date so he asked if I would like to join his new league, a private league for owners in the Carolina’s.

The first year was a test in patience: we drafted players in a chat room for about four hours. We picked on each other, joked, laughed and in the end, we bonded. Now, nine years later, we are still together. We’�ve had owners go through hurricanes, loved one’s deaths, babies and even some heated disagreements. The friendships in the Carolina Clash community make fantasy football special for me. I love the competition. But what I look forward to are the inside jokes, the stories and the history we all share.

John referenced two important things about Fantasy Football.

Number one: football doesn’t belong to the NFL - it belongs to its fans. The NFL facilitated the creation of Fantasy Football by providing a free and open platform of statistics and allowing consumers to create something from nothing.

Number two: an Indiana University study that cited the major reason that people participate in Fantasy Football is not the prizes. They seek the reward of strengthening friendships. Every Fantasy Football league is a community where players strengthen camaraderie through the enjoyment of shared experiences and through sociable competition for bragging rights.

We draft this season on September 7th, so wish me luck because these guys are ruthless!

The UFFP
It’s where you can catch me on the net every night from 10pm until midnight posting and reading on the UFFP. What is the UFFP? It’s the Unofficial Furman Football Page. A community of information and forums devoted to Furman University - a small, private university in Greenville, SC. The UFFP is maintained by a guy nicknamed Stumpy (we all go by nicknames on the UFFP). Stumpy, Headman, BenWah, Bootie, Hawg and of course myself, Astropup.

The UFFP is a true community, we talk sports, we tell jokes, we talk about a great movie or book. We also have traditions. At every football game - home or away - we gather to tailgate. Some even meet the night before at the Roundtable for a couple of cold ones. Furman University has no ties to the UFFP, and they have never tried to silence the site during times of criticism. Which has let the UFFP to become a true open forum. The players can’t post until they graduate, but it doesn’t stop parents or even their high school coaches from stopping in to check on their favorite Paladin. Our bitter rival, Georgia Southern, also has message board. And our smack talking has made it into some national stories - but we respect each other. Whether the game is in Greenville or Statesboro we invite each other to the hosting tailgate party. The UFFP and the Carolina Clash have a lot in common. They are two big reasons I love September.

So if you’re bored the first week of November, check out the UFFP. It will be rocking with smack being thrown by Paladin and Eagle fans. Go Dins.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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