Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - How many fantasy football teams are you juggling?
It might be hard to beat one fanatic.
Mike Schopp, co-host of "Schopp and the Bulldog" on WGR Sports Radio 550, joined WBEN on Friday morning from Las Vegas, where he goes every year for the NFL's opening weekend with a room full of, what he calls, "fantasy football sickos."
"Mike, How many fantasy teams do you have?"
Answer: "Between 200 and 250."
"What?"
Schopp says he participates in a format called "Best Ball" where you draft a team and the lineups are constructed and calculated automatically. Team owners don't have to manage their weekly lineups.
Fantasy football has become an increasingly popular pastime for millions of sports fans across the country. It allow fans, casual or serious, to be in charge. When you draft players, you get to build your team your way.
Between fantasy sports and the proliferation of online gaming, has it changed the way that fans are taking in games?
"Probably," admits Schopp. He said it has a lot to do with the NFL's popularity in particular. "In football, it's play to play. Point spreads are easy to understand and it's so easy for almost anyone to tap into it. It's scary," he admitted, "on how easy it is to find access to all of that action."
The sports talk host says he has always been a sports fan and has rooted for the Bills and Sabres his whole life. "What fantasy does, is change the calculus when it comes to your rooting interest. But it doesn't have to."
He said he has many friends that are the same Bills fans that they've always been, yet they play fantasy and gamble on sports. "There are lots of people who wouldn't bet against the Bills. But there are 31 other teams, or 15 other games each week."
Still, juggling more than 200 teams has to be somewhat time consuming?
"There's no doubt about that," said Schopp."You really have to be willing to put in the time and effort to be good at it and succeed at it."
