A Sport Fan's Dream

Fantasy Sports are becoming more and more popular with sports fans. In any type of sport, people want to make money off of it. Fantasy sports are just one of the many examples of commodification. Fantasy sports now are more focused on accumulating money (spending over $1.5 billion annually) and finding new ways to get people to participate in the fantasy draft so they become more popular.

You may have heard about cases where players are suing the fantasy league for using their image or style. This is a common occurrence because a lot of the college players are good but they are not able to be used in games without being paid for their image or name. The fantasy corporations try to find ways around this by using different names and only using a resemblance to the player and their playing style. Synergy is used when the athletes are used in the games in order to get more people to buy and/or play the games so the companies can get more money.

In fantasy sports money is the one of the main goals. A lot of people gamble on their fantasy sports teams so it has moved to being mostly about accumulation. No one really cares about the sport much anymore. They mostly care about winning the money. Atlantic City has even added fantasy sports to its gambling options. It’s becoming more and more popular that it’s almost becoming a spectacle. They need to make it more interesting it get a larger audience to gain more money. Some people are even starting to have an addiction to gambling on fantasy sports.

Overall, fantasy sports are focusing more so on the money and fan base then they are on the actual game. The way our economy is going this could be an easy way to make some money that people desperately need.  The fantasy sports game started out with just statistical enthusiasts and it has since evolved to people who just want to make some easy money. What they don’t take into account when they play is they need to know the different teams and players in order to pick a winning team. It's not all about luck, you need to know what you're talking about in order to win the pot.

Is Big Ben A Big Liar?

Back in 2010, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of raping a 20 year old college student. Having this allegation brought upon him, he had to defend himself. He needed to make himself look better in the eyes of his fans and even try and save the image of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Big Ben made several public apologia. In his several apologies it was seen Roethlisberger used several strategies to make himself and the Steelers look better again.

Roethlisberger talked to Sally Wiggin about what he “truly” wanted to say to the public about the events that took place in Georgia in 2010. He seemed to be trying to imply corrective action was taking place. Wiggin mentioned at the end of the segment he was getting help from councilors along with family and friends. However, a lot of people would think that was an unfair punishment, even though he was suspended for six consecutive games.

During the apologia Roethlisberger gave to TMZ he seemed to be almost in denial when giving his apologia. He read from a notecard which made it less believable. It almost seemed like members of the marketing team for the Steelers had him say those things because they were getting viewed as “the bad guy” as well. They wanted to restore their image as being a well-respected organization and not “the team with the rapist.”

Roethlisberger also brought up in sever of this interviews that he was going to be a better person because of these allegations. He was using the bolstering strategy by telling the interviewers he was “going to be a better person because of this” and “this has shown him he isn’t the same man he was before football.”

Athletes sometimes do things they think they can get away with just because they’re famous. This is not true and when they get caught they try and restore their image; they want to be loved again. In the case of Ben Roethlisberger he seemed to do that quite well. He defended himself and showed he was going to get help for the problem he had caused.