Would NFL fans rather win their fantasy league than have their team win the Super Bowl?

Fantasy football and more traditional fandom creates a potential conflict for a big chunk of NFL fans

Let’s talk hypothetical. The quarterback on your fantasy football team is, let’s say….Josh Allen. But you’re a Miami Dolphins fan, with a new Tua Tagovailoa jersey and a well-worn Dan Marino poster somewhere in your attic.

The Buffalo Bills are driving late in a game against the Dolphins, needing a touchdown to win. As you closely monitor the live scoring for this fantasy matchup for that week (probably to an unhealthy level, if we’re being honest), you realize a touchdown pass for Allen will give you a win for the week. But the Dolphins will lose, perhaps an important game, if it happens.

What do you root for?

Well, Bookies.com did a study.

The site surveyed 1,132 football fans. 20 percent would prefer their fantasy team succeed over their favorite real team. 23 percent would rather win their fantasy league than have their favorite team win the Super Bowl. 32 percent said they’d prefer their most important fantasy player succeed over their favorite player.

In total, respondents said they root for their fantasy team over their favorite team sometimes, often or always roughly 56 percent of the time. As for rooting for their fantasy team over their favorite player, sometimes, often or always, that percentage goes up to about 61 percent in total.

For those that do fantasy football, it probably comes down to having money at stake, via a season-long league or a DFS contest in a given week to drive priority. Your favorite team winning still seems to be the overall majority priority though. The entire article, which I’ll link again here, is worth a read for a real deep dive into a sampling of fantasy football conflicts of interest.