Every fall is a little different. We get older, Halloween costumes get a little more slutty, and the Washington Redskins find a way to suck a little bit more. But for me at least, one thing has always remained constant during the autumn months: fantasy football.
After co-owning a team in fourth grade with one of my best friends, my fantasy football passion continued through my first solo draft the following year, when I selected three Jacksonville Jaguars with my first three picks because their logo looked cool. I then confidently took Tennessee Titans kicker Al Del Greco in the seventh round, because his name sounded more like a fancy cheese than a stud. But in my 12 years of drafting, ranking and crying, never have I seen something so farfetched as Fantasy Sports Insurance (FSI).
Founded in 2008 by Long Island insurance brokers Anthony Giaccone and Henry Olszewski after Tom Brady suffered his season-ending knee injury, FSI is the first company offering fantasy owners a policy that recoups all costs should a key player suffer a season changing injury.
Let's all shake our heads in disbelief. You heard it right. Someone is actually putting insurance on a fake sport.
FSI lists 50 "key" players on its website, and fantasy owners can pick a certain policy if they believe any of those players on their team will get injured for an extended period of time. Say Brady goes down for 10 out of the first 15 games: you're insured for all league costs, magazine fees and even online subscriptions.
On the surface, this seems more ridiculous than the Shake Weight — haven't seen it? Look it up.
Why bring a serious, business-like concept into a game designed to connect people through having fun? Maybe it's their convincing nature as insurance writers, but talk to the FSI guys more and more and you start to believe that insurance has a place in fantasy sports.
"Once we explain the product, they accept that it's a good idea," Olszweski said. "It's just a tool. You can use it to protect your own investment, use it as a draft strategy."
And the more you think about it, the more it begins to sound like just another way to enhance the football experience, just as wearing Wrangler jeans helps Brett Favre win football games. Clearly, FSI is not for people like me who complain about spending $10 to finish in last place. But for those coughing up hundreds or even thousands to play, having a policy to recover losses sounds reasonable.
"In these hard economic times, you want to get the most bang for your buck, which is a lot of what drives fantasy sports," Olszewski said. "If that investment is gone, you lose 16 weeks of entertainment."
Having played in numerous leagues where less intense participants refuse to set their lineup because their first-round draft pick got injured, FSI makes surprising sense. According to them, some commissioners now require that participants insure their players to avoid drop-outs.
Yet, the critics have a legitimate argument. At what point did fantasy sports get so serious that they require a binding legal insurance policy? Fantasy football has always been fun for me and was never a money-making opportunity. And who needs real legal things for something that's fake? It's a good thing that Olszewski is confident this will pan out, because the skeptics are certainly plentiful.
"The reality is, you're making an investment based on their ability to perform, and we're giving you the opportunity to recoup that investment in case they can't perform," he said. "It's going to take people a little while to accept it, but as far as we're concerned, it's here to stay."
Maybe if my friend had found FSI after drafting Brian Westbrook year after year, he would stop crying about losing a few bucks and be able to afford those Taco Bell chicken quesadillas he loves so much.
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Alex Prewitt is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu
