Once the season hits, everyone knows it. The commercials arise, training camps start and people start looking forward to Monday nights. Week in and week out, millions of obsessed fans cheer on these human specimens we call professional football players in chase of the ultimate prize, the Lombardi trophy.

Why do we root for these guys to pound each other into the ground over a piece of cowhide? Being from Baltimore, location wise, it made sense for me to be a Baltimore Ravens fan. My friend’s dad is from Miami and grew up a Dolphins fan, and even though he grew up in Dallas, the Cowboys are not his favorite team. There are people in Alabama who will start rooting for the Oakland Raiders because they drafted Alabama Football star Amari Cooper. There doesn’t really seem to be a wrong reason to celebrate football… or is there?

Two years ago, the Baltimore Ravens battled against the Detroit Lions for a thrilling 18-16 victory. Although the Ravens won, starting wide receiver for the Ravens, Torrey Smith, received hateful messages after a four-catch, 69-yard performance.

“I think fantasy football is awesome for the fans,” Torrey Smith said. “It’s a way to interact and be like their own GM, in a sense. But it crosses the line when you wish players harm … people saying, ‘I hope you break your leg…’ ”

The reality of the situation is that Fantasy Football is a crapshoot, and no one can predict who will have an incredible year, who will be terrible and who will be average. Last year, fantasy football owners across the world were let down when Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and Josh Gordon got suspended and when players like Calvin Johnson, Carson Palmer and Dennis Pitta go down with injury. Simply put, fantasy football is ruining the NFL.

There are fantasy football owners that will root against their favorite NFL team just to win bragging rights to their friends because, “their knowledge of the NFL is better.” They will root for someone who has worked his entire life to get to the apex of this sport to get injured, so they can tell their friends to “suck it.”

Players say it all the time, they play for the fans. Fans make sports what they are with their crazy antics. Fans paint their entire bodies the colors of the team, get permanent tattoos of the team and tailgate hours in advance to cheer their team to victory.

Home field advantage is a legitimate thing. When any team comes into the Lincoln Financial Field and hears 69,176 people screaming, “EAGLES! EAGLES!” It is an intimidating thing. And to think that fans of that team may want a player like DeMarco Murray to go down just so they can win in fantasy, is not only tainting the literal sport, but it is also tainting the best part about sports, being a true fan.  

Jake Bass is a junior majoring in sports journalism. His column runs biweekly.