NO

Fantasy football leagues have ended marriages, blown heart valves, emptied checking accounts and halted office productivity.

They are, in a word, wonderful.

Fantasy leagues -- drafting imaginary teams of players off pro rosters and calculating wins and losses based on their statistics -- are the best thing to happen to the NFL since the Ickey Shuffle.

Interest in the NFL has never been higher. Neither has the number of fantasy leagues.

Coincidence? Hardly.

Fantasy footballers who couldn't name a single teacher at their kid's elementary school can tell you Sage Rosenfels is the backup quarterback for the Houston Texans and New York Jets wideout Jerrico Cotchery is ready for a breakout season.

Such skewed priorities and obsessive behavior may be bad for society but undoubtedly have been a boon for the NFL, the most popular sport in America by a landslide.

Games that once had little or no appeal (think Detroit Lions versus the Cleveland Browns) to the masses have fantasy geeks by the millions glued to their Barcaloungers as they cheer their players.

Fantasy leagues, some of which cost $1,000 or more to join, were born in the 1960s, but mushroomed in popularity in the mid-'90s when Internet sites provided the ability to more easily manage rosters and statistics. One recent study reported nearly 37 million people spend almost an hour a week managing their teams.

That adds up to an estimated loss of $1.1 billion a week in workplace productivity -- money that could easily be made up if everyone did a better job of recycling their soda cans.

Fantasy football has been referred to as the "Widowmaker," a reference to wives who are abandoned every fall once the season starts. Fantasy football even has inspired a Web site called fantasyhusband.com that gives participants a chance to choose the husband they think will react best to a relationship scenario (I am toast if my wife ever stumbles upon that site).

Fantasy football is not unlike a bucket of chicken wings or tub of ribs. Enjoy, but do so in moderation.

Whatever you do, don't listen to Marc. Saying fantasy football is bad for the NFL is akin to saying the combustion engine has been bad for motorized transportation.

But then, my counterpart in this debate always has lagged behind the times. He's still starting David Duval on his fantasy golf team.

Contact sports editor Loren Nelson at (760) 740-3551 or lnelson@nctimes.com.