If you ever wanted to know what kind of grip fantasy football has over the country, did you hear about what happened at SportsLine.com
That may not seem like a big deal, but if you realize the grip that SportsLine has on fantasy football fans, then you could probably imagine those scant few moments of rotisserie owners looking to unload Portis while scooping up his backup Ladell Betts.
In a humbling correction, Managing Editor Mark Swanson called the mistake "unforgivable" in apologizing to its readers. A bit extreme for a simple slip? Not when you consider that fantasy football helped the site's subscriptions and premium services soar by 40% last season, accounting for nearly half of SportsLine's fourth-quarter revenues.
While that's the kind of bubbling trend that may have one sniffing for Hidden Gems, it's not just that SportsLine failed to turn a profit given its bulky overhead. No, it's also off the market now that Viacom
So where can one turn? ESPN runs an excellent fantasy football site, but it won't make much of a dent to its $50 billion parent, Disney
So is Fanball the pure play? Unfortunately, it's a wasted question because the company is privately held. Five years ago, Lakes Entertainment
So I guess we're down to simply admiring fantasy football from the convenience of established media giants. It's a shame, but we always knew that football was a game that favored big players.
How did your team do over the NFL's opening weekend? Have any sleeper picks for your fantasy football team? All this and more in the 77's Foolish House of Pigskin discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a member of two SportsLine-managed fantasy football leagues this year. He owns shares in Disney and Viacom, but no other company mentioned in this story.