Every Sunday, Steve Stegeman travels three
hours to visit his fiancée.
Nice, huh? Sound like someone you may know who has a desire to go to great lengths for
the sake of a relationship?
Before you answer that, let me tell you that he travels that distance not only to visit
his fiancée but also to work on his fantasy football league Web site and watch hours of
the NFL action otherwise unavailable to him via cable TV. Oh, and Steve is an American
living in South Korea.
Stegeman teaches English as a foreign language at Hoseo University in Asan, South
Korea, and he desperately misses the game of football. Koreans know little and care even
less about the game. While he has no one to talk to about the goings on in the NFL, he at
least gets to see the games live.
Most larger cities in South Korea pick up the Armed Forces Network, which carries NFL
games. But Asan is not one of those large cities, so Stegeman takes off late in the
afternoon on Sunday to travel to Seoul, where his fiancée lives. He gets there about 7
p.m. and spends time visiting with her and her family until around 11:00 p.m.
Then he usually goes to bed, only to wake up at 1 a.m. to watch the Fox or CBS pregame
show, whichever is televised that given week. He burns the midnight oil watching the games
played in the afternoon in the U.S. and updating his Web site (http://theenglishmaster.com/gbrfl.htm),
which is the home base of a unique fantasy football league in which Stegeman competes with
friends from the States.
"I usually fall asleep during the third game (on ESPN)," he said of his
eventual taping of the day’s final game. "Although if I’m involved in a
real intense fantasy game where it’s real close, then I usually can’t fall
asleep."
But sometimes the third game isn’t shown, as other events take its place. The
recent National League Championship Series is one example.
"Which isn’t bad, but it’s not football," Stegeman said.
"Baseball playoffs don’t take precedence over regular-season football.
Never."
This is how his weekends go. Not only does he get to visit his fiancée and her family,
but he also feeds his craving for the NFL and fantasy football as well.
Stegeman has been a fantasy participant since 1989 and was recently in a fantasy league
through a company called the Armchair Sports Group, which ceased to exist in 1997. After
that faltered, Stegeman got ambitious, and he and his friends took over and kept their own
league on a separate Web site. Friends he grew up with and college buddies comprise the
majority of league membership. No money is paid out to the winner because bragging rights
are all anyone cares about.
The organization of the Web site and tradition of the league itself has served as a
cultural bridge in a sense, helping him keep in touch with friends who are thousands of
miles away. Stegeman has always been the proud commissioner of the league and originally
thought it would be a great way just to stay in contact. But it didn’t take long to
turn into something much more —an addiction.
"I worked at a summer job with a guy in New Jersey a few years ago, and he was
interested in football, so when a guy dropped out (of our league) we got him in,"
Stegeman said. "Now when I go back to the States and Jersey I visit his family
because we’ve built this friendship. If it wasn’t for fantasy football, I
probably never would have spoken to him again after that summer vacation.
"Fantasy football can be that thing that keeps friendships that are at a
crossroads alive."
Keeping the league and those friendships alive has been greatly aided by the worldwide
emergence of the internet. Its accessibility and the speed at which he gets e-mail,
statistics and NFL-related stories are substantial.
"The internet is fundamental for me," he said. "It’s key for me in
my situation because I have relatively no resources. I couldn’t participate or run
the show without it."
What’s difficult to comprehend is that anyone can run a fantasy football show from
his home overseas in a country that doesn’t appreciate and can’t fathom
America’s pigskin paranoia.
"Football is totally out of their loop," he said of Koreans’ general
apathy toward football and other American ideals. "They just don’t understand.
They don’t get it. Sports are just not that big of a deal. In America it’s such
a big part of the culture, but in Asia it’s not at all."
If the NFL doesn’t draw any attention in South Korea, how do Stegeman’s
future parents-in-law feel about his fixation with watching football until the sun rises
and fiddling with his computer all the time updating fantasy stats and standings?
"They’re really cool with it actually. I don’t just barge right in and
flip to football."
Ahhh, I see. Good manners and a love of football do follow people to other countries
after all. |
