O’Donnell: Fantasy football players are ‘in’ as NFL ’25 approaches

ARTIFICIALLY INDUCED REGIONAL HOPE and that's about it on the Chicago sportscape.

So what better hang time for an August offering of Ins and Outs?

(Note: All decisions are interim and subject to change quicker than a wind shift carrying haze from a Canadian wildfire.)

· IN — Fantasy football — Experts can prattle on all they want about the outrageous media exposure the NFL receives. … But no single new-mill phenomenon has brought the sports show business into more mainstream nooks and conversations than fantasy football. … With most league drafts in the next few weeks, intense research will be revealed and produce fixed-budget intensity from folks who could give a rat's aunt about point spreads.

· OUT — Full-game betting on the NFL — Three-and-one-half hours for a single wagering decision? … What's next, paying with cash? … The idea of watching and waiting for close to 200 minutes only to have a curious pass-interference call flip the gold standard is provably inhumane. … Inevitable intellectual impalement is no way to while away a Sunday.

· IN — The Savannah Bananas — The amazing barnstormers are filling huge venues and taking baseball to remarkably imagineered places. … Eventually, the dog-paddling masters of MLB are going to have to take notes and refine some energizing ideas for their far too frequently languid pastime.

· OUT — The White Sox on TV — The Fail Hose draw decent audience numbers by putting three high-interest games against the Cubs on free television and suddenly their brain people are the second coming of Roone Arledge? … When country classic Charlie Daniels sang “The South's Gonna Do It Again,” he wasn't thinking about televised baseball from Chicago's West 35th St.

· IN — The decision to keep the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament at 68 teams — As it is, in the final weeks preceding Selection Sunday, working knowledge of the probable fields requires a cram course. … The chaos brought about by the transfer portal and NIL money has only made those quick studies more challenging. … Now, adding more B-grade participants would go down as nothing more than a diluting money grab.

· OUT — The NFL's new equity stake in ESPN — Really “Out” for media consumers who believe sports in America are strengthened by a significant segment of appropriately independent journalism. … Nothing needs to be said to current and future ESPN staff … What's inbounds — and more important out-of-bounds — from hard reportorial perspectives about the nation's most powerful sports conglomerate is as clear as a studio light on Scott Van Pelt's high-beam pate.

· IN — Recognizing the lack of fuzziness around the current Cubs operation — The lovable Cubbies, tra-la, tra-la, are a thing of the Jack Brickhouse-Harry Caray past. … That notion recalls a time when even the institutional gray of TribCo fought a somewhat noble battle to sustain a valued civic trust. … Now, the failure of Tom Ricketts to commit money at the trading deadline as his MLB franchise smolders after a molten start suggests nothing but shrewd Nebraska-bred greed.

· OUT — The 2025 MVP chase of Pete Crow-Armstrong — Once again, what, who? … He hopefully will have many more seasons in Wrigley blue to max out his significant potential. … But like a quality young thoroughbred still learning, PCA apparently needs a few more times around the warning track.

· IN — Monitoring the new-stadium maneuvering of the Browns in southwest suburban Cleveland — There are lessons to be learned that could be mirrored when the Bears finally commit to Arlington Heights. … In CLE, the Haslams bought a choice tract of land on the front doorstep of Hopkins Airport that once housed two Ford Motor Co. plants. … Now, in a midnight-hour “bill sneak,” the Ohio legislature abruptly found $600M in free money to help the Browns steal away from Cleveland's corporate limits and betray city leadership. … Caveat Illinois.

· OUT — Overlooking all of those fresh exit and entrance ramp upgrades on Route 53 — Quite a coincidence of timing. … Next up — as far away from scrutiny as possible — should be an announcement about the widening of Palatine Road to enhance fan access to Bitcoin.com/George Halas Stadium. … The idea may finally be sinking in behind the closed doors of that $8.8B football corporation that a future golden road indeed does flow to Euclid & Wilke in Arlington Heights.

Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.