JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Football fans are fanatic about fantasy football and now the NFL wants to integrate the online competition into schools.
NFL Chief Marketing Officer Mark Waller said it would get kids excited about the NFL and be an educational experience for kids, especially when it comes to math lessons.
Recommended Videos
Waller said Fantasy Football would give children a great lesson in math, having them figure out how many points they need and how many points a particular player would get.
Some Jaguars fans New4Jax spoke with Thursday night agreed with Waller.
"They're going to know they get 1 point for every 10 yards receiving, 6 points for a touchdown. It's going to help them with their math skills, I'm all for it," said one fan.
"I'm all for anything that helps kids learn and pay attention in class so if it's a new idea, a new technique, why not?" said sports fan Steve Cospito.
About 19 million Americans play fantasy football, but not every fan News4Jax spoke with Thursday night were for taking the online competition into the classroom.
"I think that's a bit of a stretch if you're going to use fantasy football to push math or something like that, that's a pretty high statistic for elementary grade school kids. Football is pretty popular already. I don't think it needs anymore marketing but it can't hurt," said Bruce Hill.
News4Jax reached out to area schools to find out if they've been approached by the NFL about the topic. Both St. Johns County and Duval County schools said they hadn't heard about bringing fantasy football into the classroom.