Watching the Game in the Digital Age- Click here http://bit.ly/iPepIg for full article

Watching the Game in the Digital Age- Click here http://bit.ly/iPepIg for full article

I used to get together with friends and the guys in my fantasy leagues every Sunday to watch football. The guys would joke around and talk about teams and players around the league. Now, I watch the game with all the people I follow on Twitter. I still get together with the guys sometimes, but even then the twitter feed is up on my phone. After all, the comments on Twitter are funnier. The information is better. I follow journalists who know about the teams, athletes who are on the teams, and even some of those same friends that I always talked sports with. The constant updates have changed the way I watch sports.

Direct contact with athletes has changed my views as a fan. It's made me like some of the pros more, some less. Some seem smarter than I imagined, some are just idiots. Mike Tyson's more philosophical than I expected, Chad Ochocinco funnier, Gilbert Arenas even more out of control. I know the Twitter feeds don't necessarily show what these players are really like, but there's one less filter than there used to be and that's meaningful. It makes me a fan because of who they are, not just because of the uniform they were.

It's a similar feeling to when I first joined fantasy leagues. I desperately wanted touchdowns from guys on teams I used to hate. I was still watching the games, but I was looking at the computer or the phone desperate for real-time stats. It changed the way I developed allegiance as a fan. I needed numbers and I needed them now. The individual players mattered in a new way.

I like the way Twitter affects my fan experience even more than fantasy leagues. Sports is, after all, entertainment. Funny 140-character comments entertain me as they change who I cheer for. They change what I'm doing while I watch the game. Now I'm flooded with data while I'm in front of my TV. Constantly updating fantasy league numbers, comments from experts, and jokes from friends are all coming across my phone, tablet, or computer. Once I might have thought that would be a distraction. But it's not, I enjoy the games more than ever. The digital information coming to me is a part of the experience.