When I log into fantasy football, I expect just that – an online space that allows opportunities to focus on fantasy but with a foot firmly planted in the reality of professional sports.

Politics has no place in the realm of fantasy sports. All ads placed in such a space are in poor taste and tarnish the original focus on a love of sports, stats and athletic performance.

Every week I escape to the world of fantasy football. I line up the numbers and lay out a strategy to decide which athletes are the best to fill my nine-man roster.

In the middle of deciding between Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray and San Diego Chargers wide receiver Travis Benjamin for my flex position, a banner ad caught my attention.

The ad by Hillary Clinton’s campaign read “Trump: He’s like that guy in your fantasy league who talks trash all week and forgets to set his lineup.”

I found myself in shock to see a political ad on an ESPN fantasy football banner. I avidly consume sports content, yet, I had never seen a political ad on such a platform before.

Whoever created the ad is smart. They played off of what is considered the biggest mistake in all of fantasy football – forgetting to check your roster.

The ad itself is brilliant because it connects a political attack in an easy to understand simile for the millions of people that play ESPN fantasy football. Regardless of the politician, there is an inherent intelligence behind such an ad.

The placement of such an ad, however, has crossed a line.

Sports is a form of escape and putting a political ad in that space violates the rare chance at solace that people, like myself, rely on in fantasy sports.

Escape is intrinsically linked to fantasy sports as any search for motives will reveal. In the 31 page scholarly article “Understanding why people play fantasy sport: development of the Fantasy Sport Motivation Inventory (FanSMI),” the term “escape” is listed 33 times.

Repetition of survey participants claiming fantasy sports as an escape is indicative of a wide trend; people want to take a break from their life and society and have the ability to dive into a world of stats and strategy.

AJ Mass, author of “How Fantasy Sports Explains the World” writes, “I also recognize that [fantasy sports’] primary purpose is that of being a diversion – something to help provide those who participate in leagues around the world with an outlet to escape from the stress of reality, at least for a short time”.

Although some political ads are humorous and clever, they have no place within the realms of escape and solace from reality.

Fantasy football is no exception.