Paid Referee. Gridiron Gangstas. Hawaiian Fan Club. Fightin’ Tacos. The draft ends and the matchups for this year’s fantasy football season set, no matter how dumb the team names may appear. Yet, for these competitors, their league is serious business.
Each NFL season, fans around the country take part in fantasy football leagues through apps like Sleeper Fantasy Leagues and ESPN Fantasy Sports. By making trades and other roster moves, fantasy allows players, called team managers, to connect and interact with their group in a competitive way.
“I like the competitive aspect of [fantasy football], and I like being able to kind of start a new matchup every week,” sophomore Martin Torres said. “There is definitely a lot of arguing, but I’d also say it can bring people together as well.”
Before the NFL season begins, fantasy managers attend the event that will dictate a large amount of their team’s success — the draft. Each round, participants have one pick to select players that they believe will lead them to victory.
“My league started the season by joining a FaceTime call when the draft started,” sophomore Ryce Jacops said. “There were lots of questions and surprises about everyone’s picks, but overall, it was a fun experience.”
Each matchup, managers decide which real-life players they will put in their lineup or claim from free agency based on the players’ real-game situations. Players gain points by scoring touchdowns, getting receptions, earning yards, and more.
“I’m currently 7-2 and first in my league,” Jacops said. “Jonathan Taylor and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are my best players and have been racking up more and more points each week.”
Just like in the NFL, surprising victories can happen on different scales in fantasy football leagues, from week-to-week upsets to season-long underdog stories.
“My second ever league was with my dad and a ton of his friends and they had been playing for a lot longer than me,” Torres said. “I got pretty lucky, I guess. I drafted a really good team, and I won the league.”
Some team managers, such as sophomore Samien Momin, can become frustrated with certain rules and decisions made by their leaguemates.
“I wish the league manager’s power was actually a little more controlled because he just lets trades through when it’s him trading,” Momin said. “When it’s me trading and I just fleeced some guy, he sends it up for a vote.”
After all the trades and waiver wire pickups have been made, a multi-week long playoff usually decides the final champion of a league. While some fantasy winners receive some sort of prize, often cash, other leagues opt for a harsher end-of-season result — the dreaded punishments.
“One punishment I had to do in the past was to be walked in a dog costume around the neighborhood,” sophomore Andy Johnston said. “One of my leagues had a blender punishment where people can pick out any ingredient and combine it with other ones, then make the loser drink it.”
Despite occasional conflicts and the embarrassment of punishments, fantasy football offers not only friend groups, but also families and an interactive pastime that can increase peoples’ knowledge about the NFL and often brings excitement as match days approach.
“I like the friendly banter and rivalries,” Andy’s dad Steve Johnston said. “[Playing with family] was great because of the connectivity we had together talking about trades, waiver wires, and overall new topics to discuss.”
