The Obsession with Fantasy Football

Fantasy football,  a game of competition, sorrow and anger.

A game in which you need smarts and research.

A game where anything, and I mean anything can happen.

In this article there will be zero talk about those other fantasy sports such as basketball or baseball. Their will only be talk about the peoples fantasy, the fantasy people wait all year for, the fantasy that causes heartbreak and friendships to be broken, I’m talking about FANTASY FOOTBALL.

When asking Trevin Johnson to explain why he thought fantasy football was the best fantasy he said “I think it’s fun to play because you get to play with the boys and it gives you more of a reason to watch some football. Fantasy football is just more enjoyable to be involved in then any of the other fantasy sports.”

Fantasy football a game created in 1962 by Bill Winkenbach. Bill was a part owner of a team formally known as the Oakland Raiders. He gathered with some friends in a New York City hotel, and together with a couple of “Diet Cokes” created the first ever fantasy football league. They called this league GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Procrastinators League).

Fantasy Football is loved and adored, but one of the main reasons people play fantasy football isn’t to just have fun, it’s to win. People want to win their league or game and be able to see the person they beat the next day and rub in the loss. The American people aren’t losers, the American people are winners and as DJ Khaled once said “all I do is win, win, win no matter what”. But for those people who lack enough friends for fantasy but still want to satisfy their competitive edge, can join a public league with random people across the world.

But the process of a fantasy football is more complicated than it looks to the outside eye.

The first step is creating the fantasy football league itself. The host of the league needs to first pick the fantasy football app that they would like to use. ESPN fantasy is a fan favorite fantasy app according to Reddit.com but I wanted to know from a fantasy football host why he liked ESPN fantasy. I asked Gerald Bennett Myers the 4th why he liked ESPN fantasy he said ” I’ve used all the other apps like Yahoo and Draft Kings but I enjoy ESPN they make it simple and easy to use”.

The host after picking the app needs to create the league and send the link to all the other participants in the league from as many as 8-32 people.

Once you invite everybody you now move on to the most important phase about fantasy football. THE DRAFT.

The host needs to set a date and a time that suits everybody so that they are able to draft with everybody. For many people draft night is the most fun and exciting part about any fantasy sport. I asked Luke Pruszynski what he thought of draft night he said, “I love draft night since everybody together at once. Everybody also dresses in like suits to pretend they are scouts or something so that’s funny.”

Before the draft though you got to do some research. Since everybody is going to try to get the top players you need to prepare for when the top players are gone. Since you don’t know your draft order until an hour before the draft you should already have some players in mind. Everybody wants the first pick but according to ESPN.com the person with the middle pick has the highest percentage to win the league, while the first person has the least likely chance to win. The standard draft format is called a “snake draft,” in which round one proceeds with each of the teams in a league choosing one player in turn. Player selection in round two will then start with the team that picked last in the first round and end with the team that picked first in the first round. My concept of drafting though comes down to 3 types of players. First are the star players such as Saquon Barkley and Deandre Hopkins. Star players are the first to go since they score the most points consistently. Second are the comeback players such as Todd Gurley and Leonard Fournette. The comeback players had great years in the past but last year they got injured or didn’t perform so well, but you hope they can have another great season. Lastly are the Unexpected players such as Justin Jefferson or Tyler Lockett. Unexpected players are rookies or just average players who either have a pretty low scoring season or have a breakout season.

Each team during the season has a weekly roster consisting of 12–16 spots and a starting lineup featuring a quarterback, one or two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a flex (a running back or wide receiver), a kicker, and a team defense/special teams. You can decide when to draft the position you want throughout the draft. When I asked Trevin Johnson what order he drafts he said ” I take RB,WR,RB,WR,QB,TE,RB,WR, Bears defense always, Bench, Kicker”.

After the draft you can look at free agents and trade all you want.

The actual season start in week 1 of the NFL season and are usually scored as follows for the offensive players: six points for rushing and receiving touchdowns, four points for passing touchdowns, one point for every 25 yards passing, one point for every 10 yards rushing or receiving, two points for any two-point conversion, three points for a field goal, and one point for an extra point. The points accrued by team defenses/special teams typically vary widely from league to league.

Once the season starts the competition begins and friends no longer exist.