Fantasy football — sport of kings
- posted: 09 Oct. 2007
- scrollsports@byui.edu
Fantasy football: millions of people play it, millions of wives and girlfriends despise it. And for those who don’t know what the dickens I’m talking about, here’s a primer on the sport that makes people feel part of the game.
Fantasy football refers to men (or women) acting as virtual NFL team owners. A team consists of 15 to 30 real professional football players. Every week these owners compete against other owners to earn points based on the statistics their players earn during real NFL games.
There are many variations of fantasy football, but the bottom line is whoever’s team earns the most points, wins. Because there are usually only eight-14 owners in a fantasy league instead of the 30 owners in the NFL, fantasy teams are able to have many elite players on their roster while professional teams often only have two or three.
Fantasy football started in 1962 when Bill Winkenbach, part owner of the Oakland Raiders, came up with the idea to create virtual football teams as a way for newspaper writers to keep up with NFL action around the league. This earliest incarnation of fantasy football used money; instead of receiving points for every touchdown your quarterback threw, you received 25 cents. There are many fantasy leagues today that have cash awards for top-performing owners.
From that humble beginning, fantasy football has grown exponentially across the United States. There are anywhere from 15 to 30 million Americans playing fantasy football today, ranging from Oregon to Florida, according to various sources like espn.com or msnbc.com. Today, owners mainly use yahoo.com or nfl.com to sign up for free fantasy leagues that automatically track and calculate all the numbers for you, saving large amounts of time and giving participants instant access to information they need to compete.
Dallin Page, a freshman studying general studies, has been playing fantasy football since he was 13. He won his first league championship at age 15 and is participating in two leagues this year.
When I asked him what tip he would give to new fantasy team owners, he said, “I usually take a running back first in the draft. I look at different factors like how players did last year, if they were sharing carries with someone, and their injury history to see who I think will have the most productive fantasy year.”
One of the main reasons people play fantasy football is that it increases their involvement in the real games. Just as a real NFL team lives and dies with the health of its key players, owners live and die with every five-touchdown game or season-ending knee injury their team experiences.
Fantasy football can be as time-consuming as you want it to be. Page routinely looks through the list of free agents, or players who are not on a team at the moment, searching for running backs or wide receivers who are performing well and might give him an edge if he added them to his team. Other owners just leave their teams as-is every week and hope for the best.
Regardless of your level of experience in fantasy football, it can be a fun and rewarding activity. Head on over to football.fantasysports.yahoo.com or www.nfl.com/fantasy to get involved.
