If you are like me then you have absolutely no idea about fantasy football. I know what it is, but I don't know anything about it. The first time I heard it, it sounded made up. And what do you know, it is made up... to some extent. I've always heard guys talking about it and I never cared to expand on it considering I'm not a football fan. The only time I care about football is when there's food and a good halftime show. Once that's been established then I’m there! But if I show up and you start talking to me about football, I will tune out. Although sometimes it can be interesting, so this is true about 80% of the time. Don’t want to feel helpless like me the next time you go to the Superbowl party? Well,you’re in luck! I know just the conversation you can have to make you the one everyone wants to talk to (unless you don’t want that of course). I’m going to show you how to play fantasy football. I’ll show you the tips and tricks to make it sound like you know what you’re talking about and maybe even try your luck in joining a fantasy football league. As I found out recently you can actually win money! Well, you can also lose money as well, whichever way you want to look at it. If you choose to see the glass half empty or half full is completely up to you.
Let's Get Down to the Nitty Gritty
Ok, first things first let’s start with the basics. Before you start, let’s dive into what Fantasy Football is. In Fantasy Football, you are the owner, coach, GM, prosecutor, judge, jury, teacher, colonel, basically you are the BOSS. This would mean that you choose your team, hence the reason I called it “made up.” So, you choose your team from all the players in the NFL and whoever scores the most points at the end wins. Simple enough right? Right? WRONG! According to Sports Illustrated there are layers to this. “As the game has grown, the complexity has grown along with it.” I know what you’re thinking: “Why? Why does it have to be so complicated?” Don’t worry, I’m going to break it down for you. So, basically the first thing you would do is join a league. Some people go around and create their own league which consists of about 4-16 players. If you have a group of friends or colleagues, you can create one or join theirs. If you want to join one where you know absolutely no one you can also do that. There are different leagues are the rules are different for them so let’s dive in.
OUT OF YOUR LEAGUES
There is a long list of leagues you are able to join. Here are some examples:
Standing Scoring
PPR
Individual Defensive Player (IDP)
Draft Only
Dynasty
Keeper
The “Standard Scoring Leagues” are the simplest ones. This one is basically the one where you earn points for everything that happens in a game. The “PPR Leagues” are similar to the standing scoring league, but you only receive 1 point for each reception as well. “Individual Defensive Player (IDP) Leagues are leagues that have a scoring system which modulates defensive scoring using individual players and their statistics. There is also the “Draft Only League” and this would be one where the is no in-season roster management including free agency and trading. This one gets a little tricky and is a little more strict because in this league you are not allowed to add or remove players from a team. Basically, the players you choose during your draft are the ones you’re stuck with. A “Dynasty League” is a league that allows you to keep your players year to year. That’s right, this league allows you to carry your roster over without you having to re-draft them. Similarly, the “Keeper League” would be a league that only allows you to carry a certain number of players over from year to year. Truthfully, there is a plethora of leagues you can join. Too much to mention, but if you were interested in learning about all the leagues in Fantasy Football, Rookie Road lists them and provides more information on them.
DRAFT DAY IS AMONG US
Now then, back to our regular scheduled programming.
Ok, now the fun starts. Let’s start picking players for your team. The very unfortunate part of this is the chances of you getting all the players you want is unlikely. This is where you would have to compromise. And it might help if you know some of these players (I don’t that’s why I don’t play). This would be known as “draft day.” Some people prepare for this day months in advance which seems crazy, but this is a pretty big deal. This sets the vibe for the season. The players you pick determine if you win or not. No, you can’t sue them if you don’t win (I checked). So, draft day is here. Draft day would be a day that is scheduled, any time before the first, and it would need to be a day when all of the ones participating would be available because it’s live. Everyone logs in and then one by one everyone starts choosing their players. This is where it would be helpful to know football players considering this is where you would ideally want the “best ones.” But if you don’t, not to worry! Because ESPN reported that the work is already done for you. They rank all of the players you would need to fill out your entire team. The good news is that they list the players in the order that they would take them (don’t pick from the bottom). Just kidding, you can if you want to. They also project on hundreds of players so you can see how many fantasy points to expect. Here are a couple of tips for you: remember to pick your lineup. Meaning, you must pick a quarterback, wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, etc. Try to avoid picking players with the same biweek. Imagine if you picked all the players that had the same biweek, that would mean that none of your players will play that week and you’d lose that week's game and in the end you want to get as many points possible. You don’t have to win every week, you just need a good record. So, try your best to pick 1 player from every team. It’s ok to pick 2 players from the same team but try to avoid it as much as possible.
let the imaginary games begin.
It’s game time! Now that you’ve joined your league and have your team, it’s time to play. Every week you go head-to-head with someone new every week. The player with the most points for the week wins. Now the important thing here to remember is that you have to keep an eye on your roster every week. Don’t be afraid to substitute some players. This is when you keep an eye on your biweek players. If they are not playing a certain week, then you would bench them and put someone else. You don’t necessarily have to have a high score to win each week, you just have to have a higher score than your opponent.This goes on until the last 4 weeks of the season because this is where the playoffs begin. In order to qualify for the playoffs your record would have to be better than most of your opponents. Then again, you play someone new every week but in order to move on you have to win every week. If you lose one week, you’re out. After this, the semi-finals happen.
Here you are, you’ve made it this far right? THE SEMI-FINALS. You’re one step closer to winning because after the semi-finals, it's the championship, but you haven’t won yet. But you have to brace yourself, because you haven’t won yet but it’s so close you can almost taste it.
the finish line.
My sister plays fantasy football. She is constantly checking it. She’s gotten 2nd place 2 times and 3rd place once. She’s never won though. But every year, she keeps playing. This year she went to Buffalo Wild Wings with her co-workers for their draft day so it’s a pretty big deal to her because she canceled our Thursday appointment (we’re streaming an anime) to go to her draft day. I was hurt of course and I did not understand why it was such a big deal. She often talks to me about it (yes, I tune out sometimes) and I have no idea what she’s talking about most of the time but apparently, it’s a world-wide phenomenon. So, naturally I asked her for her advice on fantasy football. It’s funny because she said that it is known because of the football portion of it but people often seem to forget the fantasy part of it. Even if it is football, it’s just that... a fantasy. She said that you can pick good players and promising ones as well, but there’s a misconception when it comes to it. Everyone thinks it’s about statistics,
and figures and all the things that make up a good player. And to some extent, it is true. But at the end of the day, it’s a gamble.It’s a gamble with every single person playing and it’s a gamble with every single player. No one knows what’s going to happen, not for sure. You can learn every single thing about football, you can learn every single thing about the players, you can learn all the stats and all the projected numbers but no matter how much you research it, it will always be a gamble.You will always run the risk of losing even if you do have the objectively best team. There is always that risk, that unexpected turn of events causing your team to collapse and put someone else ahead of you and nothing you can do to stop it. You can have a promising team but so what? You know how many football fanatics that know all things football have still lost? So, even if you don’t know anything about fantasy football, why not play anyway?
This was the most in-depth thing I have ever read about fantasy football; it has always seemed so complicated. I did not realize just how many parts there was to creating a team and playing against others, draft day being a big deal was definitely surprising for me! I can understand why so many people would love it, though, especially when you told the story about your sister.
In general I don't know a-lot about fantasy football but form what I gather is seems to play similar to a mmo-rpg just in a different type of format or media. I think it's pretty cool all the different variables they use in it especially when luck is still considered a factor.
I'm another person who knows next to nothing about football, but this has me wondering if fantasy football is a good way to learn about. Like even if you have no idea how to choose your players strategically, in order to determine how well you do, you have to learn how to pay attention to those players and the metrics the game uses to rank them. Maybe it makes learning about football a more immersive experience!
Fantasy football is definitely one of those things that I’ve never really gotten into, but I fully respect it because it is essentially the same thing as many of the entertainment mediums that I engage with - only with a different context. Im glad that people can find something to escape into that aligns closer to the activities with which they’re familiar, but you also do a good job of highlighting how people who might not be familiar with football can still engage with the fantasy leagues.
Your images and gifs made me laugh because they capture how I feel trying to learn about this and all the ins and outs of the league. Also appreciated your honesty about tuning out your sister sometimes 😅