by Justin Martinez | sports writer
It’s Thursday and junior Jacob Schwab is in class, minding his own business, when he realizes he almost forgot something. He yanks out his phone, rushes to his Fantasy Football account, and checks his line-up for tonight’s game.
“I’ve been playing fantasy football for four years now,” junior Jacob Schwab said. “I prefer to play in leagues with my friends and I’ve never played with random people I don’t know.”
When joining a league, you draft real life players for your roster. The roster consists of one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a defense, and a kicker. Every week, the players play in real life and the statistics that they gather are translated by a point system and given to your team. At the end of the week, your team’s points are compared to another teams points. The team with the most points wins. Simple right?
“My favorite part of Fantasy Football would have to be the competition,” senior Shannon Carr said. “I watch all the games that my players are in. Fantasy Football is just really fun.”
There are multiple processes and strategies when it comes to drafting players for your team. For those that are not fully aware of who is good and who is bad, projections are provided. A projection is a computer that calculates and predicts how good each player will do.
“I like to go to NFL.com before the draft and listen to what the sportscasters say. I also go by the rankings and season projections if I’m not sure who to pick,” Schwab said.
One of the popular parts of the game is getting to create the name and logo of your team. The possibilities are endless (as long as they’re appropriate) and the names vary greatly.
“This year my team name is ‘Stump the Schwab’ based off of the old ESPN segment that was canceled and my other team’s name is ‘Get Over It’. It’s an inside joke between me and my friends.” Schwab said.
A common league is usually made up of a group of friends or relatives. A lot of people prefer to be in leagues with people that they know. However, there is the option of joining leagues with anyone anywhere in the country.
“I like to play Fantasy Football with my friends and family instead of with random people, because the competition is better.” Carr said.
Although most leagues are not played for money, there are certain leagues where each team puts in money in a winner-takes-all scenario. Because of this, some people take Fantasy Football very seriously. When money is on the line, the desire to win becomes greater.
“I play competitively in one league where everyone puts in $50 dollars, so I take Fantasy Football pretty seriously,” Carr said.
Like any other game, there are people that take Fantasy Football very seriously. It’s not unusual to see people who become very attached to this game. There will always be addicts that hate to lose and love to win. That’s one thing in Fantasy Football that will never change.
“My team is only three and three so far but I’m hoping that they’ll start doing better,” Schwab said. “Either way Fantasy Football is still really fun to play.
