Football is a sport that was created by a game between Rutgers University and Princeton University all the way back in 1869. Since its creation, the game of football has evolved from a fun activity into a lifestyle and a sought after career for many people. With the evolution of football came statistics which allowed people to track how their favorite players were doing. In 1962, Bill Winkenbach, the owner of the then Oakland Raiders football team created fantasy football, along with his friends. With the creation of the internet, fantasy football became far more accessible and popular. As of 2022, 29.2 million people in the U.S. play fantasy football, according to Statista, a data gathering platform. Although this is a high number, there are still many people who don’t play fantasy football. The goal of this article is to give you a better understanding of fantasy football, and how to play if it is ever something you’d consider trying out.
When creating a league for fantasy football, the leader or commissioner’s job is to set the rules for their league. Each league is unique because of the way players can earn points. The most common controversy between leagues is point per reception or PPR. PPR refers to if a player receives a point when catching the football from the quarterback. In PPR leagues, receivers are more valuable because their job is to catch the ball from the quarterback. Running backs are more valuable in non-PPR leagues because most running backs don’t rely as much on catching the football, instead they mostly get handed the ball, which isn’t worth points in most leagues.
In most leagues, points are awarded for yards and touchdowns; yards are broken up between passing and rushing/receiving yards. Passing yards occur when a player, usually the quarterback, throws the football in a forward pass to one of their teammates. Their teammate then tries to get as many yards as they can get without being tackled by a defender with the ball in their possession. Receiving/rushing yards are awarded for how long a player runs with the ball before being tackled by a defender after catching or being handed the ball by the quarterback.
Passing yards are oftentimes worth less because a quarterback on average throws for around 225 yards a game, while a receiver obtains about 70 yards per game. Therefore rushing/receiving yards are worth more than passing yards. In my personal league, a player will get one point for every 25 passing yards, however a player will get one point for every 10 yards if they are rushing or receiving yards.
Fantasy football is broken up into two groups: drafting and managing. Fantasy managers create their ideal team before they start managing it. Drafts can be done either online or in-person, whichever is most convenient for you and your league-mates. Drafts are done before the season starts. It’s always good to go into a fantasy draft being prepared and having a strategy. When creating a draft strategy, a manager must take into account the league format: PPR or non-PPR. There are many strategies that different managers use like zero RB, which means waiting until later rounds to take a running back. You could also do the opposite and use the robust RB strategy which relies on taking multiple running backs in the earlier rounds.
This is one of the go-to strategies for Franklin social studies teacher Mark Zimtbaum, who states, “In general, I load up on running backs.” However, substitute teacher Andrew Van Dyke thinks managers should be open with who they select in the draft: “You have to be really open and if you’re not open then you wind up getting trapped.” Whatever players you draft, just be confident about them, there’s nothing worse than picking a player you don’t like.
A round is finished in a fantasy draft when every team has gotten a turn to pick; normally there are around 15 rounds in a fantasy draft. Typically half of these guys would start and the other half would be on the bench. The players you start are the only players on your team that can qualify for points. The bench players are there for if your starters aren’t doing well, are injured, or are on their bye week, a designated week where no games are played in order to keep people from getting injured. Each NFL team is allotted one per year.
After drafting comes the second half of fantasy football, managing. Once your players are officially in your possession, you can access them from whatever fantasy app your league chooses. Now your responsibility as a manager is to start the players you think will do best on any given week. One of the more important tools to utilize when managing your team is the waiver wire. The waiver wire is where all the players who don’t get drafted end up; players also end up on the waiver wire if they’re cut from a team. The waiver wire is important because it allows you to add players that were maybe overlooked during the draft and turn out to be very valuable to your team. A good example of the waiver wire being put to good use is Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua; Nacua was barely rostered in any leagues heading into the start of the 2023 to 2024 season but is now rostered in 95% of fantasy leagues per Yahoo Fantasy Football, and is in the top five in the NFL in receiving yards and receptions.
Every week each manager will be matched up against a different manager, head to head, with the goal being to score more than their opponent. Every week you’ll be matched up against different teams, sometimes more than once depending on how many teams are in your league until you reach the playoffs. The fantasy playoffs don’t occur at the same time as the NFL playoffs; they usually occur at about week 14 or 15 of the 18 week NFL season. Only the top teams in each league will qualify for the fantasy playoffs; usually in the first round the highest ranked team will face the lowest ranked team, and so on. The winners will continue to move on until there is a champion.
Overall, fantasy football is a great way to enjoy the game of football and build relationships with friends. My favorite thing about fantasy is that it makes me care about NFL games I normally wouldn’t and gives me something to root for or against. Fantasy football is free and available to everyone, so why not give it a try.
