What Is Fantasy Football? The Best Pathetic Thing Ever

You know who you are. The person who follows a pretend team of football players as if your life depends on it. You ignore household duties in favor of staring at your smartphone for 11 hours every Sunday. Come to think of it, you’re probably not reading this because you’re too busy setting your pretend lineup. So I’m writing this for your family to help them understand why you ignore them from September to January every year. What is fantasy football? It is, as the title indicates, the best pathetic thing ever.

 

The Basics

In fantasy football, you construct a fantasy team that is made up of actual real-life players. The performance of those players in real life determines the performance of your fantasy team. (This concept can be applied to many sports, but I’m talking specifically about the NFL.) So if a player throws for four touchdowns in an actual game, and that player is on your fantasy team, you’re pumped up. Why? Because each touchdown gives you a certain number of fantasy points, and the more fantasy points you earn the better.

Using this most basic concept, fantasy leagues can be built in many different ways. A common example is a 12-person league in which you and your buddies take turns drafting players onto your pretend teams just prior to the start of the NFL season. Depending on the league’s exact rules, you need to make sure you have players in each of the positions your league mandates—quarterback, running back, wide receiver, etc.

You keep this team all year, and every week you “play” one of the other teams, adding your total fantasy points for the week (determined by the number of yards, touchdowns, etc. that your players get in their respective real-life games that week) and hoping the sum is more than your opponent’s sum. If so, you win the fantasy game. At the end of the year, the teams with the best records participate in the single-elimination playoffs, ultimately crowning a champion. If desired, each team can pay an entry fee—say $100—with the champion taking home the $1200 pot.

The above illustration is just one of many ways in which players can be drafted and leagues can operate. Furthermore, scoring systems (i.e. the number of fantasy points awarded per on-the-field accomplishment and deducted per undesired blunder) can vary widely. Here is a more in-depth article if you’re interested.

 

Brief History

How did such a thing even come to exist? As the incomplete story goes, the idea was conceived in 1962 by a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders along with one of the team’s public relations employees and a newspaper reporter. The next year, what was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL) held its first draft. By 1989, over one million people in the US were playing fantasy football.

In 1999, Yahoo began to offer a free fantasy football service, setting the stage for a fantasy explosion. In fact, it’s estimated that over 40 million people now play fantasy football, with a large chunk using free sites such as Yahoo and ESPN. These sites use the traffic to sell ads, turning the whole thing into a revenue generator.

While quantifying the annual revenue generated by fantasy football is not the easiest task, estimates are well into the billions, making it quite reasonable to argue that the fantasy industry is contributing to the popularity of the NFL.

If you’re wondering why this operation isn’t considered gambling for those opting to play for money, fantasy football is viewed by many jurisdictions as a game of skill rather than a game of chance, thus circumventing many gambling bans. Draft strategy, deciding which players to start (and which to bench) in a given week, orchestrating trades, and picking up unclaimed players all contribute to the game of skill label.

It should be mentioned that certain sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings have popularized something called daily fantasy sports, where you can choose a fantasy team for a much shorter interval than the entire season—for example, a day or a week. Cash payouts are often part of the picture. Whether these short contests are games of skill or just straight up gambling is the source of some debate.

 

Sample Game

Because understanding fantasy football is critical for proper functioning in American society, here’s a very simple example to drive home the message. The matchup is Fantasy Team A vs. Fantasy Team B.

Fantasy Team A 

Quarterback A throws for 250 yards (10 points) and three touchdowns (18 points), yielding 28 fantasy points.

Running back A runs for 80 yards (8 points) and does not score any touchdowns, resulting in 8 fantasy points.

Wide receiver A catches 5 passes (5 points) for a total of 60 yards (6 points), or 11 fantasy points.

The sum is 47 fantasy points.

Fantasy Team B

Quarterback B throws for 300 yards (12 points) and two touchdowns (12 points), yielding 24 fantasy points.

Running back B runs for 10 yards (1 point) and one touchdown (6 points), resulting in 7 fantasy points.

Wide receiver B catches 4 passes (4 points) for a total of 70 yards (7 points), or 11 fantasy points.

The sum is 42 fantasy points.

Result

The manager of Fantasy Team A would win this game and inexplicably feel really good about themselves. The manager of Fantasy Team B would be the loser, pledging to never play again and moping around for a couple days.

 

At ComposeMD, I have done some serious soul searching regarding the what is fantasy football question. As my productivity plummets and the losses accumulate, I have repeatedly found myself making the aforementioned pledge to never play again. But somehow, the fantasy of having a good fantasy team keeps me coming back every year.