Fantasy Football is beloved by many, where strategy, luck, and a touch of madness collide. It’s a game where you become the “coach” of your own team, only to find yourself in a constant state of panic every Sunday, praying your players stay healthy and don’t suddenly forget how to play football. Every draft feels like you’re assembling a squad of elite athletes, only for half of them to end up on the injury report before week two.
The joy of Fantasy Football is not just the wins. The interactions between your friends or your opponents may be the true root of joy in Fantasy Football. Every bad trade is an opportunity for your friends to remind you that you’re the equivalent of a football manager who thought picking a kicker in the first round was a genius move.
Ultimately, Fantasy Football is less about the game itself and more about the emotional rollercoaster, where a weekly victory is sweet and ending the season in last place means a punishment decided by members of the league.
Renat Mamikonyan Jr., who plays football at Whitworth, describes, “The punishment is the rest of the group has to decide what the loser has to wear, and then the loser has to wear that outfit while walking through a mall so people can see them.”
Mamikonyan Jr. brings extensive knowledge of the NFL and player performance, drawing from both his personal experience and deep understanding of the game to make informed week-to-week decisions on player selection. But Mamikonyan Jr. likes to keep it simple, saying, “I just put in whoever’s projected to score the most points for that week in.”
Jason Schillinger, another student at Whitworth, is also a part of four Fantasy Football leagues. Schillinger says, “One punishment we were thinking of ways, a 24-hour challenge in IHOP. But every pancake eaten would minus time from your stay in IHOP.”
Punishments are a huge part of fantasy leagues, and there are many creative ones out there. Some other common punishments could be that the last in the league must dye their hair, get a tattoo, take the SATs, or run a marathon. It’s not just losers that shine in the spotlight; you can’t forget about the champ of the league, either. For most leagues, the first-place victor will receive a cash prize that is funded by entry fees from participants at the beginning of the season.
Although it is the most popular fantasy league, football is not the only sport with a fantasy league. There are also fantasy leagues for professional basketball, baseball, hockey, cricket, auto racing and many more. It is the sport itself that brings in the most money out of all the fantasy leagues.
An article published by Alessandro Oehy estimates Fantasy Football to be an industry worth approximately $11 billion in 2022, with that number growing to about $30 billion in 2023. In 2024, it’s reported that approximately 13 million fans are playing fantasy football through ESPN Fantasy Football, and that is just one fantasy football platform.
There’s money in fantasy games. Whether it be from ads published by companies on fantasy websites or from entry fees and winners’ prizes from leagues. Money or no money, leagues keep friend groups connected throughout the NFL season and allow for some friendly and sometimes hostile banter between opponents. So, whether you are stressing about building the greatest offense online or about the midterms, just take time to appreciate the internet’s greatest invention. The Fantasy Football season may be coming to an end, but that just means next season is right around the corner with new punishments for the league’s loser, prizes for the league’s victor and banter between friends online and in person.
