Cam Newton, his starting quarterback who suffered an injury last week, is causing major problems as he frantically searches the waiver wire for a replacement. Or, should he make a trade for Newton’s replacement since he has too many wide receivers? And what about his running back who has a bye week this week?
These questions are how freshman Nico Defazio starts out every week from the beginning of September to the end of December. Carefully analyzing each player, looking at every matchup like a coordinator on the sideline, Defazio strategically oriented his fantasy football lineup to maximize his team’s points.
Defazio is in one of over 20 fantasy football leagues at PHS that exist between friend groups, grades, and family members.
Rather than simply watching the game as a spectator, league members track the status of individual players and teams. The objective is to draft a team that will accumulate the most amount of fantasy points, which are calculated by looking at all aspects of a players stats, Defazio said. Every week league members play against each other by swapping out players, making trades, and changing lineups in order to create the most lucrative lineup.
Defazio, who is in a league with his freshman class and friends, got into fantasy sports two years ago when he wanted to become a more active fan.
“I wanted to know more about football,” Defazio said. “Once I joined fantasy, I started seeing names that I wasn’t previously familiar with and started to do my research on their statistics. Overall, you learn a lot more about football and become much more engaged in the games.”
Not only does participating in a league force you to learn more about football, but it brings you closer to your friends and classmates, senior Hunter Settlemier said.
Every week league members are scheduled to play each other and must configure the best lineups to maximize their point gains, Defazio said. This inherently creates a playful, competitive nature between opponents. Every weekend Defazio and the friends in his league get together and watch games together.
“It is really fun to compete against new people and to get to know them through sports,” Defazio said. “The person who is losing in the league is always sad and there is a lot of friendly banter between winners and losers that makes everyone come together.”
Every league has a “sacko”, the person who ends up dead last, who must face some form of punishments. For example, the sacko of Settlemier’s league must have their hair cut by the winner of the league.
For the winner, most leagues have a pool of money from entrance fees that the winner claims at the end of the league, Defazio said. This provides more of an incentive for people and contributes to the playful competitive nature of the league.
Additionally, fantasy football changes the general mindset of fans. Rather than rooting for specific teams, participates end up cheering for individuals players who will get them more points in their league, senior Daniel Gilbert said. It will be interesting to see how this affects the NFL fandom in the future.
“I think the NFL, in the long run, is going to have a brand-consistency issue because people are not going to be interested in who wins games anymore,” said associate professor of sport leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University Brendan Dwyer in an interview with Slate.“I saw how people behaved during the games at sports bars. I saw how torn they were, and I saw the cognitive dissonance they felt in watching both their favorite team and their fantasy team.”
Gilbert is familiar with this feeling. Despite analysts worries about declining franchise values for the NFL, Gilbert said fantasy football is great for attracting fans and getting them more engaged in the sport.
“I like participate in fantasy football because I really like watching football and it gives me a reason to watch games of teams that aren’t necessarily my favorite,” Settlemier said. “If you’re only a fan of one team, you only really care about one game a week. In fantasy, you care about every game.”
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