Article Pool

Premium Article Directory!

Home

Recreation & Sport

Just What is Fantasy Football?

Author: robert | Posted: 23.07.2008 | Views: 19

Intrigued by the idea of fantasy football, it's not too late toget involved. A lot of people have heard of the term fantasyfootball, but aren't sure what it is. A search on fantasyfootball brings back thousands of sites such as footballpdq.comhttp://footballpdq.com/,most of which are offering to allow you to become a commissioneror sign up to create a team, all at low cost or no cost.

So... what is fantasy football?

Here's the lowdown. First, there's a fantasy footballcommissioner, who's in charge of the league, much the same as inreal-life. The commissioner puts in the most amount of money tobe the biggest cheese. This person is the final arbiter ofdisputes, makes decisions and, in general, gets to have the mostleeway - and the most headaches - in the league.

Then there are the team owners. These individuals pay a lesserfee than the fantasy football commissioner, and manage their ownteams. The owners choose who will be on the teams, what playerswill start, and so on.

So, the owners need teams. The next step is to pool all thereal-world pro football players, rank them and then have adraft. Each team owner takes turns picking players for his orher team - hence the name fantasy football. Depending on how thedraft goes, your team could be a true fantasy. Of course, someleagues have salary caps just as in real life, which prohibitsone team from having all the best players. Trades are usuallyallowed, though depending on the league, they may be limited.

So once the fantasy football commissioner has a full roster ofteams and the teams have a full roster of players... whathappens? This is where things get interesting.

Team owner Alpha has players X, Y and Z on the team. In reallife, player X is on one team, player Y on another and player Zon yet another. Before the game, Alpha has to decide who isstarting, who isn't, and what's going on. Alpha then gives thisinformation (by whatever means the fantasy football league has)to the commissioner. This information must be set in stone priorto the actual Sunday and Monday football games that NFL teamssuch as the Patriots and the Raiders play.

The real AFC & NFC teams play. Let's say player X is on theEagles in real life and is a quarterback. This Sunday, he throwsthree touchdown passes and the Eagles win. Fantasy football teamowner Alpha has X on the team and, very smartly, started X forthe football fantasy league games.

How this translates in fantasy football depends on the league.

The usual standard is that for every possible situation, a teamcan earn points. For example, the real life touchdowns of playerX may earn fantasy football owner Alpha four hundred pointseach. Alpha may come out of the weekend as the biggest pointearner, thanks to player X, which then sets Alpha up forcontention as the fantasy football league winner.

Of course, this assumes that player X wasn't benched at the lastminute, depriving Alpha of earning any points and ending last inthe fantasy football league.

The ultimate prize at the season's end may be a statue orpossibly money, depending on which fantasy football league youjoin. Or it may just be the prestige of knowing that yououtwitted all the other team owners and came out as top dog.

While this fantasy may come with a price tag for participation,if you enjoy the game and avidly watch the players anyway,fantasy football can be a harmless way to spend some time.

Rate this article: