American football, especially the NFL (National Football League), has grown exponentially in popularity over the last 20 years. This growth in popularity is potentially due to international games being played in Tokyo, Japan, Toronto, Canada and Mexico City, Mexico. These international games have brought the NFL to a whole new demographic and fanbase. A younger generation of fans are also, in the meantime, being introduced to the NFL. These fans are growing up and becoming old enough to watch, and with this younger generation, a new wave of technology follows that allows new ways of streaming games. With revolutions in technology comes the popularity of Fantasy Football.  

“Me and my friends have been playing in a league together for years, so we are always looking forward to the start of the NFL season to start playing Fantasy Football,” said junior Tanner Chitwood. 

Fantasy Football has only become a staple in the NFL season in recent years. However, it is not a new invention. The origins of Fantasy Football can be traced back to 1962, when the partial owner of an NFL team decided to play with some friends. Today, everybody who plays will participate in their own private league with a group full of friends or family; they draft a team of real NFL players from different teams across the NFL at the beginning of the NFL season and then compete based on the statistics scored by each player in real NFL games throughout the 18-week season. Each week, fantasy players are matched up with a random person in the league, and one’s goal is to score more points than the other person. An example of point scoring is if one’s running back on the Seattle Seahawks were to score a touchdown, one could score around 5-7 points depending on the format of the league. At this point in time, people in the league would manually look at the stat sheet and box score from an NFL game and do the math themselves to figure out how many points they scored. 

“I always look forward to playing Fantasy Football each year. We always like to do some wagers every week on who will win.  It can be very fun,” said junior Jacques Scott-Quekett. 

Fantasy Football is no longer played on paper, instead it is played on an app on a phone or computer. The apps today do the math for the score automatically and sometimes even help manage one’s team. With this new automation in scoring and managing, it has become much more popular. If somebody is an NFL fan, then they are probably playing fantasy football. 

Here at Eagle High, there are many leagues between friends, such as a league that Chitwood and Scott-Quekett run with their friends. Some of these leagues have cash prizes for the winner and punishments for the loser such as a cold plunge or something embarrassing.  

These punishments and rewards have sparked trash talking between friends and friendly rivalries. If somebody is interested in playing Fantasy Football; make a plan with friends and family, then get excited for next fall.