No matter how hard I try to understand it, it just does not make sense. I’m not American so have only heard about it in tv shows
In: Other
Basically you draft a team of players, and you get points based on how the players do in the game. For example in standard scoring a quarterback gets 1 points every 25 yards he throws, 4 points for throwing a touchdown, etc. you play against someone else and whoever’s team has more points ( so better stats) win the matchup
You get a group of 10 or so friends together to create a league. Each friend runs a team. You all draft players according to a set number of positions (1QB 2RB 3WR 1DEF). When football starts you get points according to how your players perform. Every week you will be “playing” against another friend in the league. If your players get more points than your friends players, you “win”. Over the full football season you and your friends will have standings according to who has the best win-loss record.
Sometimes leagues will put money on the line. Everyone pays 50 dollars and the winner and runner up gets a percentage of the pot. It doesnt have to involve money, it can just be for fun.
People enjoy it cause it gives them a way to gamify all the sports knowledge and sports-watching they do during the season. Its for fun, bragging rights, helps old friends stay in touch, and keeps the games interesting when they are otherwise uninvested in the outcome.
Most Americans have one “hometown” team they root for, but fantasy football gives them some sort of incentive to be interested in all the games being played. You can make it about money, but primarily its just something for fun with minor financial rewards at stake.
u/Low_Chance
u/jkoh1024
**TL;DR:**
Fantasy football is just a game where players pretend to be football team owners/managers by picking the names of real life NFL players, to make a whole roster,
then
watching to see how many “points” those real life players generate in their real life games, and using that to calculate
“ok in fantasy land, my fantasy team built with those players would have made X many points this week”
The goal each week is for your fantasy player list to earn more points than your opponent’s list.
NOTE: This isn’t just American Football. Versions of this exist for really any sport.
Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasypremierleague/
——————————————
The premise is that people can play a game where they pretend to be football team owners/managers at home. That’s the “fantasy”.
You get to be an imaginary team sports owner.
The way you play the game and track success or failure is that before the real life NFL season starts, everyone looks at ONE big list of all the real life players that are available in the real life league that year.
Then the fantasy players take turns building their fantasy teams. This usually starts with a “draft”, just like in real life (USA format) sports.
**THE DRAFT:** Lets say you have 5 people in your fantasy league. They all meet up, with a list of all the available players, and take turns in order, 1 2 3 4 5. 1st guy picks a player, 2nd guy picks one player all the way down to 5. Then 1st guy picks again, 2nd guy picks again, kind of like picking teams on a school playground.
Once all the team fantasy league teams rosters are filled, then you wait to have the “games”.
Ok, so now that we have all built our pretend teams, in our pretend league, every week we’ll play (on-paper) games against each other.
Each week, your team is matched up against one other persons fantasy team.
When all the real life NFL players go play in their real life games, you look at the stats for their real life performances, (how much did that player score, how many yards did that player get) and you try to translate that into “ok so if that player is on my fantasy team, then all the good things they did this week would have helped my pretend fantasy team how much?”. Each fantasy league will use some sort of points value for every thing a player can do.
example, a player might get 1 pt for every yard they run, and 2 points for every ball they catch, and 10 points for scoring, and the might LOSE 10 points for every fumble, etc etc.
—————————
At the end of every football weekend, when all the (real life) games are done, and we have the full numbers for every (real life) player, then all the fantasy team owners can count up how many points their fantasy teams players made for them that week.
If my fantasy team added up more points than my opponents fantasy team that week, then I “won” my match that week.
Just like real life leagues, you try to be the person that won the most weekly matches.
——————————
**Roster Management**
This is where fantasy gets super involved and fun.
You built your team day one by that draft right? But you get to try and make changes to your team all season, a few different ways.
Throughout the year, all the fantasy owners will probably decide they need to make some changes to their team. Maybe a player they DO have isn’t getting points and needs to be replaced. Maybe a player they DON’T have is doing really well, and they want to pick that player up.
How do they do that?
First if the player is available then they can just get them. If no one else in their league already took that player, then they can just take that player for themselves. (however, that usually means they have to DROP another player, to make room on their roster)
But if someone else in their league DOES already have the player, then you can TRY convincing that fantasy owner to trade you their player for someone you have. The trades get pretty fun and crazy.
Example reasons why an owner will need to drop players they have to pick up players they don’t have:
The real life player isn’t playing well. (not making enough points)
The real life player gets suspended/injured/benched. (not getting any points that way)
Some OTHER real life player is doing really well and you want that guy instead
Here is where it gets complicated. First, **USUALLY** if its late in the season and you need to replace a player (because he is hurt, suspended, or playing badly) all the GOOD players at his position are already taken. Its going to be hard to find another good one available.
But second, if you drop a player, you are exposing them for other players. So, let’s say you have the best QB in the game. But Oh No! That QB bruised hand and he is going to be out for… 3 weeks.
I COULD replace him with a different QB so that I can get points right? Except that means as soon as I drop him, someone else can snatch him up, and I’ll never get him back.
SO I have to consider what is good for my team? what is everyone else’s team doing? Do I think someone else will take him? Sometimes you may have to hold a player just to stop other people from taking him, because that player would really help THEIR team, and you don’t want to let them make their team better.
————————————————-
**Start/Sit**
But also, in almost every league you have MORE players on your fantasy roster than you actually get points for in a game. Some guys are “on your bench” so to speak.
So every game week, part of managing your fantasy roster is deciding which of my players do I want to “start” and which do I want to put on the bench?
Simple example,
I have 2 quarterbacks. I can only get points for ONE of them each week. So this is where I use my knowledge of football to try and predict which guy I will get more points with and start that guy.
Maybe QB1 is better, and gets a lot of points (in real life) so I start them most weeks. But when week 5 comes, I look at the (real life) NFL schedule and realize “oh no, my QB1 is playing against the (real life) toughest defense in the NFL. He isn’t going to get many points this week. WHo does my QB2 have? Oh boy! My QB2 is playing against a real life team with a terrible defense, and a great offense. That means he’s probably going to be a high scoring game. I should bench QB1 and start QB2 this week
—————————————-
**bonus rules**
so that’s all the basic stuff. Some leagues add in extra stuff to make the game more interesting or realistic.
Some leagues do a thing called “dynasty” which just means every year is a continuation of the last. Instead of building your team from scratch every year, you start with what you had last year and just add/drop/draft just like the real life teams do. This makes things more challenging as player acquisitions can have far reaching consequences.
Some leagues do “salary caps” where players get a “dollar” value assigned, and just like real life, there is a total limit on what your team can cost. So if you want to best most expensive QB, you are going to have to use some real strategy to build the best team when everyone is limited by the same total dollar amount. (this puts it on the fantasy owner to really know how to get value out of players)
BETTING: Lastly, you don’t have to bet money on this. The game format itself is just for fun. However, just like any game, you can choose to “bet” on it if you want.
The most common original form of fantasy betting was just the idea that since you need a group of people to really make this fun, a lot of friend groups or work office groups that would do this, would often attach a “pool” to it.
That is, everyone at the beginning of the fantasy year pays some small amount like $5 to buy in. Then the champion gets the whole pot (or 1st 2nd, 3rd tier whatever) at the end of the year.
Also many groups will do some form of first place last place prize and penalty. Like, the champion usually wins some sort of trophy plus bragging rights. The last place loser may incur some sort of good natured penalty, like having to do some sort of hazing. (hypothetical example for friends that play the same league year after year, maybe we decide that, for the 2024 year, the first place winner gets to pick the team name for the last place winner the next year and they have to use it. So when the 2025 year starts the last place guys team name is gonna be “butthole brad’s dingeberry dream team” because well Brad placed last in 2024, and Steve who came in first thinks that name is hilarious”
It makes more sense when you are familiar with the stats used to determine fantasy points. You’re just betting that the individuals on your fantasy roster will have more yards or score more points IRL, which are tallied into fantasy points for those players you’ve picked. You’re matched up against another shlub with a roster of their own chosen players. If you score more total points by the end of the football week, you win that match.
Latest Answers