fantasy football - wikipedia

Fantasy football (American)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fantasy football is an interactive, virtual competition in which people manage professionalfootball players versus one another. Fantasy football allows people to act as generalmanagers of a pseudo-football team. The players that an individual is able to manage areprofessional American Football players in the National Football League. The different actionspeople are able to make are: drafting, trading, adding/dropping players, and changing rosters.Due to the growth of internet, fantasy football has become far more popular in Americatoday than ever before.

History

Fantasy Football was invented in 1988, by Gary Chiappetta and David Mcnamara, who setup the rules on scoring. The two men were discussing players abilities, in a feud betweenRandall Cunningham (Eagles 1985-2001) and Jim Everett (Rams 1986-1997). Gary and Davidstarted to keep track of the players performances. Later they collected more players, creatinga team. Word got out and people gathered to join, Divisions and fantasy playoffs werecreated at that point. Records and scores were kept on paper until they continued the leagueon the internet for easier scoring in 1995. Although David resigned, Gary is still a team ownerin the league. The league is still in existence today.

Wilfred Winkenbach[1], a former Oakland area businessman and limited partner in theOakland Raiders, worked with Bill Tunnel, former Raiders Public Relations Manager, andScotty Starling, former reporter, to develop the rules that eventually became fantasy footballin 1962. It was on a team trip to New York City in 1962 in the Milford Plaza Hotel.

The inaugural league was called the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional PigskinPrognosticators League). The league consisted of eight-members—made up of administrativeaffiliates of the AFL, pro football journalists, or someone who had purchased or sold 10season tickets for the Raiders’ 1963 season. Each roster consisted of the following in theGOPPPL: two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, two fullbacks, four offensive ends, twokick/punt returners, two field goal kickers, two defensive backs/linebackers and twodefensive linemen.

Fantasy Football grew from its local grass roots game to a national sensation in 1989 whenover 100,000 participants competed in Pigskin Playoff. This game was sponsored by twelvemajor newspapers, American Airlines, and endorsed by the NFL. Archives of the originalgame, players, and prizes are available from the LA Times, NY Post, Chicago Sun Times,

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and others.

The game was conceived and developed by Robert Barbiere and Brad Wendkos ofPhoneworks who teamed with West Coast Ad Agency (Wakeman & deForest). PigskinPlayoff allowed readers of those papers to create a team of NFL players, earn stats for thoseplayers based on actual performance, trade those players on a weekly basis, and accruepoints in an effort to compete against one another to win prizes.

Today it is estimated over 18 million people compete in public and private leagues onlinenationally.

League types

There are several different types of fantasy football leagues. The two most popular types are:head-to-head and total points leagues. Type of league is the first thing in which a managermust designate to participate in.

Head-to-Head Leagues

In head-to-head leagues, a team matches up versus a different team each week. The teamwho receives the most points of the two receives a win for that particular week. Points aredictated by the scoring system that is either standard set by the website or custom set by thecommissioner. A team’s total is the sum of all players points in the starting lineup. The win-loss record is the most important statistic in head-to-head leagues, as it directly correlateswith the league champion. Teams with the best win-loss record advance to the playoffs. Iftwo teams have the same record, the tie-breaker is then decided by total points scored byeach team throughout the season.

Total Points Leagues

Total points leagues are leagues in which teams accumulate points on an ongoing basis. Theleague standings are determined by the teams’ total points rather than their win-loss record.The teams who accrue the highest total of points throughout the duration of the NFL-regularseason advance to the playoffs.

Dynasty Leagues

A dynasty style fantasy football league is a league where you retain most or all of yourplayers from year to year. This creates an environment which is very different from that of a



redraft league. By enabling team owners to keep players and build a team over time, there is amuch stronger sense of team ownership, and success is achieved with a greater sense ofsatisfaction.

Salary Cap Leagues

The salary cap football league is a particular type of dynasty league which adds anotherfactor of realism similar to the NFL: the salary cap. Just like in the NFL, this means eachplayer has an associated salary and the total spent on all the players on a team has amaximum - the "salary cap." This can have many levels of complexity, e.g. a player may besigned for multiple years, etc.

New league types

A new style of fantasy football is modeled after the popular "survivor pool" or "knock outpool" style of weekly NFL wagering that allows each pool member to pick one NFL team towin each week, but he or she can only pick that team once all year.

Similarly, survivor fantasy leagues allow owners to draft a fresh team of seven players eachweek, with each player only available to each owner one week per year. This added level ofstrategy places an emphasis on weekly NFL match ups, while at the same time diminishingthe negative consequences of injuries.

Another type of league, that allows for year round fantasy football is called SimulationFootball. Simulation Football uses a computer to simulate the games with simulated players,instead of relying on the NFL for its players and stats. The most basic type is a GM league,where all the player has to do is put together a team and the computer does most of thework. A much more involved type of simulation football is called a "Create-a-Player" or CAPleague. In a CAP league, top players vie for the chance to be a GM and put together a teamusing players that are created by other people. There are different types of scoring fordetermining who is a "top player" but the people are charged with making their player asgood as possible using the league's scoring system.

The popularity of fantasy football has filtered down into the collegiate level as well. FantasyCollege Football is gaining in popularity as diehard fantasy players and college footballfanatics combine two of their favorite passions into one. The most popular leagues involvethe BCS only schools while other leagues incorporate all FBS schools or even just the "non-BCS" schools.



The draft

Just like in real football, each year fantasy football leagues have a draft (note: in dynastyleagues, this normally consists of NFL rookies only), in which each team drafts NFL players.These players are kept unless "dropped" (aka become free agents) or are traded. In mostleagues, no player may be owned by more than one team, (although some leagues do allowfor this).

There are essentially two types of drafts. In a traditional "serpentine" (aka "snake") draft,owners take turns drafting players in a "serpentine" method, i.e. the owner who picks 1st inthe odd rounds picks last in the even rounds, in the interests of fairness. In an auction draft,each owner has an (imaginary) budget which he must use to purchase all his players in anauction format. Owners take turns nominating players for open bid. The owner who bids thehighest on each player receives that player (reducing their remaining budget accordingly). Afew leagues use a hybrid of the two styles, selecting a portion of their roster via auction, withthe remainder selected through a serpentine method.

Free agents and trades

Free agents and trades are integral components to maintaining a competitive rosterthroughout the duration of a season. Free agents exist in fantasy leagues that do not allowmultiple teams to have any one professional athlete. In these leagues, free agents areprofessional players that are not currently on any league members' rosters. You can add, orclaim, players anytime during the season.

At the beginning of every week, after the Monday night football game, team owners can claimfree agents. The waiver claims are processed later on in the week. If more than one teamowner claims a player, a team's waiver wire position determines who gets the player. A team'swaiver wire ranking is determined by things like team record and the number of free agentsalready added. The better a team's ranking, the more likely they will get the best free agents.This helps competitiveness as the season wears on. Usually there are several surprise playersthat are not drafted by any team and yet become some of the best fantasy players.

Some leagues have trade deadlines that are set, and others have a waiver period before freeagents can be picked up. This really depends as to how the league is set up. When a trade isproposed and accepted in some leagues there can be a voting period which will allow theleague to decide if the trade is acceptable or not.

Fantasy trade referees



Often within fantasy football leagues trades are made that cause controversy and areconsidered unfair by many other members of the league. These disputes are often settled byfantasy football trade referees. These third party sites feature experienced fantasy playerswho rule on trades and offer an objective third party opinion.

You may not need to use trade referees if your league uses the voting system in which theleague can approve or decline the trade that has been placed. In some leagues if there is avoting period and a trade referee in place, the trade referee can overrule the league voting andthis can cause controversy as well.

Team rosters

Each team is allowed a pre-determined number of players on its team, as well as a specifiednumber at each position that can or must be used in each game (the "starters"). Owners foreach team then determine each week which players will start (within the rules) and which willbe "benched". Just like in real football, bench players can become starters for variousreasons: due to other players' injury, poor performance, or if another player's team has a bye.

Each week, owners choose their starters for a game before a certain deadline. Whether to sitor start a player is usually based on strategic considerations including the player's past andexpected performance, defensive match ups, and so on.

Starters

Each team owner must designate which players from the team roster will be starters eachweek - i.e. the only players who will "score" any points. The following example is similar tomany common formats required for a starting lineup:

1 Quarterback (QB)2 Running Backs (RB)3 Wide Receivers (WR)1 Tight End (TE)1 Placekicker (K)1 Team Defense/Special Teams (DST)6 Bench (BN)

There are many variants on this. Some leagues use individual defensive players (IDPs) (and insome cases a punter) instead of or in addition to a combined Team Defense/Special Teams.Some other leagues use separate Defense and Special Teams. Another variant is the "flex"position, which can be filled by a player in one of several positions. Flex positions are often



limited to "WR/TE", "RB/WR", or "RB/WR/TE". Traditionally, this flex was required to bean RB, WR, or TE, however, some leagues allow any position to fill this flex slot as an "OP"(any Offensive Player). Some leagues do also have a 2 quarterback requirement for a startinglineup, yet providing another twist into the complexity of different scoring systems andlineups (Hendricks, 2007 Fantasy Football Guidebook pg 21-44).

Scoring

Players earn their team points based on their performance in their weekly games; for example,each touchdown counts as 6 points, a certain number of yards gained counts for points, andso on. In almost all cases, players earn points for passing, rushing, and receiving yards.Passing yards (sometimes touchdowns as well) typically earn about half as many points asrushing/receiving yards, since QBs normally get many more. Negative points are also usuallygiven for turnovers, and kickers earn points for field goals and extra points (sometimesnegative points for missed kicks). Bonuses can also be given for exceptionally goodperformances, like a QB throwing for over 300 yards, or a kicker making a long field goal.Team defenses earn points for things like sacks, turnovers, safeties, etc. Individual defensiveplayers typically do not earn points for team-wide stats such as keeping the opponent under acertain score or yardage total, but rather for tackles or turnovers made.

A typical scoring format follows. Again, there are many variations used:

1 point for 30 passing yards1 point for 20 rushing yards1 point for 20 receiving yards6 points for a touchdown4 points for a passing touchdown-2 points for every interception thrown or fumble lost1 point for each extra point made3 points for each 0-39 yard field goal, 4 points for each 40-49 yard field goal, and 5points for each 50+ yard field goal2 points per turnover gained by defense1 points per sack by the defense2 points for a safety by defense6 points for each touchdown scored by defense2 points for each blocked kick[2]

An alternate scoring format is the "pure yardage" league, in which touchdowns are ignored,and each player's passing, rushing and receiving yards are totaled. Some yardage leagues alsoconvert defensive stats into yards (ex., 50 yards for an interception, 20 yards for a sack),



whether for a team's defense, or individual players. Another scoring system counts onlytouchdowns, touchdown passes, and field goals for points. Many leagues also count pointsper reception (PPR). In PPR leagues your team scores points for every reception made by aplayer, usually a TE, RB and WR.

An alternative method for scoring defense is Individual Defensive Players or IDP fantasyfootball. The main difference being that players typically draft anywhere from 3 to 7individual defensive players during a draft as opposed to just one team defense. Sometimesthere are required positions to fill like 2 Linebackers, 2 Defensive Backs and 2 DefensiveLinemen and sometimes it's just 5 defensive players of any position you choose. There aremany different ways to draft IDPs and many have found this makes the later part of thefantasy draft more exciting. For instance, instead of drafting a 5th wide receiver in the 16thround that will typically be on your bench or dropped part way through the season, you areinstead drafting a "full-time" starting defensive player that can help you win your league.

Individual defensive players

Many leagues have now incorporated Individual Defensive Player (IDP) play into theirscoring systems. IDP play typically has roster space for three groups of defensive players:defensive linemen (DL), linebackers (LB) and defensive backs (DB).

One possible scoring system:

2 points per solo tackle1 point per assist6 points per defensive touchdown2 points per safety1 point per pass defended2 points per half sack2 points per fumble recovered2 points per forced fumble2 points per interception

All individual players

There are a few dynasty leagues that follow the NFL's roster model and score all possibleNFL players at all individual positions. Offensive linemen (OL) are scored by total yards andpoints minus sacks given up. Fullbacks are partially scored as offensive linemen because oftheir blocking duties. Kick and punt returners are scored by yardage and touchdowns.Punters are scored by net average and punts inside the 20 yard line.



Effect on spectatorship

The explosive popularity of fantasy sports, coupled with the availability of venuesshowcasing numerous live football games via satellite, has had significant effects on footballviewing and rooting habits among participants. Fantasy sports players watch more gametelecasts, buy more tickets and spend money at stadiums at a much higher rate than generalsports fans. For example, 55 percent of fantasy sports players report watching more sportson television since they started playing fantasy sports. [3] The NFL entered into a reportedfive-year, $600 million deal in 2006 with Sprint that was driven at least in part because offantasy sports, allowing subscribers to draft and monitor their teams with their cellphones. [4]

Critics charge that rather than supporting a favorite team in any one game, some fantasyowners may instead support the players on their fantasy rosters. Players are mixed on theimpact of the effects of fantasy football on fans' habits and preferences. In interviews withESPN, retired NFL QB Jake Plummer stated, "I think it's ruined the game." And, as retiredNew York Giants RB Tiki Barber noted about fantasy fans, "there's an incongruity in thewants."[5] However, Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley plays in four fantasyfootball leagues himself. [4]

For instance, a fantasy owner might have the quarterback from one team and the runningback from the opposing team on his roster, and end up hoping both teams score frequently.However, he will only cheer passing scores from the first team and running scores from thesecond. As another example, if a team is up by many touchdowns, the "owner" of a runningback on the losing team may be upset since the losing team will prefer passing instead ofrushing for the score.

NotesMark St. Amant's book 'Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie' (ISBN)The History of the GOPPPL - The Original Fantasy Football League(http://www.fspnet.com/wink.pdf)Hendricks, S. (2007). Fantasy Football Guidebook. Virtualbookworm.com. ISBN ,ISBN

Notable References: www.Rotowire.com

References



1. ^ http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/fantasy-football1.htm2. ^ Remember to start the players you think will have the most "Fantasy Points". Eisenberg,

Jamey (2008-07-18). "Draft prep: How to start a Fantasy league"(http://fantasynews.sportsline.com/fantasyfootball/story/10900399) . CBSSports.com.http://fantasynews.sportsline.com/fantasyfootball/story/10900399. Retrieved 2008-08-11.

3. ^ "CDM Appeals Court Victory Ensures Continued Fantasy Sports Growth"(http://fsta.org/news/pressreleases/CBCvsMLBAM.doc?PHPSESSID=glao8etoobku1pu8q98hln9262) . Fantasy Sports Trade Association.http://fsta.org/news/pressreleases/CBCvsMLBAM.doc?PHPSESSID=glao8etoobku1pu8q98hln9262.

4. ^ a b La Canfora, Jason (2006-08-13). "Beating Yourself Takes New Meaning"(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/12/AR2006081200740.html) . WashingtonPost.com.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/12/AR2006081200740.html.

5. ^ Garber, Greg. "Fantasy craze produces awkward moments for players"(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=2684942) .http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=2684942.

“Fantasy Football Leagues: Types of Fantasy Football Leagues”http://football.about.com/od/fantasygames/a/fantasyleagues.htm. About.com

“The History of Fantasy Football” http://coedmagazine.com/2007/11/12/the-history-of-fantasy-football-2/. Coedmagazine.com

"What is a Dynasty League" http://dynastyleaguefootball.com/dynasty-hq.Dynastyleaguefootball.com

External linksFantasy Football (http://www.dmoz.org/Sports/Fantasy/Football/) at the OpenDirectory Project

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_football_(American)"Categories: Fantasy sports

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