As high school fall sports rage on into November, students have widened their attention to a bigger domain: The National Football League.

Averaging over 17 million viewers per regular season game, the NFL has made way for dozens of other industries to profit off of America’s attention. The kingpin of success with football viewers everywhere is fantasy football, where avid football fans can join a selective league, draft their favorite players and compete against their friends.

Although fantasy football was created for the purposes of enjoying a sports-related activity with your friends, it has expanded past the jovial nature of its creation. “It’s a super fun tradition to do with my friends.. I’m super competitive and I like to beat my friends in anything,” senior Kaitlin Mariani said.

The intensity of fantasy football leagues is not uncommon. Popular punishments for coming in last place in a league have included shaving your head or eyebrows, being handcuffed, spending thousands of dollars, public embarrassment, and getting a tattoo/piercing of the winner’s choice. While ridiculous and often humiliating, thousands continue to participate in these leagues every year, with the hopes of getting to watch their friend go through utter degradation. “The worst consequence I’ve ever seen is someone walking around with an “I suck at Fantasy Football” sign taped to their body on the side of the highway for as long as the winner decides,” senior Bryon Haugabook said.

The process mimics the professional draft, where each person chooses the players they believe will secure them the victory of the year. As the season progresses, trades can occur, and each person acquires points based off of how well their chosen players play on their respective teams. As much strategy as there is in choosing the players for your team, there is just the same if not more luck involved.“It’s like a math equation almost, you have to see who else is playing, how many points they might score, how much playing time they will get, etc.. Honestly, it’s all about who you think is going to play the best in the most ideal conditions,” sophomore Garrett Valentine said.

The draft works on a random basis, unlike the NFL draft. In the NFL, the draft repeats with one team selecting a pick in each round on the basis of their record the previous year. In comparison, fantasy football often follows a “snake draft” order, where the draft order is reversed in each round. In either version of the draft, luck often plays a bigger hand than one might think, as your spot in the draft might be the key to your success, rather than any sort of game plan or special tricks.
NFL fantasy football has taken over the world and sports industry, as ESPN and other big sports organizations have entire sub-sections dedicated to fantasy football and the predicted highest draft picks come draft season. This year, the highest draft picks included Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, Najee Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers, Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams and Austin Ekeler of the Los Angeles Chargers. Running backs and wide receivers are consistently the top fantasy football draft picks, as point systems rely on running yards and touchdowns.

With an $18.6 billion market and hundreds of thousands of passionate users, it doesn’t look like fantasy football will be going anywhere anytime soon. As the NFL expands its games beyond national borders, with games in the U.K., Germany, and Mexico, fantasy football will boldly follow, garnering more love for America’s favorite sport.