Fantasy Football has become a hallmark of the fall football season, just as synonymous with American football culture as the Super Bowl or NFL Draft. The game has grown massively popular since its humble beginnings in 1962, with 29.2 million people playing Fantasy in 2022. To summarize, Fantasy Football works by creating a league with your friends, selecting players, and becoming the manager of your own team. ESPN and Yahoo are the most popular online sites for Fantasy as they feature in-depth rankings and draft processes. The goal in Fantasy is to have a roster made up of a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a defense/special teams, a flex (WR, TE, or RB), and a kicker score more points than your opponent by recording stats like receptions, yards, touchdowns, or for defense sacks and interceptions. The complicated real-world nuances of professional football, like matchups, injuries, and coaching, make drafting a team and setting your roster a challenge.
The highs and lows of Fantasy provide steady entertainment to fans throughout the season making NFL games seem more important as they have a direct impact on your success. Many people raise the stakes even more by putting money in a pot at the beginning of the season and giving it all to the winner or making the loser with the worst record do a punishment determined by other league members. At Belmont Hill, over 87% of students polled take part in fantasy football and almost 75% play in more than two leagues. However, students at BH still have mixed feelings about fantasy. Eli Warn ’26, said, “I like fantasy football. It’s a lot of fun to be in a league with all of your friends, but it’s frustrating when you draft a player that ends up getting hurt or doesn’t perform well.” Frustration is an accurate word as many responses to our poll had people lamenting the injury of a star wide receiver. Meanwhile, others replied with messages reveling in the success of their team in stringing together a 4-game winning streak. Ultimately, Fantasy is becoming more popular than ever, cementing its place in modern sports culture and the fabric of fall conversations at Belmont Hill.
