Fantasy Football articles - Sports Grumblings.com

Fan·ta·sy - (fan - tuh' - see), n.,

The creative imagination; unrestrained fancy.
Something, such as an invention, that is a creation of the fancy.
A capricious or fantastic idea; a conceit.
(a) Fiction characterized by highly fanciful or supernatural elements; (b) an example of such fiction.
An imagined event or sequence of mental images, such as a daydream, usually fulfilling a wish or psychological need.
An unrealistic or improbable supposition.

Foot·ball - (foot' - ball), n.,

A field game played with an inflated leather ball by two teams.
The ball used.

Fantasy football is just what the dictionary implies. A creation of the fancy concerning the game of football. For our purposes, we will focus on those fantasy football games that concentrate solely on the game of the National Football League (NFL).

The NFL has many fans worldwide, but few, if any, are as ardent as those that hold themselves as fantasy footballers. A typical NFL fan will know the stars around the league and many of the non-stars on his or her favorite team. A more ardent fan will go so far as to know the statistics of their favorite players and how they relate to the top players from around the league.

But the fantasy footballer goes even a step further. This fanatic, and make no mistake, the pursuit of fantasy football often leads to fanaticism, knows the statistics of even the most obscure of NFL players. The true fanatic can cite the third receiver on every team in the NFL and tell you approximately how they will do in the coming season, barring injury.

In it's simplest definition, fantasy football is a game whereby the average fan becomes the Owner, General Manager and Head Coach of his own professional football team. And he does so without spending the requisite millions that it typically costs a real NFL owner.

The game has been around for 20 years, give or take a few, and has attracted players from around the world. It has been estimated, by a Harris Poll no less, that approximately ten million people participate in some form of fantasy football each season. And it is growing.

Fantasy or Rotisserie Baseball is the second most popular sport but it only attracts around 60% of the people that football does. And the gap is growing.

At its beginning, fantasy football required a great deal of imagination and work. There were no computerized aids, no magazines, no Internet. There were only fans, notepads, pencils and lots of imagination.

Rumors abound as to the genesis of Fantasy Football, but it seems to be accepted that it began inauspiciously in Oakland, California around 1962 with some members of the Oakland Raiders front office and the local media.

One of the longest running leagues is the Wagon Wheel Fantasy Football League that is based in Spokane, Washington and has been in operation since 1979. This league is somewhat unique in that of it's 11 original members, five are still active with the league today. How's that for passion?

As the game became more and more popular, US businessmen saw the opportunities it presented. You see, the vast majority of fantasy players were middle class males in their prime spending years.

This spawned the magazines and some simple computer programs that helped a commissioner enter the week's statistics and produce some fairly basic reports. The reports aided all the players in their decision making process.

By the early to mid 90's the Internet was becoming more a part of America's life. In the mid 90's fantasy football websites began appearing, offering more and more information. More information meant for better decisions and better owners meant for better competition. About this time some of the bigger companies started seeing the profit potential and spawned some fantasy-like contests. Some of these offer exorbitant winnings, but only at lottery-like odds.

Today one can find just about any information they need at the click of a mouse. Fantasy specific sites, fantasy newsletters, information directly from the NFL or the individual teams and injury information are all available to the fantasy footballer that seeks it. Some of the information is free; some of it costs money. One thing about any of it though is that it is all based on better information than was available even to team insiders in years past.

These classes are designed to prepare the novice and the experienced fantasy footballer for whatever level of the game and competition they would like to attempt.