Since the beginning of the NFL season, fantasy football has become a big trend for many students and teachers at Sequoia High School. This popular activity has brought lots of attention to NFL games that are happening across the country.
IB Business teacher Gregory Stein has been playing fantasy football for 12 years.
“All in all, it’s a game of strategy, that you’re basically playing vicariously through actual football players on the field and hoping that your casual knowledge of football translates into successful fantasy football. I think
in the end, fantasy football is about minimizing risk,” Stein said.
A big part of fantasy football is choosing the right players who will perform the best, and the players who are the least prone to getting injured.
“I like younger players that generally don’t get injured and exciting players that are fun to watch. You want players that score a lot of points, so you know you’re looking for superstars,” IB math teacher Joshua Yezerski said.
He has been playing since the early 2000s and is currently competing in two leagues, one with a group of friends, and the other with a group of nine other teachers. Both of these leagues are going well for him, as he has Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts as quarterbacks, who are both exceptionally talented players.
Fantasy football builds critical thinking skills as you have to find the right players to draft and put in your lineup for the week that will benefit your team.
“I love the sport obviously, but then I also really like data analytics, and that’s kind of what fantasy football is about. It’s just analyzing different player performances and it’s a lot of strategy as well. So it’s a good combination,” senior Fantasy Sports Club president James King said.
Fantasy football has the factors of football such as connection building and strategy, without having to include the physical aspect of it, which makes it more appealing to many. There are a large number of students interested who don’t play football.
“I enjoy it because I’m a pretty competitive person but I don’t like playing the sport, so it’s a nice, easy way to let my competitive side out, and it also helps build strategic skill,” senior Gabrielle Vella said.
Through the hundreds of players that are drafted, there is one that stood out. Travis Etienne is the running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars who averages around 17 fantasy points per game and is a key player to many teams in leagues.
“Etienne has done pretty well. I’ve drafted him in a few leagues,” King said.
While fantasy football is fun for many people at Sequoia, it can get very competitive to the point where punishments are implemented, which can differ from league to league. Punishments are often given to the person who ends up in last place by the end of the season. One big punishment is the cage punishment, where the loser is put in a dog cage and has items including syrup, eggs or even flour dumped on them.
“I remember one of the funniest [items used in the punishment] was fish heads,” King said.
There are other unique, creative punishments that leagues come up with.
“Maybe the milk mile. Last year, the loser had to get a buzz cut, so we might bring that back,” sophomore Max Slayen said.
The milk mile is where one has to drink a large glass of milk, then run a lap around a track, and repeat four times. But not all leagues have an intense punishment like this. Some have a lot lower stakes on the line.
“Our punishment is not extreme by any means. I think the two losers have to just buy the others a nice dinner,” Vella said.
While fantasy football can be very engaging and fun, it can become a distraction to some as it requires a lot of attention.
“I took the year completely off this year. I won the championship last year in the league that matters most to me, with my close friends. After winning the championship, I decided that I needed to take a step back and just focus more on my personal life and not spend so much of my hobby time on that,” Stein said.
Although he has taken a break from it, he still enjoys watching football whenever it’s on TV. Gabrielle Vella has also tried to take her distractions away from fantasy football.
“I hear a lot of people talking about it at school, that was sort of distracting forme a little bit, so I actually have taken it off my phone. I don’t get the notifications anymore, so I guess it was distracting to me because, again, I’m really competitive. But yeah, I try to have it take up as little space [as possible],” Vella said.