Fall has begun. With it comes school, high school sports, chillier mornings, and, of course, fantasy football among the people. Every August, NFL fantasy football leagues are put together around the country, and Park High School staff and students are no exception. With the rising popularity of this activity, participants are competing in leagues with stakes that range from money to doing silly things.
There is a wide range of the type of people who play each season; some get really into and take it very seriously like Bryan Beitel, a social studies teacher at Park High. He said he first played fantasy football when he was in college and played football for the Montana State University Bobcats.
At this time, around 1993, no one could use computers to manage their fantasy team, so Beitel said, “I remember you had to do it by hand.” You could only see the players’ stats in the newspaper and then you had to add up the points every week, he explained.
Beitel has been playing fantasy football ever since. He even said he was on it for four hours one day picking the players because he was a part of the auction draft which is, “My least favorite type of draft,” he explained.
Kate Lende, Park High librarian, talked about a time when she had pure luck. She said, “Mr. Lende convinced me to play in his league along with his parents and some friends.” She had no idea what she was doing so she just used auto draft to keep it easy.
Lende said, “The only time I ever really messed with it was when I had to switch out players who didn’t play. “She was very hands off with it the entire season but did admit that it made her more interested to watch football. She ended up winning a little bit of money without doing anything.
Stacy Sundling, a senior at Park High, did not finish his draft all the way but did get most of it done. He’s not really competitive in any way. He also doesn’t do it every year like Beitel, he really only started it because he was very influenced by Cole Bartz, a previous Park High graduate. He learned a lot from him and understood how it worked more. According to Sundling and Beitel, fantasy football leagues are a little challenging at first and easier as you understand what you’re doing.
The season really kicks off as it is getting closer to January, between the fight for waiver wires to the constant drop/adds.
The season is marked by the trades people desperately try to make their teams better, all the wild smack talk people do when they think they are tough or are too confident, and worst of all, having to root for your most hated team because your fantasy player happens to be on it.
There’s different reasons why people play Fantasy football. Some people play it just to play it like a hobby which is what Sundling does it for. Beitel, on the other hand, does it for the money but, also mainly does it for the fun aspect of it. He said,” in one of my bigger money leagues last year, I won the league and there was a nice chunk of change I had earned.”
There’s also the really crazy and competitive people outside of the money aspects who do bets and if they lose, they have to suffer some type of consequence. Sundling told a story of, “I saw this thing where there is lion hunting, where you have to dress up as a lion and get shot at with paintballs.” Some brutal stuff ends up happening when people lose.
Fantasy football sounds like some crazy thing people would want to stay away from, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. There’s a chance it might become a new favorite and it can be very engaging and fun when you understand what’s going on.