Author Spotlight
Aanya Bansal
Juniors Hudson O’Neill, Alex Tiedt and Lauren McGuire play Fantasy Football for the friendly competition
It was gameday and the Kansas City Chiefs were playing the Las Vegas Raiders. Junior Hudson O’Neill had completed his stack of math and physics homework, but that didn’t mean he was about to turn the game on. O’Neill has watched barely 10 football games in his life.
Though he would rather do his AP Calculus BC homework than watch a football game, he still joined a Fantasy Football league with his friends — but just for kicks. In fact, eight of the ten people in his league aren’t avid football fans either.
“I just play Fantasy Football to do something fun with my friends,” O’Neill said. “I don’t really care about football.”
For O’Neill, the motivation to turn in a fantasy lineup each week comes from the chance to beat his football fanatic friends. So far, his record is 3-1, placing him second in his division.
Junior Alex Tiedt, O’Neill’s fellow league member, didn’t even attempt to pick his players. He just clicked the auto-draft button and called it good. The sport of football bores him — he’s been trying to convince his friends to do fantasy soccer instead.
O’Neill and Tiedt believe that spending time researching injuries and skill levels isn’t worth it. Neither one did any research prior to drafting their team, and O’Neill simply picked players based on their projected points.
“I really don’t think that trying has that much of an impact,” O’Neill said. “It’s pretty much luck. You pick good people, and then you put in the people that you picked and if they score well, they score well and if they don’t, they don’t.”
Like Tiedt, junior Lauren McGuire, and fellow member of their league, also auto-drafted. She participates in Fantasy Football for the competition — she gets a thrill in seeing if she wins or loses every week. Her record so far is 2-2. According to McGuire, if she put time into selecting her players, it wouldn’t be based on their stats or projected points.
“If I were to choose [players], I’d probably choose based on how cool their name sounded or how attractive I found them,” McGuire said.
McGuire, O’Neil and Tiedt aren’t in it to win. Instead, they’re focused on not losing to avoid the embarrassment of wearing an outfit selected by their friends to school — their league’s punishment for the losing girl and boy.
“Sometimes I think maybe I should try, but in the end, I don’t care that much,” McGuire said. “I just care about the Chiefs winning.”
Juniors Sam Burns, Anthony Mazza and Beck Rettenmaier play Fantasy Football in hopes to win money
20 touchdowns, 2,750 pass yards and 18 interceptions.
That’s not good enough. I need a better quarterback.
All off-season, juniors Sam Burns, Anthony Mazza and Beck Rettenmaier had been looking forward to drafting their fantasy teams. Ever since their first fantasy league in 8th grade, they can’t get enough of the process of selecting players and constantly refreshing their scores. It’s become a favorite hobby of theirs, whether it’s looking up statistics on ESPN or discussing player injuries with each other.
“Sometimes when I don’t know what to do I’ll go on and just go through all my players or talk to my friends about it,” Burns said.
Burns, Mazza and Rettenmaier play for money — all eight of their league members put in $20 at the start of the season, totaling $160 with $120 awarded to the winner and $40 to second place.
Prior to the draft, Mazza read up on the ESPN fantasy app and researched players. He spends at least two hours every week scanning through player info and keeping tabs on available trades. On Sundays, he watches a variety of football teams.
“I spend [Sunday] watching the Chiefs and then I watch whatever other games are on if I have time,” Mazza said. “So I spend at least three hours watching games every Sunday.”
Rettenmaier noticed that after starting fantasy, he’s inclined to watch football more frequently — he enjoys watching games that his fantasy players are in, as well as staying informed about other fantasy teams as well.
“Fantasy has definitely helped me expand into more of a football fan than a Chiefs fan,” Rettenmaier said.
The incentive of a cash prize has their entire league jumping at any opportunity to trade players and gain more points. Unlike O’Neill, Tiedt and McGuire, their life for the next four months will revolve around their fantasy league.
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