Every year at the end of August, people of all ages find themselves meticulously plotting out the perfect assortment of players to create a winning season in fantasy football. Fantasy football is a game where participants are the managers of their team, draft their players, create the starting lineup, and trade players. Each week a person’s team plays another team in their league. As the NFL players pass, run, sack, catch, kick field goals, and score touchdowns, the participants gain points. Whichever team has the most points wins.

Fantasy football was created in 1963. Bill Winkenbach, an owner of the Raiders, had friends over and created the first fantasy football league. After realizing how fun it was, he decided to join the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognostication League (GOPPL). Fantasy football started to gain popularity as people began using the internet.

In 1985, the Grandstand Sports Service created the first fantasy football league online. Since then fantasy football’s popularity has grown rapidly. In 1988, there were only 500,000 users. Now there are more than 60 million. Out of that 60 million, 71 percent of all players are between the ages of 18 and 39.

There are plenty of participants at Wilmington Friends School. Jake Mahesawari ‘27 is in a league with fellow sophomore foot- ball players. He enjoys participating in fantasy football because it is very competitive and makes you watch more football games. Ma- hesawari believes that there is no downside to participating in fantasy football. He believes that you still have fun even if you lose. When asked if he has ever lost he said, “No, I don’t plan on losing. I only strive for greatness.”

A well known aspect of fantasy foot- ball is the punishments that the losers have to do. Mahesawari mentioned that the loser of their league had to eat hot wings made by the other members. A punishment that went viral last year on social media had the loser be put in a dog cage. The other members could pour anything they wanted on the loser, such as eggs, sardines, ketchup, mayo, or spoiled milk. Cooper Strauss ‘26 mentioned that his league planned to make the loser dress up to go trick or treating in the middle of the summer and get 5 pieces of candy. Many hold the belief that punishments increase the competition in the fantasy football leagues.

While Mahesawari believes there are no negatives to participating in fantasy football, Rob Tattersall ‘91 and Quinn Mar- shall ‘27 see not only the positives, but also the downsides. Marshall is not participating in fantasy football this year, but has in pre- vious years. This year Quinn Marshall ‘27 decided not to play because he did not want to worry about who to draft. When asked who would be his first pick he said either Patrick Mahomes or Christian McCaffrey. Although Cristian McCaffrey is injured he is a very dominant player, averaging 24.7 points a game. McCaffrey was the overall number-one draft pick last year. Marshall mentioned that many fantasy teams are struggling because of injuries like McCaffrey. He believes the most important player on a fantasy team is the quarterback. “Quarterbacks are the base of your team, they can gain you lots of points,” Marshall says.

One reason he decided not to participate is because he believes it is hard to be a fan of a team and have a fantasy football team. “You could draft opponents from your favorite team and you could play them, and either root against your fantasy team or your favorite football team,” Marshall says. Like Quinn Marshall ‘27, Rob Tat- tersall ‘91 sees both positives and negatives. Rob Tattersall is an alum who is now the head coach of the Wilmington Friends Team. Tat- tersall is not a participant in fantasy football, because he finds it distracting from watching football and following his favorite teams. De- spite this opinion, he sees the positives; that one gets to stay connected with their friends who live far away. Majority of the users have multiple leagues to participate in with old friends and friends who live in different states. Not only does fantasy football help friend groups with distance, but it also pro- vides friend groups who see each other all the time with something fun and exciting to focus their energy on. Lots of friend groups gather to draft players and watch football games. Ad- ditionally, it encourages friendly banter about whose team is better.

Thanks to Bill Winkenbach, almost 30 million users are able to enjoy creating the perfect football roster. Because of fantasy football’s enormous popularity, it has led to community creation for the players. Through- out the season their football team will experi- ence wins and losses, but each player will take away fun experiences, and a newfound under- standing for the game of football.