Fantasy Football has been in full effect for the last 13 weeks, and many students as well as faculty are participating in different leagues. Fantasy Football is an online activity, so it has been able to continue normally through quarantine. Many of the students are in leagues that combine their family members and Loyola friends, creating a competitive environment to look forward to on the weekends.
Freshman Sam Sung said, “I’m in a family league with my uncle, mom, dad, and two [Future Cub] brothers.”
Freshman Alekos Binder is the commissioner of a league with other Loyola freshmen. He said, “It’s a free league, but the winner gets tons of bragging rights.”
All of these leagues raise a very important question. Has the inability to be on campus together had any sort of effect on Loyola students’ leagues?
When asked about this, junior Joseph Frey said, “I wouldn’t say that not being on campus at Loyola has affected it much other than that trades have to happen over text instead of in person.”
Trades are a very important part of fantasy football leagues, and usually require much persuasion. The problem presented with the loss of face-to-face in-person bartering is that it can be a harder to get your point across via text messages, and it feels much more impersonal. Digital communication leads to many more misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
Junior Sam Yoon however, disagrees. He said, “I don’t think that not being on campus has affected fantasy football.” Sam is in “two fourteen team PPR leagues and one twelve team non-PPR league.” All three of those leagues are with his friends. He believes it’s the same as usual, just online. Yoon said,” I text and FaceTime my friends often to discuss fantasy football,” He does this as a way to make trades and simply charm, and in doing so, he gets rid of the impersonal feeling and the misunderstandings.
Freshman Alekos Binder usually sets up a draft party for people to meet up, chill, and draft fantasy teams; however, with COVID-19, he has been unable to do so.
Binder said, “Having a draft party is a lot of fun because you get an excuse to hang out while you competitively draft your team, which makes the whole season a lot more fun. Because of covid and distance learning, we had a zoom meeting instead.” Once again we can see some things have been replaced with online options to follow quarantine protocol.
A PPR league means each player gets a certain amount of points per reception (hence the acronym PPR), and the team with the highest number of points for each week wins. Usually two teams are set against each other, and the winner is the one with the most points. By the end of the season, the person with the best record wins.
Joseph Frey shared an interesting story caused by this point system. He explained, “This year one of the other guys lost one week by .04 points, which is equivalent to one passing yard.”
Fantasy football allows for these funny. Sam Yoon added,” Earlier this season I was down four points with Julio Jones left to play. Julio caught one ball for fifteen yards, strained his hamstring, and did not play again. I ended up losing my game by about one point.”
None of these leagues are run by Loyola High School, but they all share one thing: a group of Cubs with a winning spirit. Fantasy football is no idle sport; it’s very involved and trading takes a lot of persuasion and research. It adds a whole level of fun to the game of football and is a great activity that many members of the community actively participate in.
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