Fantasy football is a game in which the participants serve as general managers of virtual professional gridiron football teams. The competitors choose team rosters by participating in a draft in which all players of a real football league are available. Points are based on the actual performances of the players in the real-world competition. The game typically involves the National Football League, Canadian Football League, or college football.
There are two main types of fantasy football:
Traditional in which the competition can run either for an entire season or many seasons if it is a keeper league,
Daily is an accelerated version in which the contests are conducted over shorter periods, such as a week or a single day. Daily fantasy football is managed by commercial internet companies who charge a percentage of each betting pool. In the United States, the two largest firms are FanDuel and DraftKings.
What is the flex position in fantasy football?
In most leagues, the flex position typically allows you to play a running back, wide receiver or tight end. You want to select the player with the highest-projected number of points.
Some leagues restrict this position to RB/WR or WR/TE. If this is the case, you’ll want to build your bench with extra players in these positions so you have the maximum number of options to pick from on a week-to-week basis.
About Fantasy Football
Modern fantasy football can be traced back to the late Wilfred “Bill the Gill” Winkenbach, an Oakland, California businessman and a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders. In a New York City hotel room during a 1962 Raiders cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders Public Relations man Bill Tunnel and Tribune reporter Scotty Stirling, developed a system of organization and a rule book, which would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football.
The inaugural league was called the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League), and the first draft took place in the rumpus room of Winkenbach’s home in Oakland, California in August 1963. The league consisted of eight members, made up of administrative affiliates of the AFL, pro football journalists, or someone who had purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders’ 1963 season. Each roster consisted of the following in the GOPPPL: two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, two fullbacks, four offensive ends, two kick/punt returners, two field goal kickers, two defensive backs/linebackers and two defensive linemen. The current GOPPPL roster now includes two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, six wide receivers/tight ends, two kickers, two defensive backs, one return team, and a bonus pick for any position. As of 2012, the GOPPPL celebrated its 50th season and it still maintains its touchdown-only scoring heritage.
In 1969, Andy Mousalimas, an original creator of GOPPPL and participant in the inaugural draft, brought the game to his sports bar, the King’s X in Oakland where he added another couple of leagues. When the patrons of other Oakland and San Francisco bars visited for trivia contests they soon learned of fantasy football and passed the word about it. Due to the time-consuming nature of the game’s scoring it was difficult to pick up and spread slowly across the country.
