Fantasy Football - more than just a game about a game

In the summer of 2007 my friend C.T. emailed me asking if I would be interested in doing FF...I did not know what I was getting into at the times, but my life would be forever changed, and now I have 8 seasons under my belt.

Fantasy football is a game where how players do in the real-world NFL is translated into points. You have players on your team, and verse the other members of your league every week; the person with more total points wins the matchup.

Because the league is with friends I grew up with in my home church, so much pride is on the line. Every Sunday I don’t check the fantasy football matchup scores until Sunday night because I know I’d just get super antsy.

I've played in other leagues besides this one, but this will always be the one I care about the most.  Here are some performance measurement statistics (yellow highlight means that he won the Championship that year).

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	Sum W-L	Winning %
David C.								12-4	12-4	0.750
Matt W.	11-5	12-4							23-9	0.719
Fred Y.		10-6							10-6	0.625
Joe C.	10-6	11-5	12-4	7-9	11-5	12-4	0-13		63-46	0.578
Will F.	7-9	7-6	5-9	11-5	10-6	10-6	11-5	9-7	70-53	0.569
Billy W.	9-7								9-7	0.563
Dave L.		9-7	10-6		6-8	9-7			34-28	0.548
Brian T.					7-9	10-6	10-6	6-7	33-28	0.541
Tom W.			8-8	13-3	8-8	6-7	8-8	7-9	50-43	0.538
David D.	8-8	5-8	9-7	8-8	6-8	11-5	10-6	8-8	65-58	0.528
James C.		8-8							8-8	0.500
Eric L.		9-7	7-9						16-16	0.500
Caleb T.	5-9	9-7	11-5	7-9	5-9	9-7	5-11	11-5	62-62	0.500
Matt L.						8-8	10-6	4-9	22-23	0.489
Justin H.	11-5	4-9	4-10	6-10	7-9	6-7	13-3	8-8	59-62	0.488
Eric H.	9-7	4-9	9-7	8-8	9-7	10-6	4-9	4-9	57-62	0.479
Shawn W.	6-10	7-9	6-8	9-7	5-9	3-10	9-7	10-6	55-66	0.455
Peter Y.						5-8			5-8	0.385
Tim Y.		3-10	7-9	5-9	9-7	1-12	5-8	7-9	37-64	0.366
Brian W.		5-8	4-10	4-10	9-7	3-10	5-8	4-9	34-62	0.354
Pat L.	2-12								2-12	0.143

And here is the data filtering out everyone who has participated <4 years (half the age of the league).

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	Sum W-L	Winning %
Joe C.	10-6	11-5	12-4	7-9	11-5	12-4	0-13		63-46	0.578
Will F.	7-9	7-6	5-9	11-5	10-6	10-6	11-5	9-7	70-53	0.569
Dave L.		9-7	10-6		6-8	9-7			34-28	0.548
Brian T.					7-9	10-6	10-6	6-7	33-28	0.541
Tom W.			8-8	13-3	8-8	6-7	8-8	7-9	50-43	0.538
David D.	8-8	5-8	9-7	8-8	6-8	11-5	10-6	8-8	65-58	0.528
Caleb T.	5-9	9-7	11-5	7-9	5-9	9-7	5-11	11-5	62-62	0.500
Justin H.	11-5	4-9	4-10	6-10	7-9	6-7	13-3	8-8	59-62	0.488
Eric H.	9-7	4-9	9-7	8-8	9-7	10-6	4-9	4-9	57-62	0.479
Shawn W.	6-10	7-9	6-8	9-7	5-9	3-10	9-7	10-6	55-66	0.455
Tim Y.		3-10	7-9	5-9	9-7	1-12	5-8	7-9	37-64	0.366
Brian W.		5-8	4-10	4-10	9-7	3-10	5-8	4-9	34-62	0.354

So I’ve played in 123 weeks...are you serious. This game is in my opinion 50% luck, 50% skill, which makes it so addicting. Second place feels just as bad as last place. The year I won the championship wasn’t even one of my best teams ever. 

This game has taught me commitment, critical thinking, and stress management - here’s to another 8 years.

*Addendum*

	BrianT	BrianW	Caleb	David	Eric	Justin	Matt	Shawn	Tim	Tom	Will
BrianT		3-2	5-2	4-3	3-2	3-2	2-4	3-2	5-3	4-2	2-6
BrianW	2-3		5-5	2-6	1-6	4-5	1-4	3-4	4-6	2-5	3-8
Caleb	2-5	5-5		7-7	6-6	7-6	3-2	7-4	4-4	4-3	4-7
David	3-4	6-2	7-7		5-5	8-4	5-1	3-7	8-2	5-6	4-8
Eric	2-3	6-1	6-6	5-5		4-8	2-1	2-5	6-3	6-6	5-4
Justin	2-3	5-4	6-7	4-8	8-4		2-2	8-3	6-3	5-2	3-8
Matt	4-2	4-1	2-3	1-5	1-2	2-2		1-4	1-4	2-2	2-2
Shawn	2-3	4-3	4-7	7-3	5-2	3-8	4-1		5-4	4-7	3-7
Tim	3-5	6-4	4-4	2-8	3-6	3-6	4-1	4-5		4-7	3-6
Tom	2-4	5-2	3-4	6-5	6-6	2-5	2-2	7-4	7-4		5-6
Will	6-2	8-3	7-4	8-4	4-5	8-3	2-2	7-3	6-3	6-5

This is a historical matchups chart, with the best % and worst % matchups highlighted for each person.