Fantasy football is a way to enjoy the sport from an unbiased perspective and earn bragging rights from your peers.

“We take it very seriously,” teacher Tony Smith said. “We have a trophy carved out of oak with a gold name plate on it for the winner of our fantasy league.”

There are a couple main websites to choose from when it comes to fantasy football, including ESPN.com, NFL.com and Yahoo.com, but most of them work similarly.

After choosing a website, you join a league with either friends or strangers, whatever your preference is. Each league has a different point system set up, which is also preference.

Next, you create your team demographics such as team name, logo, and team colors.

Now on to the most important part, the draft. Each team needs one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, a tight end, and a defense kicker. There are six rounds in a draft and each team gets one player per round.

The early rounds are usually where running backs and wide receivers are taken because high scoring running backs and receivers are hard to come by.

After picking the rest of your team, you need to maintain your team and you have the choice to make trades. Every week, injuries are a problem faced by NFL players and teams alike. If a player from your team is injured for an extended period of time, it will cost you valuable points unless you “drop” the player and pick up a different player at that position who is healthy.
Trades between teams can also have a drastic effect on how much success your team has. While real trades in the NFL have no effect on your fantasy team, you can trade a individual players or group of players away in order to receive new players. Trades are useful when you need a player at a certain position or when you want a player from another fantasy team and are willing to give up one of your players.

Your entire roster works together to out score your opponent. There are different ways each player can score. For example, you get .1 point for every yard gained, and six points for every touchdown. However, you can also lose points by having one of your players fumble, throw an interception, or lose yards on the play. Your defense can earn points by recovering, getting interceptions, sacking the quarterback, forcing a fumble or scoring a touchdown.

Every week, you are matched up with another team in your league. The game lasts the whole week, starting Thursday night and ending Monday night. After all players have been played, the winner is the team with the most points.

The season lasts from week one to week thirteen. The winner of the league is the team with the best record.