Fantasy Football Guide Part 1: What Is Fantasy Football?

Reprinted from www.SCFantasyFootball.com.  Make sure to check out the entire guide!

So, what’s the first thing you need to know to have a winning season in fantasy football?  Well, knowing what Fantasy Football is would be a good start! 

Fantasy football is a game, largely played on the Internet where people create “fantasy” (that is, fake) teams out of NFL players.  Each week, fantasy teams are matched up against each other, and compete for the most “fantasy” (that is, really fake) points. 

These fantasy points are accrued by the performance of the individual players on each fantasy team.  That’s the most important thing to remember, which can be difficult to grasp for some.  Fantasy sports are entirely dictated by the real-life player’s performance in that week’s real-life game. 

Fantasy teams are largely made up of “skill” players: quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. 

There are other positions as well.  Usually a league allows you to play a team’s entire defensive unit, where you gain points as they rack up sacks, intercept passes, and recover fumbles.  They also usually get a bonus (or penalty!) depending on the number of points they allow their opponent to score. 

Each team also has a kicker, who gains points by kicking field goals and nailing PATs. 

At the end of the day, the game combines the points from all your players and the guy with the higher score wins. 

That’s the basic gist of fantasy football but, obviously, there’s a lot more to it. 

*There’s some important info about defensive scoring setups in the Alternative Scoring section.  To be honest, the scoring section is probably the most important in this guide.