The 10 Best Work Leagues to Join

Unless your life is like the Dilbert comic strip or you work with a crew of Michael Scott clones, chances are you have a fair amount of coworkers you actually—gasp—enjoy hanging out with.

Still, mixing business with pleasure can be dangerous. After all, if you are late to work after a night out on the town with the coworkers—all because you fell asleep in the cab and ended up in the next town over—your colleagues will know why you look so disheveled as you stumble into the office at 10:30.

Who wants that?

Nope, the safest bet is to join a sports league with the folks you work beside. Most sports leagues offer a fun, somewhat competitive environment to bond with the office mates.

And these are your 10 best options.

10. Soccer

If you and a bunch of your coworkers played soccer before and are in good shape, a soccer league would probably be awesome.

If you didn't play soccer and/or you are out of shape, a soccer league will really suck.

Choose wisely, young grasshoppers.

9. Ultimate Frisbee

Want a fun and relaxed way to hang with your coworkers outside of work and get some good exercise in?

Ultimate Frisbee is up your alley.

Want a super-competitive, trash-talking extravaganza for you and some of your competitive office mates?

Ultimate Frisbee will really piss you off.

8. Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy baseball is the riskier of the two fantasy sports on this list, namely because fantasy baseball sucks with people who don't know what they are doing or don't pay attention.

If you have an office full of baseball nuts who will work the waiver wire and make daily roster adjustments, you are in for months of baseball conversations, trade negotiations and trash talk with your coworkers.

If not, you are in for a really boring league that you'll probably dominate by default.

7. Street Hockey

Street hockey is fun as hell, and chances are nobody that joins to play will be all that good.

So dust off the old roller blades, tape up the stick, and have fun shooting pucks at the annoying and power-hungry supervisor you all voted in as the goalie.

6. Madden (Or Any Other Video Game) League

This is something I've always wanted to put together.

Grab a bunch of folks from the office, do a fantasy draft on Madden (or your sports game of choice), and get together on Saturdays over some pizza and beer and play out that week of the season over the duration of the actual football season.

Throw some money in a pot and you've got yourself something even better than a fantasy league—a fantasy league you have some control over.

It's in the game, baby!

5. Poker

It may not be exactly like joining a league, but having a regular poker night with a handful of your coworkers is a great way to shoot the breeze over a few brews.

Not only that, but you can always win some money from the office sucker, or the guy who never puts a new pot of coffee on, or the guy who eats lunch at his desk and chomps away without closing his mouth...

4. Flag Football

Football in general is a blast, and flag football is a less physical way to experience the game, which is good for the casual football fans in the office.

But be forewarned—one of the keys to enjoying flag football on a team is being organized and on the same page as your teammates. If a few people want everyone to memorize plays before the game and install zone coverages, and others just want to "get open" and play man-to-man against the person they judge themselves as athletically equivalent to, your team is in trouble.

But if you have a group of workers who have an equal understanding of the game and generally get along, you'll have a blast.

3. Basketball League

Is there anything better than some pickup office basketball?

Round up a few of the guys in the office, head out to the court, talk as much smack as possible, and ignore the fact that you all drive the lane like Arvydas Sabonis and have an uglier—and less effective—jump shot than Shawn Marion.

Rain Dance!

2. Softball

Want to hang out with people from work in a relaxed, fun environment?

Softball is your ticket.

Buy a case of beer, oil up the old glove, and get ready for some competitive bonding with the folks you work with. But make sure you know your coworkers—the last thing you want to be is the class clown in a group that is all about winning, or the hyper-competitive guy on the team that brings a quarter-keg to each game and still goes to the bar afterwards.

Do that, and you'll be sure to hear snickers as you walk by your teammates in the office.

You don't want to be that guy.

1. Fantasy Football

Fantasy football was made for the office, and here are a few reasons why:

1. There is no need to be physically active or show everyone in the office just how out of shape you are.

2. It's a lot easier making fantasy football trades when you see the people in your league at least 40 hours a week.

3. A bit of trash talking can make the work day a lot more interesting.

4. Been trying to find an appropriate way to hang out with the hot chick at work after office hours? A fantasy football draft at a local bar could be your ticket.

5. Fantasy football is awesome. You should be in as many leagues as possible.

 Be sure to hit me up on Twitter (@TRappaRT) along with the entire B/R Swagger team (@BR_Swagger)