37 percent of Americans report football as their favorite sport to watch, according to Gallup. Football has many draws: the brutal tackling, the strategy, the high intensity. What could make this sport better? What if the fans themselves could participate, and not just in amature leagues, but in the major leagues? That is what the digital phenomenon fantasy football is about.

Senior Betsy Romans counts herself amongst football fans.

“My family’s always been a huge football family,” Romans said. “Sunday football’s like a holiday: you just expect everyone over and make a lot of food, so it’s just always been a big thing.”

Ninth grader Charlie Johnson agreed:

“My grandpa and my uncle played in college, and I’m playing now, and it’s sort of been through our family, my dad played too.”

This initial appreciation of football is mainly what draws people to fantasy football.

“I just like football, so that’s just a motivator to like keep watching all the different teams, and see how they do, and then also, I’m just a competitive person so I like being able to have a part in the football games… I think it makes it, football season, just that much more fun,” Romans said.

A Fantasy football season begins with a draft, where everyone gets to choose the players they want on their team. Then, the real season begins, “Your goal throughout the week, so you play twelve weeks the regular season and then the last four weeks of the season are like the playoffs, so for the first 12 weeks you play against every different team in the league, and then whoever has the higher score wins, and then the top give or take four teams go in the playoffs,” Johnson explained.

While fantasy football is a mainly digital, it also brings family and friends closer together. “I did play it with my family, but now I play it with my friends. I’m in different leagues, I’m in two different leagues, with different friends, um, but uh, I mostly play with friends.” Johnson said. For Romans, the fantasy football is a family affair, “It’s like my house family and then all my cousins do to… Like all the people in Minnesota, so my mom’s side.”

Johnson hopes to improve his ranking as the season progresses, “I’m two and two right now… Not as good as I would have hoped, but give it some time and I think it’ll be okay.”

This story was originally published in the October issue of The Rubicon