Fantasy Football Lingo (and how to use it in a sentence)

[Cornfed Pigskin]

With Fantasy Football season now in full swing (are you ready?), I thought I'd help those new to the sport get brushed up on come common FF words and phrases.

Commissioner: A person of infinite responsibility, fairness, and sometimes a little clout, the commissioner is responsible for the details of his or her league. Commissioners set up the invite list, the scoring, report results, maintain waivers, and keep track of the entrance fees/winnings. The average commissioner is usually king or queen of the water cooler, can distribute quick and witty trash talk evenly amongst the team owners, and has held the title for several seasons, whether by default or cruel joke.
Sentence: I promise to be nice to my league commissioner so that I'll never have to do his/her job.


League: The group of owners rallied by a commissioner. Often comprised of old college friends, coworkers in need of something other than work to fill their 8-hour day, or family members needing another reason to pick on each other. Each league may have it's own rules, scoring, and drafting procedures. Some common types of leagues are the Dynasty League and the Keeper League. In a Dynasty league, you maintain your entire team year over year with the ability to make minor adjustments during the drafting season, depending upon how well the team finished the year before. In a Keeper League you keep a certain number of key players year over year and draft the rest. Most informal leagues are comprised of teams that are completely rebuilt each year to allow for possible owner transitions.
Sentence: By joining the Fantasy Football league at work, I actually get paid to talk trash to my boss.

Draft: The specific time and day selected by the commissioner for the owners to pick their team members. Drafts are usually set up in the form of an auction (each owner has a specific amount of money and each player assigned a certain value) or serpentine (owners are randomly ranked on a list to determine the 1st round picking order; this order is than reversed for the second round, etc). Countless hours of ESPN footage and internet research boil down to about 90 minutes of mouse-crushing tension.
Sentence: I snagged LT in the draft, and I've forgotten the names of everyone else on my team.

Of course, the terms above are the most obvious ones. Here's a few you may not be so familiar with:

ADP: A useful draft preparation guide, the Average Draft Position ranks players in terms of how they are currently drafted in the most popular Fantasy Football sites.

Sleeper: The Holy Grail of Fantasy Football, a "sleeper" is relatively unknown player that (the owner hopes) has a phenomenal season. Sometimes this selection is based on true analysis, sometimes it's a gut feeling, and sometimes it's because you got trigger happy with the mouse during the draft.

Running Back By Committee (RBBC): A strategy used by NFL teams to divide the attention (i.e. yardage, touchdowns, points, abuse) between two running backs, usually splitting talent by speed and size. This can play havoc with fantasy leagues that put a lot of emphasis on running back performance, so make sure you draft accordingly.

Quarterback By Committee (QBBC): Not utilized by the NFL (at least not on purpose) this fantasy football drafting strategy is used by owners who fill the first few slots of their draft with powerful running backs and wide receivers, and then pad the rest of their roster with 2 or 3 solid, but less flashy quarterbacks. This (in theory) allows them the chance to select an attractive QB/weak pass-rush defense pairing each week.


I hope this helps a bit - and I'm sure there are more phrases out there. Anybody care to add to it?

[screamingmimi04]

Thanks so much for giving us some of the terminology that applies to fantasy football. I only knew the obvious ones, lol.

If I come across some terms that I don't understand, I sure will post them here and hopefully you can help me with them!!

I love football, but have never had a team in a fantasy league. I'm hoping that you can help us to understand how we can get started and perhaps to join in all the fun!!

[Cornfed Pigskin]

It's NFL Eve! Set your TiVos, pop your popcorn, and prepare for another winter weekend hibernation - football season kicks off tomorrow!

Because I'm brimming with some pre-season excitement, I thought I'd add to the list of terms. I actually had to look up a couple the other night during a draft (my league commissioner was throwing around some doozies and couldn't just nod and agree). Here's a few more:

Flex Position: A bumper crop of running backs or wide receivers, a few fantasy leagues will create an extra position on the team to account for injuries, bye-weeks, under-performances. This works well if you don't happen to draft well in the running back department, you can pick up a wide receiver to help catch the points your running back dropped or fumbled.

Vulture: Can also be used as a verb. Vultures are typically larger, shorter-yardage running backs whose sole job is to get the football from near the goal line to the end zone. While it sounds good in theory, these points often come at the expense of the starting quarterback whom you've drafted (and who hauled the football for eighty yards down the field only to watch as the undrafted player soaks up all the juicy points).

Handcuffing: Not as kinky as it sounds, this drafting strategy involves drafting a backfill position. For instance, if your starting running back isn't yet guaranteed to get most of the carries, or is part of a team that runs the ball by committee (see original post), handcuffing would allow you to pick up the Number Two player on the team to insure you are fully covered in the event one person gets hurt, gets arrested, or is just downright awful.

Homer: A drafting strategy which entails drafting players entirely from one's hometown or alma mater. About as effective as choosing players based on their color ensembles (unless the hometown is somewhere in Florida or Texas). While it may not promote a winning team, it's a great way to introduce non-competitive players to football as it forces them to get involved on a player by player basis.


That's all I have for now - just wanted to check in! See you at kick-off!

[stacy123]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great info. Lots of things you listed here that I didn't have a clue about.

I have been going to try to start a fantasy team but since I am a newbie I wanted to start in a free league? Is this much different from one that costs?

[Cornfed Pigskin]

Free Fantasy Football leagues are a great way to get your feet wet. If you're interested and if leagues are still drafting around you, ask if you can join them. Joining a league of owners you know makes it more fun--albeit sometimes more embarrassing (especially if you're particularly good with the trash talking). I first started with a league of people from my undergraduate college. It definitely gave me a whole new take on the game--suddenly it wasn't about my favorite team scoring touchdowns, it was a particular player (who was sometimes on the wrong side). Don't get me wrong--I still love my teams and I love watching it "the old fashioned way", but getting to know the players has taken my knowledge of the game to a whole new level. And I've learned several new phrases to yell at the television when a penalty flag is thrown. ("Encroachment!" "Down by contact!" "He was sooo holding").

So yes, definitely try a free league to start out of if you're nervous about it. Your pride can be a high price to pay, but at least it doesn't assess late fees or overdraft charges.

And contrary to what some believe, it's not too late to create a league. If you're not playing for money and you just want to try it out, go for it.