As the 2024-2025 NFL season recommences, the same is true for Fantasy Football. Friend groups form their Fantasy leagues and compete for the ultimate prize, usually money. Each game is crucial to the success of their Fantasy team, as well as their individual ranking within their friend group’s league. It is interesting to hear the different strategies taken by the students, mostly boys: who takes it very seriously and who participates for fun.
Will Hightower ‘25 is a perfect example of a student who takes their Fantasy draft seriously. Prior to the first games of the season, Will was projected to be 4th in his league, yet he has defied those odds and, after two weeks, is ranked first in his league. How did he get here?
“I think, since the draft, my team has only gotten better and better with each week,” Will said. “You won’t believe this, but when drafting my team I had three desktop monitors around me with notes and I was skillfully choosing each player – it seems to have worked out.”
After the draft, many are left wishing they chose certain players over another to better their team. It is hard to predict if a player will get injured or have a rough start to the season, yet that is the fun of the game. Eduardo Todd ‘26 partakes in a Fantasy league with his friends and wished that he was able to switch one of his players.
“[I wish I picked] Isaiah Likely because I skipped over him when picking Mark Andrews because they’re on the same team and I thought Mark Andrews was the better player,” Eduardo said.
Within each league, most friend groups have a dare for the person in last place to complete at the end of the season. In Eduardo’s friend group, he explains the light-hearted dare for the person in last place.
“Usually me and my friends pick our friend’s ‘fit’ for the day – anything ridiculous,” Eduardo said. “It will be on an out-of-uniform day after the season ends.”
The tradition of participating in Fantasy Football with friends has been around for many years. Woodward alumnus and mathematics teacher, Tim Coats, reflects on his time doing Fantasy Football with his friends in high school.
“One of the leagues is still going from high school,” Mr. Coats said. “[In high school] we paid ten bucks to play and then the winner got the money.”
The first pick is always crucial to a Fantasy team, and Mr. Coats and Eduardo drafted running backs, while Will drafted a wide receiver. As their first picks, Mr. Coats drafted Saquan Barkley from the Philadelphia Eagles, Eduardo drafted Jonathan Taylor from the Indianapolis Colts, and Will drafted CeeDee Lamb from the Dallas Cowboys. In addition to these players, each of them drafted players that were a surprise advantage to their team. Will took the lucky pick of J.K. Dobbins, a running back from the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I drafted [J.K. Dobbins] and I drafted him 126 over all in the tenth round and he has turned out to be the fifth best running back in the league,” Will said. “He’s the guy that a lot of people want, but I got my hands on him first. He’s a big staple on my team, my RB1, and so I’m looking forward to a good season with [him].”
