What's Your Fantasy Football Origin Story?

Whether your journey started in 1962 or a few minutes ago, you have a fantasy football origin story. Your moment might be similar to others', but it's almost magical to you.

In an instant, your life was altered. From the added friendships to the joy and agony of last-minute scores, fantasy football changed you.

Email your fantasy football origin story to gray@footballguys.com.

This will be a weekly feature through the 2026 season. If you'd like to share your story with everyone, please send it to me and let me know if it's okay to share. And if you don't want it shared here, that's cool too. I'd still like to read it. I'll only repost if you give me permission.

Note: If you have already sent in your story but haven't heard back from me, please be patient. We've gotten almost 250 stories (and more every day). I promise I'll get back to you, but I'm actually reading everything you send, so it takes time. No ChatGPT here!

Today's Storytellers

Here are this week's narrators:

Jeff Blanchet's Fantasy Football Origin Story

It started for me in 1989. I started a rotisserie baseball league at work. That league lasted a little while but disbanded in 1994, during the baseball strike. NL league only, and every Tuesday we would buy a US Today newspaper to enter scores into a database at work.

That same fall in 1989, I started a Football league that is still going strong. Two of us are still in it from that first year. Started with 10 players and evolved over the years. We now stand at 12 teams and run on Sleeper. We have very little to no turnover year after year now. I still have standings going back to 1990. I know the champion from 1989, but no data 

Back in the early years, we had to score games by hand. I had a document we would print. Each owner had to compute the scores, and I would compare them to verify results.

Soon after, I wrote a program that would scrape data from a very new online source from USA Today. The program would parse the box score to compute the scores. I had to make constant changes as the formatting changed week to week.

I wrote a program at work that stored data in a database, and you could run it to see the results and standings. I should mention that my first job was at a company that developed software. It was all CAD and analysis programs for engineering.

After that, we started purchasing the MS-DOS-based program FFLM. It handled all the stats and, at some point, generated some html pages I could use for the new thing called the World Wide Web.

Eventually, some additional programs from a user group started taking the output from FFLM to create fancy web pages. I even contributed a small portion of code for the league championship plaque page.

That software, called Renegade at the time, turned into their own company, I think, called Sideline Software. That lasted for a few years, but it was halted when the stat service was just too expensive for a small, user-supported system.

That was before the MyFantasyLeague site, which I never fully used.

Eventually we moved to sites like CBS, Yahoo!, ESPN, and Sleeper.

Still chugging along, getting ready for our 37th season!

I've been in other leagues that have come and gone. Finally got into dynasty about 5 years ago and am starting season 3 on a new dynasty I created.

I haven't won very often, but it's been a blast!

Zach Swartz's Fantasy Football Origin Story

We started our league in Richmond, VA back in 1990, just 5 guys, rotisserie style, IDPs right from the start.  I drafted 5th and chose Neal Anderson with my first pick, who ended up having a bit of a meh season! In college, we had heard about fantasy football from some friends and decided it would be fun to try it ourselves! We built our own scoring system and hand-tabulated our stats each Monday and Tuesday morning using the USA Today! I can't count how many Monday mornings I ran down anxiously to score a copy of that paper! My best friend, who was living in Charlotte at the time, started his own league the next season, using the same scoring system as ours. Eventually, we merged the two leagues together to become the CROTCH—Charlotte Richmond Owners Taking Charge Here— (look us up on My Fantasy League!).  We grew quickly to 16 teams. As guys moved apart, we started doing drafts online.

A few years ago, because we had people waiting to get into the league and to discourage tanking, we created a "second tier" league called the CROTCH Challenger League. The bottom two teams of the CROTCH get relegated each season, and the top two teams of the CCL are promoted - a setup similar to English Football. The CROTCH Champs get a 3-year exemption from regulation. As of 2026, we have a 32-team, two-tier league with a custom scoring system that we tweak almost yearly!

I am the commissioner, if you hadn't figured that out already. I'm very proud of what we've built and sustained these past 36 years. We started this in college, and now our sons are in the league. Pretty cool if you ask me. Heck this thing has lasted longer than just about everything else in my life except for friends and family….crazy!!

It was really fun writing all this down. I had never done it before! Have a good one!

Brad Reinke's Fantasy Football Origin Story

My journey started in 1993 when our group of 12 guys met at a bar in Milwaukee to draft our players.   In those days, you would have to wait for the Monday edition of USA Today and use the box scores to determine your fantasy points and your opponent.    If there was a discrepancy, our commissioner would do the audit.   If there were Monday night players, you would use the Tuesday box scores from USA Today.

Then, our commissioner would write a newsletter and mail it to all league members, which would usually arrive around Thursday or Friday. He would recap league standings and always write some funny things that happened that week.

If you wanted to pick up a free agent, you would have to call our commissioner's landline and say the player you wanted.   If you were the first to call in for that player, you would get them.  You could pick up as many players as you wanted as long as you would drop someone.  Our commissioner would say that on Mondays he sometimes had 50-100 calls to go through! If he wanted a player, he would have to write down the time he wanted a player to see if he was the first after he listened to all the messages.  Most of the time, the only way you knew to pick up a player was by watching a game on TV or hearing him announced on NFL Today.  You would have to look at your paper copy of the rosters mailed out each week by the commissioner to see if that player or players were already on someone's roster.

The good ol days! Although now, ESPN makes it a lot easier!

Bobby Iadanza's Fantasy Football Origin Story

Started in 1995, the night before the season started. Me, my two brothers, a cousin of ours, and a buddy. Five guys. One team on a bye every week. Emmitt Smith went first, Jerry Rice second, and I took Dan Marino third. The first trade involved Morten Andersen!  Now, 32 years later, we're a 16-team auction league with owners in four states. I do it for my guys!  We've been together more than half our lives!

Jim Janetzke's Fantasy Football Origin Story

Summer of 1995: planning a wedding for the fall of 1995 and seeing our group of friends start to head our separate ways after college. To keep the group together, I suggested we start a fantasy football league. The first draft was 10 of us huddled in my apartment's 2nd bedroom (my office - if a 20-something can have an office back at the dawn of the internet!). We settled on the rules, mostly points for points (TDs, FGs, XPs, and bonuses for 300 yards passing and/or 100 yards rushing/receiving. Low-scoring and dominated by Bobby Hebert in the finals, we decided to add bonuses for length of TDs and, more importantly, yardage for every 20 yards passing and 10 yards rushing/receiving the next year. We also added 2 more teams in 1996 and 2 more in 1997 to get to 16, which we have had ever since.

Owners have come and gone, but the core of the league remains, and we not only have our 3-player keeper league from 1995, but also a dynasty league made up of many of the same owners. Some of us also get together annually to watch the first 4 full days of March Madness games, play a little 2-on-2 (we're all in our 50s and 60s at this point), and drink a few pints. It's been a great way to keep up with each other for over 30+ years, and I'm hoping we can continue for another 30. We've added 5 of the owners' children to their own teams, so there is a next generation to keep it going. My 1st grandson will turn 3 this year, so he'll be up for ownership in 10 years or so. That's the short story of the American Wannabe Football League (AWFL).

JD Green's Fantasy Football Origin Story

It was 1991 at Kansas City International Airport Control Tower, and a friend, Dennis Whitaker, and I were support specialists at the time.  We still had to maintain our currency in the Tower as controllers.  He said he signed us up for fantasy football in a league with one of the controllers.  He stated I needed to pay him half the cost of the league, which I later found out was the full fee, but that is another story.  I was not aware of the draft and had totally missed it.  I believe we finished next-to-last that year, but the commissioner came to me in 1992 and asked if I wanted to keep the team.  I said sure and began drafting my own team.  Along the way, I added friends to the league mainly from the Kansas City Dirt Track Racing community. Due to the lack of automation at the time, we had to call the commissioner's phone recorder for waiver-wire pickups. Of course, who called first was totally up to the commissioner, which ended up causing heartburn for some.  So, in 1999 I was talked into starting our own league, which continues to this day.  In 2002, we expanded to a second league and introduced the keeper league concept, and it is still going.  Finally, in 2008, my son wanted to add his father-in-law to a league, but there were no openings, so we started a 10-team third league.

Since 2008, Labor Day is known as Draft Day, as we draft all three leagues on that day.  As much as we can, we utilize an online format, but most of the team managers join us at our house for a day of fantasy football camaraderie.  Of course, during this time, life has gone on; our grandsons are now joining the leagues as team managers move on and/or pass away.  

Fantasy football has become a family event; one year, the daughters-in-law had teams and joined us in the draft!

Phil Weeks' Fantasy Football Origin Story

I got started in fantasy football in 1990. I had got out of the USAF and was living in San Diego, unable to land an RF engineer job (air force in a navy town), I went back to school and was working at Domino's. Some co-workers (and softball teammates) suggested a FF league. We drafted on a sunny afternoon on my patio, 6 of us; Magic Man Don Majkowski was my #1 pick, as I recall. One other and I traded off commissioner duties, using the San Diego Union-Tribune, pencil, and paper to tally up the scores.

The league kept growing, reaching 16 members at one point. I brought us into the computer age... forget the name of the software, but the folks behind MFL wrote it, and I even contributed some code to it!  The league is still running, coming up on 40 years here shortly, and the ruleset has morphed into one of the better ones I play: $250 buy-in, side pools for pick 'em and survivor.

But really with all the variations in scoring and schedules and what not this league I think has the best. We play doubleheaders for 11 weeks (12-team league), and all play 3 weeks. We use victory points, head-to-head records, and total points. VPs are given 2 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss; additionally, 2 points for being top 4 in scoring, 1 point for middle 4 in scoring, and 0 for bottom 4. This victory point system, along with doubleheaders, really took out the "random" factor of being one of the highest-scoring teams in a week only to lose to the top-scoring team.

We made kicker optional, which I disagree with, and still haven't made TE optional, which I agree with. Reserve spots are too many, which is another thing I argue each year with my co-founders, which makes for a boring FA pool and no way to do things like streaming D and/or streaming QB. Great league, stepped out for a couple years when I moved to Canada to work for EA, but got back in and was put back in the "competition committee" as one of the founding members. Live auction draft gives me a chance to go back to San Diego every couple of years for good food, camaraderie, and a boisterous auction!

Stephen Engler's Fantasy Football Origin Story

I'm 76 now and started fantasy football in 1975.  A friend got me in a 10-team snake draft (which I didn't understand). I had the third pick, and I was with a group of experienced guys, and when they said, "Steve ur up with the third pick who do you want"? Being a homer living in Denver, CO, all I knew was Jim Turner, the Denver kicker, was the best of the best. Having no clue, I took him. When I did, nine guys gagged on their beer and coughed up a lung as they enjoyed their 420 cig.  And after they spent fifteen minutes humiliating me, the draft continued. I lost every game and for three years i won 0 zip nanda.  Now I win on the regular.

When I'm asked about playing fantasy by my friends, I just tell them, "Take three hundred dollars and scroll it away and play for 3 years and lose every penny.  But then, until they bury you??? one of life's best highs and rushes around for the Benjamins will be yours.

Glenn Kelly's Fantasy Football Origin Story

Our Mister Man League started in 1990 at Mister K's SportsCards at 3500 South Congress in Austin, Texas. As best as we can remember, the Kansas City Chiefs defense was the overall #1 pick. Yeah, we've come a long way in drafting strategy since then. There was a core group of 3 who had played fantasy baseball before, but the rest of us were clueless. We turned lineups and waivers into an answering machine at one of the owners' businesses. We used the Dallas Morning News SportsDay for stats and mailed results to owners on Tuesday afternoon. We got them on a Wednesday... wait, what?. Our learning curve was quick, and the waiver wire quickly became understood as the real engine in building a team. We had 8 teams that first year. In year two, we picked 10 owners who were at least familiar with FFB. Mister Man is lucky enough to have 3 owners who have been with us since 1990. We have retained two scoring methods unique to Mister Man. FGs are awarded .1 per yard, and a safety is worth 5 points.

We have Brother members now and Sons who have joined their Dads. We had a wife join us for one year and won the League. We kicked her out after she divorced her husband who she accused of cheating in FFB ( unfounded rumors but definitely sufficient grounds for divorce!). We lost an owner in the Pandemic. Others have left because they couldn't attend the MANDATORY live draft due to job relocation or other obligations.

Mister Man Draft Day is the highlight of most of our social calendars. We don't get ugly with each other, but we do like to call out WTF trades and waiver drops. It's been my distinct and lifelong pleasure to be Mr. Man's Commissioner, and I look forward to our annual shot of Tequila to begin our 34th Draft Day festivities and honor our 2025 Champion with his Championship Ring.

Brian Sumner's Fantasy Football Origin Story

I started playing fantasy football before 2007, but that was the year I truly became hooked. In 2007, I joined my first dynasty league, and it completely changed the way I experienced fantasy football, though probably not for the reasons you'd expect.

Because I didn't grow up playing football, I realized pretty quickly that I had a lot to learn. That's when I discovered The Audible, which taught me a lot about the game and led me to become a Footballguys subscriber. Naturally, like most subscribers, I devoured FBG articles and learned a tremendous amount, but what surprised me most was how much I enjoyed interacting with the people. I became a regular during the Blog Talk Radio days of The Audible under the screen name bu11dog, where the second hour inevitably went off the rails in the best possible way.

My memory is a little fuzzy after all these years, but I'm fairly certain I was the one who started the running joke about The Audible Drinking Game. I was also the degenerate who photoshopped Jene Bramel's face onto random pop culture characters for the YouTube version of his injury report on the Waiver Wire show. Looking back, I probably spent almost as much time enjoying the community as I did learning fantasy football.

Over the years, my participation in my various leagues evolved, largely because of what I experienced at FootballGuys. Dynasty football became about much more than assembling the best roster. It became about the people. Wanting to recreate that same sense of camaraderie as I experienced with FBG, I started writing a weekly "Predictions" article for my league. On the surface, it's a preview of the week's matchups and who I think will win. In reality, it's a way to keep everyone engaged, take shots at my league mates, and occasionally stumble into an accurate prediction. Those articles have become as much a tradition of the Dynasty league as the league itself, eventually spreading to some of the other leagues I play in.

Nearly two decades later, I still love the strategy of dynasty football, but it hasn't been the primary reason I keep playing for a long time. Footballguys showed me that the game is at its best when it brings people together, and I've tried to carry that lesson into every league I'm part of. Players retire, championships come and go, and rankings change every year, but the friendships I've made have lasted far longer than any fantasy roster ever could.

John Dungo's Fantasy Football Origin Story

My childhood friend, Luis, and I decided to create a fantasy football league.  It was only the 2 of us, and we each created and managed 4 teams.  So, it was an 8-team league.  This was around 1997 or 1998 (I think).  We obtained the scoring rules from a co-worker of mine who was in a league.  We had to utilize the box scores from the newspaper  and tabulate scores by hand.  Obviously, it was quite tedious.  Our league did not survive, as we folded before the season was over.

About a year or so later, the internet was beginning to take shape for us average citizens.  I then found a fantasy football website that did everything for you (it was through CBS Sportsline). So, since we liked our short-lived experience with the manual labor of fantasy football, we knew that a website hosting it would make it so much better.  Therefore, we decided to pursue it.  I remember trying to recruit managers to play in the league.  No one was interested.  The game of fantasy football was too new.  This was before the 2000 season.  Well, we eventually found 9 managers. We created 1 dummy team (which we took turns managing) because we needed 10 teams.  Well, our league is now in its 27th season! In addition, I have been a Footballguys subscriber for most of those years.  I still enjoy this game, and I love the game of football.  Although my intensity for the game has waned in comparison to when I first started playing, I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

I believe that Luis and I will keep on playing well past the time when we are in retirement homes.

Keith Branstetter's Fantasy Football Origin Story

A good friend offered me a spot in his baseball league in 1994. I was in the middle of a divorce, and I really needed something to think about besides my problems! We still have that baseball league that started in 93 and a football league we started in 96 with many of the same people. Those people have become some of my best friends to this day! I became LM of both leagues around 1998 and am still LM in those leagues today.

Mike Zellmer's Fantasy Football Origin Story

I got started being the sticker guy for a 14-team league's auction draft while tending bar for them. I did this for 3 years, waiting for a team to drop out. I watched, learned some of the nuances of the draft, and got to know everyone. I finally got into the league and have been part of it for about 20 years.

Greg Gibson's Fantasy Football Origin Story

My uncle and his buddies used to play a game they called the Pitchers Club, where they each picked 10 MLB pitchers and earned points based on their stats. This was in the 70s. I wanted to play so bad, but I was just a kid and couldn't afford it, even if they would have let me in. I always kept track of his players and just loved the concept.

In the early 80s, I decided to start what I called the QB club. Applying the same principles of the pitchers club to NFL QBs. Some buddies and I did this for a couple of years before I realized we should include RBs and WRS. Then we evolved it into H2H fantasy football, but there was no such thing, so we just called it the NFL club until I moved to Florida and joined a "fantasy football league" in 93. Two years after joining the league, I was elected commissioner and have held that position since. I love the game and honestly can't imagine life without fantasy football!!!

Jerrod Cleveland's Fantasy Football Origin Story

I got started playing fantasy football in college. I have always been a competitive person, and I had some college buddies that we used to play Madden and college football against each other. Then we went to fantasy football, and I have always been a gambler. I moved from California to Kentucky with my grandparents, and my mother also lived in a big house in Kentucky. My grandparents would have card games for money. I was like 7 years old and would be the one who would go get the beer or food from the kitchen and bring it to them. So i was gambling with cards playing tonk, spades in like the 6 grade and until now.

I went to the World Championship of Fantasy Football in 2002 in Las Vegas, and I was hooked ever since. I remember having small TVs with built-in VHS recorders, and I would watch one game at 12 noon, then record the other on VHS and go back and watch it after I finished the first game. I have always believed in watching NFL games, forming my own opinion, and not listening to other people's opinions. So, once DVR came out, I tried to watch every NFL game. Then I would remember stats on the games and write them down so I could go back and look at them.

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