The History of Fantasy Football

Fantasy football was born out of a desire for fun by five men on a work trip in 1962. They were Bill Winkenbach, part owner of the Oakland Raiders; Bill Tunnel, the team’s PR director; Scotty Stirling, a writer for the Oakland Tribune; George Ross, the paper’s sports editor; and Philip Carmona, a friend of Winkenbach. The game went through various very casual incarnations over the years and did not explode in popularity until the rise of computers and the internet. 

Important lessons can be derived from the genesis of the game. It is extremely revealing, for instance, that the game was conceived before the advent of the technology that made it mainstream. Just as in an old school fantasy game like Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy football is not computer based. Rather, it is constructed in such a way that the number values associated with the scoring of the game could just as well be kept longhand, with a paper and pencil. In fact, that is exactly how Bill Winkenbach and his buddies kept score (and how everyone before the internet played the game.) 

Stripped of technology, we can evaluate the game for what it is: a numbers game based on performance. The numbers themselves are completely arbitrary, depending on how you decide to set up the rules. Therefore, the rules your league adopts will determine the scoring and eventually who wins and who loses. Fantasy football is a game based on number values and scoring. Fantasy football is a game based on statistics. That’s it. Nothing more. Fantasy football is really an antiquated game played online. 

In order to become a true master you must learn and control the secret metagame at work in fantasy football as discussed in The Art of Fantasy Football.