It’s Sunday night. You have three upcoming tests and seven missing assignments due tomorrow. The sound of Chris Collinsworth’s voice from the Sunday Night Football broadcast clouds your brain. You try to focus on your studying, but you need at least seven points from Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker, for your win in fantasy football.
During football season, this is a weekly trend for league managers of the fantasy football league, The Boys, composed of Arcata High students. For three years, the league has been the pinnacle of sports talk around campus. Led by senior class president John Adams, the league has gained a significant amount of attention.
“The league has gained a moderate amount of attention,” Adams said. “Some people know about but most people don’t.”
A fantasy football league is made up of 8-12 participants. These participants draft and manage a team made up of players from around the NFL. Points are scored by the number of completions, catches, yards gained, or points scored by your players. The Boys get together in August every year to draft their teams and compete against each other throughout the weeks of the NFL regular season.
Based on statistics, the best players to have on your fantasy team currently are Jonathan Taylor, belonging to Adams’s team, “Taylor’s Era,” Christian McCaffrey, on “Tfitz’s Dominant Boys,” and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, playing for Colton Constancio’s squad, “Colt 45.”
Parsa Izadpanah, another league participant, believes that his tight end, Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders, is the most valuable player. “Coming off a 43-point fantasy week, he’s the obvious choice.” Izadpanah makes a legitimate claim, as Bowers was the highest scoring tight end in week 9, tallying 43.3 fantasy points.
On the contrary, Jonah Morgan believes that Adams has the two most valuable players: Colts running back Jonathan Taylor and Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua. This leads Morgan to believe that Adams has the best team in the league, along with the highest probability of winning the league championship. Although when asked who has the best team, Izadpanah replied, “mine, obviously.”
Adams has now been the league commissioner for two out of three seasons of The Boys. When asked about representation and responsibilities, the league has a widespread combination of opinions.
Izadpanah believes that Adams is a good league manager because he keeps the teams accountable for their potentially collusive actions. Morgan had generally the same opinion, but was skeptical as to “why he might be doing so well.”
When personally asked, Adams said that he has done great. “They should try being the league manager,” Adams said.
Much of the league is graduating high school this year and will be off to college by the time football season comes around again next year. Among the rest of the participants, Morgan and Izapanah would like to see the league continue, even if many of us move away for college.
With the current season coming to a close, the playoff picture is becoming more and more set in stone. The teams that have a near guaranteed spot are “Taylor’s Era,” “Tfitz’s Dominant Boys,” “Jahmyr Gibbs Fan Club,” and “IsThePanda.” The Boys fantasy league has most definitely left an impact on Arcata High and will continue to inspire more fantasy leagues for football fans on campus.
