Armchair Quarterbacks

When Fadi Youkhana moved to Hawaii from Iraq in 2004, he had to relearn the word “football.”

“(My classmates) were talking about football, and I got excited because I thought they were talking about, well, soccer,” he confesses. “And then we go out and we’re playing, and they’re throwing this egg-shaped thing, and I had no idea what it was.

“I was forced to learn because everyone here plays it or watches it.”

Such is the joy of football, in all its forms.

The fantasy sports industry began in 1979 with baseball, believe it or not. Today, football is the reigning fantasy king, a hobbyist’s passion that has evolved into an NFL-sanctioned behemoth. More than 40 million people manage teams, fueling a multi-billion-dollar industry (which some analysts claim is worth more than the actual football franchises). And it’s even trickled into the gambling industry too, with people choosing to read this article, among other things, to decide whether or not sports betting would be better than casino betting for them.

Now, every Sunday (and Thursday and Monday), millions of Americans settle in front of their TVs with smart-phones in hand, because the game on the field is only half the battle. The other half is about predicting the right score line, field goals, tackles and so much more. And what good are all these predictions? They go into creating a winning Fantasy Football team or making the best of odds provided by online betting sites (draft kings bet $1 win $100 for example). New game, a new chance to win each week!

This week – as playoff dreams die and the stakes rise higher than ever – Metro talks to three diehard fans to find out why this fantasy is better than the real thing.

A GAME OF CHANCE

Anyone can play fantasy football, but not everyone walks away a champion.

Fantasy football has thus far escaped the stigma (and illegality) of sports gambling because it is considered a “game of skill.” Managers must, after all, wisely draft a team of the best real-world players at the start of the season, and hope to statistically crush the competition as the weeks wane on. It’s no wonder it has taken those who love Online sports betting on board so quickly, as how well you know your football certainly comes into play each week. Will Jeremy Hill live up to last season’s promise? Do the Seattle Seahawks still have the best defense in the NFL? Is Marcus Mariota going to live up to the hype?

Whilst you need to be able to answer all these questions if you want to reign triumphant in the fantasy football world, it’s important to realize that no is the answer to all that that has just been asked. If you’re an avid sports better, as well as fantasy football player, this could’ve hindered any bets that you go on to place with the best NFL gambling sites on the market, which is why you should check out these Bettorbase nfl odds before doing anything else. This is serious, you know. You need to have as much knowledge and skill as possible.

But does it take skill to win?

It does and it also doesn’t at all, says Craig Okamura, a digital media and creative specialist at Finance Factors – and that’s part of the appeal.

“It’s how, they say, any given Sunday, any team can beat any team. And it’s the same with the players,” he explains. “You can see all the predictions, you can see all the forecasts, you can see all the historical stuff, you can make your research and do your assessments – but if for some odd reason, that receiver is going to catch four touchdown passes and have the game of his life … there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Okamura (who deliberately limits his passion to one league per season) says that fulfillment and frustration come hand in hand.

“You’re going to be playing someone, and you get the predictions for the week … and then you have this one guy in the lineup, and whomever you’re playing is probably thinking, ‘What the hell is Craig doing? Why is he starting that guy?’

“And all of a sudden, come Sunday, that guy has 32 points and he was only projected to get nine. You have this great satisfaction and this high, like ‘yes!’ You just never know.”

Youkhana agrees that the ambiguity is appealing.

“You can be the smartest guy or the stupidest guy based on your choices,” he says, “and from week to week, you can be both.”

A GAME OF POWER

It’s quite a different story for Doug Sattler – the “Commish.”

The legendary commissioner of Fantasy Football Hawaii loves the sport so much that he developed his very own league service. Think Yahoo! or ESPN – sites that host your league and calculate the points – but this former hotel industry worker has run his own operation for the last 20 years.

“My entire system is independent of any large provider, and I do all my own statistics and formats. It’s worked to the point now where I’m in my 20th season and still going pretty strong,” he cheerfully boasts.

His unique methods require that his fantasy owners – this year, he’s running seven leagues with about 112 teams, but at his peak he had more than 220 owners – follow the team from week one to the Super Bowl. His system is designed so that even a linebacker can be as important as a quarterback. (For more on Sattler’s system, see the adjacent sidebar.)

Then, every week, he sits down and calculates the points earned by every active NFL player, a process that takes anywhere from 20 to 25 hours to look at a pool of some 900 possible players. He also puts himself out there as a resource for his team owners.

“I leave myself very open as the commissioner to give people help and advice,” Sattler says. “I get maybe 50-60 calls all week from the owners in my league asking for advice.” Sometimes, he notes, people he doesn’t even know call for help.

In fact, he no longer really plays fantasy anymore. He much prefers his role as gatekeeper and overseer.

“I like to be the first one who sees what happens every week,” he laughs.

A GAME OF LOVE

Fantasy football is about pride, knowledge, power – but, most of all, love.

It’s about love for certain players and lifelong favorite teams, about having Tom Brady working in harmony with the Steelers.

It’s about love for the friends that came together every year for 25 years to talk trash and compete, about Starbucks bets gone awry and merciless but gentle (well, sort of) taunting.

Youkhana and Okamura both cite the joy of competing against their friends and co-workers as part of the appeal – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat become more intimate and real. Okamura affirms that he would go to work on the weekend if it meant he and his coworkers could all participate in the season-starting league draft in the same place.

“That’s probably the most fun: everyone in the room together.”

But most of all, it’s love for the game, and all it entails.

“It makes me who I am,” Sattler emphasizes. “If you had called my answering machine, you would have gotten my message, which says, ‘You’ve reached Doug and the Commish.’ I am the commissioner of Fantasy Football Hawaii, and people call me that, and it gives me a lot of joy and pride.

“I would not be surprised if I was doing this 20 years from now, and some of the guys that are with me are going to be in their 50s and 60s – still doing this.”

DOUG SATTLER’S RULEBOOK

Doug Sattler originally discovered fantasy football when he bought a fantasy-dedicated magazine back in the ‘90s ANTHONY CONSILLIO PHOTO

Commissioner Doug Sattler wasn’t really interested in how the mainstream fantasy football options worked – so he just built his own system from scratch. Here, he divulges five ways things differ from the norm on fantasyfootballhawaii.net. (If you’re interested in starting your own league with his service next year, check out the site and get in touch with him.)

1. Players can win based off cumulative points total per season, not solely through weekly head-to-head matchup records.

2. The season lasts from the first official game until the Super Bowl, so long as you have championship-bound players on your team.

3. The point scale is massive – a 50-yard touchdown might be worth 300 points for a quarterback; a linebacker tackle might be worth 65. It’s easy to earn 7,000-9,000 points in a single week.

4. Rookie players earn bonus points compared to veterans. It’s like a reward for taking a gamble on some fresh blood.

5. Defensive players are important here, so you can’t just grab a team defense and ignore half the NFL. Sattler notes that J.J. Watt was the best player last year, period.

GOD, WE SUCK

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We here at Metro enjoy a little fantasy football ourselves, except that we’re playing like Peyton Manning this season ― which is to say, horrifically. Staff writer Paige Takeya is in seventh and creative supervisor James Nakamura is in ninth (out of 10) in their Yahoo! league. And they’re both on three-game losing streaks. Where did we go wrong?

Paige: THE FUMBLER
Winter Soldiers
My (infrequent) success in fantasy football is really in spite of myself, as I choose players based on important factors, like how attractive they are. My long-term affection for Jay Cutler finally is paying off because the man is on fire. Unfortunately, the rest of my team has died somewhere, leaving him to paddle the boat alone. How is Cutler the most consistent, highest-scoring guy on a team that also has Julio Jones and Dez Bryant? It doesn’t help that I also never watch any football games … I love the fantasy, not the football.

James: THE FORSAKEN
READY PLAYER 12
When you’re managing something – like a team – it helps to know when to delegate, and more importantly, when not to. On this season’s fateful draft day, I conceded my selection of players to Yahoo!’s algorithm for autopick. Yeah, I know. I returned to a crew of misfit players that belonged in a re-make of Unnecessary Roughness. My first-round pick had retired in 1995, and I’m not sure how Justin Bieber found his way into the QB slot. A few hasty adds and drops later, I am sitting pretty at 3-7. I really earned those three wins.