Start a fantasy football league with your neighbors

How to host a draft party and create a league

By Chuck Cox

It’s a blistering afternoon in Las Vegas, but indoors, Matthew Postins is relaxed and ready to conduct his league’s annual fantasy football draft.

On the mirror, above the bar, there is a nearly blank draft board. On the table there is a 358-page media guide (that’s right, media guide) for the fictional Lone Star Football League. And on his laptop is Postins, the league’s commissioner (that’s right, commissioner) setting up shop for the LSFL’s 20th draft (that’s right, 20th).

“When we first started the LSFL, there were maybe one or two fantasy magazines on the market and if you weren’t at the draft in person, you didn’t play,” Postins says. “This year, I’ve seen at least a dozen magazines, and I use an online service, draftsharks.com, exclusively driven to providing fantasy football information. As for our draft, there were only five of us in Las Vegas, but we had our other five owners drafting in five other cities online using cbssports.com.”

It’s a far cry from when the league was started in 1991 by a group of avid football fans who were also college classmates in Texas. That first draft was held at a fast-food restaurant. There were no draft boards, media guides, or laptops.

But fantasy football has come a long way in the last two decades. And while there are certainly rabid leagues that even have championship trophies and fictional halls of fame, like the LSFL, starting a fantasy football league these days could not be easier.

Starting your own fantasy football league

Fantasy football is a great way to have fun with your friends and neighbors. So, how do you start a league?

• Create an even number of teams.
• Decide when to hold your draft.
• Choose a good place to hold your draft party, which includes hanging out, enjoying snacks and drinks, and talking some friendly smack.
• During times all members of the league can’t be present, a draft can be held anywhere there’s an Internet connection so all can participate via computer.

When you’re ready to start your league, remember these tips

• Be prepared. It’s essential to come to the draft with a plan. You also need to know which players are hurt, suspended, or holding out for more money.
• Keep track of bye weeks. Make sure you know when each of your players will be off. Every NFL team has one bye week. You don’t want to finish your draft and find out half of your players are off in Week 6.
• Dress comfortably. Some leagues have the draft down to a science. Even with that, a typical draft runs around three hours.

Fantasy football can also forge long-lasting friendships. Most of the LSFL owners have been in the league more than a decade.

“It’s been a great way to keep in touch with some of my best friends through the years as we’ve gone our separate ways,” says Kendall Webb, an LSFL owner who lives just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. “But you also have to give credit to the Internet, cell phones, and other technologies that have come along in the past 20 years because now you can hold a draft in Vegas, and people can still attend by logging in via computer from their living room. These days, there aren’t any boundaries in a fantasy football league.”