Minnesota Viking's running back Adrian Peterson has been nearly every fantasy football leagues top draft pick in 2009. Photo Courtesy MCT.

By Gilbert Gutierrez III?
Daily Titan Staff Writer

As the 2009 National Football League season kicks off Thursday night, it also comes with a “fantasy.”

Fantasy football leagues allow loyal fans to make believe that they are in control of their very own football team.

Thousands of people all across the country, including many Cal State Fullerton students, take part in the festivities to know what it feels like to be in control of some of the world’s greatest football players.

Depending on how well a player performs in real life allows the owner of the team to earn a certain number of points. Those points are updated at the end of each game, and the person with the most points at the end of each week in head-to-head match-ups wins, said Edgar Ortiz, a kinesiology major that enjoys taking part in the fun.

One of the highlights of fantasy football leagues are the drafts themselves, which include highs and lows when missing out on a coveted player.

“Sure, sometimes you get upset when an opponent drafts a player that you wanted,” Chuong Nguyen, a freshman pre-business major said.

Nguyen, 18, said there is a lot of analysis of player’s stats, and watching how well the players do in games allows participants to make the best choices when managing their team.

Fantasy leagues are generally done between friends, family, or coworkers, which makes it a little more competitive.

“For me, it’s the rivalry between my cousins that keeps me interested,” Fernando Hernandez, a senior business administration major said.

Hernandez, 22, takes pride in being a sports fan and enjoys the knowledge gained from this experience. However, he doesn’t feel that the league that he is currently involved in is as intensive as others.

Hernandez said there is a competitive urge to win within him, though. His favorite players to draft are running back Marion Barber of the Dallas Cowboys and wide receiver Randy Moss of the New England Patriots. He also feels that he can find a sleeper in Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Junior Robert Barron, 20, a junior kinesiology major, said it’s better to get players that don’t have a history of getting injured.

“If you lose a player due to injury, then there goes your first-round pick, and he’s out for the whole season,” Barron said.

Barron is also one who tries to go for players that are classified as sleepers because it gives the owner a better opportunity to win. The less popular teams in the NFL that Barron would choose from would be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Houston Texans.

“It really depends on who your players are going against every week if you want to win,” Barron said. “It’s like a competition to see who knows more about the NFL.”

In a nutshell, the purpose of fantasy football is to allow anyone to draft players and make trades based on a player’s performance each week and every game during the regular season to make it to the post season. It can be compared to an NFL owner who is on a quest to reach the playoffs.

To some, it’s about the love of the sport and accumulated bets at the end of the season.

Overall, most who participate in fantasy football do it for the bragging rights among the opponents in their league. Whether its among relatives, friends or fellow football fans, in the end, it’s about making the wisest decisions in order to win.