By Kiptyn Berry
Lions vs. Vikings, the last regular season game of the 2024-2025 NFL season. This was the last chance for fantasy football members to either have to do an embarrassing punishment or not.
The fantasy members are on the edge of their seats, anxiously waiting to see if they will get enough points to avoid the embarrassment of losing.
At this point, some people stood no chance of changing the outcome of the league. So a select few members had to just face the fact of doing an embarrassing punishment.
“I was dead last by far. My record was 2-10,” freshman Max Calhoun said.
As the final seconds tick off the game clock everyone checks their phones in anticipation, hoping they aren’t last. Once this occurs everyone gets together to decide what the punishment is going to be.
But first, we must go back to the beginning of the season where everyone starts to understand how fantasy football works.
To avoid having to do any ridiculous punishments in a fantasy league, students must draft the top NFL players in specific skill groups like quarterback or kicker. Once this has been completed you get points depending on how well those players do each week.
The more points you get the lower chance that you lose each week. At the end of the season whoever has the worst record (or loses the consolation game if the league members agree on that special rule), then the punishment will be enforced.
Sophomore Maddox Weddle was one of the unlucky people who lost and had to do a punishment of the league’s choosing. That punishment was having to wear fart spray to school for a day.
Fart spray is disgusting and smells quite bad so this can be considered a very bad punishment.
But, some punishments are chosen in different ways than the whole group deciding on a punishment; sometimes the fate of the loser rests in a wheel spin.
“You spin a wheel and see which punishment you get and you have to do it,” Maddox said.
Some examples of punishments that were on the unfortunate wheel were either drinking a gallon of milk and then running a mile or wearing a bunch of mismatched clothes to school.
Many punishments can not just be physical punishments like wearing specific clothes to school or running a mile after drinking a gallon of milk. These punishments could include posting pictures about yourself on social media to be humiliated by the public.
An example of this would be where freshman Reid Cardemon has to post seven different pictures on Instagram and the other fantasy members get to pick the captions on those pictures.
“I think they can be pretty funny when it’s not you,” Reid said.
Some of these leagues also have more group members than others. This could cause disputes between group members on what the punishment should be.
Max Calhoun’s fantasy league has still yet to decide on what the punishment should be.
This is a product of having such a large league with many members who want to see the loser do different things.
Their league is planning to do the punishment over the summer even though it has yet to be decided on.
When this occurs punishments can get delayed which causes punishments to go undone or sometimes even forgotten about.
“Our fantasy is still deciding between doing the milk mile and the dog cage,” Calhoun said.
The dog cage punishment is where all the fantasy members get to pour nasty condiments on the loser as they are trapped inside a dog cage.
This is why some punishments are a great motivator for people to stay focused on the fantasy leagues. Punishments can cause members to be competitive in trying to win so that the winner can get bragging rights in the next season.
“I think that it helps so people try to win and do well and make sure their team is the best it can be, because if not people just wouldn’t really try to do well,” Calhoun said.
One punishment that sophomore Jed Vanator has to do since he lost is that he has to get a haircut from the winner of the fantasy league. The winner, junior Noah Parrott, gets to give Jed whatever haircut he chooses.
Most people would probably never do this punishment. That is why there has to be trustworthiness in the league to make sure that everyone does the punishment that the league decided on doing.
When the loser doesn’t do the punishment it can cause disputes in the league with who can be trusted to actually do the punishment that is required.
“We all kind of agree to it and if you don’t do it you did not follow the rules of the league; therefore, there can be problems,” Vanator said.
Punishments can vary widely depending on the fantasy league and the amount of people in them.
Even though it is difficult to be excited to be punished, just remember that everyone has their role in fantasy leagues whether it be a winner or a loser. Punishments are important for everyone.
