My girlfriend, Emily, and I had been dating for a little less than a year when she was invited to an out-of-town relative’s wedding. Until now, I had met her parents and sister a handful of times, but very little family beyond that. In a few months, we were set to travel from Chicago, IL, to Gainesville, FL, and I would meet everyone at once.
Our first destination upon arrival in swampy Central Florida was Emily’s aunt and uncle’s house. The parents of the to-be groom opened up their home to everyone coming in for the big day. I was immediately thrown into the fire. And when I say fire, I mean it. Despite the late-October date, the thick air trapped every bit of heat.
We walked into her aunt’s house, and the introductions started immediately. I was caught in a whirlwind of nice-to-finally-meet-you’s and hugs. Sweat pooled behind my ears as I frantically tried to connect everyone’s names and relationships in the family tree my mind was building.
Across the room, I saw a man I hadn’t met yet. But by process of elimination, I deduced that it must be Emily’s Uncle Roger. He was wearing a quarterzip of a Chicago team, and I couldn’t even tell you who anymore. Bears? White Sox? Blackhawks? I can’t remember, and it doesn’t matter. He was a Chicago sports fan. I found my reprieve.
I sat down at the table with Roger. “So, you still root for [unrememberable Chicago team] despite living in Florida?” He explained to me how he had Chicago roots and still cheered for his childhood teams. Being late October, there was football to discuss. The Bears were off to a 2-4 start, and the end of the Jay Cutler era was imminent. We bonded over our disdain for roster decisions, John Fox, and the team’s lack of direction. From there, the conversation turned to fantasy football. Roger had been commissioning a league for nearly 30 years! I couldn’t believe it.
Over the rest of that weekend, I met all of Emily’s family. Everyone was as welcoming as she had made them out to be. I learned that her Gainesville relatives were huge Gator fans. Florida and Georgia played each other that weekend, the day before the wedding. The long-time SEC rivals always faced off on a neutral field in Jacksonville, the midway point between Gainesville and Athens. But a small group of us walked around Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on gameday morning just to bask in the university’s presence. Despite being the eve of the wedding, the entire family got together to watch the game that afternoon.
Sports were a significant part of the fabric of my family. My brothers and I all played sports growing up. I remember my dad stressing over fantasy football lineup decisions on Sunday mornings. My grandpa kept his weekly NFL picks scratched down on a tiny paper pad that always peaked out of his chest pocket. My stepdad and I spent dozens of wintery mornings in the parking lots outside of Soldier Field, tailgating before kickoff. And Emily’s family wasn’t too different.
Nearly a decade later, Emily and I are now married. Her family is scattered across the country. We’re lucky enough to get together every few years, and most recently this past weekend. During Saturday’s party, most of the family was huddled around the TV, cheering Florida to a dominant win over Kentucky. Sunday morning, we all got together for breakfast. We talked about many things, but sports was a recurring talking point. Roger’s son, Ben, coaches a local flag football team. His preteen son plays football and baseball. Emily’s dad, a former defensive back at Millikin University and high school football coach, loves to talk about whatever college or NFL game recently ended. Uncle Jim and his son, Chad, are huge Bears fans, and we always talk about the team when we see each other.
At its core, football is a brutal sport. Testosterone-raged superathletes smashing into each other at high speeds for our amusement. It’s easy for outsiders to see sports fans as nothing more than brutish oafs. But there’s a sense of community that binds us. It gives us a common ground to meet others at a similar level. We’ve all felt the exhilaration of glory and the pits of defeat. Those shared experiences make fandom relatable to anyone who chooses to partake. Two guys donning baseball caps with the same logos immediately have something to bond over.
Nothing embodies the community of sports the way fantasy sports do. Rather than turmoiling over front-office decisions that are out of our control, we choose the players we believe in. We make the decisions that we regularly scrutinize organizations for. Fantasy football forces us to pay attention to players who are not on our team. It expands our knowledge of the sport, making conversations with fans of other teams easier. Every intra-league community has its own features and intricacies that make it unique to each person playing. Whether it’s a one-on-one trade conversation, a league-wide newsletter, or large-scale internet discussions with strangers, fantasy football, at its core, builds communities.
And with the internet, it’s never been easier. Friends can keep in touch across the country, using fantasy football as a reason to maintain discussions and conversation. Friend groups who may have grown apart have something that keeps them together.
As I recently pondered how fantasy sports foster friendship and community, I wanted to pick Uncle Roger’s brain. Most people who play fantasy football were simply invited to join a league by a friend via URL. But Uncle Roger was a pioneer in the space, playing in a fantasy football league that predates the internet. In my opinion, there are few people better to talk about the complex web of connections between fantasy sports, communication, community, and friendship than Uncle Roger.
So Roger, how long have you been playing in this league? I know it’s been a long time, but I can’t remember the exact number.
We started this in - this is Year 37 for us.
Wow! And do you have a name for the league?
We just call it - You know, the company I worked for, the engineering firm, each office - offices all over the place - They all had a three-letter designation, so it was GNV. So we just called it “The GNV Fantasy Football League.” No imagination. But, you know, you’re talking about a bunch of engineers and technicians, so not all that creative.
So, what I think I’m most interested in learning about is how you first heard about fantasy football. Because 37 years ago - you know, everybody plays fantasy football now. But how did you hear about this? Or was it just something you came up with on your own?
No. No. In fact, it was a guy, and he still plays with us in the league today. He’s played with us now for eight or ten years. But he was up in another office in the Washington D.C. area. Somehow, Paul got wind of this fantasy football thing. And he started a league up there. So, you know, with this company, we’d work with people in other offices all the time. So one of the guys - who still plays with us actually - worked a lot with Paul and got wind of this and started talking it up a bunch in the Gainesville office. And away we go!
Obviously, you predate the internet with this league you’re doing -
Oh my gosh, yeah! Yeah.
How did you even track scoring before the internet? It’s so easy for us now.
Well, our scoring was pretty simple. We just did touchdowns only for a while. And to start off with, it was all manual. To do adds and drops, we’d get together. We’d physically get together in a break room or something and do the adds and drops every week. And for scoring. Well, we couldn’t finalize it - I mean, you can sneak in and get an idea - but we couldn’t finalize it until the local morning paper came out and the box scores had the final scores. It was pretty rudimentary. And it seems so archaic now. And I think back to our first Super Bowl, you know - our championship game - and the final score was 17-15.
Because it’s just touchdowns! That’s awesome.
It was. It was just TD’s back then. And eventually, we evolved into playing with a custom software when we could get at least one computer in the office. Or somebody had a computer, I forgot. But we were able to get this custom software - I can’t remember what it was called. But we were able to use that for tracking scores for a number of years. And eventually it evolved into the internet, where we are now. We play on ESPN.
Obviously fantasy football is about the stats and football and all of that. But I think a big part of it is having fun with your friends. So, I’m curious, what are some of the things you’ve done to kind of foster a fun environment in this league over the years?
You bet. Well, we, for a long time, and we don’t do this anymore because people are more scattered about the country than they used to be. But it used to be that if we were playing with 10 or 12 teams. And at first, we were all in the same place. So, for our draft, we’d go to a bar somewhere and do it that way. And we’d usually get together at the end of the year the same way. And we all worked together. So, you know, there were relationships already. Now we’ve evolved over the years. And for a long time, we would all get together. But just a few years ago, there are still four of us in Gainesville that still play here locally. And we got together at a bar somewhere for the draft. Even though we were doing it online, we all brought our laptops and did it that way. So it’s, now, there are three of us that have been in it all these years. And the rest of us now are friends. Or a good friend of someone who’s in the league. Or a kid! We have two or three of the kids of older players in this league. So getting the relationship part isn’t too hard for us because we’ve mostly been together for a long time or they’re related.
I talked with Ben, your son, and he mentioned something to me called the Bird Droppings.
Oh, jeez!
Can you tell me a little something about that?
Well, my team is called Grayhawks. I picked up this nickname in college, “Hawk.” It’s because I have a big nose. And I look a lot like a guy named Ken Harrelson, who played pro baseball and became a broadcaster for The White Sox for years. So I got that nickname, and it really stuck. So, I named my team Grayhawks. Because by then, my hair was gray. And, um, so I did this weekly newsletter, and then I called it The Bird Droppings. And it would just report on each of the games. You know, we had a lot of fun with that. There’s still a guy - I don’t do it anymore - but, one of the other guys in the league still does a weekly newsletter thing that’s really fun. That’s what The Bird Droppings was.
Did you have kind of a style you were writing these in?
Uh, yes. The style I’d say was, Dave, I don’t know the right words. You know, I would abuse everybody I could. It was all in good fun. It was really fun. And you’d have a theme, you know, sometimes. “So and so did this or whatever.” And I didn’t really start it - at least, I don’t think I started it - until we did have the internet and computers. I could use a word processing software and do the thing and distribute it electronically.
You said that you had kind of of talked some smack to leaguemates, and I think that’s a pretty common theme in football.
Oh, gosh, yeah.
What would you say is more important to you: punishment for the losers or glory for the winners?
I’d say glory for the winners. Yes, yes. This guy who writes this now has a whole different title and takes a different attack and style. But he definitely has more fun congratulating the winners.
Last question: You’ve been a focal point of this fantasy league as long as it’s existed. What’s one piece of advice that you could give to someone who is new to fantasy football, whether it be someone playing or commissioning their own league?
For playing, the playing part more than league commissioning. Um, I would say that you should do your homework. But just understand that no matter how much time you put in, this game is like 80% luck. Maybe 90% luck. No matter what. But that doesn’t mean to give up. You’ve got to fight hard for that 10%. That’s my advice. And if you don’t, you’re not going to be successful in the long run.
Ain’t that the truth? No matter how much studying we do, we might think we have all the answers. But that season kicks off and hits us like a truck every year.
Oh yeah. You know, you draft a guy like Godwin, and he dislocates his ankle, and you’re done!
The game we play…
Yeah, yeah, but that’s what makes it fun. Right?
After our interview, Roger told me that he changed the name from Bird Droppings to Bird Sheet a few years back. But he was able to find some old issues to send my way.
