Our fantasy football champ spent his winnings on a cookout for all our families.
By @tessyk · Sports
Our fantasy football league requires the winner to use prize money to host an annual cookout for everyone's families. Some members think the champ earned every cent and should keep it all, but it has kept our group close for years.
The full story
We have a tight-knit twelve-man fantasy football league that has been running since college. It is usually pretty cutthroat with waivers and trash talk, but there is one rule we instituted four years ago when everyone started having kids and moving away: the league champ has to use a chunk of the prize pot to host an off-season cookout for all the families. Last season, my buddy who had been in the basement for three straight years finally put together an unbelievable roster. The guy lived on the waiver wire, made trades that looked insane at the time, and steamrolled his way to the title. We all paid our entry fees on time, and he walked away with eight hundred bucks. Instead of just banking the cash or buying himself golf clubs, he kept the tradition alive and took it up a notch. Over the summer, he rented out a pavilion at the park, bought high-end steaks, hired a balloon twister for the kids, and set up a full mini-combine for everyone's toddlers with cones and a mini 40-yard dash. A couple of guys in the group chat initially complained that mandatory hosting eats into the champion's hard-earned winnings. They argued that if you spend five months stressing over injury reports, lineup locks, and waiver claims, every dime of that first-place money should be yours to blow on whatever you want. But sitting out there with twenty people, watching kids run around in tiny jerseys while we roasted each other about blown draft picks from five years ago, made the whole league feel bigger than just an app on our phones. It turned a stupid fantasy hobby into an annual family reunion that nobody wants to miss.
How people voted
- Facts — 23% (11 votes)
- Depends — 34% (16 votes)
- No Way — 43% (20 votes)
Readers are split: “No Way” leads with 43% — 47 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@ellieforsure — Did everyone actually agree to this rule in writing beforehand or did three guys just decide it for the whole group?
@jettok — Congratulations on winning the privilege of catering an entire park.
@niaagain — A toddler combine with little jerseys is simply the sweetest thing, cherish these years while the babies are still small!
@didieven — When a man wins a prize pot that money belongs in his pocket, end of story.
@liamforsure — lmaooo
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