We have written a lot about the Fantasy Football Experience League, which was an online PPR league. Don’s hometown trophy league is set up completely differently with its own set of rules.
Hometown Leagues have a huge advantage over online leagues because of the Draft Party! It is a once a year, Fantasy Football get-together with league buddies who sometimes only see each other at the draft. Having a face that go with the team name’s make the Hometown League that much more personal and also much easier to form lasting friendships.
Online leagues are usually standard 12-team PPR leagues with the same across-the-board rules. Hometown leagues can have their own set of rules, and sometimes the rules change as the league evolves. In Don’s hometown trophy league, there are 16 teams and they play a 17 game schedule. This means their playoffs coincide with the NFL playoffs. This makes the season much longer since they play from Week One through the Super Bowl.
Scoring is different from PPR also. The scoring per yard is the same as most leagues, but bonuses are given for touchdowns over 50 yards. They have the option of carrying over player’s points on bye weeks because of the limited pool to pick from.
The hometown league only has four bench spots. Having 16 teams uses up a lot more of the player pool, leaving less free agents on the waiver wire. This makes an injury-prone year like this one much more difficult to deal with. Don lost his QuarterBack, three Running Backs, and dealt with injuries to two of his Wide Receivers this season. The three Running Backs who got hurt were three of his first four picks of the draft!
Don’s hometown trophy league started in 1988 with eight teams. Now they are up to 16 teams with many of the original members still in the league. Openings in this league don’t come often and are only filled with friends or family members. Most of these guys are lifers and have no intention of dropping out of the league.
This hometown league has a gigantic four-foot tall trophy. Each year the winner’s name is engraved on the back, along with the date. The winner gets a decent payout, but the main prize is taking home the trophy for a year. Last year’s winner even slept with The Trophy the night he took it home! Don hasn’t gone that far, but who knows? He is pretty excited about the possibility of winning it again this year!