Fantasy Football is a competitive league that is mostly played within friend groups. Before the NFL season starts, you draft a team of NFL players. Those players, throughout the course of the season, will get points that correlate with their real-life stats. The goal is to get the best team possible to win the league. Therefore you draft players who will get the most points so you can take over your league. This year, six Woodford County High School Juniors, all joined a Fantasy Football league: Gavin Banks, Blake Burns, Declan Cosby, Carson Kelly, Chase Lee, and Jay Wells.
Traditionally, the last-place finisher is given a punishment to carry out after the season is over. Our group decided to instill a harsh punishment: The Waffle House Punishment. This punishment entails that, if you lose, you will be forced into a Waffle House for 24 hours, and every waffle you eat is an hour off of that set time. The loser has to pay for all these waffles, as well as potentially lose a whole day to themselves. As if this punishment wasn’t already pushed far enough, we added an extra component: the other league members get to dress the loser up in whatever they want while at Waffle House. Declan did not want to participate but agreed in being used for a filler spot, so it is down to 5 candidates for Waffle House. It is halfway through the season; this is the mid-season update:
This race to avoid Waffle House has gotten closer and closer. In the first week, Gavin’s team looked dominant, which made him look like a front-runner in the league. He did, however, have Carson look just as good which could create some interesting matchups.
Week two was a week of change for the league. There were two 2-0 teams (Jay and Carson) two 1-1 teams (Blake and Gavin) and three 0-2 teams (Declan and Chase). Carson had taken all the momentum in the league with a near 170-point performance. While Chase was still sitting at the bottom, it was too early to tell who would go to Waffle House.
Week three worsened the case for Chase after losing to Blake in a low-scoring affair. Chase still was under 110 points. This leaves Chase at an all-time low being 0-3. On the opposite end, Carson beat Declan leading him to be 3-0 feeling incredibly safe. Jay also beat Gavin in a close matchup leading to his 3-0 start. This week began to be very telling about the punishment at Waffle House.
Week four was full of big surprises. The 0-3 teams got their first wins. Declan upset Jay. Chase beat Gavin. However, Carson still is running the league with a blistering four-game stretch.
The next two weeks lengthened positive and negative runs for different league members. Chase hit a peak on a 3 game winning streak while Blake has hit a rough three-game losing streak. Jay has taken over as the league leader while Carson dropped two straight games. Blake was nervous and finally confessed to his parents about the dreaded punishment. His mom wasn’t too happy about the idea, and Blake agreed but knew he had to stay in. He hoped his team would turn it around because he really dreaded getting dressed up since he didn’t like the constraints of the punishment.
Walking into week seven, Carson had extended his losing streak to three straight games which has crushed all of his momentum. Jay again showed his dominance with only 1 loss on the season and again stopping all of the momentum Chase put an end to his strong winning streak. Blake then went back to winning ways putting up 160 squeaking out a win in a crucial week.
Jay extended his winning streak by another game after handling Gavin in week eight. Cason’s team went back to the days of old putting up a very high point total. Then Blake won a big matchup vs Chase putting him right back in the hot seat.
This fantasy football league has so many stacked teams which has caused some crazy close games, leading to changes in the bottom and making different frontrunners for the dreadful Waffle House punishment. Gavin said that his team has not performed to what they should be. He said that his team is good on paper. However, he has had some injuries which have hurt his team’s performance. The rest of his team just puts up 5 points which isn’t what his team should be doing. One of Gavin’s best players, Malik Nabers, dropped passes that caused him to lose precious points. Gavin said that he will not be going to Waffle House even though he looks like a frontrunner. Chase, who also has been closer to the bottom of the league, has had a roller-coaster season. At times he has said “I’m going” meaning that he thinks he was going to Waffle House, and then after his big winning streak he said, “I think I’m pretty Waffle House free.” However, he fell again and went back to a low. Carson, who has been near the top blatantly said, “I’m not going,” and Jay added on by saying, “Me and Carson are safe”. Finally, Blake’s opinion. I feel like Blake’s team has had their weeks, and also has played garbage at times. He had thoughts that he would be going to Waffle House and he still thinks he has a chance. His problem is the inconsistency of my team and there is nothing he can do about it. Blake would be really disappointed and mad if he had to go to Waffle House since it would be dreadful. This league will go down to the wire and the three-man race for the bottom will be interesting to see how it plays out in the end. Nobody wants to go and it has changed the emotions of the league-mates at school. This has affected how these students act towards each other and their emotions throughout the day. This punishment has emphasized pure distress, and this three-man race for the bottom could raise some tensions. Chase and Gavin in the final week could determine the loser and that week will be heated between the two especially if it is close and causes a big loser. This competition is going down to the wire and the size of these waffles are due to ruin a person’s day.
