Fantasy football season is drawing nearer and nearer, and one important consideration as the new year kicks off is what to do with the worst of us? Adding a fun fantasy punishment to your league can be a light-hearted way to make the league just a little more enjoyable. This list of favorite fantasy football punishments is a surefire option to spice up your league and get everyone laughing.
What Are Fantasy Football Punishments For?
Despite what some players would have you believe, fantasy football is not that important. Adding punishments should serve the same purpose as a league in general — being fun. A last-place punishment can also prevent players from checking out when eliminated from playoff contention, as everyone is still playing to avoid taking the Toilet Bowl title, too.
Important Fantasy Football Punishment Considerations
When creating a fantasy football league punishment it’s important to ensure that everyone involved is comfortable with the decision. Some key considerations to keep in mind:
- Fun: The point of last place punishments is making the league more enjoyable, not less, so stick to punishments that are well-intentioned and not cruel.
- Finances: Fantasy football leagues can vary wildly in expenses, and it’s essential to consider that when setting punishments. A last-place penalty representing a significant financial burden on one or more players, should they “win,” may not be a great decision.
- Comfort: Some of the best fantasy punishments involve pushing the loser outside their comfort zones. While this can definitely be an excellent option, it’s important to remember moderation and not to choose any punishments that truly violate anyone’s boundaries in a way that becomes harmful.
- Outside Impact: Your fantasy football league players are not the protagonists of the whole universe. When choosing a penalty with public-facing elements, be sure you are not causing problems for outside people who have nothing to do with your league.
The 10 Best Fantasy Football Punishments
If your league is in the market for a new punishment for its last place finisher, this list of ten options provides a mix of punishment styles to help you find the option that fits your league’s needs best. Our favorite fantasy football punishments are:
- Make a charitable donation: Not every punishment needs a nasty edge. If you want to add some extra stakes to the bottom of the standings while accomplishing something positive, make an arrangement that last place must donate a set amount to charity. For extra mocking fun, you can make them create their giant check on a poster and share a picture on social media announcing the generous donation and its reason.
- Hold a garage sale: Make last place hold and make signs advertising a loser’s garage sale, with the last place finisher forced to keep the sale going until they’ve raised a set amount. Ensure everyone attending the sale knows exactly why they’re being forced to hold it!
- Keep everyone fed: If spending-related punishments are on the table, then making last place cater the draft the next year can be a fun punishment to implement. This encourages making draft day a big event to make the league more fun for everyone and can provide a meaningful but less-stressful last-place option for leagues where some players are less comfortable with more public shaming-focused options.
- Complete a food challenge: One area with much room for customization is food challenges. This may mean attempting some herculean feat, like eating a predefined large order from one or more fast food places on draft night, or a challenge, like eating an unpleasant or difficult food like a super spicy challenge. Whichever way you choose, enjoy watching your friends struggle to beat it.
- Hold and post a press conference: When the season ends, force your last-place finisher to sit down and face the media, which is to say the other owners in the league. Take questions, dig into asking just how everything went so spectacularly wrong, and watch them squirm, then require the resulting conference to go up on social media so all their friends and loved ones know they can’t manage fantasy worth a lick.
- Display a loser’s trophy: Ordering a fantasy football league trophy for the winner to proudly display all year is a common reward for fantasy champions, but the same can be implemented at the bottom. Get a second trophy, ideally one that is far less impressive and clearly labeled, and make a rule that the last-place finisher must keep it on public display until the next loser takes over possession in a year.
- Perform at an open mic: A classic of the fantasy punishment world, make your last-place finisher embarrass themselves with a public performance. This could be an open mic musical show or a stand-up comedy night. Try a poetry night. As long as your loser has to get up and earnestly perform for the public, you’re in business.
- Have a photo shoot: Make sure your last-place finisher never forgets their last-place performance with a beautiful photo shoot commemorating the experience. For extra fun, you can even mimic a more common photo shoot style, like a one-person baby announcement declaring publicly your friend’s status as the worst player ever or a saucy boudoir shoot for your league’s basement dweller.
- Enter a competition: Have you ever seen people competing in something they’ve trained for months or years and thought you could do well? Have you ever seen that and thought your friend could not do that well at all? Forcing last place to enter a competition like a bodybuilding event, obstacle race, or other potentially embarrassing test of skill can be a fun way to have some laughs at last place’s expense. Extra fun if it’s something they think they’ll be great at.
- Channel their inner child: A final classic option is to dust off the childhood activities by making last place host a lemonade, carwash, or similar youthful money-making scheme. Make sure to advertise and get plenty of pictures and videos for social media while they do it, too!
With this list of possible punishments, all that’s left is to pick yours and enjoy the results, as long as it’s not you on the receiving end when the dust settles. Do you have a favorite punishment that didn’t make the list? Let us know about it in the comments!
