Beyond just drafting your fantasy football team, a lot of fun can be had in joining a league. Here at PFN, we endeavor to ensure that our readers have a complete experience. Therefore, in this article, we will take a look at some intriguing fantasy football trophy options for both league winners and losers.
The passion for this game grows annually and that means that you should be rewarded handsomely for success. There is no wrong way to reward the winner of your league — though there certainly are better ways to do it.
Creativity is the name of the game here. Of course, financial benefits and bragging rights are suitable awards for navigating a fantasy season. But how can you make your league unique? How can you let those in your life know of your fantasy excellence? What trophy will do all of the talking so that you don’t have to?
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Fantasy Football Trophies Ideas
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Winners
When it comes to the winners, there are no shortage of viable trophies. There’s the belt, a ring, the more conventional trophy, or you could go down the route of memorabilia. There’s no real wrong way to do it — winning a fantasy league is a great accomplishment and one that should be remembered for years to come.
You could opt to go Stanley Cup-style, where the winner’s name is engraved for all of time on the trophy, or you can change it up on an annual basis, where the winning team retains that season’s prize until the end of time. This works best for leagues that return most of the same members on a year-over-year basis, as it serves as something of a record book.
Let’s take a look at some of the available options out there for fantasy football trophies.
The NFL itself provides a trophy complete with the league shield. The trophy has a modern design and would look perfect adorning the shelves of your house after you take home victory. It’s also a nice fit to any living room, something that won’t stick out or serve as an eyesore for those living in the house but not involved in the championship run. The trophy is available direct from the NFL Shop or over at Fanatics.
The NFL Shop also offers several other options, including helmets, caps, and balls inside glass display cases. These are available from sportsmemorabilia.com, which provides a wide range of signed items that could make for a fantastic prize as a fantasy football trophy.
Prizes, much like player evaluation, are a matter of opinion. In the case of a trophy, make sure all of your leaguemates agree. The goal is to provide added incentive to compete at a high level, and to do that, you need to have full buy-in.
Speaking of “buy-in,” the trophy conversation also needs to include a money discussion. Are part of the annual league dues being used to purchase this item? If so, what do the adjusted payouts look like? You want to avoid all possible potholes and opening the lines of communication are critical in accomplishing that — get this ironed out before the draft so that all managers know what they are signing up for.
Losers
While trophies for fantasy football losers have been around for many years, it was the Sacko trophy in FX’s show “The League” that really highlighted the fun that could be had with trophies for last-place teams.
While some leagues prefer a punishment for last-place teams, others will give out a trophy. Often referred to as the “toilet bowl,” a potential option is for a trophy adorned with a toilet or simply giving a toilet seat to the last-place team.
Last-place trophies aren’t just fun, they ensure a competitive league year-round. Your team may have suffered devastating injuries, but will your significant other really care about that when you have to proudly display a ceramic toilet in your living room every Sunday?
It might be a trophy relating to an inside joke between you and your leaguemates, or you might look to have your friend need to display something in their house that will have guests asking questions and having their significant other scowling every time they enter the room and see it.
The key element is to strike that balance between having fun with a trophy that denotes their poor form without making them too uncomfortable to display it. Because what is the point in having a last-place trophy if people are too embarrassed to even show it?
That said — if a specific embarrassing trophy is agreed upon in preseason, you’re on the hook! It is best to have a written document detailing the specifics (Is this for the worst record? The loser of a consolation bracket? The team with the fewest fantasy points scored?) to avoid confusion when the bill has to be paid.
Fantasy is about having fun and memorializing the successes/failures on an annual basis is as good a way of doing that as any.