Questions about Nationals Fantasy Football Showdown? See below.
Q: What is Fantasy Football?
Fantasy Football is a sports-based competitive game where participants serve as the manager of a virtual football team. Each competitor participates in a draft in order to fill out a roster of real NFL players and then tracks their in-game performance during the NFL season. Each week, players accrue or lose points for on-field accomplishments during the week’s NFL games (such as touchdowns thrown, yards gained, or quarterbacks sacked). The total of each drafted team’s points are then compared to an opposing team’s points to declare a winner or loser.
As the season progresses, teams may change through a number of means. Two contestants are allowed to trade their previously drafted players in the hopes of better outcomes, or are able to pick up “free agents” – a pool of NFL players that have gone undrafted with the contestant’s league. Strategies are often used in order to maximize the number of points gained per week: contestants are able to look at specific matchups (such as a running back going up against a particularly weak defensive team) and tailor their line-ups accordingly.
Q: What is the Nationals Fantasy Football Showdown?
A Fantasy Football tradition is holding a “draft” event for each league. Participants typically gather for an afternoon and take turns picking players they hope will lead them to victory. These drafts are competitive and fun – a great way to experience the high-stakes world of working for an NFL front office, while going head-to-head against family and friends.
With recommended health guidelines, this year’s event is virtual with the draft event taking place over a “zoom” call with league participants.
Q: Will Nationals players be involved in this year’s event?
Due to the condensed baseball season, Nationals players and coaches are unable to participate in the event this year. However, we will have local celebrities join select leagues for their draft.
Q: How do I know which night my draft will be held?
A Nationals Philanthropies staff member will work with each league to establish what date and time works best for the participants between the dates of September 4-9. Please be advised, time availability may be more limited if a VIP is to draft with the league.
Q: Do I need a fantasy football account?
Our fantasy football leagues are run through CBS Sports Fantasy’s Draft and require each participant to have an account. Please provide an email that you wish to use for the draft and we’ll check whether the email you’ve provided is already in the CBS Fantasy system. If so, you can log right in with that email address and password. If your email is new to CBS, we’ll create a generic password for you which you can change later. We’ll send more details about the CBS Fantasy platform prior to your draft.
Q: How is the Academy supporting Scholar Athletes in response to COVID 19?
Continuity of service is critical to maintaining a sense of belonging for our Scholar Athletes in the face of uncertainty. Our staff has adapted programming to continue connection points with our kids, including the YBA PLAY TV series that brought our fun and free instructional baseball clinics home this summer.