The History Of Fantasy Football

This world is full of many talented and brilliant inventors that have shaped society into what it is today.

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb that helps us see in the dark, Steve Jobs created a cell phone so advanced it seems like aliens made it, and it got me to thinking… Who’s to blame for all the wasted time in a sport junkie’s life by having created the world of fantasy football?

Instead of disclosing my horrible and almost embarrassing fantasy football record for the entire world to see, I thought I’d do a little research and I came across a guy named Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach.

In the 1950s, Winkenbach was a limited partner with the Oakland Raiders by having a financial share with the team, however he did not have any say in the teams football operations regarding the players on the team.

Winkenbach was known as a sports fanatic, always talking about sports wherever he was. The idea of fantasy football came to Winkenbach after developing two previous fantasy sports in both golf and baseball.

Though the official birth of fantasy football is unknown, it is said that it came out of womb, so to speak, within 12 days of Halloween in the fall of 1962, which would make fantasy football around 49 years old.

Winkenbach developed the idea in, what was then, a Manhattan Hotel room in New York with two Oakland Tribune reporters - beat writer Scotty Sterling and sports editor George Ross.

"Though I was involved, Winkenbach deserves the lion's share of the credit for developing the game," Sterling said. "We chipped in with rules, but the germ of inspiration was these earlier games he played with golf and baseball."

"It was Wink's idea," Ross said. "It came out of his having played these other games and out of his interest in football. He threw out the idea and we played around with it."

The three tinkered with the rules of the game one night and developed the foundation for the game we see today because of the excitement that the three equally shared for the sport and their idea.

When Winkenbach, Sterling and Ross returned to Oakland, they created an 8-team league comprised of friends from the Tribune, the Raiders and other football-competent acquaintances.  The name of the first ever fantasy football league became known as the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League or GOPPPL (sounds much more respectable than my current league name of “Toilet Bowl”).

Little did the founding fathers know that their idea of fantasy football, something they created to simply have a little fun, would develop into what it is today. 

"It surprises me," Winkenbach said in a 1991 interview. "We were the first to start it, and it just mushroomed from there. There's a lot of offshoots to fantasy football. Oh yeah, I'm surprised at how big it's gotten."

Unfortunately, neither Winkenbach, Sterling nor Ross received any financial profit from their idea, which is unfortunate because of all the money that fantasy football generates.  It's a shame became Winkenbach never benefited from his idea that makes life much more interesting for millions of fantasy football owners.

Mr. Winkenbach… I salute you.

Greed Is Good?

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted something you couldn’t have? Maybe it was some candy or a new toy that just hit the shelves, but someone said “no,” causing you to pout or go into a tantrum.

Now I’m not saying that the men and women in the Occupy Wall Street protests are like children, trying to gain something they can’t have. All I’m saying that it is highly unlikely that protestors are going to get the corporate owners to break their habits. 

It’s simply all just comes down to greed, and it seems that there is no end in sight.

After reading about all this Occupy Wall Street stuff, the first thing that came to my mind was the movie “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” starring Shia Labeouf, and the parallels that show up.

In the movie, Labeouf’s character tries to take down a corporation who had a part in taking down his own. Towards the end of the movie, Labeouf’s character brings to light some of the dishonest practices that the Churchill Schwartz investing firm took part in, which included making bad investments and expecting the government to bail them out.

The government needs to step in and find a way to stop these businessmen from taking all these bonuses and expecting the government to bail them out while the regular folks see no money from the profits some of these corporations are generating.

In the 25^th day of the Occupy Wall Street movement, protestors are, however, getting more recognition for their cause. Some may criticize OWS protestors for not having a defined set of demands (something I too had trouble finding), but is that really such a bad thing?

Organizers of the protest made it known that one of their goals is to keep the protest going for two months, and it seems their on their way to meet that goal.

The longer this protest lasts, the more people it can potentially reach. This movement also gives those without a voice a way to channel their efforts along with those in similar situations. If Occupy Wall Street continues to grow, who’s to say that they can’t achieve a better financial situation for the entire nation as opposed to just a measly 1% reaping all the benefits.

In an article found on cnn.com its states that, “ Occupy Wall Street’s real goal has always been simple: Draw focus to the concerns -- and anger -- many Americans have about the country's growing economic gap, plant the seed of an organized voice, and let the protest evolve naturally.”

While we may not see change right away, it is certainly a step in the right direction.