Following the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles and debates over the protests of players such as Colin Kaepernick, many St. Louisans are choosing not to watch NFL football this season.

But EHS students have found a way to engage in the NFL without the social controversies by playing fantasy football.

“You are the general manager of a team, except it’s not real,” senior Luke Howery said. “You pick players and draft them and trade them. Then you start the players you think will put up the most points that week.”

Players can join up to ten leagues through ESPN. Standard leagues consist of eight, ten or 12 teams with fixed rule settings according to ESPN.com. Teams are made of nine starters and seven bench players. Each week, league members choose which player they want to start and which they want to bench.

Howery began playing fantasy football five years ago, around the same time he started playing football in real life.

“Having football experience can make fantasy football more fun because you know what’s going happening on the field during the game,” Howery said.

But senior Clayton Parker proves that not having a football past won’t hold you back from playing fantasy football.

After watching “The League,” a Comedy Central show about friends who avidly play fantasy football, Parker and his friends decided to try the online phenomenon.

“We all thought it would be fun to play like [“The League” characters] and bring in a lot of bragging rights,” Parker said. “I think we have succeeded.”

Parker said he and the other members of his league get together to watch the games at Buffalo Wild Wings on Thursday nights, but sometimes their busy schedules restrict them.

Senior Garrett Burns enjoys fantasy football because of its flexibility.

“I’ve only watched about half the games this year,” Burns said. “The good thing about fantasy football is you can make your team and forget about it but the app will tell you if you won or lost.”

Burns said that if there is a time to try to get your league together in real life, it is on draft day.

Most draft day events happen in a league member’s basement with lots of pizza, wings and yelling as league members go back and forth picking players for their team. Once a player is drafted on one league member’s team, the player cannot be draften on another team.

Burns said that the more people in a league, “the smarter you have to be about your choices.”

There are many different apps to play through, but the three boys agreed that ESPN was the best option.

Although they agree on what website to play on, they differ on what strategies they use.

Parker chooses his starters each week based on the teams each player is competing against.

“I will play my guys that are starting against a team ranked lower than them because I know that my guys will put up more points against them,” Parker said.

Howery takes a different approach by looking at a player’s individual stats instead of their team rankings. He makes a spreadsheet each week of his player’s average rankings and standings to decide who to play and trade.

“This is going to sound really nerdy but I spent all day thinking about it,” Howery said.

Burns’s time commitment to fantasy football is trumped by his commitment to the EHS football team. He usually follows the suggestions the ESPN app creates for his team when deciding who to play each week.

“Don’t forget to set your roster. I did that last week,” Burns said. “I didn’t score too well.”

Howery went 6-0 in his three leagues last week, but he said winning isn’t the only reason he plays.

“I really like the aspect of making my own team and decisions,” Howery said. “I think that’s really fun.”