How to punish last place finishers in fantasy football?
Special for Yahoo Sports  It doesnt seem possible when you look at the number of people playing fantasy football, but it seems like the sport and hobby continues to grow and become more popular every year. As a result, those who play and run leagues are always looking for different ways to make their league unique and special. I think one of the more interesting changes is the focus on the team finishing in last place. For as long as I can remember, the team just went into the sunset in last place, forgetting and ignoring everything while amassing the 1.1 pick the following year and becoming the envy of the league leading up to the day they kicked off the draft with the best available option. Maybe you disguise that lineup a bit with a few bad matchups and behave yourself when you lose again. But times are changing and as a fantasy commissioner the above scenario is what you always want to avoid in your league. So those who run leagues in the fantasy world find ways to deal with the tank manager who tries to lose. A lottery system works quite well, but it is not always the perfect solution. So the trend of recent times is a penalty in last place. Now it really depends on how extreme you want to get here. Ive searched all over the internet and social media for what leagues do to punish a manager who finishes in last place. Not all of them are pretty, some of them are downright disgusting, and I wont go there in this article. But those ideas are there if you really want to find them. That said, lets take a look at the best options for your league, should you decide to implement this as a rule or tradition. Story continues  Just award a trophy  This is not very exciting and seems like a waste of money in the end. But some of the best options I found were toilet trophies and the back of a horse. Im sure there are worse. But showing someone a toilet bowl trophy in their house for everyone to see is pretty neat. One idea is to have one trophy for your league and award it to the last place it has to hold for a year. That way you dont buy a new one every season. Many competitions do this for the winner. But theres no guarantee that the loser of your league will even show it, which again seems like a waste of money. Now that the quarantines are coming to an end, maybe this can be controlled a bit if your league is a group of friends. Wear a jersey from your least favorite team  Again, this is not a terrible punishment in the last place. I saw the idea online where a Steelers fan should wear a Bengals shirt. Im not sure about the exact details and how often the jersey had to be worn, but it wasnt just a thing, nor was it just wearing the jersey for the following year. It was quite a significant amount of time. The downsides of wearing it in public means that not everyone will know what the punishment actually is; they can just assume youre a fan of that team. In certain parts of the country this would be much more dangerous than in others. I live north of Philadelphia, so if I had to wear a Cowboys or Giants jersey every day, Id be putting my life in danger. That your competition mates take pictures of you and post them on social media seems to me a sufficient punishment. Host for concept for next year  I think this is a pretty fair one for leagues that dont want to get too extreme; its more of a pain in the back. Ive hosted at least one concept every year since the late 1990s and I honestly dont mind doing it and can keep them running smoothly. In the last couple of years Ive hosted two drafts, which is more of an issue for my wife as both are over Labor Day weekend. The biggest advantage is that you can drink as much as you want, so keep that in mind when youre the last to finish. If you want the loser to do this, you probably need to get that person to do it the right way. It cant be a draft with a few bags of chips. Id says the host has to pay for the drinks but that can be expensive depending on everyones taste meaning a 30 pack of beer may not be an acceptable option. So at least try to be honest while installing this penalty. Keep in mind that a hidden punishment in all of this is that the manager and host may be dealing with an unhappy spouse or roommate. 10-12 drunk people destroy and smell their house. License plate  This is something that put one of my leagues into action. And it was even approved by the league. The loser has to put a license plate holder on his car that says Im bad at fantasy football for a whole year. This competition also has a nice first place trophy which is also passed on to each winner, and the committee is kind enough to pay the postage as we have people from all over the country. This happens to be the first competition I was part of and thats how this tradition for the loser started. Coincidentally, a good friend of mine who lives near me was lost two years ago and has had the license plate on his car for a whole year. I wouldnt say I checked this punishment, but I did check to see if we happened to be together. This seems like a moderate punishment and while I can easily say I wouldnt notice it, I wouldnt want it on my car. lemonade stand  I thought this one was pretty funny, and the pictures online were even better when I saw an adult sitting at a table with handmade plates selling lemonade. The photo also showed a pitcher of lemonade with cups. Im not sure what kind of business these booths make, but if this person is made to go to a busy part of your neighborhood, the money earned can eventually be donated to charity. If that was advertised, it could end up bringing in more business. Doing this at a major yard sale nearby would also make sense. This is a punishment that can be for a good cause when all is said and done, and there is nothing wrong with that. Sports Illustrated-Like Body Problem  Im sure weve all seen, or at least accidentally seen, made the news: a favorite athlete from your favorite team posing as naked as can be without seeing the soldiers. While I love this idea and its like a train wreck to watch for a fantasy football loser, its easy to feel this is an acceptable punishment if its not me pose. (Though Im not sure what more of a punishment is to be honest.) The hope is that a husband could do it, but personally I dont see my wife wanting any of that. Fortunately, phones can take pictures with a timer. If youre going to do this, you might as well have the person do different poses. Again, if its not me, this would be great to see on social media, assuming you didnt get a strike or violation. Those with computer skills could even dress it up a bit, put some logos on it and funny captions and things like that. It just depends on how far you want the loser to go. Doing something in public  Ive seen a lot of these kinds of punishments on social media. Players in last place with homemade signs taped to them are simply standing in a public location, showing the world how horribly a fantasy football season theyve had over the past year. Some things to consider here are where exactly you let the person do this and for how long, even what they should wear. Unlike the idea below, the only thing that is affected is the persons pride and self-esteem, so maybe you can link this idea to the below and give it a choice. Paintball target  This was one of the newer ideas Ive seen, and if your league is a close-knit group of friends, this can be great. The loser is hounded by the rest of the competition. Ultimately, this can be an outing to tie in the competition and have a good time at the same time. In the end, whats left may be a few bumps and bruises. Piercing or tattoo  I admit this would be a bit extreme for me and something I would never agree to. But I dont have either so thats probably the reason. That also makes me an ideal candidate for why this form of punishment would be quite funny, and Surely a punishment. Still, this is pretty serious and theres a lot to consider if you want to get started with this as a way to penalize last place in your league. As I mentioned above, maybe combine it with another pick, like the one above, to give the loser an option. Drought  If you really want to go crazy, you can draft your punishment. This means that everyone puts an idea in a bag and chooses it at the end of the season. The loser should then do what is selected. This is not for the faint of heart, especially if you want to make this a complete surprise and have no idea what the different options are. This would terrify me. So maybe its a better idea to at least know what youre getting into and have everyone agree on all the items that go into the hat before picking anything. it comes down to  While these are just a few ideas about punishment, this is something that will certainly evolve in more detail over the years. Like I said, theres everything you can imagine online that gets pretty extreme. The last-place penalty is intended more for a tight-knit group of managers than for a league where not everyone knows each other equally well. For me, its not about the extreme penalties, but one thing that struck me about every social media post that was dumped on a manager in last place and what they had to do was the words Thank God I didnt finish last, usually was part of the mail. What is hidden in the whole list of penalties would be the . must be target of the penalty for your league to keep managers from fueling up and finishing last because they lost interest or motivation during the season. A last-place penalty that keeps all managers engaged and active until the very end is the perfect penalty, and what every league and commissioner should strive for in their league. Scott Pagel is a sports editor for the Bethlehem Press and has covered the Philadelphia Eagles training camp since 1997. Scott has been playing fantasy football since the 90s and has contributed to 4for4 since 2005. Stay ahead of the curve with 4for4 Fantasy Footballs accurate rankings, advanced tools, and data-driven content. Listen to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast