Fantasy football, obviously, has been a hugely popular hobby for a lot of years now. But what used to be primarily an activity for huge NFL fans has now spread into casual or even disinterested fans of the NFL. Fantasy leagues are like the office NCAA brackets. Everyone is in them, whether they know a damn thing about the sport or not. Part of the growing popularity of fantasy football is a product of FX’s The League. Like Friday Night Lights, it’s one of those shows where everyone says, “You don’t have to like football (or in this case, fantasy football) to enjoy it.” It’s true, but, The League has prompted a lot of people who were not interested in fantasy before to join fantasy leagues. Now, everyone’s in a league, and practically every league has its own Taco. In some leagues, there are managers competing over who is the biggest Taco.
The show has also had a profound effect on league names. In fact, a guy from Reddit, darenw, compiled a spreadsheet listing the top 5,000 fantasy league names over on ESPN. You probably won’t be surprised to see how many team names were inspired by The League.
Here were the ten most popular The League inspired names (ignoring the many variations on the same name with the addition of “The”), and the number of teams using that name.
#44. Password is Taco (2,414)
#89. Vinegar Strokes (1,612)
#142. Fear Boners (1,214)
#244. Mr. McGibblets (870)
#265. Chalupa Batman (828)
#444. Team Taco (589)
#580. The Vinegar Strokes (499)
#860. Shivakamini Somakandarkram (357)
#1021. El Cunado (316)
#1428. Shiva Blast (242)
#4233 Taco Corp (96)
#4414 Bobbum Man (93)
In addition, there are 2,393 Leagues called The Shiva Bowl; 1,136 called The Shiva, and 143 leagues called The Sacko Bowl. Surprisingly, there are no team names in the top 5,000 called “Dick Punch,” “Rafi Bombs,” “The Dre Tones,” or “The Lady MacArthurs.”
You can check out the entire list here (it’s a Google Docs spreadsheet) and find out how original (or unoriginal) your fantasy team name is. If it’s “Ben There, Raped That,” for instance, you share your name in common with 3,020 other people. My fantasy team name, The Reavers, did not break the top 5,000; I guess there aren’t a lot of Firefly fans playing fantasy.
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Um, top 9?
No love for the Double EntAndres???
You missed #1021: El Cunado
Nice! Added
I hate to pick on you, but how does eleven names out of 5000 constitute “influence”? Maybe three out of the Top 150 is a better argument, but 0.2% of the total is hardly significant in my book.
I don’t have the time or motivation to search the database but I’d wager you could find eleven names influenced by “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad” in that list too, and nobody would argue those shows are influencing fantasy football.
11/5000 is a bit misleading, as it’s counting the 2,414 iterations of “Password is Taco” as equal to the 93 of “Bobbum Man.”
I thought so, too, but other than Los Pollos Hermanos, there weren’t a lot of names inspired by TV shows really popped out at me, and certainly not grouped by one particular show. But there were a lot of variations “Forsett Up Your Butt” and way too many people using Arian Foster to make Aryan Nation jokes, so there’s that.
All my teams, both in Fantasy Football and Basketball, last year where named after Game of Thrones…
I’m glad my tv referenced team name Fister Roboto is at least relatively unique.
I named my fantasy baseball team that 2 years ago in honor of Dr. Krieger/Archer and Doug Fister. It worked on a couple different levels.
Also, went with Fister-Bush Match-Up one year.
This was also mine last year. I probably stole it from you over at KSK. I’m not sorry.
Yup- mine came from Archer / Krieger, all though I spend enough time at KSK that I could have stolen it from UU as well. Other TV related team names I’ve gone with:
ChumGuzzlers (Len Drexlers boat from season 1 or 2 of archer)
The Powerbottoms (Always Sunny)
My fiancee is “Password is Taco” and we have another in our league named “Crap and a Mint” after the Rafi crap the booze out advice
I’m the Knights Who Say Ni.
We have a Serenity Browncoats.
And a People’s Front of Judea.
Mine is Magic Dyke. That terrible name is mine and mine alone!
No “Yobogoya?” No “Rafi-Bombs”? I’m sad.
To be fair, I think a Rafi Bomb was only introduced after most fantasy teams started.
Fear Boner.
yes.
Judging by TV ratings and movie performance there simply aren’t a lot of Firefly fans in general.
I’m Dong Pics from Mars. I try to keep it topical.
The Sandusky Ticklemonsters
Smell of the Glove
Here were the ten most popular The League inspired names (ignoring the many variations on the same name with the addition of “The”), and the number of teams using that name
#89. Vinegar Strokes (1,612)
…
#580. The Vinegar Strokes (499)
Am I missing something?
like, is my reading comprehension bad, or shouldn’t the 499 “The Vinegar Strokes” count for “Vinegar Strokes” which would put that number to 2111?
I was wondering that myself
I have a fantasy basketball team named Batum’s Bobbum Men. Because I have Batum, I like The League, and I like alliterations. It also means Batum is bascially ass raping all my other players, so that’s funny.
No one has The Paula Deen Buttersticks so I win
I named mine Chad Johnson’s Divorce Lawyer, topical at them time but I don’t know how well it aged,
My team name Paterno Means Yes didn’t make the cut.
I’m also disappointed on the sheer number of who simply put Team [what I assume is their name]. Come on! At least try people.
I’m the annoying jackass who changes his team name each week in an effort to ridicule my opponent.
That being said, GerffsSweatyGrundle was not found on the ESPN list.
Nicccccce, I started doing the same thing after every team was having season-best scores against me. It was usually just “[____] blows guys” each week, so nothing clever
3 Gronk’s, 1 Toilet
I’m starting to thinking nobody gets it.
*think
I’m starting to thinking I need to take my safety pencil and circle of paper to remedial English.
I moved here from Canada and they think I’m slow, eh?
I fell off the jungle gym, and when I woke up, I was here!
My Fantasy Basketball league is Nothing But Let (Downs)….which sounds like something Bob Belcher would make up.
I have a feeling Chad Ochocinco’s The League guest spot is also partially responsible for “Child Please” making it to #171 despite Ochocinco not playing this year.
“Password is Taco?” Hey, that’s me!
Halfhearted Handjobs
Got it from KSK a couple years back. I’m pretty sure it was in one of the sex advice columns.
Wow, I believe I’m responsible for that one.
As you can see, I claimed rights to that for a band’s name, but foolishly forgot to lock down the fantasy football and animation rights. Dammit.
Anyway, nice to know it’s still alive out there. Use its power only for good, OK?
Didn’t see my team name “Korean Dick Vitale”
No Raffi Bomb?
Ocho Cinco head butting hoes should be on there.
Reavers is nice. My team was the New Caprica Browncoats. Pretty sure my nerd score is higher.
That said, there’s a team in my league called “Suh Girls, One Cup.” And he’s the #1 seed, for obvious reasons.
I’m working with I’m Thinking RB’s and 50 Shades of Purple
One of the best shows on TV. I found the best site for team names at http://www.BestFantasyTeamNames.com Seriously hundreds of names and ranked and voted on daily.