Journal Prompt 8

Textual Artifacts

One artifact is an email that the NFL website sends to me every year reminding me when fantasy football starts and when drafts become available. Also, they recommend their own little draft pack that you can choose to buy for a certain amount of money to help you draft your team and draft day. The achieve a sense of intertextuality by saying somethings like about draft day, draft packs, and other essentials to the draft that use specific terms that outsiders wouldn't understand right away. The email is usually very colorful and right in your face with a big yellow rectangle with the words, "Draft now" in big black bold letters. The email does achieve its goal by getting the attention of the reader of the email because when you get the email you usually go right away and sign up for a league. Which is the goal of the email that is sent out.

Another artifact that I saw before the NFL season started was that ESPN was previewing the season then cut to break and present information about the fantasy football league they offer. Telling where to go online and how to set it up. Then they would bring in the fantasy football "expert" and give his opinion on who's going to surprise during the year and who's going to do nothing during the year. But they don't say it like that, they say who's going to have a breakout year and who's going to be a bust, which is terms that some outsiders don't know unless they have played fantasy football. Usually when people see this part of Sportscenter is gets their attention and leads to people signing up to fantasy football, which is the goal of them doing what they did and it is successful.

Then another sign that fantasy football is coming is the magazines that get published to the local grocery stores and convenient stores. Differing from the big companies like CBS who makes their big magazine focusing on the stars of the league all the way to little companies that are make up of geeks who predict what each player is going to do during the season stat-wise based on schedule, last year, etc. I have for sure seen people buy these magazines at the drafts I have gone to because they say it helps pick their team. It's funny though because no one can really predict the season since there are so many changes during the year and between weeks. The magazine gets bought so it definitely achieves its goal of getting the public to buy their predictions for their draft.

First Day Narrative

When I first learned about this discourse community was back maybe in the year 2004, when I first moved here to Florida. This was because my dad was in a league with all of his old friends he still had in California. Everything was new to me except for all the names of the players since I already followed football. My dad taught me all the little terms like free agents, waiver wire, player statuses, etc. but I learned it all pretty quick and wanted to have my own team right there after. The thing I didn't know was that my dad had to pay for the league and I didn't have the money, but he did tell me there were free leagues that I could sign up for and I did. I never knew I could be like a manager of a team and decide who plays and who doesn't based on their opponent. I could pick who ever I wanted as long as the person before didn't pick him before me, and if that happened I got pissed. The draft was my favorite part of the whole thing because it was a thrill waiting for it to be my turn and pick the best player available.

Journal Prompt 7

The discourse community that I chose was fantasy football. It's hard to say how many people actually play fantasy football, but I would say more than a million. But in my league I have eleven other teams including mine. Each league cuts down the community to less people since there is a limit to how many teams are allowed to be in the league. Ranging from six teams to 20 teams. There are also different websites too, including ESPN, Yahoo, NFL, etc. that allow people to create leagues for themselves and their friends. And there's no limit to how many teams someone might have.

To be in a fantasy football league there is a lot of communication that one needs to know. For example words like free agent, waiver wire, trade, add/drop, injury reports, and practice schedules. There's communication between teams for trading players through calls, text messages or even emails through the site. But, also one can send a trade to see if someone will accept it, decline it, or send a trade back. There is also communication when everyone drafts their teams unless the computer does it for the league, but that's uncommon since everyone likes picking the guys they want. While drafting there's always communication where people in the league can voice their opinion of who got drafted where.

All fantasy leagues have a purpose and the purpose to win it all. Everyone is competing for the top spot and have the privilege to brag about how good their team is and how good they picked their team. Some of the times, there is betting involved. Where the winner gets all the money in the pot, so everyone's trying to win the money involved. Also, to pick the best team during the draft is definitely another purpose to fantasy football, but that shouldn't be the case because a team can be made with free agents and trades.

There are many rules to fantasy football. Once a player is on another person's team, the only way he can be picked up is if the player is dropped or traded. If dropped though the team with the worst record has the first say in whether he would like to pick him up, if not then it keeps going until it finally reaches the team with the best record. If not picked up by anyone he then clears waivers and is a free agent, where anyone who pleases can pick him up if wanted. Also, not every team makes the playoffs, so everyone better hope the team that gets picked has a winning record.

This is one discourse community has many hidden terms that many people who are not apart of fantasy people wouldn't know. For example back to the injury reports, which have to looked at very carefully because it determines whether the players that are on a team will play or not. Paying close attention to P for probable, Q for questionable, and D for doubtful. Probable means he most likely will play depending on a set back, questionable is a 50-50 ordeal based on game-time decision, and doubtful is pretty straight forward meaning the player won't play. Each are vital to determine who wins during the week head to head since every point counts. Finally, it's important to keep track of the practice schedule because if a player doesn't practice then it usually means they aren't going to play. So fantasy football owners have to know DNP, did not practice, LP, limited practice, and FP, full practice.