Best Last Place Punishments for Fantasy Football (2019)

The joy of clinching a fantasy football championship ranks second to none. All the time spent begging lady luck to choose your team after strenuous days and nights of analyzing your lineup finally paid off. In Fantasy sports, winners and losers will always coexist. For every champion hoisting their first-place prize, there is the disgruntled last-place finisher in your league on the other end of the spectrum.

A plethora of choices to award the winner of fantasy football leagues exists in nearly every fashion. Whether it be a little extra cash on the side, a beautiful looking trophy with your name on it, or even purchasing championship rings to really emphasize your title, the champion of your league deserves only the best of prizes to recognize their efforts.

Much like winners, however, the basement dwellers that occupy your last place position deserve to be paraded around much like the winners are. Many leagues choose to do smaller punishments such as becoming a beer servant for the following year’s draft, forcing the player to drive around with an embarrassing license plate/car sticker or even going as far as to shave the loser’s eyebrows.

While the above punishments are certainly embarrassing, some leagues will take that next step to ensure the loser never forgets that last place feeling.

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The absolute best punishments for finishing in the last place in your fantasy football league:

Taking the SAT

For juniors in high school, taking either the ACT or the SAT can be one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in their young adult life. The very score of either standardized test can determine the fate of their higher education future and can even alter life after high school as well.

If you’re a grown adult who finished last place in your fantasy football league, taking the tests can be every bit as embarrassing as is nerve-wracking for the wide-eyed high school students around you.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal back in 2014, then 26-year-old Andrew Bean took the dreaded crown of last place and was forced to spend a random Saturday morning taking the SAT. The test is done in complete silence and can typically last around four hours to complete. The best part of the experience? The last place finisher not only has to pay $51 for the exam, but also must share their scores with the rest of the league once they are collected.

When you’re playing in a league with close friends, finishing last is humiliating enough. However, taking the SAT in a gymnasium full of 17-year-olds on the weekend has to rank pretty high in terms of punishments for finishing in last place.

Lion Hunting

With Lions still reigning supreme as the king of the jungle along with the recent release of Disney’s The Lion King, it’s a pretty swell time to be a lion. Yet after perusing the wonderful threads of Reddit, one poor victim might disagree.

Reddit user “lincolnpacker” says the loser of his fantasy football league gets to go paintballing with the rest of the league. The idea sounds like a great way to spend time with friends, and maybe even do some bonding while shooting around barriers. However, the last place finisher must be dressed like a lion and fend for himself, as they are “hunted” by the rest of the league.

Details were spared, but the sheer thought of watching a man dressed in a lion costume run around and attempt to dodge paintballs from his fellow league members might be good enough to land a yearly television deal.

Stand up Comedy

If your season was a joke, you might as well get on stage and tell some jokes as well. There is plenty of fantasy league’s that have one of the best last place punishments of all: Making the loser attend an open mic night and tell jokes in front of a live audience.

Some leagues are kind enough to give the loser material when they hit the stage. In one Reddit user’s league, the remaining members of the league each get to write a 30-45 second joke that is essentially fair game for anything.

However, some leagues aren’t as forgiving. Such leagues follow the same punishments like the one outlined above, yet some losers are either forced to develop their own content or are handed a sheet of paper (expecting material) with nothing written on it just minutes before they’re set to take the stage.

It’s sure to be a punishment to remember, as watching one of your own friends/league members bombing a set at your local comedy club has to rank as one of the must-see events in terms of producing laughter, especially if you contribute to the joke that receives the most laughs/boos during the set.

Calendar Shoots

Perhaps one of the more intimate punishments in fantasy football, photoshoots for a 12-month calendar may very well take the cake. Traveling in our time machine and heading all the way back to 2014, Henry Stern (allstern on Instagram) was featured on sites across the web for his hysterical photoshoots that recreated only the best pop-culture moments.

Such moments include an ode to Brandi Chastain’s celebration in the Women’s World Cup, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” music video, and even Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe incident with Justin Timberlake during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.

While some leagues aim for fun with pop-culture, other leagues go for a more serious, sometimes sexy look. This league did a legitimate calendar shoot recreating covers from Justin Bieber’s Calvin Klein ad to Catelyn Jenner’s “Call Me Catelyn” Vanity shoot.

Having calendars hanging in your home, office or anywhere else accessible is a phenomenal reminder to put that extra research in. Pain is temporary, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Tattoos

This wouldn’t be a true fantasy football punishment article without the most permanent of punishments, right? While some leagues believe their punishments will stand the test of time both physically and mentally, tattoos are simply another level of both worlds combined.

If you’re into the cruel and unusual fantasy league punishments, you’ve likely heard of the “Tattoo League”, a group of ten friends who play fantasy football together in Omaha, Nebraska. The punishment for finishing in last place? You guessed it. Fresh ink drilled into their body.

The Tattoo league has been profiled by several big sites, most notably ESPN when analyst Matthew Berry went to Omaha to check things out for himself. The Tattoo League operates efficiently (a contract was drawn up to dictate the size, location, and tone of the tattoo), as the winner of the league determines what the loser shall receive. Previous tattoos from the league include a unicorn, Care Bears and Justin Bieber.

While these punishments are cream of the crop, the ideas for the loser of your league shouldn’t stop there. Other great last place ideas include:

Fat Heads: The Loser has a giant sticker of the winner proudly displayed in one of the rooms of the loser’s house.
Marathon: The loser is forced to run in a local marathon, typically dressed by the winner in a comedic fashion (business suit and briefcase, a princess, etc.)
Petitioning: Make the loser stand on a street corner and collect petitions for something incredibly ridiculous.
Karaoke: The loser has to sing karaoke in front of the largest bar in the area, with songs selected by other league members.
Waffles: The loser of the league is forced to stay inside a Waffle House for 24 hours. For every waffle they eat, one hour is deducted from that time.
Letter: The loser is forced to write an 8-10 page summary of their season, how it went, and detail every transaction. The winner of the league is allowed a one-two page forward on the summary. The best part? The loser must go on Facebook Live and read that document. (credit to ohiobucks1 for the wonderful idea).

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