And on the seventh day I embraced football
I
started playing Fantasy Football in 2006. I found I didn't care much for the so called mixed
leagues at the time too much testosterone and poor sportsmanship. In
2007 I tried to find Women's leagues without much success. The few there
were hard to find and filled up quickly due to there scarcity. I
thought that there really should be a central hub where women could find
leagues where they could play with other women. I began running my own
female exclusive leagues in 2007 and the response was great. The two
most common types of feedback were that the ladies were made to feel
uncomfortable or stupid in the men's / mixed leagues and that women were
unable to learn how to play FF in these leagues due to harsh criticism
and the every man for themselves mentality. So in 2009 I formally
created the WFFL as a place to showcase women exclusive leagues with
what I call "Compassionate Competition".
We
all help the Newbies learn the ropes and support each other with a
positive community experience while still maintaining a competitive spirit. Good-natured ribbing and trash talk is encouraged but poor
sportsmanship, rude behavior, collusion and cheating are not acceptable
and can lead to banishment from our leagues. The last couple of years
there have been about 50 or so women participating in 10-12 leagues each
season, about half of which return every year. This season for 2014 I
am running about a dozen leagues myself and we currently have 4
"affiliate leagues".
Affiliate Leagues
Two of our affiliate leagues are from women within
our group that run their own ladies only leagues and two are original
WFFL leagues that I have handed over to another member of the WFFL to
run. Bottom line our "Affiliates Leagues" are leagues that are promoted
and supported on the WFFL site, that are run by other Commissioners or
groups. There ar two basic requirements to be listed as an affiliate
league. Leagues must be open Exclusively to Women, no mixed leagues
allowed, and they must adhere to the same basic standards of fair play
and good sportsmanship that the WFFL follows. Any leagues that do not
follow these guidelines are removed from our site.
The Bottom Line
No
offense to the guys but I just wanted to create a space for women FF
fans and one that would have a different environment of support and
empowerment that many male dominated leagues do not offer. The WFFL is a
woman's community where we can talk football without ridicule, ask
questions freely and make new friends.
I'm just passionate about our group. I have taken
a major step in trying to grow our community in 2014 by reaching out to
women through social media. Our site and our leagues, at this time,
remain free. I hope to make the WFFL self supporting in the future
through PayPal donations at our site http://wffl.us
Where you can find the WFFL
The
WFFL is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Blogger, We have a Facebook Group, Google Hangouts (not very active
yet), SportsYapper and TeamSnap. For links to all our venues go to http://www.wffl.us/contact.html
God only knows where We'll be in the
coming years. "We" are a one woman operation so I am trying to grow
exponentially this year, doing as much in the pre-season as possible.
Thoughts for 2015 if things go well this year, hosting or co-hosting a
podcast, and publishing some articles and guides on WordPress. My
biggest obstacles are of course time and money.
Thanks for your interest and stay in touch. info@wffl.us
My name is Joyce Keeman and I am the Founder/Commissioner of the Women's Fantasy Football Leagues.
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