To most, fantasy football is just a small hobby that adds a bit more excitement to the NFL season, but for the members of local fantasy football league “Geneva Vikings,” it is much more than that.

“This league is not only a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,” long-time league member Joe Adams said. “I for one feel as if I’m controlled by an app, it controls my mood, health, and emotional status. I love the thrill that comes with it year in and year out. Sundays are easily the most anticipated day of the week during the season.”

The fantasy football league “Geneva Vikings” consists of twelve of the greatest fantasy football minds in Geneva High School (and one in middle school). As Adams said, this isn’t just some game to the league members, all twelve of them treat it as life or death, which is something that not many people can relate to. Senior Daniel Youman, whose first year in the league was just last year, was dumbfounded by its intensity.

“Even on the first day I felt overwhelmed,” he said. “Draft Day. Logging onto my account it felt like I was taking a test. Every move was watched, discussed, and ridiculed. After the first day of team establishment and such, chaos broke loose. Trades, arguments, and complaints exploded into the fantasy group chat. To me this was unusual and too much to handle, but to them this was normal.”

Something that makes this league especially intense is the trash talk. As said by Youman, almost every action in this league is ridiculed.

Long-time league member and co-commissioner Mason Pawelko is known for his ruthless and annoying trash talk. But Pawelko himself doesn’t even think of it as trash talk.

“I’m just being honest with everyone else,” he said. “I don’t want to lie to other people, I tell them the facts. Sometimes people don’t like facts.”

With this he is completely correct, when it comes to fantasy football, nobody likes the facts.

Now, a league this serious needs a serious commissioner, and that is just the case with league commissioner and GHS Senior Max Jensen. Jensen runs a smooth ship when it comes to leading this league, but he understands things aren’t always going to be smooth, they will get ugly.

“I think running a fantasy football league full of 17 and 18-years-olds (and a 13-year-old) is a much bigger responsibility to take than most realize,” Jensen said. “It’s a hard thing to accept that everyone isn’t gonna like every move or decision, but it’s something that comes with the job. And I love every part of it.”

Jensen is constantly working to try to make the league as fair as possible.

“I believe I have done every move in my power to make this the best league,” he said. “Now, not everyone will agree with that statement, but to hammer on my claim before, not everyone is gonna agree or like you and that’s something you learn to accept in a leader position. Now, I do believe a lot of things get dramatized more than they need to be, whether it’s on me or someone else. Yet I stand by my claim.”

Most league members agree that Jensen does a great job at commissioner. Mason Pawelko and Joe Adams specifically had high praise for him.

“I think Max is a great commissioner,” Pawelko said. “As co commissioner (voted by the people of the league) it is a pleasure to work side by side next to Max. He makes the league fun, and always has us engaged.”

“Max has handled things very well the past few years,” Adams said. “All in all, I feel the league is in good hands with Max Jensen in charge.”

However, as Jensen stated earlier, not everyone is going to like everything he does. For example, Daniel Youman is one of Jensen’s biggest critics.

“My thoughts on Max Jensen have changed from time on,” Youman said. “Although I do think Max is an intelligent fantasy manager, people fail to see through his lies. Max throughout the season took advantage and fleeced many other teams. He lied and tricked those around him into believing him, only to benefit Max’s team and completely wreck the other…The only comparison I can give to Max is Hitler, Stalin, or any other evil world leader.”

Clearly, there are mixed opinions on Jensen’s leadership style, but this doesn’t distract any of the members from the sheer excitement this league brings into their lives.

“One word to describe it, controlling,” Jensen said. “Fantasy football quite literally takes the sticks on my brain and moves them for me, my emotions, my decisions, in school as one good guess I practically spend my whole day looking at my team.”

Sure, there is a lot of controversy in this league, and a lot of times members are unhappy with each other, but something all twelve members of this league can agree in is the pride they feel to be a part of arguably the best fantasy football league in Kane County.