Fantasy football (board games)
Fantasy football is a genre of board game or wargame which normally involves two teams of fantasy races (such as elves, dwarves or orcs) competing in an extremely violent variant of gridiron football. Often the only resemblance to gridiron football for many fantasy football games is to get the ball into an end zone or goal, but these games still fall under the fantasy football genre.
Fantasy Football League
The format was originally heavily reliant on an actual fantasy football league, made up of teams picked by regular guest celebrities at the point that the game became popular in the mid-1990s. Each week, one or more of the celebrities would appear on the show and chat about football and their fantasy line-ups. As the show progressed on television, however, the fantasy league was pushed to the background in favour of sketches and clips, and was eventually dropped altogether. The latter shows still had guest appearances, from the likes of Nick Hornby, Damon Albarn, Peter Cook etc., although the departure of the fantasy team format meant it was less essential the guests had a decent football knowledge than before.