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Shannon McNulty
Mrs. Thomas

Draft #2 - Discourse Community

UWRT 1100 - 041

25 November 2014
Observing this particular fantasy football league gave me insight into the process and
really understand it. I am not apart of it and I never have been. Im not sure if I made the
process of fantasy football clear enough for people who dont know what it is to
understand it and Im counting on my peer group will let me know if they understand.In
my final I am going to clean it up with the help of my peer group and someone self
editing. Also include more in my conclusion but Im not sure what else to write in it
After the peer groups, I corrected little grammatical errors and added more detail about
the scorekeeping in Fantasy Football and more description of my interviewee like what
he looks like and my relationship to him, Dennis and Roger. I also added 2 pictures; one
of the outside area that Tyler, Dennis and Roger watch the football games at and a
picture of Tylers ESPN Fantasy score from his phone.
Family Feud
Its the time of the year where men and women of all ages gather into mini
groups to play their imaginary football teams against each other. Yes, fantasy football,
also the time that football fanatics dedicate their weekends to football and football only.
As summer comes to a close, football fanatics engage in fantasy football leagues of
their own for the new upcoming season in the NFL. Family and friends willing to be a
part of the league gather at the drafting time (all members of the particular league join
together in a little party to pick their players for the season) and throw in a few bucks for
the winning prize at the end of the season. They all set up a group online (i.e.
www.espn.com holds a Fantasy Football page to create your own leagues) and each
member will then draft their players one by one, no one can have the same player.
Once the draft is over and everyone has their fantasy team, the games begin. Every
week during the NFL season each participant picks their players from their fantasy

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teams to either play or bench and those who they play will gain the points for their
fantasy team with every catch, pass, run, or interception that is made according to the
game that is automatically scored and kept track of on the online ESPN group. Players
will constantly log into their group to check how they their team is doing against their
opponent. The misconception of fantasy football is one I used to go by before I
witnessed this fantasy football group, crazy football men getting drunk and watching
football. They arent just a group, they are a specific discourse community that I will
validate by using the discourse community characteristics defined by the english
linguistic researcher, John Swales: groups common goals, communication and lexis
(Swales) even though they only meet up as an entire group once a year.
I began my observation with a personal interview from Tyler Pumneo, youngest
member in this fantasy football league known as Family Feud. Tyler is a freshman at
Central Piedmont Community College here in Charlotte, majoring in Business. He is a
63 nineteen-year-old handsome man with long brown curly hair that is pushed back
laying on his shoulders, who I love to call my boyfriend. I discovered that inside the
family and friend league there is always a little bit of healthy competition among
members. For Tyler it happens to be the man with the authority in the group, Roger
Preble, his next door neighbor. He started the league and brought them all together.
Ever since Tyler joined Family Feud two years ago Roger has always come out with the
win at the end of the season. This year that might not be the case. Tyler is currently at
the top of the leader board with a 7-2 win vs. loss and Roger quickly tailing him with a 63 ranking status.

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(Tylers Team Big Daddy ESPN Fantasy score the week of playing Team Diesel)

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Out of the entire group, Tyler and Roger get together for the games the most
accompanied by Tylers father, Dennis. Participatory mechanism are mainly the
gathering of the draft before the season starts. They meet at Rogers house with
everyone in the league and have steaks, chips and dip, mini sliders those typical
game day snacks. But nearly every week (usually on Sunday nights) Roger meets Tyler
and Dennis at their house and sits outside by the warm fire gathered around the outside
TV and cheer on their players they have in the game while munching on bags of

popcorn and sipping on drinks.

Since the other seven members of the league (1 woman and 7 men) cannot meet
up on game days due to inconvenience of work or school, texting is the main form of
communication. We like to smack talk the person we play against in that week to get
some momentum going and get excited for the game Tyler informed me like youre
going down this week, you have no chance! Usually conversation only happens during
members playing each other that week. But their are times that someone will contact
another member when they arent doing so well on their own fantasy team.

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During these correspondence, lexis gets thrown around such as: trade, add and
drop. These words are words we have heard before but this is the main vocabulary in
fantasy football. If one member sees that another member has a player they wish to
have, they might offer a trade of players. Maybe if that wanted player is very valuable
and good, the person may off the member two players to trade for that valuable player.
Alongside trading, there is dropping and adding players. Dropping or adding players
doesnt involve other participants of the league. Simply dropping a player just takes that
player off the members team and is available for pick up by anyone else that would be
considered adding.
Helping other members with players also helps your own team at the same time.
The goal for every person in every fantasy football league is to win the leagues prize,
typically money. Family Feud only throws in about $5 per person during the draft party
at the beginning of the season. But others take this very seriously, a time to win a load
of money; other leagues are known to throw in around $30-$50 a person. Crazy right?
But lucky to be that winner!
The price agreement stays the same every year because of all the old-timers.
Nobody wants change. In a discourse community like this I find it more convenient that
there arent new-timers every year. This is just a fun way to relax and bond with close
friends and family. Accepting new-timers can throw off the relationship of the league
and cause complications. When talking to Tyler, he explained that newcomers would be
downers on the competition side, We wouldnt be willing to be so competitive with
people we didnt know. With friends and family its just what we do and we dont care
about getting a little feisty at each other every once in awhile. Tyler was the last new-

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comer into the league because he never had time to participate but his father and Roger
insisted he start fantasy football and invited him into the league. With that said, Tyler will
most likely be the last newbie inducted into Family Feud.
Not all people would consider fantasy football as a discourse community. Not
only is it a discourse community, it works well as one. Every year they meet a total of
one time as a whole group but still keep in great contact and relationship even though
they dont meet so often. The presents of Swales characteristic in Family Feud aids my
theory to be proven as a discourse community.

Works Cited

Pumneo, Tyler. Personal Interview. 10 Nov. 2014

Swales, John. The Concept of a Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in

Academic and Workplace Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.