With 27 million people playing in 2010 and an entire show dedicated to it on ESPN, fantasy football is a growing trend among football fanatics.

Some of the faculty members around KHS are notorious for their addiction to the game. Max Zofness and Mark Pessoni, special education teachers, and Shawn Owens, ATLAS teacher, are loyal players of the game.

Fantasy football is an online game in which people are divided into leagues and draft real football players from the NFL to play on their team. The “owner” of the team then gains points every time his player makes a play.

“It’s awesome,” Zofness, who is playing his fourth year, said. “It’s a complete waste of time, but it’s great.”

Zofness is participating in two leagues this season. One of his leagues is with friends from college, and the other is with co-workers from another job.

“There’s tons of trash talk that goes around at work,” Zofness said.

For Owens, this marks his 10th season playing fantasy football. Trash talking is also a big part of his game.

“I do most through text or email,” Owens said. “This week I was playing a guy who I beat to get into last year’s Superbowl, so I texted him pictures of me sleeping with my trophy all week long.”

Like Owens, Pessoni has played for quite a while.

“I’ve been in the same league for the last eight years now,” Pessoni said. “I don’t play with any other faculty here, but there’s a teacher at Nipher in the league.”

Although Pessoni has gone to the championship twice, he has never won his league.

“One year that I went my team had LaDanian Tomlinson and a bunch of other warm-weather players,” Pessoni said. “It was a total disaster. None of my players did anything.”

Pessoni got this fantasy football season started with a victory.

“I didn’t have a great week, but the other guy had a terrible week,” Pessoni said.

Owens has not had the same luck. After a 0-2 start, he is last in points in his league, but he is no stranger to comebacks.

“Last year I started 0-7 but ended up winning the Superbowl,” Owens said.

While Pessoni and Zofness agree fantasy football can be a bit time consuming, Pessoni does not think it takes up too much of his time.

“I only spend a few hours a week on everything,” Pessoni said. “I watch football anyway, so it just makes Sundays a little more fun.”