One of the most popular trends in fantasy football in recent years has become the league’s loser, or last-place team, being awarded a funny/brutal/wild punishment for their poor performance. While some of the league selections are incredibly funny, other fantasy leagues opt to go for the full embarrassment route.
Regardless of what your league aims for, I recently combed social media to find the best of the best in terms of funny fantasy football punishments. The bulk of these can be done by anyone (with maybe one exception), and it’s a safe bet that virtually any player in most leagues would do a lot to avoid last place due to these punishments.
Join a Bodybuilding Competition
It’s hard to put into words what this would look like, but fortunately, there’s video proof of it happening. Not surprisingly, it didn’t disappoint at all.
This fantasy football punishment was revealed a few years back by Fantasy Football Today, but after seeing the video of how things played out, it’s worth doing in 2025.
This is an all time fantasy punishment
Kudos to whoever thought of the idea.
🎥: Z.Castillo4 pic.twitter.com/huO6ClYXPY
— Fantasy Football Today (@FFToday) July 21, 2023
Admittedly, the video, which started with the question, “Why’d they tan me?” was an incredible welcome for viewers.
Walk a Marathon…in a Tiny Area
Similar to the first idea, it’s hard to picture just how funny this idea really is until you see it in action. Picking a small area and having your fantasy football league’s loser power walk around in a big circle filled with people is unquestionably miserable, but it’s also funny.
This idea came in a post from Rotoworld, originally done by TikTok user chrellis22, and it’s pretty incredible.
This fantasy football punishment is diabolical. 😭
(via chrellis22/TT) pic.twitter.com/Kfn3BpCfA6
— Rotoworld by NBC Sports (@rotoworld) January 22, 2025
Credit to this league’s loser for taking it like a true champion, though.
Become a Full-Time Foot Model—but It Gets Worse
This comes courtesy of isuckatfantasyfootball.com, and I’m not sure how to explain how terrible this would feel to endure as punishment (and how much I’d hear about it).
“Make your profile public. Begin marketing yourself as a full-time foot model. You are not allowed to say it’s a joke or a punishment until you have two paying customers. No refunds. No explanations. Just you, your toes, and the algorithm. You’ll learn a lot about social media marketing, and even more about who your real friends are.”
The best part of all is that you can even make this worse if you’d like. After getting two paying customers, the fantasy football league loser could be forced to reveal their identity and keep the page up for a specific amount of time.
“The Death Smoothie”
Admittedly, at first, I didn’t think this was too bad as a fantasy football loser punishment. Then, I started to consider some of the things that could be put on the spinner and included in the smoothie. If it’s really an “all-in” type of situation, then this could get bad very, very quickly.
Posted by Reddit user TroyHiggins:
“The Death Smoothie. You basically spin a wheel 5 times and it selects random ingredients. Loser has to drink whichever ingredients they land on. Both of my leagues are using it this year. It’s pretty foul honestly.”
If anyone does this idea and comes up with something truly, truly disgusting, please email me. Seriously.
Winner Chooses a Book, Loser Writes a Full Book Report by the Next Draft
The best part of this possible fantasy football loser punishment is how incredible the possibilities are. The loser has months to do this, meaning the winner can pick a book that’s as long as they’d like, about literally any topic imaginable.
From Reddit user DarthKrayt98:
“As the winner of my league last season, I got to choose a book that the league loser has to read and prepare a report on for fantasy draft day 2025. He’s not enjoying Hillbilly Elegy.”
Imagining being forced to read a 1,000 or 1,500-page book about a public figure, or an athlete that the loser truly dislikes, is a unique type of pain. But writing a book report after? That’s a rough finish.
Apply for Reality TV Shows Selected by Other Owners—and Do the Show if Selected
If you want to make this one worse, feel free to extend the reality television shows to include a husband/wife/family member getting to select one as well. In the end, you’re looking at anywhere from 9 to 25 or more shows. Personally, I’d recommend having the loser apply for as many as possible, just to give them the best chance at making the cut somewhere.
A few possible shows that were kicked around included Survivor, Big Brother, Love Is Blind, Love Island: USA or The Bachelor/Bachelorette, among the mainstream options. However, if you want to increase your chances of finding a show the loser can get selected to, you can always head to allcasting.com and search through the reality TV show casting calls on there.
The possibilities are endless for this, because your league could also include game shows if they’re brutal/embarrassing enough.
Go on a Date With a Teddy Bear/Stuffed Animal
I was torn on the seventh selection for the funniest fantasy football loser punishment. However, the thought of watching my friend sit in a high-end restaurant with a stuffed animal was tough to pass on.
Of course, there’d have to be photos and a set amount of time that the league’s loser has to stay at dinner. And for good measure, you should include the stipulation that the person has to buy actual food for the stuffed animal.
The idea was originally posted by Reddit user TommyTeaser, who deserves kudos for the unique idea. Just like a few other options on this list, fellow players in the fantasy football league could choose to make this punishment as painfully funny as they’d like.
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