Fantasy football allows you to be the owner, general manager, and coach of your own football team. You will draft your team from the rosters of the NFL and then, each week, match your best starting lineup against another fantasy team in a head-to-head match-up.

Each week you will have a chance to improve your team through trades and free agent signings. The 2002 fantasy football season will consist of a thirteen game regular season. The top three teams in each division will advance to the playoffs with two clubs eventually reaching the 2002 Horsemen Bowl to compete for the second most coveted trophy in professional sports (after the Stanley Cup) and some nice prize money. Everyone in the league except for Casey hopes to see the trophy for the first time in three years on draft day.

The franchise fee for the 2002 football season is $50. All franchise fees will be paid to league treasurer Jim Morris, who will be in charge of collection and payouts. See the "Playoffs" section for details on the payouts.

To ensure that all teams play the season on an even level, all fantasy rosters must comply with a set structure (listed below). The rosters will consist of 22 players. You may be allowed to carry less than 22 players under special circumstances, but may not carry more than 22 at any time. The roster breakdown is as follows:

All lineups must be submitted to the commissioner's office before kickoff of the first game of each week. The only exceptions are weeks in which there are Thursday or Saturday games when the decisions must be made about players in that game only before the kickoff of each game (e.g. if you have Tommy Maddox playing on Thanksgiving and no one else, only the decision regarding Maddox must be made before Sunday). The starting lineup consists of 11 players as follows:

The Four Horsemen Fantasy Football League draft will be held in August 2002 in Dallas, Texas. Before the draft, each team must declare one or two players as protected players. Teams protecting only one player will receive an extra pick before the start of the regular draft. The first round will go in reverse order of 2001 record (non-playoff teams) or level of playoff advancement (playoff teams). The draft will proceed in the switchback method (team picking first in one round will pick last in the next). Trades of players for draft picks and draft picks for draft picks will be allowed, providing these picks are for the 2002 draft. Teams will have two minutes per pick in the first five rounds, and one minute per pick throughout the rest of the draft. The commissioner reserves the right to change the time limits or number of picks at the beginning of any round. The first round will proceed as follows:

The schedule consists of 13 weeks of competition. Each team will play the teams in its own division twice, and the teams in the other division once. The top six teams in the league will advance to the playoffs, and will play for the Horsemen Bowl Trophy. View the schedule here.

During the season, fantasy teams will be allowed to change the makeup of their team through both trades and free agent acquisitions.

Trades may be of any combination of players and positions. The trade must be submitted to the commissioner's office by both teams before it will be approved. The commissioner reserves the right to disallow any trades that are deemed not to be in the best interest of the league. If the trade involves the commissioner, the right of approval will be deferred to the deputy commissioner. No trades will be allowed after week 10 of the regular season.

The early bird cutoff for Player Transactions is 5 pm on Tuesday. All player moves inputted between noon Sunday and Tuesday will be processed at that time. If two teams claim the same player, the team with the worse record will prevail. All moves made between Tuesday at 5 and noon Sunday will be on a first-come first-serve basis. A player may be claimed all the way up until the kickoff of the first game of the week. There is no deadline for free agent pickups.

The top three teams in each division advance to the playoffs.  

Every team that makes the playoffs will get some kind of monetary reward as follows:

First round losers $25

Semifinal losers $50

Finals loser $125

Finals winner $225