An NFL Wins Pool—first proposed by someone named Bill Simmons at a website called Grantland—is exactly what it sounds like: You get some friends together, draft NFL teams, and the person whose teams tally the most wins, uh, wins.
We’re drafting our own NFL Wins Pool here at The Ringer. There are 10 of us picking for three rounds, which means that two NFL teams won’t get selected. It also means that we need a system to make the draft fair. Here’s how it works:
Team 1: 1st pick, 20th pick, 26th pick
Team 2: 2, 16, 29
Team 3: 3, 13, 30
Team 4: 4, 18, 25
Team 5: 5, 15, 27
Team 6: 6, 19, 22
Team 7: 7, 11, 28
Team 8: 8, 17, 21
Team 9: 9, 14, 23
Team 10: 10, 12, 24
Why do we pick in this bizarre order? No one really knows! But it works, because of math. As Simmons explained in 2012, “I have no idea how the creator came up with these numbers, just that there’s a 20 percent chance he was one of those MIT brainiacs or something.”
Here’s our draft order:
1. Tate Frazier
2. Robert Mays
3. Kevin Clark
4. Sean Fennessey
5. Riley McAtee
6. Mallory Rubin
7. Rodger Sherman
8. Danny Heifetz and Haley O’Shaughnessy
9. Micah Peters
10. Bill Simmons
Congratulations, Tate—you’re on the clock!
