Weekend Pass

Posted December 19, 2007

For the gifted few, a football draft is a dream come true, when you go from college player to a member of the NFL fraternity. For millions of others, creating a dream team is a fantasy that stays a fantasy.

For these Monday morning quarterbacks, the Super Bowl of fantasy football drafts is the RotoBowl, slated for 3 pm on September 8 at the Atlantic City Convention Center. More than 700 people are expected to enter, each of them hoping to win the grand prize at season’s end: $20,000 and two tickets to the Super Bowl.

“Fantasy football is huge now—15 million people play every year,” says RotoBowl founder Matthew Pepe, a South Jersey native whose sports marketing firm, DBS Enterprises, operates out of Fair Lawn. “We had a 50 percent increase last year, compared with the first.” Last year’s draft attracted travelers from fifteen states, England, and Australia. Imagine a roomful of mostly twenty- and thirty-something guys ogling cheerleaders, drinking beer, analyzing football stats, and reliving their college days, and you get a good idea of the atmosphere.

Every player gets into the after-draft party at the Showboat Casino House of Blues, co-sponsored by partners FHM and Bud Light. (Yes, the beer is free.)

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