Analyzing Fantasy Football Team Names with ChatGPT

I can’t promise this will be my last post about Fantasy Football this year, but I can promise that I am writing about ChatGPT and fantasy football to teach how to apply Generative AI to data science or creative endeavors.

One of the most surprising aspects of ChatGPT, and specifically GPT-4, is how they can take a list of data and analyze it in almost any aspect that you want. I found the Top Fantasy Football Team Names on Bet Texas and pasted the list into ChatGPT.

Without any additional context, ChatGPT started processing and categorizing the list. It told me that the list was a series of puns that involved football players, and that most likely they were fantasy football team names. This is actually pretty remarkable. There is nothing in ChatGPT that is programmed to do this task. Just like a human, it figured out from the start that it was a list of football players since some of the names were well known, even outside of sports circles. ChatGPT was able to pick up that they were mostly puns and probably fantasy football team names.

Here’s the breakdown of the 35 fantasy football team names as analyzed by ChatGPT.

Player Puns

• Call of Jeudy (Jerry Jeudy): A play on the video game series Call of Duty.
• Hooked on a Thielen (Adam Thielen): A play on the phrase “Hooked on a Feeling,” which is a song by Blue Swede.
• Mojo Rojo Casa House (Ronald Jones): A play on Ronald Jones’s nickname “Rojo” and the term “mojo.”
• Geno 911 (Geno Smith): A pun on the TV show Reno 911!.

Movie and TV Show Puns

• Tyreeky Blinders (Tyreek Hill): A play on the TV series Peaky Blinders.
• Carrdians of the Galaxy (Derek Carr): A pun involving the Marvel movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
• Dude, Where’s Lamar? (Lamar Jackson): A reference to the movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

Music Puns

• Tua Lipa (Tua Tagovailoa): A play on the singer Dua Lipa.
• I’m Sorry Ms. Jackson (Lamar Jackson): A reference to the song “Ms. Jackson” by OutKast.
• Kittle Big Town (George Kittle): A pun on the country music group Little Big Town.

Literary or Historical Puns

• Sherlock Mahomes (Patrick Mahomes): A play on Sherlock Holmes, the detective character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Mixon Administration (Joe Mixon): A nod to presidential administrations, given Joe Mixon’s last name.

Catchphrases and Popular Phrases

• Zeke and Destroy (Ezekiel Elliott): A play on the phrase “seek and destroy.”
• Bakes on a Plane (Baker Mayfield): A pun on the film title “Snakes on a Plane.”
• Rudolph the Red Zone Reindeer (Kyle Rudolph): A play on the holiday song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Not only did I get a categorical breakdown of the names, but I also got a solid rationale for each category. TIL what Peaky Blinders was. I didn’t have that TV series in my frame of reference.

Going Further

Now that we have an analysis of the list in ChatGPT, I can keep the conversation going with ChatGPT and go further. This actually the power of Generative AI. By supplying a list of names and having it do some analysis, we have primed the conversation. This analysis is now in memory and we can pull on it. According to Yahoo Fantasy Football stats, Anthony Richardson is 86% rostered on teams and was a top 5 quarterback week one. Let’s say you go sneaky and picked up Anthony Richardson on the waiver wire to replace AAron. Now, you want your team name to reflect that change in leadership. ChatGPT does not know about Anthony Richardson (yet), but we can generate new team names by using the context that we built up by interacting ChatGPT.

Using the "Catchphrases and Popular Phrases" category, generate 10 fantasy team names for the player, Anthony Richardson.

Here’s what ChatGPT returned:

1. Richardson or Bust: A play on the phrase “go big or go home,” showcasing confidence in Richardson’s performance.
2. Breaking Richardson: A play on the TV show title “Breaking Bad,” emphasizing a breakout season or game-changing performances by Anthony Richardson.
3. The Richardson Express: Based on the famous “Polar Express,” symbolizing a high-powered, unstoppable offense led by Richardson.
4. All Systems Go-Richardson: A spin on the phrase “all systems go,” implying that with Richardson, everything is in perfect order.
5. Warp Speed Richardson: Referencing the “warp speed” from Star Trek, suggesting that Richardson’s game is out of this world.
6. Live and Let Richardson: Based on the famous James Bond movie title “Live and Let Die,” emphasizing the idea that your team lives and dies by Richardson’s performance.
7. Richardson to Infinity: A play on Buzz Lightyear’s “To infinity and beyond,” highlighting the limitless potential of Anthony Richardson.
8. Locked and Richardson: A play on the term “locked and loaded,” meaning that your team is ready to go, largely thanks to Richardson.
9. May the Force Be With Richardson: Borrowed from the Star Wars catchphrase, symbolizing a wish for Richardson to be powerful and successful.
10. Unleash the Richardson: A spin on the phrase “unleash the beast,” implying that Richardson is a game-changing player who can be unleashed for dominating performances.

Okay, admittedly, I am not too impressed with any of those team names. The conversation is not done! You can keep trying.

Try the Movie and TV Show Puns category. 

ChatGPT returned, “Richardson of Anarchy” as its best team name. It’s based on the TV show “Sons of Anarchy”. Not too bad.

Try the Literary or Historical Puns category.

I love some of the options that ChatGPT returned for this type of fantasy football team name. The best one and the one that I am going to use, I mean hypothetically use, is “Richard-Sun Tzu“.

What are you learning?