It’s that time of year again. It’s that time to impress your friends with your fantasy football team name. Can AI generate better fantasy football team names? Others are doing important stuff with AI, while I try to come up with alliterative team names that my friends will tell their friends about. I picture them saying, “You’ll never guess what my friend’s fantasy football team is? Sit down for this.”
I logged into ChatGPT today and noticed a change.
ChatGPT had these starter prompts on the GPT-4 model start screen. One of the new options is a prompt to brainstorm fantasy football team names with a frog theme. Now, I pride myself on coming up with clever fantasy football team names. “Shake it Goff” is one of my favorites, although I ended up in 3rd place that season.
Can AI beat the master?
I am not likely to use a frog theme, but here is my favorite human-generated idea: Justin Ribbit. AI came up with pretty straightforward names.
Let’s try some other prompts. I asked ChatGPT to generate ideas for team names that also use a player name.
Incorporating an actual player’s name can be a fun and unique spin. Here are a few ideas based on some well-known NFL players’ names up until my last update in 2021. Please keep in mind that the relevancy of these names will depend on the current players and their popularity.
- Patrick Ma-hop (Patrick Mahomes)
- Lamar Jack-jump (Lamar Jackson)
- Froggy Fitzpatrick (Ryan Fitzpatrick)
- Leapin’ Leonard Fournette (Leonard Fournette)
- Toad-ally Todd Gurley (Todd Gurley)
- Bullfrog Brees (Drew Brees)
- Hopkins’ Hoppers (DeAndre Hopkins)
- Ribbit Rodgers (Aaron Rodgers)
- Croakin’ Carson Wentz (Carson Wentz)
- Tom ‘Bog’ Brady (Tom Brady)
- Kermit Kittle (George Kittle)
- Derrick ‘Bog Bounder’ Henry (Derrick Henry)
- Julio Jump Jones (Julio Jones)
- Froggy DK Metcalf (DK Metcalf)
- Swampy Saquon Barkley (Saquon Barkley)
- Tadpole Travis Kelce (Travis Kelce)
- Deshaun ‘Swamp Sprinter’ Watson (Deshaun Watson)
- Michael ‘Muddy Pond’ Thomas (Michael Thomas)
- Frogger Russell Wilson (Russell Wilson)
- Ezekiel ‘Pond Escape’ Elliott (Ezekiel Elliott)
Let’s get away from the frog theme and generate ideas for physics inspired team names.
OMG. ChatGPT came up with the best name: Heisenberg Hail Marys
In American football, “Hail Mary” is a term for a long, desperation pass thrown towards the end zone, typically at the end of a half, when a team is too far away to execute a more conventional play and hopes for a touchdown. The term implies that the success of the play is unlikely, and the team is essentially “praying” for a positive outcome.
“Heisenberg Hail Marys” cleverly blends two seemingly unrelated concepts: one from the world of quantum physics and one from American football.
- Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: The name “Heisenberg” in the context of physics refers to Werner Heisenberg, who is best known for his Uncertainty Principle. This principle states that certain pairs of physical properties (like position and momentum) cannot both be precisely measured at the same time. The more accurately you know one of these values, the less accurately you can know the other.
- Hail Mary in Football: As previously explained, a “Hail Mary” in football is a last-ditch, high-risk play where the outcome is uncertain. A team throws a long pass towards the end zone, hoping against the odds for a successful catch and a touchdown.
Bringing these two concepts together, both revolve around the theme of uncertainty. Just as the outcome of a Hail Mary pass is unpredictable, so too is the precise measurement of certain pairs of physical properties according to Heisenberg’s principle. The blend is clever because it unites the unpredictability of a football play with the foundational concept of quantum mechanics.
Okay. I am pretty good at coming up with names, but ChatGPT is really good at taking a crack at any variation, theme, or style. It doesn’t get tired and just goes with the obvious one or the first reasonable name. Have fun this season, give AI a shot, and good luck as long as you are not in my fantasy football league.
Update: September 2023
Your fantasy football season is about to start and you have already named your team, so now your are ready to dominate. I just published a fantasy football strategy guide: Win Your Fantasy Football League with ChatGPT. I share tips and tricks that leverage ChatGPT for drafting, trade decisions, and waiver wire pickups. Have fun this season—the action is just about to start.