With the start of the football season, some fans will comfortably watch the National Football League while others are stressed over every game in hopes of winning their fantasy league.
Friends and family come together to draft a roster of players from all the teams in the NFL and face each other in an attempt to get the most points throughout the entire NFL season. Along with getting ridiculed all season long, the majority of leagues have a punishment for the last-place member of either an embarrassing or physical consequence. Here are the worst of the 2025 season in no particular order.
TikTok/Social Media embarrassment
With social media becoming more prevalent and accessible, punishments related to it are increasing in popularity. Last year, the most famous example on TikTok was the “top three reasons why I’d be a bad boyfriend,” where the loser would have to shout embarrassing and unrealistic reasons why they would be bad in a relationship in front of a large audience. Other punishments include doing an apology video for losing, an embarrassing photo shoot or a press conference over your season. The challenges may not be as difficult, but due to their reach and longevity, embarrassing posts often rise to the top.
This requires the loser to stay in a Waffle House, a 24-hour diner found mainly in the South, for an entire day. However, each waffle you eat takes one hour off the clock. This is considerably worse than other punishments, because while others might embarrass or hurt you for a few hours, this makes your stomach feel like it’s going to explode, and you’ll also be spending the majority of the day there.
Probably one of the most well-known punishments, The Cage consists of the loser getting in a small dog cage and letting all members of the league throw various products such as condiments, eggs, flour and feathers at them. Usually, the loser has to sit and wait in it for 30 minutes after to suffer as it dries, but you can make it even more of a punishment and force them to walk around in public.
This ranks so high on the embarrassing scale that it made the list despite being quick and not physically difficult. The punishment requires the last-place member of the league to be walked like a dog by the champion in a public space. It’s also common to have the loser act like a dog, forcing them to bark at random people. Some people are incapable of being embarrassed, so if the loser is one of them, at least you’ll get some memorable clips of them harassing people on the street.
Many people tend to worry about their appearance in the eyes of others, so a great punishment is to make them look weird. Many leagues do these punishments because they create a lasting impression on their peers who aren’t involved in the league. Some are tame, such as shaving the head, but others are far worse, like getting a horrible tattoo. However, whether the loser has to shave their head or just wear a degrading outfit to work or school. The fear the loser has of being judged by others amplifies people’s condemnation toward punishments like these, making it one of the worst.
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