What’s up, Football Fans!!! It is once again time to enter our Last Fan Standing Era! Ya’ll thought Travis and Taylor’s wedding was the event of the year? I say no! Getting all obsessed about picking one game each week where you know the team will win because what can be so hard about that? THAT is the event (or events) of the year! After months of boring Sundays, endless offseason drama about Jalen and AJ’s future as besties and learning that our brains don’t really matter because AI can do everything for us, the pigskin gods have answered our prayers. LAST FAN STANDING IS BACK!
Whether you’ve been begging for the link since June or you’re a fresh face who accidentally got added to this email chain while trying to escape a group chat—I say welcome! Pour yourself a beverage of choice, take a deep breath, and let’s talk football.
For you grizzled LFS veterans who know the drill, feel free to skip my storybook masterpiece and jump straight into the chaos: LFS – 2026 REGISTRATION. Log in with your email, re-register your teams, and start rehearsing some new curse words.
For the newbies (and the loyalists or gluttons for literary nonsense), let’s go over the rules!
Still just $10 per entry! That’s right. No inflation in LFS world. Just a single, beautiful ten-dollar bill, which I guarantee few of you actually have in your wallet, starts your epic journey. This $10 price tag is literally one of the cheapest entries to entertainment currently available on the open market. No coffee needed here to get your anxiety on – for one low price, I promise you will be twitching in anticipation for months! Full disclosure, by entering this gig, you are virtually checking off a “terms and conditions” box which says that we will be friends forever. Yes, this means that I get to rotate holiday dinners at each of your houses. I’ll let you know who is on deck for Thanksgiving. And as a heads up, I prefer the preservative laden, jellied cranberry sauce that slides right out of the can versus that chunky homemade stuff.
Each entry needs a unique, creative team name. No "Kim1" or "Kim2" allowed! Your first name is boring—flex those innovative muscles. Hall of Fame names from past years include No Punts Intended, You Sunk My Blankenship, and last year’s award winner, That’s What Cheesehead. Hey Cheesehead, you get a free entry in this year’s pool for being so imaginative. I will contact you offline to arrange. For the rest of you - get weird with it—players, pets, puns, whatever!
If you are a returner, you will see your entry name(s) when you re-register. Feel free to keep the same or try something new. Kind of like the Eagles’ philosophy with offensive coordinators.
As an FYI, every year, we get some duplicate entries. If there is an identical name, the team who registers first gets it. For example, Hurts So Good is taken almost every year. And it’s actually not that original anymore. But I appreciate the Philly love in the intention. And if you have it or are the first to get it, live it large. And know that no one else will ever be like you. You are very special, even in your vanilla state of mind.
This LFS community continues to grow (which I love) and now includes many who I do not know personally (which I don’t love). Thus, the holiday invitations that should start coming my way. But for now, let me add an important proviso. Original team names are encouraged. I fully support freedom of expression. Walk that creativity runway and give two snaps in the air like you mean it. HOWEVER – I reserve the right to reject a team name if I deem it to be discriminatory or offensive to a group or class of persons. This gig is for fun and should remain light-hearted. No hate allowed. Although anti-Dallas rhetoric will be assessed with a much lower level of scrutiny because, well, that is just common sense.
Pick one NFL team, per entry, to win straight up each week. No point spreads. If your team wins, you advance to the next week. If they lose (or tie), you get fast passed straight to the Cheap Seats. This is where you will meet Snack Bar Marge. Marge has a big heart and loves her job (sort of), but she can also be a little snarly, especially when the Eagles lose or when someone smashes gummy bears into the seat cushions. I will speak more about cheap seat transitions shortly but just know that once you land there, Marge will expect you to belt out “I Will Survive” with her and Gloria Gaynor every hour, on the hour. Marge paid extra for the Spotify version without commercials so study up on your 70s anthems.
Picks are submitted on the LFS website. It is super easy to manage. Even a Dallas fan can handle it. You may not pick a team twice (for each entry) during the season so plan accordingly. Once you pick a team, it should be removed from the drop down list so you cannot replicate it. However, it is your responsibility to be sure you do not replicate a pick. Technical glitches happen, so check your pick and then check it again. That system seems to work for Santa every year, so there is that.
Each week, the website will be open by Tuesday evening (ish) to submit your picks for the upcoming weekend. If there is a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning game, picks must be submitted an hour before kickoff. This year there are six (6) games that start on a Sunday at 9:30am EST. Yeah, I don’t why either but think of it as a good reason to try new and innovative mimosa recipes. Every week, the pool will close for all picks at 12:30pm EST on Sunday. This applies to all Sunday afternoon and evening games and Monday games. Now, go back and read that first sentence again. The website will open for picks each Tuesday evening. It is perfectly acceptable, encouraged, and even celebrated, to make your pick(s) early. This way, you don’t face the dire consequences of procrastination, oversleeping, or just regular mush brain. Once the portal is closed, it cannot be reopened. Well, except by Marge. But by game time, Marge is busy popping corn, scraping the gelatinous layer off the top of last week’s nacho cheese, and likely cursing about the dried gummy bear seats. I promise she will be a little surly, so ain’t nobody wanna go that route. Plus, Marge can never remember the password for the website, and she still uses a flip phone, so she will be no help to you. If you must wait until Sunday to make your pick, I suggest making Alexa, Siri, and Hey Google your best friends for the season and tell them all to scream at you every Sunday at noon. What could go wrong with that philosophy?
If you want my advice (and why wouldn’t you?), set a calendar reminder to make your picks every Wednesday. You can go in and change it anytime up until the deadline(s), so even if you are not 100% of sure of your submission – some pick is better than no pick.
Out of respect for Jaden Daniels and to avoid litigation, we will not have a rule #5 this year.
I know this pool feels easy. One game. One pick. No point spread to worry about. So simple, right? Nope – every year, lots of folks get up close and personal with Marge in September. But no worries! If 70s disco is not your jam, you can fast track out of Marge Mania and buy back into the pool for $15. You are limited to one buy-back per entry and it must be the week after you lose. After Week 5, buy-backs close, and any loss sends you permanently to the Cheap Seats. Pack a portable fan and your wireless microphone. Marge likes to harmonize.
So, are you in? Click here to sign up: LFS-2026 REGISTRATION. Thanks to our brilliant webmasters (Team Maverick), your email and past team names should carry right over. Once registered, you have the option to change team names, add teams, or even delete your team (although why????). If you have a problem, a link to tech support is right there on the screen.
All payments are handled via PayPal: paypal.me/KFT21 (Select "Send to Friends & Family") or Venmo: venmo.com/kft21 (Turn OFF "Pay for Goods/Services")
Please note the proper way to pay on each portal so I don't get charged fees. Ask a nearby Gen Z or Millennial if you need help toggling the buttons. If you are entering multiple teams, you can send payment in one lump sum. Just include a note of who you are registering.
While our process is streamlined and pretty seamless, there is still a human component involved. When you pay for a new team or buy back in after a sad Sunday of not winning, please allow a brief grace period before emailing me to say you “still can’t make a pick.” I manually activate each team after your payment is submitted, and while I do my best to stay on top of it throughout the season, from time to time we do have other responsibilities such as working, sleeping, showering and caring for miniature humans. Eating and drinking wine also enter the equation, but we can usually multi-task those with football pretty well. Thank you in advance for your patience. I promise – no one will miss a deadline and get knocked to the cheap seats because of us. Y’all do a good job of that all on your own.
Payouts go to 1st (65%), 2nd (25%), and 3rd (10%) place! Last year’s pot was massive, and we’re aiming even higher this year. Bigger is better don’t ya think? As usual, the web team and I get 1 free entry for every 35 entries for running the circus.
Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think would like to participate. The more, the merrier...and the bigger the prizes. Last year’s final numbers included 413 entries and a total money pot of $7,435. Not a bad ROI no matter where you place. As the season draws to a close, the possibility of the final group evenly splitting the pot is always on the table. The last two years, seven winner each took home over $1,000.
I tried to include everyone from our previous seasons and have added a few newbies who have expressed interest. If you talk to your friend and they did not get this, please forward with my apologies. If I emailed you in error or you no longer want to be my email bestie, drop me a note and I will remove you from the list. Also - if you got this twice or have no interest in being part of the cool kids club, no worries. The final email list will only include this season's entrants.
Opening night kicks off on Wednesday, September 9th with a Super Bowl rematch of the Seahawks and Patriots. No word yet on what reading material AJ Brown will have on the sideline. There is then a Thursday night battle of California between the 49ers and Rams, before the full season kicks off on Sunday, September 13th.
The Wednesday and Thursday games are in play if you want to pick them, but registration will remain open until Sunday, September 13th. As long as you are registered and paid by 12:30 pm EST on the 13th, you are in. Please note: If you do pick a September 9th or 10th game and lose, you cannot register any new teams unless you do a buy back for the loser team first. This makes logistical and fairness sense but if you don’t understand it, don’t worry. It will not be on the final exam.
I think my work is done here. There is only one good thing about summer ending, and this is it. It's football season baby! Click on the link, pick your team names, send me 10 clams, and let’s get this party started!
GO BIRDS,
KT