Bryan Spiker won the 2010 Raiders Home Team Challenge grand prize.
In conjunction with the National Football League's official website, NFL.com, The Oakland Raiders and Raiders.com hosted the Home Team Challenge during the 2010 season. Fans selected their favorite team and played a season of fantasy football with the opportunity to win weekly team-specific prizes. The participant with the highest point total each week won a Raider Image gift card and an autographed mini-helmet. The person with the highest overall point total at the end of the season earned the grand prize of two 2011 home game tickets, two pre-game sideline passes, a game-worn jersey, and a three-DVD set of America's Game featuring the Raiders three Super Bowl victories.
Throughout the 17-week campaign, the Raiders Home Team Challenge had 16 different participants finish with the highest totals. One of those 16 weekly winners, Bryan Spiker, finished the challenge as the overall winner with 1,842 points. Spiker, a Raiders fan from Pennsylvania, was thrilled to claim the grand prize. "It feels awesome," said Spiker. "I was speechless and I'm still in shock. I can't believe I did it. I wasn't expecting it at all."
Spiker initially saw the Home Team Challenge game when he visited NFL.com and entered through Raiders.com. "I just went on nfl.com and saw the Home Team Challenge and clicked on it," explained Spiker.
Although this was his first time participating in the NFL Home Team Challenge, Spiker has been involved in fantasy football for some time. "I've been playing for about five or six years now and every year I just get more and more involved," he said.
Fantasy football has become an enormous part of the football world in recent years. Television shows, mobile applications, websites, and commentary exist to provide fans to access to the most up-to-date, comprehensive information. Many fantasy football players, including Spiker, spend the week preparing for the upcoming games. "I sit at my computer during the week and track defenses and what players will be the best people." Although he watches football games, Spiker says, "I don't [track my fantasy football teams] on Sundays. I think it would be bad luck for me to do that."
The Home Team Challenge is slightly different than many fantasy leagues in that fans could pick a new set of eight players each week. In many other fantasy games, fans drafted a team prior to the season and stick with those players each week unless they conduct a trade. "I liked the way you could change your players," said Spiker. "You weren't stuck with one person. You could change players and it was a great time just going through and trying to pick whoever you thought was going to be the best."
Spiker picked well, winning the weekly prize in Week 12 and then the grand prize at the end of the season. Although from Pennsylvania, Spiker has been a Raiders fan since 1984 and plans on traveling to Oakland to use his tickets and sideline passes. "I'm really trying," Spiker concluded. "I've been a Raiders fan since '84. I've been a fan ever since."
