2022 Champions Profile - Jason Sumner

[Tom Kessenich]

Jason Sumner is used to winning extraordinary championships. He has a pair of Thanksgiving Day DFS tiles on his resume, so he knows what it’s like to sweat out a high-stakes contest with a huge prize waiting for him at the end.

But it’s safe to say nothing was quite like the championship he won in the NFFC Primetime in 2023.

Jason took home the title a year ago with an unprecedented season, winning the record $250,000 grand prize. However, it didn’t come without a rather crazy finish with Damar Hamlin’s tragic injury in Week 16 casting a pall over the entire NFL and the fantasy football community.

As everyone knows by now, Hamlin’s injury resulted in the Bills-Bengals game being canceled and all stats from that game being canceled as well. As a result, no stats were used in our contest either. That meant Sumner won the Primetime championship after days of anxious waiting and deliberation.

“From the moment the Monday night game was postponed until it was canceled is hard to describe,” Sumner said. “I have so many emotions. I care about the player that was hurt first and foremost.

“I don't think anyone not in a major contest final battling for first or second-ish would understand. Every site had sob stories about why to rule one way or another. End of the day, you guys got it right. If the game resumed it needs to count and if it's canceled the results don't count. I didn’t work for two straight days, trying trying to scroll Twitter for news on what the NFL was going to do.

“Once I won, I just felt relieved and moved on almost right away. It was such a long brutal season it seemed. But I can’t wait for the same punishment (this season).”

Sumner’s “long brutal season” began with an Online draft in September in the final week of the drafting season. After starting off with Justin Jefferson in the first round with the fifth overall selection, his big money pick was landing Chiefs' Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the fifth round.

“Mahomes in the fifth is pretty crazy compared to his (first-round) ADP this year,” Sumner said. “I guess at the end of the day, I nailed that draft other than Rashod Bateman in Round 4. That pick was dumb but I had Chris Vaccaro next to me and I had been studying him and knew he liked Bateman. My gut was Amon-Ra St. Brown. He was my guy and I probably win be more points if I do that.”

Sumner’s team still had a strong regular season, finishing second in his league and entering the Championship Round in 145th place overall. His team then scored 151.60 points in Week 16 to fall to 15th overall as Jason entered the final week of the Championship Round with 14 teams ahead of him. But everything fell his way in Week 17 as his team scored 187.60 points to win the title by 10.15 points.

“This was a playoff run like no other,” he said. “In the Primetime, I had seven teams and with a few weeks left three felt solidly in the playoffs with possibility for one more. I had so many irons in the fire, I didn’t start thinking I had a Primetime chance until after Week 15.

“I had two Top 15 primetime teams after the first week of the playoffs and then two different teams in same spot after Week 16. It was fun to watch my three teams all perform well. The final week, the other two teams faded as they had Josh Allen and Joe Burrow at QB but it did work out.”

The final Sunday was one he’ll never forget.

“Things got real around halftime of the 1 pm games,” he recalled. “I climbed near the top (of the standings) and held on from there. If I can speak honestly, it was a drunken party but stressful day until we held Justin Tucker to only nine points in the night game.”

Then came the Monday night Bills-Bengals game and, of course, what transpired that night. The end result was a championship for Sumner and the $250,000 grand prize was his. For a long-time fantasy player who first began playing in 2004 and has tasted success many times over, from Yahoo leagues, to local leagues as well as DFS winning the Primetime certainly was an honor he cherishes immensely.

As for the upcoming season he has no intention of slowing down. Adding even more hardware to his ever-growing fantasy collection is the goal for the 2023 season.

“I plan to do 25 Best Balls, a few RotoWires and 10 Primetimes and I don't see why I can win the whole damn thing one more time,” he said. “That's my goal for this year.”