Alright, so the fantasy football draft is creeping up, and like every year, I started thinking about team names. It’s gotta be good, right? Sets the tone. This time around, I was really keen on featuring Tyreek Hill. Got him in a couple of leagues last year, the guy’s electric, makes sense to build the name around him.
So, first thing I did was just grab a notepad, old school style. Started jotting down words associated with Hill. Speed, obviously. That’s the big one. Cheetah – his nickname is gold for fantasy names. Miami. Touchdowns. Big plays. Just threw everything onto the page.
Then I started trying to combine things. You know, free-associating. ‘Hill’s Thrills’? Kinda generic. ‘Cheetah Power’? A bit childish maybe. I spent a good twenty minutes just doing this, mixing and matching.
Digging Deeper
After hitting a bit of a wall with my own brain, I did what most folks do – I started searching around online. Not looking for lists to just copy, more for inspiration. See what kind of puns or plays on words other people were coming up with. You see the same ones repeated a lot.
Found a few common themes popping up everywhere:
- Lots of ‘Hill’ puns: King of the Hill, Running Up That Hill, Hill Street Blues. Some are okay, some feel tired.
- Cheetah puns: The obvious ones like Cheetah Girls (nah), Cheat-ah Code, Speed Cheetah.
- Combining with other players: Like ‘Waddle lotta Hill’. But that’s tricky before the draft, don’t wanna commit to a name with a player I might not even get.
- Just straight-up speed references: Speed Kills, Need for Speed, Tyreek the Freak.
I started filtering through these in my head. I wanted something that wasn’t too common. If half the leagues out there have a ‘King of the Hill’, it loses its punch, you know?
I leaned towards playing on his speed or the Cheetah nickname, but trying to put a slightly different spin on it. Maybe something like ‘Tyreek My Interest’ or ‘Hillistic Approach’. Corny? Yeah, probably, but that’s half the fun of fantasy names.
Settling In
Didn’t land on the perfect one instantly. It’s a process. I’ve got a short list now. Things like ‘Tyreek Havoc’, ‘Fast & Tyreekious’, maybe even ‘Pay The Hill Toll’. Simple, related to him, and not something I saw on every single list out there.
The key thing for me was making it feel personal. Even if it’s a common pun, twisting it slightly or just picking one that genuinely makes me chuckle works best.
So yeah, that was my little project for the evening. Went from brainstorming basic ideas to digging online for inspiration, and now I’ve got a few solid contenders based around Tyreek Hill. Still might change my mind before the deadline, but that’s the fun of it. Got the juices flowing, anyway.
