Short version: The Sunday Chronicle reads ESPN's fantasy API and walks back through every season your league has existed, including pre-2018 archives. Public leagues only need the league ID. Private leagues need two browser cookies (SWID and espn_s2). The result is a unified almanac at thesundaychronicle.app/leagues/your-league/ with every champion, draft, matchup, and head-to-head record.
Find your ESPN league ID
Open your league in a browser. The URL looks like:
fantasy.espn.com/football/league?leagueId=47847
That number is your league ID. In the ESPN Fantasy app, tap the gear icon → Share League → the URL has the same parameter.
Public leagues: just paste the ID
If your league is set to public on ESPN, that's the whole setup. The Sunday Chronicle calls ESPN's API directly with your league ID and walks every season. Initial sync for a 10-year league takes about 90 seconds.
Private leagues: two cookies, paste once
Private ESPN leagues require authentication. ESPN doesn't expose user passwords through its API — instead, it uses two session cookies that your browser holds when you're logged in: SWID and espn_s2.
Easy mode (recommended): use our one-click bookmarklet at thesundaychronicle.app/tools/espn-cookies. Drag it to your bookmarks bar once; from then on, one click on a logged-in fantasy.espn.com tab copies both cookies to your clipboard. No DevTools, no third-party extension, ~5 seconds.
Manual fallback,if you'd rather:
- Open ESPN Fantasy in a desktop browser, signed in to your league.
- Open DevTools (Cmd+Option+I on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows).
- Application tab → Cookies → fantasy.espn.com.
- Copy the value of
SWID(looks like{ABC12345-DEF6-7890-...}). - Copy the value of
espn_s2(a long opaque token). - Paste both into the league setup screen on The Sunday Chronicle.
Cookies expire every few months. When that happens, the sync will tell you to refresh them — same DevTools paste, takes 30 seconds.
Pre-2018 seasons (ESPN's legacy archive)
ESPN switched fantasy backends in 2018. Modern seasons live at lm-api-reads.fantasy.espn.com; pre-2018 seasons live at a separate leagueHistoryendpoint. The Sunday Chronicle handles both transparently — if your league started in 2012, we'll pull all 13 seasons into the same archive.
What about consolation games and old playoff brackets?
ESPN tagged consolation/placement games inconsistently over the years (some seasons mark them properly, some don't). The Sunday Chronicle filters them out via both ESPN's playoff-tier tags and a seed-based fallback, so career stats only count actual championship-bracket playoff games.
FAQ
Will my league members see the cookies? No — cookies are stored server-side, encrypted, and never reach the public almanac.
What if I forget to refresh expired cookies? The sync logs a warning and the public almanac keeps showing the last successful sync's data. New seasons just won't appear until you refresh.
Can I combine an ESPN history with a Sleeper or NFL.com source? Yes — see our migration guide.