by Bluedobie Developing

ESPN League Setup Guide

Follow these step-by-step instructions to connect your ESPN Fantasy Football league to Gridiron Gazette.

📺 Video Tutorial (2 minutes)

Watch the quick video walkthrough →

⚠️ Important: Before You Start

You must be logged into ESPN Fantasy Football
Use a regular browser window (not private/incognito mode)
Have your league page open

What You Need to Find:

1️⃣ ESPN League ID

This is the easiest one! Your League ID is in your browser's address bar.

Steps:

Go to your ESPN Fantasy Football league homepage
Look at the URL in your browser's address bar
Find the number after leagueId=

Example URL:

https://fantasy.espn.com/football/league?leagueId=1234567&seasonId=2024

Your League ID would be: 1234567

2️⃣ ESPN s2 Cookie

The s2 cookie is needed to access your private league data.

For Chrome Users:

While on your ESPN Fantasy page, press F12 (or right-click → "Inspect")
Click the "Application" tab at the top
In the left sidebar, expand "Cookies"
Click "https://fantasy.espn.com"
Find "espn_s2" in the Name column
Double-click the Value to select it all (it's long!)
Copy it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C)

For Safari Users:

Go to Safari → Preferences → Advanced
Check "Show Develop menu in menu bar"
On ESPN page: Develop → Show Web Inspector
Click the "Storage" tab
Click "Cookies" → "https://fantasy.espn.com"
Find "espn_s2" and copy the value

For Firefox Users:

Press F12 on ESPN page
Click the "Storage" tab
Expand "Cookies"
Click "https://fantasy.espn.com"
Find "espn_s2" and copy the value

What it looks like:

AECAbcd123xyz789...really long string...abc123

Starts with "AE" and is very long (100+ characters)

3️⃣ ESPN SWID Cookie

The SWID cookie works together with the s2 cookie for authentication.

Good news!

Follow the exact same steps as finding the s2 cookie above, but look for "SWID" instead of "espn_s2"

What it looks like:

{12345678-90AB-CDEF-1234-567890ABCDEF}

Surrounded by curly brackets { } with letters, numbers and dashes

⚠️ Important: Copy the entire thing including the curly brackets!

🆘 Troubleshooting

Problem: Can't find the cookies

✓ Make sure you're logged into ESPN first
✓ Close private/incognito windows - use regular browser
✓ Try logging out and back into ESPN
✓ Refresh the page after opening developer tools

Problem: "Access Denied" or "Invalid Credentials"

✓ Cookies may have expired - log out and back in
✓ Make sure you copied the entire value (s2 is very long!)
✓ Check for extra spaces when pasting

Still stuck?

I'm here to help!

📧 Email: [email protected]

📱 Include a screenshot if possible!

🔒 Privacy & Security

Is this safe? Absolutely! Here's why:

✓ We only use these to read your league data (rosters, scores, etc.)
✓ We never store your ESPN password
✓ We can't modify your league or make any changes
✓ You can revoke access anytime by changing your ESPN password
✓ We use bank-level encryption for all data