The financial crisis has been scorching investors around the globe. But through it all, some of the world's wealthiest financiers still have enough money to play in one of Wall Street's most exclusive and secretive competitions: A fantasy football league where the total purse is $1 million.

The list of participants in the league, which has existed since at least 2002, includes Paul Tudor Jones, the legendary trader who helped build the hedge-fund industry; Raj Rajaratnam, the Sri Lanka native who founded Galleon Group, one...